I have a web page using CGI that needs to open a URL in a separate web page. The users of the CGI page will all be IE users if that helps.

There is a form on the page which allows the user to select an application to start. Submitting the form will kick off several processes (like weblogic, or app specific processes) and then sleep until these processes are complete and then start a browser with the chosen application's URL.

I've tried several ideas. But in each case, NOTHING HAPPENS. The originating CGI page reloads itself, but no new page.
system("start $SelectedAppURL") if $^O =~ /win/i;
And
use HTML::Display; my $browser = HTML::Display->new(); $browser->display(location => $SelectedAppURL);
And
use Win32::OLE; my $browser = new Win32::OLE 'InternetExplorer.Application'; $browser->Navigate($SelectedAppURL, 0, 'xyzzy');
And
use Win32::FileOp qw(ShellExecute); ShellExecute($SelectedAppURL);
The variable URL seems to work, but even if it didn't I'd expect IE to start and give me a 'Page Not Found' message. I have tried using a static URL in place for testing (www.yahoo for instance) with the same result. Ideas?

UPDATE
Another piece of info that should be helpful given the client/server responses: Everything here will be run on a vmware virtual machine. So the server and client are on the same machine for all uses. This is also why I can assume 100% IE, not that this really matters.

UPDATE 2
Given that this is an IIS session, it does seem harder than need be. I still think it's possible (and easier in a different environment), but ended up going the JavaScript route. Thanks to all the Monk's suggestions despite my hard headedness.

Do you believe in miracles? Yes!

In reply to Open another IE browser window from CGI by Olaf

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