I am a newbie to Perl, and I have been trying to set up a login screen for a Web site. When I login to Yahoo or Google I enter my UserID and Password and click the Submit button and go directly to the opening screen. On my screen, I have set up a login form with UserID and Password fields. When the user clicks submit I check the MySQL database and then I have to display a button to click so I have a triggering event to move on to the next screen. Is there a better way?

Here is my code:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use warnings;
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);
use CGI::Pretty;
use CGI qw(:standard :cgi-lib -debug fatalsToBrowser);
use DBD::mysql;
use DBI;
    
my $cgi = new CGI;

my ($dbh, $selectstr, $sth, @row, $uid, $psw);
my ($numrecs, $numrows, $select_str);
my $CoordCookie = cookie(-name=>'MGH_Coord',-value=>0,-path=>'/',-doma
+in=>'.rbhyland.org');
print $cgi->header(-cookie=>$CoordCookie,-Cache_Control=>'no-cache');

print start_html(-title =>'HortLine Database Sign In',
                 -style =>'http://www.HortLine.rbhyland.org/Styles.css
+',
                 -script=>{-language=>'JAVASCRIPT',
                 -src=>'http://www.HortLine.rbhyland.org/Scripts.js'})
+;
                  
print "<div class='header'>",
    "<h1><img src='http://www.hortline.rbhyland.org/MGLogo.jpg' alt='M
+G logo' align='left' />",
    "&nbsp;Penn State Consumer<br /><br />&nbsp;Horticultural Help Lin
+e</h1><br />";
if (!param('uid')) {
    print start_form(-method=>"POST",-action=>"http://hortline.rbhylan
+d.org/Login.cgi"),
            "<div align='center' style='border:medium;border-style:sol
+id;'>",
            p,"User ID&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;",textfield(-name=>'uid',-id=>
+'uid',-value=>'',-size=>20,-maxlength=>50),
            p,"Password&nbsp;",password_field(-name=>'psw', -id=>'psw'
+, -value=>'', -size=>20, -maxlength=>50),
            p,submit(-name=>'submit', -value=>'Login'),
            "</div>",
            end_form ;
} else {
    $uid=param('uid');
    $psw=param('psw');
    $dbh = DBI->connect("","","", 
                    { RaiseError => 1,AutoCommit => 1 }) 
            or &dienice("Can't connect to database: $DBI::errstr");
    $selectstr = "select * from Users where Uid = ? AND Psw = ?";
    $sth = $dbh->prepare($selectstr) or &dbdie;
    $sth->execute($uid,$psw) or &dbdie;
    my @UP = $sth->fetchrow_array();
    if (!@UP) { 
        &dienice(qq(User/Psw incorrect. Go to the <a href = "Login.cgi
+">Login</a> page and try again.)); 
    } else {
        print start_form(-method=>"post",-action=>"http://hortline.rbh
+yland.org/Switchboard.cgi"),
                 hidden('userid',"$UP[0]"),
                 hidden('county',"$UP[2]"),
                 hidden('coord',"$UP[3]"),
                 hidden('state',"$UP[4]"),
                 br,br,"<center>",
                 submit(-name=>'GotoSwitchboard',
                         -value=>'Go To Main Menu'),
                "</center>",
                end_form;
    }
}    
print end_html;
      
sub dienice {
my ($msg) = @_;
print "<b>$msg</b>";
exit;
}

sub dbdie {
my ($errmsg) = "$DBI::errstr<br />";
&dienice($errmsg);
}

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In reply to How do I Implement a One-Click Login Screen on the Web? by rbhyland

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