RE: Configuring a Perl script to extract certain records from an ASCII file

Greetings friends,

As an admin who appreciates clean HTML front-end and efficient Perl scripts on the back-end, I continue to use Perl applications for everything web-related.

I have an old Perl program which is currently being used to successfully open a Perl-based forum's ASCII files on the server, find and display the latest records on a web page through a SSI command.

Instead of displaying the latest records, I would like to display the latest records of certain author(s) only, for example moderators, which I will pre-select within the Perl script. I do not have enough skills to update this script shown below and need the help of the Perl Monks community.

I look forward to your help, thank you.

Zoro

#!/usr/bin/perl
#
# NOTE: The Perl script will display the forum's new messages
# based on the administrators' settings within this script.
#
# Usage:
# 
# <!--#include virtual="/cgi-bin/forums/new.cgi"-->
#
# NEW FEATURE - HELP NEEDED!
# 
# Each forum category has a database file (database.txt) which appears
+ like this:
# Forum fields: $num,$type,$lauthor,$date,$ltime,$name,$subject,$capti
+on,$lock,$read,$topic_rating,$replies
# ***** $name field is the author who started the forum message, $lnam
+e is the last person who posted within that message.
#
# 189|0|JohnDoe|04/25/2010|20:31:02|JohnDoe|Title of Forum Message Her
+e......|Caption of Forum Message here......||130||0
# 183|0|JaneDoe|01/31/2010|19:15:00|JohnDoe|Title of Forum Message Her
+e Again|Caption of Forum Message here again||160||5
# 157|0|JeffDoe|04/05/2011|06:12:29|JohnDoe|Title of Forum Message Her
+e Again|Caption of Forum Message here again||472||2
#
# New feature to select only moderator(s) posted messages.
# This function and fields have not been implemented.  I would like to
+ find the latest three (3) messages
# posted by the moderator(s) from the forums selected below and displa
+y them together with the moderator's picture.
# In summary, the moderator's photo then his 3 messages from the forum
+s, followed by the next moderator and his 3 messages...
#
# $moderator1 = "JohnDoe";
# $moderator1photo = "JohnDoe.jpg";
#
# $moderator2 = "JohnDoe2";
# $moderator2photo = "JohnDoe2.jpg";
# 
# $moderator3 = "JohnDoe3";
# $moderator3photo = "JohnDoe3.jpg";
#
#
# Program start...

# $cgidir is the location of forum.setup
$cgidir = "/home/sites/www.domain.com/web/cgi-bin/forums";

# Requirements...
require "$cgidir/forum.setup";
require "$cgilib/forumlib.pl";

# Message select mode
#
# 0 - randomly choose a forum and display $num_topics
# 1 - select limited number of forums... you must define @select_forum
+s
# 2 - select from all forums
$select_mode = 1;

# Which forums?
# The forum ID you want to read messages from
@select_forums = qw(
education
history
news
);

# Select how many topics per forum?
$num_topics = 3;

# Selection of topics based on?
# 0 - Latest date, default
# 10 - Most active
$sort_by_field = 0;

# If most active is chosen, then limit
# number of current topics to choose from
$num_current = 20;

#>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> NO NEED TO EDIT ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE <<<<<<<<

# unbuffer output
$| = 1;

# initialize some internal variables...
# Need to change this for speed improvement

$r_setup = initialize();
require "$cgilib/global.pl";

foreach (@{$r_setup->{'forums'}}) {
   if ($r_setup->{'forum_status'}->{$_} eq "on" and
       $r_setup->{'forum_type'}->{$_} ne 'Private') {
      push(@all_forums,$_);
   }
}

if ($select_mode == 0) {
   my $num_forums = @all_forums;
   srand;
   my $random_number = int(rand $num_forums) + 1;
   @select_forums = ($all_forums[$random_number]);
}
elsif ($select_mode == 2) {
   @select_forums = @all_forums;
}

print_header();
print_header_end();

# printing table and messages...

print qq~
    <p>~;

toggle_color("reset");

toggle_color();

# Default header display...
    print qq~
    <p><font size="2" face="verdana" color="$font_color"><b>Most recen
+t:</b></font></p>
    ~;

   
# Read from public forums

foreach (@select_forums) {

   my $r_data = readdata("$maindir/$_/$database");

   # chop some topics
   my @data = @{$r_data}[0..$num_current-1];

   # sort topics
   if ($sort_by_field == 10) {
      $r_data = sort_topics(\@data,$sort_by_field); 
   }
   else {
      $r_data = \@data;
   }


   for ($j=0;$j<$num_topics;$j++) {
      toggle_color();

      my $topic = $r_data->[$j];
       chomp($topic); 

         my ($num,$type,$lauthor,$date,$ltime,$name,$subject,$caption,
+$lock,
         $read,$topic_rating,$replies)
          = split(/$split_delim/,$topic);

        $subject = decode($subject);
        $caption = decode($caption);
        $caption = substr($caption,0,50);
        
        if ($type == 0) {
            $image = "icon_general.gif";
            $imagealt = "Member message";
             }
            elsif ($type == 1) {
            $image = "icon_poll.gif";
            $imagealt = "Poll";
             }
            elsif ($type == 2) {
            $image = "icon_question.gif";
            $imagealt = "Question";            
             }
            elsif ($type == 3) {
            $image = "icon_help.gif";
            $imagealt = "Help";
             }            
            elsif ($type == 4) {
            $image = "icon_looking.gif";
            $imagealt = "Searching";
             }        
            elsif ($type == 5) {
            $image = "icon_news.gif";
            $imagealt = "News";            
             }        
            else {
            $image = "icon_anchor.gif";    
            $imagealt = "Moderator message";    
            }        

      # Display other information
      $ltime = time_format($ltime);
      $datelong = $date;
      $date = date_format($date);
      
      print qq~
    <font face="verdana" color="$font_color"><a href="$mainurl/$_/$num
+.$ext"><img src="$imgurl/$image" alt="$imagealt" border="0">$subject<
+/a>
    <br><font face="verdana">$name, $datelong.</font></font><br>
    ~;
    }
}

print "</p>\n";

exit;
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