FAQ

A v B = ?

Tedd
Mar 7, 2001 at 11:59 pm
Hi again:

A different question (using the previous "well split" code, but not
regarding split() ).

Given the following routines A and B, why does A work and B does not?

The only difference between the two routines is where the "ROW" block
is placed. In example A the ROW variables appear within the "read
data loop", but in example B they are only printed within the "read
data loop" -- why does that make a difference?

#--- start of code --- A (works)

#!/usr/bin/perl

print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
print "<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>$title</TITLE>";

print <<DB; # create table with title
<table border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="2" width="600">
<TR>
<TH>ID</TH>
<TH>Category</TH>
<TH>Variable Name</TH>
<TH>Price</TH>
<TH>Name</TH>
<TH>Description</TH>
<TH>Item Number</TH>
</TR>
DB

$datafile = "Database/outlet.data";
open DATA, "$datafile" or die "Can't open $datafile: $!";
while (<DATA>)
{
next if /^$/; # skip empty lines
chomp; # remove the "line ending"
for (split(/\r/)) # find returns
{
# find tabs
my ($database_id, $category, $variable_name,
$price, $name, $description, $item_number) = split(/\t/);

print <<ROW; # place variables into table
<TR>
<TD>$database_id</TD>
<TD>$category</TD>
<TD>$variable_name</TD>
<TD>\$$price</TD>
<TD>$name</TD>
<TD>$description</TD>
<TD>$item_number</TD>
</TR>
ROW
}
}

close DATA;

print " </table>";

__END__

#---- end of code ----

---------------------------

#--- start of code --- B (does not work)

#!/usr/bin/perl

print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
print "<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>$title</TITLE>";

print <<DB; # create table with title
<table border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="2" width="600">
<TR>
<TH>ID</TH>
<TH>Category</TH>
<TH>Variable Name</TH>
<TH>Price</TH>
<TH>Name</TH>
<TH>Description</TH>
<TH>Item Number</TH>
</TR>
DB

$list = <<ROW; # place variables into table
<TR>
<TD>$database_id</TD>
<TD>$category</TD>
<TD>$variable_name</TD>
<TD>\$$price</TD>
<TD>$name</TD>
<TD>$description</TD>
<TD>$item_number</TD>
</TR>
ROW

$datafile = "Database/outlet.data";
open DATA, "$datafile" or die "Can't open $datafile: $!";
while (<DATA>)
{
next if /^$/; # skip empty lines
chomp; # remove the "line ending"
for (split(/\r/)) # find returns
{
# find tabs
($database_id, $category, $variable_name,
$price, $name, $description, $item_number) = split(/\t/);

print $list;

}
}

close DATA;

print " </table>";

__END__

---------------------- end of question --------------

Thanks for any comment.

tedd
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6 responses

  • Robinmcf at Mar 8, 2001 at 3:58 am ⇧

    tedd@sperling.com wrote:
    Given the following routines A and B, why does A work and B does not?
    try running your scripts with the warning flags on and you'll find out why
  • Robinmcf at Mar 8, 2001 at 6:27 pm ⇧
    tedd@sperling.com wrote
    why does A work and B does not?
    try running your scripts with the warning flags on and you'll find out why
    Where do you turn the "warning flags" on?
    put this stuff at the top of your script

    #! perl -w

    use strict;
    use diagnostics-verbose;


    hth

    Robin
  • Robinmcf at Mar 8, 2001 at 9:15 pm ⇧

    ?tedd@sperling.com wrote
    why does A work and B does not?
    Robin:
    I'm not sure if I understand things. You see, I can do that, but
    nothing will happen -- other than a server error. I don't run this
    code on my Mac -- I only write it on my Mac and run it on the server
    -- am I making sense?
    'plogies I forgot you're doing GGI on Linux, in which case-

    add

    #!/usr/local/bin/perl -w
    use strict;
    use diagnostics-verbose;
    use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);


    to the top of your script,most internal perl generated errors will be
    sent to your browser but in the event you just get a generic '500 internal
    server error' change to your shell account and type

    [shell prompt]$ tail /path/to/server/error_logs

    which will print out the last X lines of the error log, letting you see
    what caused the error. The alternative is to take the troubled section and
    run it in MacPerl, which is what I prefer doing when I'm testing something
    which isn't system dependant.
    Either way you should get into the habit of putting these headers, they
    will tell you what's going wrong immediately.

    see also:
    In the PODs PerlFAQ 9- Networking

    on CPAN:
    http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/CPAN/perl/pod/perlfaq9-full.html
    the same FAQ but it has more current URLs for more info on CGI topics


    HTH

    Robin
  • Robinmcf at Mar 9, 2001 at 3:40 am ⇧

    tedd@sperling.com wrote:
    Even placing just the -w on the shebang line causes an Internal Server Error.
    which means there's something fundamentally wrong with the code - it won't
    compile
    --- start of error..... aborted due to compilation errors .....--- end of
    error
    This is telling you the same thing - there's something fundamentally wrong
    with the script so it can't compile
    [shell prompt]$ tail /path/to/server/error_logs
    Wish I could, but it's not my server -- I only "rent" space.
    Not having access to the error logs is unusual:
    if you can FTP into your account try using a telnet client to log on with
    the same connection data you use for FTP.

