@datum = split /\n__BREAK__\n/, join "", <DATA>;
...
...
__END__
one item
goes here
and then
we break
__BREAK__
second item goes here
blah blah
__BREAK__
and then there's the third item!  Yeay!
hoho ho ho
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For #2, a bit tougher. use is compile-time, but your variable there is runtime. Just how early do you know the module name? At compile time, or do you need to wait until some of the "real" code has run?

And for #3, you need to output an <img src = "..."> tag, with a call back to the same, or a different, CGI program. There are examples in the mouse2 book.

And as for your explanation, look at Template toolkit in the CPAN.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

• Have your script write the image to a temp file (somewhere within the webserver's heirarchy), and pass that filename to the browser. Be sure you are done saving the file before you return the IMG tag to the bowser. Be sure to delete the file later.
• Have a separate .cgi that generates the image (it must return an apropriate ContentType header). Call that .cgi from the IMG tag in your main script that is generating the "text" of the page:

  <img src="genimage.cgi">
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  See this earlier node Answer: How can I use a CGI script to return an image?.

1. no, only one __DATA__ is allowed. however, different perlmods are allowed different __DATA__s.
2. you cannot load them with a $var because they are compiled in in the BEGINning. I had the same problem. use this require $module; import $module; which is what use does except that its precompiled.
3. I don't think you can pipe pics embedded in HTML, if that's what you mean. But you can cache the pics (if the mod allows that) and send through when the browser asks for it. For this, you need an elaborate cacheing scheme. perhaps fastcgi?

AgentM Systems or Nasca Enterprises is not responsible for the comments made by AgentM- anywhere.

The sequence require $module doesn't work if $module contains colons. I think there's another node here somewhere that I wrote to show how to do this with the right BEGIN{} block around it. But super search isn't super enough for me to find it quickly.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

eval "require $module";
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if $module contains colons

except that (at least in my program) my module name was determined after reading in a file at runtime. It's easy enough to do if you push the path onto the @INC. Anyway, a quick split for colons would take care to push yet another path on the poor @INC :-O so the end justifies the means.


AgentM Systems or Nasca Enterprises is not responsible for the comments made by AgentM- anywhere.

eval("use $module");
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2. Again, don't think you can. "use" is processed WAY at the beginning by the Perl Interpreter, long before pesky things like variable interpolation occur.

3. And lastly, no can do. HTML is output to a browser using a particular Content-type HTTP header (i.e., text/html). Graphics must be output to the browser using the appropriate Content-type header (image/gif, image/jpg, whatever.) You can't mix the two, so you can't send both kinds of data to the browser at the same time. Your solution of linking the graph to a Perl program that generates your image (and then outputs it to the browser with the right header) will work just fine.

Hope this helps.

Gary Blackburn Trained Killer

print q{<img src="/cgi-bin/imgserv.pl">};
...
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# suppose you have read() an immage into $image_data
# and image type is jpeg...
print "Content-Type: image/jpeg\n\n";
binmode STDOUT;
#just if you are unde windows 
#not needed on more serious platforms :-)
print $image_data;
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