<input type=text name=Detail1 ...>
<input type=submit name=Submit1 value=Update>
...
<input type=text name=Detail2 ...>
<input type=submit name=Submit2 value=Update>
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--OR--

Just wrap each pair of input/submit-button in its own <form> tag. This, however, may not be feasible, depending on the constraints of what else you are trying to do with this page.

------------
:Wq
Not an editor command: Wq
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It would be helpful to see a couple of rows as rendered into HTML. However, just looking at what I see here, it looks like you're creating a form with a large number of text inputs named "Detail" and a large number of submit buttons. Only one "Detail" will make it to the form processor; you can't overload text inputs with multiple options like you can with, say, checkboxes.

You can, however, differentiate between "Submit" buttons using their name attribute. Another way to do what you're trying to do would be something like this:

<td>
<!-- TMPL_VAR NAME=Detail -->
</td>
<td>
<input type="submit" name=<!-- TMPL_VAR NAME=Detail --> value="Update"
+>
</td>
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foreach ($query->param) {
    if ($query->param($_) eq "Update") {
        # If $Detail was "red", we'll change to red
        &change_Color($_);  
        last;
    }
}
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Only one "Detail" will make it to the form processor; you can't overload text inputs with multiple options like you can with, say, checkboxes.

Um, really? Are you sure of this? I was under the impression that "overloading", as you put it, was purely a function of the CGI module, that the html would just send a bunch of foo=bar;foo=baz;foo=qux in the querystatement then the module would handle collapsing it?

I was under the impression that "overloading", as you put it, was purely a function of the CGI module, that the html would just send a bunch of foo=bar;foo=baz;foo=qux in the querystatement then the module would handle collapsing it?

You are correct - the actual HTTP submission by the browser will contain the repeated entries even for text inputs and the like. I wouldn't recommend relying on that, though, because it forces you to handle bottom-up form processing (including handling the URL encoding and crap like that). Even if you don't mind today, you'll be in a hole when you decide to just use CGI.pm or whatever tomorrow because it has that one added feature you'd like.

I speak as someone who once tried to save some time doing this and found it wasn't worth it in the end 8)

Thanks. Yeah I already made changes similar to the ones you suggested-I have modified the design now and have multiple checkboxes and a single Update button.


The changes I made:

-I am now using CGI to retrieve "arrays of values"
-The form now has an update column with check boxes and a single update button for all rows.
-The value of update check box is set to TicketNo, which is my primary autonumber key so the value tells me which records need to be updated:
In the template:

......
<td>
<input type="checkbox" name="Update" value="<!-- TMPL_VAR NAME=TicketN
+o -->"></td>
<td>
    <!-- TMPL_VAR NAME=TicketNo --></td>
<td>
  <!-- TMPL_VAR NAME=Customer --></td>
<td>
    <!-- TMPL_VAR NAME=UserName --></td>
....
<td>
    <input type="text" value = "<!-- TMPL_VAR NAME=AssignTo -->" name=
+"Detail" size="11"></td>
.....
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So the template will display records returned from the DB-the user can modify the fields displayed in a text box. (mulitple modifiable fields per record)
In the script:

.....
@update = $query->param('Update'); 
@detail = $query->param('Detail'); 
...........
print "@update\n"; #Returns the ticket numbers for records that need t
+o be updated
print "@detail\n";#Returns details for ALL displayed records
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Sample output is:
@update prints 40001 40003 40006 40007
@detail prints detail1 detail2 detail3 detail4 detail5 detail6 detail7

The question now:
Given two arrays of different lengths, I cannot use the same array index to access corresponding elements from the two arrays.

So how do I associate the right elements (40003 with detail3 and not detail 2)?

You could use your TicketNo to modify the name of your value so you have a unique key to search for.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

=cut XHTML

<td><input type="checkbox" name="update" value="<TMPL_VAR NAME=TicketN
+o>" /></td>
<td><!-- TMPL_VAR NAME=TicketNo --></td>
<td><!-- TMPL_VAR NAME=Customer --></td>
<td><!-- TMPL_VAR NAME=UserName --></td>
....
<td><input type="text" name="detail_<TMPL_VAR NAME=TicketNo>" value="<
+TMPL_VAR NAME=AssignTo>" size="11" /></td>

=cut

...
my @update = $query->param('update');
foreach my $ticket_no (@update) {
    my $assign_to = $query->param('detail_'.$ticket_no);
    next unless defined $assign_to;
    
    # do something with $ticket_no => $assign_to;
    print qq|assign ticket number $ticket_no to $assign_to \n|;
}
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