This isn't exactly what the poster was asking for, but this reminded me of something terribly cool I ran across recently:

http://developer.apple.com/internet/webcontent/XMLHttpRequestExample/example.html

I didn't know you could get JS to fetch data dynamically from the server. Works in at least Firefox and IE.

Anyway, I haven't tried yet, but you might be able to use this to request data from a CGI, although for the original poster's purposes, that's unnecessary. Just have javascript set the value of a hidden field and have the script that handles the submit direct itself to the proper sub based on that value.

Ive used this technique recently for a project at work. It works great. It's a little bit to wrap you head around the first time but once you do it's pretty easy to implement.

This can be done without the javascript by setting the name of the logout button to something you can grab in your script. This approach allows you to do this for stuff other than buttons though. (i.e. changing a value in a dropdown etc)

HTML Stuff

<script language="JavaScript">
function logout
{
   var dynamicInput = document.createElement("INPUT");
   dynamicInput.type = "hidden";
   dynamicInput.name = "action_logout";
   document.main_form.appendChild(dynamicInput);
   document.main_form.submit();
}
</script>

<form method=POST action=allExaminations.pl name="main_form">
  <input type=submit name=logout value=logout onClick="logout()">
</form>


Perl Stuff inside allExaminations.pl

my $q = new CGI;


#
# Look for an action value and return it
#
sub GetAction             
{
    my $q = shift();
    my $cgi_parms = $q->Vars();

    foreach my $key (keys(%$cgi_parms))
    {
        if ($key =~ /^action/)
        {
            return $key;
        }
    }
}

if(GetAction($q) =~ /action_logout/)
{
   DoLogoutSub();
}
[download]

The Javascript code runs on the client; the Perl script runs on the server. You can't directly do what you want.

You'll have to put the subroutines you want to call in a CGI script accessible from your webserver, and have the client request the appropriate URL in order for the CGI script to be run.

This is too much to just explain in a single reply. You'll need to look at a tutorial on writing CGI scripts. You should take a look at Ovid's excellent CGI course.

Note - this will require that anyone using your website must have ActivePerl installed. But, if you do so, you can actually replace all your JavaScript with PerlScript.

Note further - PerlScript is not a complete version of Perl. There are some edge cases and dark corners you may not be able to do. But, you will have all the major capabilities of Perl. (Basically, if you don't know what I'm referring to, don't worry about it. I played with PerlScript on and off for a few months and didn't find much that it couldn't do.)

Though i can only recommend it for controlled situations, you might try my JavaScript-RPC module.

If you take a look at the demo, you can see that when you press submit (NOTE: you can't actually run the example from search.cpan.org -- it must be installed on your own webserver) it calls a perl sub to add or subtract two numbers. A dumb example, but it's the concept that matters. :)

Thank you all monks.I am reviewing your replies and will work on them. Well my working environment is IIS,CGI-bin,
Perl so now depending on this if you have got more efficient solutions please let me know.
Thanks
blazix