#!C:/Perl/bin/perl.exe -w
use strict;
use CGI;
use Data::Dumper;

my $cgi = new CGI;
my @cgi_vars = $cgi->param();

if ($#cgi_vars < 0) {
    # handle the case of no CGI parameters
    # ...
    exit(0);
}

# build a (normalized) hash of CGI variables
# with variable name converted to upper case
my %vars = map { uc($_) => $cgi->param($_) } @cgi_vars;

# debug only - display the variable hash
#print Dumper(\%vars);

# Handle the requests
if (defined $vars{DELIVERMESSAGE}) {
   # do deliver message
   # ...

} elsif (defined $vars{MESSAGECOUNT} &&
         defined $vars{BRANCH}) {
   # do message count
   # $vars{BRANCH} is the branch name
   # ...

} elsif (defined ..... ) {
   # etc. etc.
}
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GET /dir/page.pl HTTP/1.1
Accept: image/gif, image/x-xbitmap, image/jpeg, image/pjpeg, */*
Referer: http://www.foo.bar/otherdir/otherpage.pl
Accept-Language: en-us
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0; Windows 98; DigExt)
Host: www.foo.bar
Cookie: monster=blue;
My-Other-Header: yippy yahoo!
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Anyway, if I wanted to find the value used by, for example, the "My-Other-Header" header... I could find it in the environment by looking at (yes, it does get driven all into uppercase): $ENV{HTTP_MY_OTHER_HEADER}. So, in your example, you could find "Comms-Branch" http header in $ENV{HTTP_COMMS_BRANCH}. For more information, you can examine the environment by putting:

use Data::Dumper;
warn Dumper \%ENV;
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Anyway, hope that helps. Oh, and this should be the same whether you are using old-school CGI (not CGI.pm, mind you... but the common-gateway-interface, which CGI.pm is a wonderful tool to help you use) or under mod_perl (again... with or without CGI.pm).

------------
:Wq
Not an editor command: Wq
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#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use CGI;
use Data::Dumper;

my $q = CGI->new();
my %var = $q->Vars();

my $log_file = '/path_to_log';

open(LOG,">>$log_file") || err("Can't open log file: $!");
print LOG "URL: $ENV{REQUEST_URI}\n\n",
          Dumper(\%var,\%ENV)."\n\n",
          '=' x 60,
          "\n\n";

print $q->header('text/plain').
      "Everything's OK";

sub err {
    print $q->header('text/plain').
          "ERROR: $_[0]";
    exit(0);
}

exit(0);
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Save that as MyScript.pl and set $log_file to point to a file that you can write to.

Then, when the script is called:

• $VAR1 will list the parameters sent - accessible through $q->param('VARNAME').
• $VAR2 will list all environment variables, including the HTTP headers sent, accessible through $ENV{VARNAME}. (%ENV is a "special" Perl variable. You might also want to read up on that too)

So, you can call it with various query string info to see what variables get set, and you can ask your manager to request the URL so that you can see exactly what HTTP header his request is sending.

Hope this is useful to get you started.

cLive ;-)

Update: added err() sub (oops :)

Thanks Clive,
I was thinking that would be the smartest way to go about it, and was going to write a script to do it, but you have just saved me a whole lot of time! Thanks
Much thanks to all for their helpful comments. Gerard.

You need to read perldoc CGI.

You'll find those variables in:

param('DELIVERMESSAGE')
param('MESSAGECOUNT')
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etc. I imagine it's these that your manager is refering to when he means HTTP header variables, so there's one you would access as param('Comms-Branch').

I'd assume that HTTP header variables means it's sent in the HTTP header or possibly as a cookie. Don't know if the CGI http() method will get you access to arbitrary header settings; perhaps it depends on what web server you are using. For cookies, see CGI.

A quick look at the source reveals CGI's http() method just looks for environment variables starting with HTTP.

Update: as 3dan and etcshadow say, the server uppercases the header labels and prepends HTTP_ to make them available in the environment. (I wonder if this is actually reliable for arbitrary headers on all servers.)

The CGI->http method lets you access those environment variables starting with 'HTTP', yes. But what you seem to be missing is that those environment variables are set by the webserver to the value of the HTTP headers sent in the request. For example, if you sent this request to you CGI:

GET /my_cgi.pl HTTP/1.1
Host: localhost
Foo: FOO Content here

...then the following code should get you the value 'FOO Content here':

use CGI;
my $q = CGI->new;
my $foo_content = $q->http("Foo"); # or $q->http("HTTP_FOO")
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Update: I see that etcshadow dealt with this in full elsewhere in the thread... hey, a little repetition never hurt anybody, right?

--
3dan

Thanks for your reply. Just a quick question. What would $q->param('DELIVERMESSAGE') return if DELIVERMESSAGE is not set to equal anything?.

ie. If the only thing that is passed is

MyScript.pl?DELIVERMESSAGE

OR

MyScript.pl?MESSAGECOUNT
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How would I be able to tell whether they wanted DELIVERMESSAGE or MESSAGECOUNT??
As for the sessions or cookies, the answer is no.
Thanks, Gerard.
Update: I see that roger has answered my question below. It was the defined bit that I was really missing in my understanding

I would use $ENV{'QUERY_STRING'} then, if you don't have name/value params.

dhoss
"and I wonder, when I sing along with you if everything could ever feel this real forever? if anything could ever be this good again? the only thing I'll ever ask of you, you've gotta promise not to stop when I say 'when'", she sang