-Blake

If you are still evaluating, have you looked at the documentation on CPAN?

The others suggestions are good as well. Hope these help get you started.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use CGI qw(:standard);
use HTML::Template;
use strict;

my $output = new CGI;
my $baseDir = "/home/projects/scripts/devsimp";
my @names = $output->param;

@INC          = ('../cgi-lib',
                 '/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl',
                 '/usr/lib/perl5/5.00503');

require 'cgi-lib.pl';

### $inputlist Gets all the stuff from the form.
my $inputlist = &get_form_input();

&show_browser_output();
exit 0;


sub 
show_browser_output
{
### Based on, basically which section and what page number, 
### $templatename gets the appropriate template to use for output 
  my $templatename = &get_template();
  my $a = "";
  my $b = "";
### %params gets the parts to fill in the blanks in the template ###
  my %params = &get_params();
  my $template = HTML::Template->new(filename => "$baseDir/templates/$
+templatename");
  print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
  while (($a, $b) = each(%params))  {
    $template->param(
      $a => $b
  );
  }
  print $template->output;

}


### Determines template to use based on subset of the form values' nam
+es. ###
sub
get_template
{
###Code to determine which template to use ###
  return $template;

}
 

### Get the parts to fill in the blanks in the template ###
sub
get_params
{
  my %param = ();
  my $page_header = "";
  my $page_paragraph = "";
  my $page_questions = "";
  my $curr_page = $page_num; 
  my $new_page_num = "";

####Code to fill up the parameters that are going to be displayed ###


    %param = (
      CAT => "$shorthand{$startingcat}",
      HEADER => "$page_header",
      PARAGRAPH => "$page_paragraph",
      PAGE => $new_page_num,
      QUESTIONS => "$page_questions",
      TEST_TEXT => $names[0],
      TEST_TEXT1 => $names[1],
      TEST_TEXT2 => $names[2]
    ); 


  return %param;
}


### Gets names of every form field submitted. ###
sub
get_form_input
{
  my $listofparams = "";
  my $c = "";
  my @input = "";
  foreach $c (@names)  {
    $listofparams .= "$c, ";
  }
  return $listofparams;
}
[download]

This don't work:

[jeffa@neo cgi-bin]$ perl -c val.cgi 
Global symbol "$template" requires explicit package name on line 51
Global symbol "$page_num" requires explicit package name on 64
Global symbol "%shorthand" requires explicit package name on line 71
Global symbol "$startingcat" requires explicit package name on line 71
val.cgi had compilation errors.
[download]

EDIT

How about this instead - it is an ultra simple CGI script that merely displays the names and values of the parameters from any form. First the template:

(name this 'params.tmpl')

<TMPL_IF PARAMS>
   <table>
   <tr>
      <tH>KEY</th>
      <th>&nbsp;</th>
      <th>VALUE</th>
   </tr>
   <TMPL_LOOP NAME=PARAMS>
   <tr>
      <td align="right"><TMPL_VAR NAME=KEY></td>
      <td align="center">=&gt;</td>
      <td><TMPL_VAR NAME=VALUE></td>
   </tr>
   </TMPL_LOOP>
   </table>
<TMPL_ELSE>
   No params!
</TMPL_IF>
[download]

It is a table with the names on in the left side cell and the values in the right. If no parameters are specified, then the <TMPL_IF> will take care of the fact and gracefully continue.

The CGI script (params.cgi):

use CGI qw(:standard);
use HTML::Template;
use strict;

my $template = HTML::Template->new(filename => 'params.tmpl') or die;

my $params = [
   map {
      { KEY => $_, VALUE => join(',',param($_)) }
   } param()
];


$template->param(PARAMS => $params);

print header, start_html('Form Param Display'), 
   $template->output, end_html;
[download]

You can test this out by pointing any HTML form to the cgi script, or you can test it directly (YMMWV):

http://localhost/cgi-bin/params.cgi?foo=bar&qux=baz&foo=bar2

http://localhost/cgi-bin/params.cgi
[download]

jeffa

Just one detail:
To manipulate @INC, use lib ... is much better than direct assignment you used.

pmas
To make errors is human. But to make million errors per second, you need a computer.

Type "cpan tutorial" (without the quotes) into the "search" box in the upper-left of this window and hit Enter (or Return, as the case may be). The top two items look interesting...

—John