Hello all,

I am attempting to convert a program from a CGI application to a mod_perl application. To my understanding mod_perl will run CGI scripts however, running CGI only experience minor increase in performance.

My question is this: how do I write a multi-screen mod_perl program?

I haven't found a direct solution for the multi-screen mod_perl application; searching for a solution returns CGI solutions. Perhaps I am misunderstanding the use of handlers, essentially I don't want to have to create an entry in the httpd.conf file for every page on my website.

this is how I do it in my CGI script:


my $q = new CGI;
my %States = (
    'Default'   =>  \&index,
    'Index'     =>  \&index,
    'Save'      =>  \&save,
    'Etc'       =>  \&etc,
);
# Query for the value of ".State" as passed by the POST 
# Method
my $current_screen = $q->param(".State") || "Default";
    die "No Screen for $current_screen" unless   
        $States{$current_screen};

# iterate through values in %States for active page
while (my ($screen_name, $function) = each %States){
    $function->($screen_name eq $current_screen);
}

#generate pages based on sub called
sub index {
    my $active = shift;
    return unless $active;

    do_stuff();
}

[download]

Then in my HTML template I use a submit button to change the state of the page, i.e.:

<input type="submit" name=".State" value="Index" />
<input type="submit" name=".State" value="Save" />
<input type="submit" name=".State" value="Etc" />

[download]

perhaps I am misunderstanding the use of handlers, or the configuration of mod_perl. What I would like to avoid is an entry in httpd.conf for every page (and this is where I think I might be misunderstanding something.).

I am under the impression that to create multiple pages I'll do the following:

PerlRequire /var/www/Index.pm
<Location / >
    SetHandler perl-script
    PerlHandler Index
    PerlSendHeader On
    Allow from all
</Location>

PerlRequire /var/www/Save.pm
<Location /Save>
    SetHandler perl-script
    PerlHandler save
    PerlSendHeader On
    Allow from all
</Location>


PerlRequire /var/www/Etc.pm
<Location /Etc>
    SetHandler perl-script
    PerlHandler Etc
    PerlSendHeader On
    Allow from all
</Location>

[download]

If the above would be used for a website with multiple pages, but then how would I create a multi-screen application?

Am I way off? I think I might be close but I'm not sure.

Thanks for the help

In reply to mod_perl question by PyrexKidd

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