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

I have this front end javascript that calls my perl like this when I click a link: 
cgi-bin/rpt.pl?dataname=ASRHOUR

[download]
The problem is, the very first thing I do in the perl is check which parameter for dataname is sent, but it isn't populating! Here is the beginning: 
use strict;
use File::Glob ':glob';
use DBI;
use JSON;
use POSIX qw(strftime);
use POSIX ":sys_wait_h";
use warnings;
use CGI;
use CGI::Carp qw/fatalsToBrowser/;
use Data::Dumper;

my $query = CGI->new;
my $reportname = $query->param('dataname');
print $query->header;
print Dumper $query;

[download]
And nothing is pushed into $reportname. It's blank. If I execute the script directly, and not thru the button click, it reports data fine. The kicker is, I have the newest Firebug in firefox installed, so it's SHOWING me the correct parameter name. If I hard code $reportname, it works great. So basically I execute 
http://localhost/cgi-bin/rpt.pl?dataname=ASRHOUR

[download]
It's fine I see in firebug this being executed through the GUI: 
http://localhost/cgi-bin/rpt.pl?dataname=ASRHOUR

[download]
And nothing happens. So I am under the impression I am not catching the parameter correctly. Also, under the params section in the Firebug, it shows the correct parameter name & value. Please help, I been staring at this all day.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: CGI not catching parameters?
by sfink (Deacon) on Aug 17, 2007 at 03:52 UTC
    You are mixing URL parameters and POST parameters. That's a little funky, though common. See the section of the CGI.pm documentation titled "MIXING POST AND URL PARAMETERS". The short answer is that you'll have to get your 'dataname' via url_param() instead of the usual param().
[reply]
      You sir, have relieved so much pressure off my neck...thank you
[reply]
Re: CGI not catching parameters?
by Gangabass (Vicar) on Aug 17, 2007 at 03:11 UTC

    Maybe some kind of your browser caching mechanism?

    Did your try to clear cache before click on the button?

[reply]
      I clear everything each time. Cookies, downloaded temp files, etc... I am stumped and COMPLETELY lost So in Firebuge, this is what I see: 
      PARAMS:
dataname ASRHOUR

      [download]
      POST
dir    ASC
limit    12
sort    ID
start    0

      [download]
      And when I print the contents of the $query, I get this: 
      RESPONSE 
$VAR1 = bless( {

                 '.parameters' => [

                                    'start',

                                    'limit',

                                    'sort',

                                    'dir'

                                  ],

                 'use_tempfile' => 1,

                 'dir' => [

                            'ASC'

                          ],

                 'sort' => [

                             'ID'

                           ],

                 '.charset' => 'ISO-8859-1',

                 '.cookies' => {

                                 'PHPSESSID' => bless( {

                                                         'value' => [

                                                                      
+'2a4176bd2b0457d34949778a2d910

36e'

                                                                    ],

                                                         'name' => 'PH
+PSESSID',

                                                         'path' => '/'

                                                       }, 'CGI::Cookie
+' ),

                                 'ys-reportDate' => bless( {

                                                             'value' =
+> [

                                                                      
+    's:2007-08-16'

                                                                      
+  ],

                                                             'name' =>
+ 'ys-reportDate',

                                                             'path' =>
+ '/'

                                                           }, 'CGI::Co
+okie' )

                               },

                 '.fieldnames' => {},

                 'limit' => [

                              '12'

                            ],

                 'escape' => 1,

                 'start' => [

                              '0'

                            ]

               }, 'CGI' );

      [download]
      So it's showing somehting in the CGI params, but not what is listed in Firebug? Huzzah? again, The script is executed like this rpt.pl?dataname=ASRHOUR And it's capturing everything but what I tell it to capture?
[reply]
[d/l]
[select]

Back to Seekers of Perl Wisdom