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

I am having trouble with using form data and sessions in the same program. Below is sample code to show the problem I am experiencing. 

use strict;
use warnings;
use CGI;
use CGI::Carp qw/fatalsToBrowser warningsToBrowser/;
use CGI::Session ( '-ip_match' );

my $cgi = CGI->new();
my @array = $cgi->param();

print "CGI Form Data-->", "@array ", $cgi->param("environment"), "<br>
+";

my $session = CGI::Session->new(undef, undef, {Directory=>'e:\tmp'});

print <<HTML_BLOCK;
            <body>
HTML_BLOCK

print <<HTML_BLOCK;
                <form name='loginform' method='post' action='1.pl'>
                <input type='hidden' name='form' value='login'>
                    <table>
                        <tr>
                            <td> UserName: </td>
                            <td> <input type='text' name='username'> <
+/td>
                        </tr>
                        <tr>
                            <td> Password: </td>
                            <td> <input type='password' name='password
+'> </td>
                        </tr>
                        <tr>
                            <td> Environment: </td>
                            <td>
                                <select size=1 name='environment'>
                                    <option value="env1">env1</option>
                                    <option value="env2">env2</option>
                                </select>
                            </td>
                        </tr>
                        <tr>
                            <td colspan=2 style='text-align=center'>
                                <input type='submit' name='submit' val
+ue='Submit'>
                                <input type='reset' name='reset' value
+='Reset'>
                            </td>
                        </tr>
                    </table>
                </form>
            </body>
HTML_BLOCK

[download]

The code works fine if I comment out the my $session = CGI::Session->new(undef, undef, {Directory=>'e:\tmp'}); line. Each subsequent submit of the form returns CGI Form Data-->form username password environment submit env1

If I then uncomment the my $session = CGI::Session->new(undef, undef, {Directory=>'e:\tmp'}); line. The first submit of the form returns CGI Form Data-->form username password environment submit env1, however, every submit of the form after that returns CGI Form Data-->

If I then comment the my $session = CGI::Session->new(undef, undef, {Directory=>'e:\tmp'}); line back out, I continue to get CGI Form Data--> until I restart the website application pool.

It's almost like the session grabs the standard input and never lets it go.

Confussed, Thanks

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Form Data inaccessible after establishing session
by Anonymous Monk on Apr 22, 2011 at 01:03 UTC
    until I restart the website application pool.

    Until you restart the what now? Maybe you should use $cgi->Dump or $cgi->escapeHTML( Data::Dumper::Dumper( $cgi , $session ) ) to diagnose

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]

      Application pools are a function of IIS. They allow websites to run under separate processes so that a problem in one web application does not affect another. When I say restart the application pool, it's like restarting the web server for only website on the web server.

      Results of diagnostic code (1st Form Submit):

      print $cgi->Dump;
    form
        login
    username
    
    password
    
    environment
        env1
    submit
        Submit

      [download]
      print $cgi->escapeHTML( Data::Dumper::Dumper( $cgi , $session ) );
    $VAR1 = bless( { '.parameters' => [ 'form', 'username', 'password'
+, 'environment', 'submit' ], 'use_tempfile' => 1, '.charset' => 'ISO-
+8859-1', '.fieldnames' => {}, 'param' => { 'environment' => [ 'env1' 
+], 'password' => [ '' ], 'submit' => [ 'Submit' ], 'form' => [ 'login
+' ], 'username' => [ '' ] }, 'escape' => 1 }, 'CGI' );

      [download]

      Results of diagnostic code (2nd Form Submit):

      print $cgi->Dump;

      [download]
      print $cgi->escapeHTML( Data::Dumper::Dumper( $cgi , $session ) );
    $VAR1 = bless( { '.parameters' => [], 'use_tempfile' => 1, '.chars
+et' => 'ISO-8859-1', '.fieldnames' => {}, 'param' => {}, 'escape' => 
+1 }, 'CGI' );

      [download]
[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
        Hmm, ok, not as revealing as I would have hoped because I made a mistake. Try this instead 
        #!/usr/bin/perl --
use strict;
use warnings;
use CGI;
use CGI::Carp qw/fatalsToBrowser warningsToBrowser/;
use CGI::Session ( '-ip_match' );
use Data::Dumper();

Main( @ARGV );
exit( 0 );

sub Dumper { scalar Data::Dumper->new( \@_ )->Indent(1)->Useqq(1)->Dum
+p; }
sub Main {
    my $cgi = CGI->new();
    my @array = $cgi->param();
    
    print $cgi->header, $cgi->start_html;
    
    print '<table border=1><tr><td valign=top><pre>',
      $cgi->escapeHTML( Dumper( $cgi ) ),
      '</pre></td>';
    
    my $session = CGI::Session->new(undef, undef, {Directory=>'e:\tmp'
+});

    print '<td><pre>',
      $cgi->escapeHTML( Dumper( $cgi, $session ) ),
      '</pre></td></tr></table>';

print <<HTML_BLOCK;
                <form name='loginform' method='post' action='1.pl'>
                <input type='hidden' name='form' value='login'>
                    <table>
                        <tr>
                            <td> UserName: </td>
                            <td> <input type='text' name='username'> <
+/td>
                        </tr>
                        <tr>
                            <td> Password: </td>
                            <td> <input type='password' name='password
+'> </td>
                        </tr>
                        <tr>
                            <td> Environment: </td>
                            <td>
                                <select size=1 name='environment'>
                                    <option value="env1">env1</option>
                                    <option value="env2">env2</option>
                                </select>
                            </td>
                        </tr>
                        <tr>
                            <td colspan=2 style='text-align=center'>
                                <input type='submit' name='submit' val
+ue='Submit'>
                                <input type='reset' name='reset' value
+='Reset'>
                            </td>
                        </tr>
                    </table>
                </form>
HTML_BLOCK

    print $cgi->end_html;
}

        [download]
[reply]
[d/l]

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