Hello Monks,

I have inherited some code, well actually alot of code that needs to be installed for a new client. The original author seems to be intentionally avoiding helping me out and has provided very little assistance, thus I am turning to you for some guidance.

The code that he is using to connect with DBI is as follows... 

sub new
{
    my ($class, %flags) = @_;
    my ($self) = {};
    bless $self, ref($class) || $class;

    my $server = $flags{'-server'} || $ENV{'DBISERVER'} || die "No ser
+ver specified!\n";
    my $user = $flags{'-user'} || 'undef';
    my $pass = $flags{'-pass'};
    
    $self->{_DB_NORM_HANDLE} = DBI->connect('dbi:' . $server, $user, $
+pass, { RaiseError => 0, AutoCommit => 1 } ) or croak "Cannot connect
+ to $ENV{'DBISERVER'}\n";

    return $self;
}

[download]
The confusing part is the connect string is defined via a custom apache environment variable which he instructs as follows... 
DBISERVER <dbi connect string>

[download]
I can handle this within the httpd conf file or even htacess, but what is the correct syntax?

Additionally, the DBI->connect string needs to be able to connect to a specific database on a remote server which is not accounted for in his code.

1) What changes are to be made to the DBI->connect?

2) How do I properly define the custom environment variable

Could someone assist in this matter assuming the following variables... 

remote host: somedomain.com
mySQL DB: main_DB
mysql user: charlie
mysql pass: opensesame
TIA for any guidance...

In reply to DBI question by Anonymous Monk

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