I knew that wouldn't come out clear :)

The form data is saved via $query->save(FILEHANDLE).

Then I load it with a 'view.cgi' script using $query = new CGI(FILEHANDLE).

However, the actual form tags are not generated with perl, they are flat HTML (stored in an external file). When I load view.cgi, it opens and displays the flat HTML form, but doesn't import the form data from FILEHANDLE.

I am using external files for the form HTML because I want to be able to display multiple forms using the same scripts.

My assumption was (I've just realized I could test this simply) that the form data wasn't showing up because the form was flat HTML and external - all the examples in the CGI.pm documentation construct the form inside the script using $query->createformelement(blah) construction.

I'll welcome any suggestions on this, but I've had a chance to sleep a bit since I posted this, and I've come up with some other ideas I can try.