HTML file or in-memory ?

Anonymous Monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Perl Supremos
I have a simple Perl program which produces an HTML file, that I then send via email (using MIME::lite).
My question is, how do I get the contents of my HTML file to be held in memory and passed to sendmail instead of having to write the output to a file first ?
here is the current code

#!/usr/bin/perl

use DBI;
use DBIx::XHTML_Table;
use MIME::Lite 1.137;


$user="sybuser";
$server=SERVER;
$pass=nopass;

open(DAT,">test.html");
print DAT "<HTML>\n";
print DAT "<BODY>\n";

my $dbh = DBI->connect("dbi:Sybase:server=$server", $user, $pass,{
                                        PrintError => 0, # Don't print
+ warning messages
                                        RaiseError => 1 } );

my $table = DBIx::XHTML_Table->new($dbh);
       $table->exec_query("
           select srvname from master..sysservers where srvid=0
       ");
       $table->modify(td => {
              style => 'color: black; background: yellow; text-align: 
+center; border: 1',
           });

       print DAT $table->output({ no_head => 1 });

       $table->exec_query("
           select SPID,Login,Application,DBName from monProcess where 
+Login not in (NULL,'probe')
       ");
       $table->modify(table => {
              border => 2,
              width  => '100%',
           });
       $table->modify(th => {
              style => 'color: black; text-align: center; font-weight:
+ bold',
           });
       $table->modify(td => {
              style => 'color: black; background: yellow; text-align: 
+center; border: none',
           });
       print DAT $table->output({ no_head => 0 });

$dbh->disconnect;

       print DAT $table->output({ no_head => 0 });
       print DAT "\n</BODY>\n";
       print DAT "\n</HTML>";

close(DAT);

my $msg  = MIME::Lite->new(From => 'noname@nohost',
                          To      => 'someone@nowhere.com',
                          Subject => 'Report',
                          Type    => 'text/html',
                          Path => 'test.html');

$msg->send;
[download]

I would rather not have to create a temporary html file to do this
e.g. Use MIME::Lite->new(DATA=>'html stuff here'); ?

Comment on HTML file or in-memory ? Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: HTML file or in-memory ? by bart (Canon) on Dec 15, 2004 at 13:14 UTC
Use `$html .= ...` [download] instead of `print DAT ...` [download] and initialize it by setting `my $html = "";` [download] instead of the `open` call. Afterwards, i.e. at the time of the `close` call, your HTML page will be held in the variable $html, instead of in that file — ready for you to attach it to the mail.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: HTML file or in-memory ? by Anonymous Monk on Dec 15, 2004 at 14:28 UTC
Thanks. This worked a treat	[reply]
Re: HTML file or in-memory ? by gellyfish (Monsignor) on Dec 15, 2004 at 13:16 UTC
Instead of printing to the file just append all the output to a scalar and then pass that to `MIME::Lite->new()` using the `Data` option rather than `Path`. /J\	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: HTML file or in-memory ? by thor (Priest) on Dec 15, 2004 at 13:57 UTC
Alternatively, if there are a lot of print statements that you'd have to change, you can print to a scalar variable. All you have to do is call open like so: `open(FH, ">", \$var);` [download] After that, you can print to FH and the results will be accumulated in $var, which you can then use the options presented by the monks that responded before me. This all assumes a fairly recent version of perl (I don't know exactly when this feature was added). thor `Feel the white light, the light within Be your own disciple, fan the sparks of will For all of us waiting, your kingdom will come`	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: HTML file or in-memory ? by Anonymous Monk on Dec 15, 2004 at 14:23 UTC
I tried this and I get a file called SCALAR(0x189a68). So I guess I haven't go the correct version for this to work (I'm using 5.6.1).	[reply]
Re^3: HTML file or in-memory ? by Fletch (Bishop) on Dec 15, 2004 at 15:18 UTC
Yup, it's your version. Pre 5.8 IMSMR you can use IO::Scalar to get similar functionality.	[reply]