My guess is that the issue is that you're calling the value method in list context, and it's either is returning an empty list or a list of more than one element. As a result, popup_menu doesn't see any -labels argument and thus your popup menu has no labels.

One minor technical point for the record. The list of arguments you're passing to popup_menu is just a list, not a hash, but presumably that function just reads its arguments into a hash anyway, so the effect is the same.

Errto has got it, I think!

#!perl -w
use CGI::Util qw(rearrange);
sub showval {
  return defined($_[0])?$_[0]:"<undef>"
}
sub testcall {
  my (@p) = @_;
    my($name,$values,$default,$labels,$attributes,$override,$tabindex,
+@other) =
       rearrange([NAME,[VALUES,VALUE],[DEFAULT,DEFAULTS],LABELS,
       ATTRIBUTES,[OVERRIDE,FORCE],TABINDEX],@p);
   print "name       = ", showval($name), "\n";
   print "values     = ", showval($values), "\n";
   print "labels     = ", showval($labels), "\n";
   print "attributes = ", showval($attributes), "\n";
   print "override   = ", showval($override), "\n";
   print "tabindex   = ", showval($tabindex), "\n";
   print "\@other = ", join("  ", @other), "\n";
}

sub vooba {
  my @result = ("foo", "bar");
  print "vooba: wantarray = ", wantarray, "\n";
  return @result;
}
sub emptylist {
  my @result = ();
  return @result;
}
print "testcall1\n";
testcall(
  -name     => "nameparm",
  -values    => [ "array" ],
  -labels    => "labels",
  -default => vooba(),
);

print "\ntestcall2\n";
testcall(
  -name     => "nameparm",
  -values    => [ "array" ],
  -default => vooba(),
  -labels    => "labels",
);

print "\ntestcall3\n";
testcall(
  -name     => "nameparm",
  -values    => [ "array" ],
  -default => emptylist(),
  -labels    => "labels",
);

__END__
[download]

Output:

testcall1
vooba: wantarray = 1
name       = nameparm
values     = ARRAY(0x225848)
labels     = labels
attributes = <undef>
override   = <undef>
tabindex   = <undef>
@other = bar

testcall2
vooba: wantarray = 1
name       = nameparm
values     = ARRAY(0x225848)
labels     = <undef>
attributes = <undef>
override   = <undef>
tabindex   = <undef>
@other = bar="-labels"

testcall3
name       = nameparm
values     = ARRAY(0x225848)
labels     = <undef>
attributes = <undef>
override   = <undef>
tabindex   = <undef>
@other =
[download]

Dead on guys. *sigh* Fixed with a simple scalar($_[0]->value)

"One is enough. If you are acquainted with the principle, what do you care for the myriad instances and applications?"
- Henry David Thoreau, Walden

-default =>$_[0]->{value}
[download]

Not quite, but keen eyes. I need to call the method 'value', not get the value, of 'value'. They're related, but the value is an array ref, whereas the method returns either a joined string of values or an array.

"One is enough. If you are acquainted with the principle, what do you care for the myriad instances and applications?"
- Henry David Thoreau, Walden