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

Good day to all!

There is an old HTML problem -- browsers do not send anything about unchecked checkboxes when submitting forms. How do you people usually use HTML::FillInForm to uncheck checkboxes which default to checked state?

Example: 

<form>
<input type=checkbox name=c checked>
</form>

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Suppose, I want to refill this form using HTML::FillInForm after user submitted the form. She unchecked the checkbox. To repeat unchecking the checkbox I need to pass c => 0 to fill() but browsers in their eternal wisdom do not send me anything about the checkbox so my code now needs knowledge that there is such a control on the form.

I've faced the issue ten or more times and always used some hacks with enumerating all checkboxes in a list and then generating pairs to pass to fill(). Are there cleaner ways?

--kap

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Re: HTML::FillInForm vs. checked by default checkboxes
by bradcathey (Prior) on Feb 18, 2009 at 19:32 UTC

    I've been using HTML::FillInForm for ages now, but only in conjunction with HTML::Template and the cool plug-ing that comes with CGI::Application. Anyway, pulling from the docs:

    my $output = HTML::FillInForm->fill( \$html, \%fifvalues);

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    If look at the above, note 3 main concepts:

    1. You need your HTML in a variable* (e.g., $html built by hand, CGI, or HTML::Template in your Perl script).
    2. You need the form value(s) in a variable (I always use a hash ref because I'm always pulling from a database, e.g., $fifvalues->{'gender' => 'male'}) assuming your radio button is named "gender" and one of the values is "male".
    3. Then you will need to print the $output, e.g., print "Content-type: text/html\n\n"; print $output;

    So, forget checked, it will be done for you. But just try it, that's how I learned.

    *Update: You can just reference an actual static html page with a form, negating the need to build it with the script.

    —Brad
    "The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men." George Eliot
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      Well, thanks, but I need checkboxes checked by default in HTML source.
      --kap
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