Hash Parsing Problem

Anonymous Monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I have researched this question out on the web as well as I know how in several places (perlmonks, Orielly, etc.) but have found no answers.

Using ActivePerl with Apache web server on Windows ME operating system (home computer). I know, thats not the greatest situation but till I get linux thats what I am using. Am trying to write data out to a file that is input from a web page form thru GET and is passed into a %hash variable (%form_data) for parsing. Am able to print qq($name - $value <br><br>); and view the hash pairs on the web page as shown below. However, when I try to write them out to a file using: print GUESTBOOK $form_data{'name'} # for example (see below) nothing is actually written although the web page executes as shown below. Does anyone know if this is a problem with the Windows version of Perl or Apache or maybe I am doing something wrong AGAIN.

#----- Hash parse section shown below ----------------------

   # Finally, we'll load the variables into an associative array 
   # so we can use it when we need it.
   my %form_data;
   if($form_data{$name}) 
   { 
      $form_data{$name} .= "\t$value"; 
   } 
   else 
   { 
      $form_data{$name} = $value; 
   }
   print qq($name = $value <br><br>);
              }
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#-------------------------------------------------

This is the web page output from above print qq statement plus other c
+ode
#-----------------------------------------------------------
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name = me 

email = me@you.com 

city = boogerville 

location = XYZ 

web_url = www.me.you 

web_title = STUFFit 

comments = These are comments. Hi There. What'cha doin'? 


Your GuestBook Entry has been Submitted!
Your guestbook entry has been successfully added to the guestbook. You
+ may need to click reload to view your guestbook entry.
[download]

#-------------------------------------------------
# attempt to write data out to a file here.
# doesn't work.  nothing writes out.
      if($form_data{'email'}) { 
         # if there's an email address, let's add it as a link 
         print GUESTBOOK "<DD><I><B><A HREF=\"mailto:$form_data{'email
+'}\"> 
        $form_data{'name'}</A></B> - $form_data{'city'},
        $form_data{'location'}</I>\n"; 
      } 
      else { 
         # otherwise, just add their name 
      print GUESTBOOK "<I><B>From:</B> $form_data{'name'}</I><BR>\n"; 
      }
[download]

Edit kudra, 2002-08-31 Removed code tags around plaintext

# the above code does not put out any data to the file but it does run. Thanks, ljdennis@att.net

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Re: Hash Parsing Problem by tadman (Prior) on Aug 30, 2002 at 17:48 UTC
You might want to check that the file GUESTBOOK is actually opened. Since you didn't post that bit of code, I'm presuming it should look something like this: `open(GUESTBOOK, ">>", $guestbook) \|\| die "Could not open guestbook\n";` If your filehandle isn't open, you may be printing to nowhere. Further, where are you getting %form_data from? The code you posted shows you declaring it, then suddenly expecting things to exist by magic. Here's how you might do it: `use CGI; my $cgi = CGI->new(); my %form_data = %{$cgi->Vars};` [download] Also, watch out! `use strict`. I think you're making a mistake when you do this: `$form_data{$name}` Don't you mean this? `$form_data{name}` With strict and warnings, the variable reference should cause a complaint, since $name is presumably undeclared.	[reply] [d/l] [select]

Replies are listed 'Best First'.

Re: Hash Parsing Problem
by tadman (Prior) on Aug 30, 2002 at 17:48 UTC

open(GUESTBOOK, ">>", $guestbook) || die "Could not open guestbook\n";

use CGI;
my $cgi = CGI->new();

my %form_data = %{$cgi->Vars};
[download]

use strict

$form_data{$name}

$form_data{name}

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