I assume you are using CGI::Application? If you are then it is pretty darned easy.

Generally you are going to connect to the database in the setup subroutine and you set the param $self->param('mydbh' => DBI->connect('DBI:mysql:appname', 'xxxxx', 'xxxxx')); then in the cgiapp_prerun I do a variety of things including validating sessions and requiring logins etc. You can get the database handle and then set up more global values here, he is a simple cgiapp_prerun I am using right now:

sub cgiapp_prerun {
    # If user has a session ID then validate it, otherwise get them on
+e
    my $self = shift;
    my $dbh = $self->param('mydbh');
    my $q = $self->query();
    my $session_h = new CGI::Session("driver:MySQL", $q, {Handle => $d
+bh});
    $self->param('up_session' => $session_h);
}
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Does that help?

jdtoronto