init session variables

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

I am probably overlooking something here:
I am using CGI::Application framework and CGI::Session
I need to set some init values for my session variables. These values will ofcourse change over the session. How to I prevent the values from being initiated everytime the user reloads the page?

Is there a way to init my variables and then if they change they are changed but if not, they are left alone?

here are some code to achieve the above:
this code works but there must be a better way of doing this!

# application object
my $self = shift;
    
# get cgi query object
my $q = $self->query();
my %post = $q->Vars;    

# if entries_per_page is not empty: set value, if it's empty and sessi
+on value is empty: init session value
if($post{'entries_per_page'}){
    $self->session->param('entries_per_page' => $post{'entries_per_pag
+e'});    
} elsif( (!$post{'entries_per_page'}) && (!$self->session->param('entr
+ies_per_page')) ) {
    $self->session->param('entries_per_page' => 10);
}
[download]

2) In the CGI::Application framework is all the functions such as: setup(), cgiapp_init(), teardown() etc. executed every time the application is run? Or is there anywhere I can init stuff just once?

3) In my run_modes function:

$self->run_modes(
    'static_page'    => 'printStaticPage',
    'AUTOLOAD' => 'showErrorPage'
);
[download]

is there any way I can pass in parameters to the called function? for example a static page argument on which page to print to the printStaticPage function?

I don't want to use code like:

# page
if($post{'page'} eq "about"){
  # print page about
} elsif($post{'page'} eq "purchase"){
  # print page purchase
} elsif($post{'page'} eq "contact"){
  # print page contact
} else {
  # print deault page
}
[download]

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Re: init session variables
by PodMaster (Abbot) on Feb 08, 2005 at 07:34 UTC

In the CGI::Application framework is all the functions such as: setup(), cgiapp_init(), teardown() etc. executed every time the application is run? Or is there anywhere I can init stuff just once?

CGI::Application::Loop

is there any way I can pass in parameters to the called function? for example a static page argument on which page to print to the printStaticPage function?

MJD says "you can't just make shit up and expect the computer to know what you mean, retardo!"
I run a Win32 PPM repository for perl 5.6.x and 5.8.x -- I take requests (README).
** The third rule of perl club is a statement of fact: pod is sexy.

[reply]

Re: init session variables
by ikegami (Patriarch) on Feb 08, 2005 at 07:14 UTC

At the very least, you could do this:

if (!$self->session->param('initialized')) {
   $self->session->param(initialized => 1);

   # Initialization code.
   $self->session->param(entries_per_page => 10);
}


# Overrides.
$self->session->param(entries_per_page => $post{entries_per_page})
   if defined $post{entries_per_page};
[download]

[reply]
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