in reply to Re: Creating Advanced Client-Side Applications With Perl
in thread Creating Advanced Client-Side Applications With Perl

  1. One of the reasons why you do not find anything about PerlScript used in the browser is ... that people do not do that often enough. You simply can't do this in any other case than if all your users are running Windows and have Perl installed. Maybe some intranets are elligible, I don't really know. I might do something like this soonish in a HTA, but for web client-side stuff JavaScript has to be good enough.
  2. The second reason is IMHO that there is not much to document. Perl is Perl and browser object model is browser object model. Sure Netscape and MS has all their docs in J(ava)Script, but converting that to Perl syntax is not that a big deal. If you want to control a program using OLE/COM you usualy need to convert the description and examples from VB and thats a bigger difference.

Jenda
Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live.
   -- Rick Osborne

Edit by castaway: Closed small tag in signature

  • Comment on Re: Re: Creating Advanced Client-Side Applications With Perl

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Re: Re: Re: Creating Advanced Client-Side Applications With Perl
by dragonchild (Archbishop) on Apr 16, 2004 at 21:34 UTC
    I want to create single-user applications to be run on a single PC that you download. The installer would include ActivePerl, should it be necessary. I can't use JavaScript because I want to use DBD::SQLite, plus I don't want to learn a whole new language.

    Put it this way - the simple utility apps I want to create and distribute would take between 2-4 days each ... assuming I can use Perl for DBD::SQLite and HTML::Template. The engines for these utilities are very small and easy ... Heck, I've already written most of the engines for two of the utilities in the general course of my work. I don't want to reimplement them, if at all possible, or spend a month learning Tk. But, I don't want to require using a webserver, even one as small as webmin.

    As for not needing much to document ... Converting from JScript to PScript is almost impossible for non-trivial cases. Take the following rather simplistic example in JavaScript:

    Read more... (2 kB)

    Here's the direct translation (as I understand it) to PerlScript.

    Read more... (2 kB)

    The JavaScript version works as expected, but the PerlScript one doesn't even run the onLoad handler. What's the difference? What am I missing?

    I'm on WinXP Pro, IE 6.0.2x, the latest build of ActivePerl (downloaded within the past week).

    Update: Changed to match Erto's statement. It still doesn't work.

    ------
    We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age.

    Then there are Damian modules.... *sigh* ... that's not about being less-lazy -- that's about being on some really good drugs -- you know, there is no spoon. - flyingmoose

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      Are you sure it's not called?

      Try to add 

      use Win32;
Win32::MsgBox("How are you?");

      [download]
      into the subroutine. It seems to me it does get called (IE 6.0.2800.1106), but the code doesn't do anything.

      I tried to fix it but I can't find the contentFrame. I tried to use 

      sub displayObj {
    my $obj = shift();
    Win32::MsgBox("Keys: " . join(', ', map { "$_ => $obj->{$_}" } sor
+t keys %$obj ));
}
...
displayObj( $window);
displayObj( $window->{document});
...

      [download]
      , but I can't find anything.

      Quite possibly it would be best to use JavaScript for most of the "client-side" stuff and only call some PerlScript subroutines from the JavaScript.: 

      <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="PerlScript">
sub DoSelectSite {
    $window->{document}->{Location} = $window->{document}->Forms( 0 )-
+>{SiteSelector}->{Value};
}
</SCRIPT>
<script language="JavaScript">
function SelectSite () {
    DoSelectSite();
}
</script>
<BODY>
<P>Select a site to browse.</P>
<HR>
<FORM>
<SELECT NAME="SiteSelector" SIZE = "1" onChange="JavaScript:SelectSite
+()">
<OPTION VALUE="">--select one--
<OPTION VALUE="http://www.ncat.edu">North Carolina A and T State Unive
+rsity</OPTION>
<OPTION VALUE = "http://www.uncg.edu">University of North Carolina at 
+Greensboro</OPTION>
</SELECT>
</FORM>
</BODY>

      [download]

      Jenda
      Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live.
         -- Rick Osborne

      Edit by castaway: Closed small tag in signature

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        The question here, imho, isn't whether or not it's called. (Though, I don't think it is because putting in a $window->alert("It's me!"); doesn't pop up.) It's what mistake(s), if any, did I make in trascribing the JavaScript into PerlScript. PerlScript on the client-side is advertised as being identical to JavaScript, albeit with Perl's power. Where did I go wrong??

        ------
        We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age.

        Then there are Damian modules.... *sigh* ... that's not about being less-lazy -- that's about being on some really good drugs -- you know, there is no spoon. - flyingmoose

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[d/l]
      I've never tried PerlScript in IE, but what strikes me off the bat is that in your translation you renamed the "update" function but didn't modify the HTML accordingly. So you should change onLoad="update()" to onLoad="parentFrame_onLoad()" and try that.
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