    If you _really_ can't access the server logs, you can re-direct STDERROR
    to STDOUT

    <<quoting from Debugging CGI Scripts 101
    ( http://www.liquidsilver.com/scripts/debug101.html#server )
    Redirect STDERR to STDOUT:

    open (STDERR, ">&STDOUT");
    I recommend to use this only for debugging, don't leave this in your public
    script. Not only are other people likely to get confused when being
    confronted with Perl's error messages or warnings but also you won't be
    able to track down those errors in the server's errorlog - that can really
    be fatal, imagine your perfectly fine script breaks one day due to a
    changed environment or changed permissions of some files and you don't
    notice it until weeks later after finally some visitor complained.
    end>>
    .. using '-w' switch, use strict;........
    Okay, I'll remember that when I'm running the code on my Mac.
    ==Run this to fix errors :-)==
    #! perl-w
    use strict;
    my ($bad_habit,$good_habit,$salvation);

    # how to turn bad programming habits
    # into good ones

    $bad_habit="I\'ll remember that when I\'m running the code on my Mac\n";

    &road_to_damascus($bad_habit);

    sub road_to_damascus{
    my($revelation);
    $good_habit="I\'ll read the docs\n";
    split('on',$bad_habit);
    $revelation=\@_;
    $$revelation[0]=~ s/the/any/;
    $salvation=join('and ',$$revelation[0],$good_habit);
    print $salvation,"\n";
    };
    ==Run this to fix errors :-)==

    However, I still don't understand why the code I listed in my original
    post didn't work -- it
    didn't fail and it didn't error
    An explosion in an airless space is silent, but this doesn't mean the
    explosion didn't happen, you just didn't hear it.
    I'm not sure that an error routine would tell me where it went wrong.
    It helps eliminate probable causes- this is your script B with some slight
    changes - why does it work? How did I figure out where it was going wrong?


    ==Script B==
    #!/usr/bin/perl-w
    use strict;
    my (@data);
    my ($title,$list);

    print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
    print "<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>$title</TITLE>";

    # create table with title
    print <<DB;
    <table border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="2" width="600">
    <TR>
    <TH>ID</TH>
    <TH>Category</TH>
    <TH>Variable Name</TH>
    <TH>Price</TH>
    <TH>Name</TH>
    <TH>Description</TH>
    <TH>Item Number</TH>
    </TR>
    DB

    #$datafile = "Database/outlet.data";
    #open (DATA, "$datafile") or die "Can't open $datafile: $!";
    while (<DATA>)
    {
    next if /^$/; # skip empty lines
    #chomp; # remove the "line ending"
    #for (split(/\r/)) # find returns
    {
    # find tabs
    @data= split(/\t/);
    &row;
    }
    }

    close DATA;

    print " </table>";

    sub row {
    # place variables into table

    $list =<<" ROW";
    <TR>
    <TD>$data[0]</TD>
    <TD>$data[1]</TD>
    <TD>$data[2]</TD>
    <TD>\$$data[3]</TD>
    <TD>$data[4]</TD>
    <TD>$data[5]</TD>
    <TD>$data[6]</TD>
    </TR>

    ROW
    print $list;
    }


    __DATA__
    database_id1 category1 variable_name1 price1 description1
    item_number1
    database_id2 category2 variable_name2 price2 description2
    item_number2
    database_id3 category3 variable_name3 price3 description3
    item_number3
    database_id4 category4 variable_name4 price4 description4
    item_number4
    ==Script B==
  • Robinmcf at Mar 10, 2001 at 12:51 am ⇧

    tedd@sperling.com wrote:
    So, where is it that you're running the code and receiving those errors?
    on my mac under MacPerl

    As to issue of the script running on your mac, but not on the server as a CGI :
    this may not be due to the '-w' switch a such, but if you insist on not
    using it you'll find people will be reluctant to help you, (see below)

    A generic 500 error check list is:

    * is the path to perl correct (in the she-bang line)
    * does the script have the correct permissions to run
    * if you transferred it from another machine using a different OS, are you
    sure the line endings are correct?

    If these three steps don't solve your problem you need the error logs

    Then the next thing to do is to check out the DOCs which come with all Perl
    distros, because in all of the Perl NG and mailing lists, CGI related
    postings are notorious for being trivial and easily solved (by using '-w',
    'use strict;' and checking the 3 things above). In keeping with this, this
    is the same reason why MacPerl has a separate CGI list, (it didn't always).
    In the perl community in general the minute you post anything in which it's
    apparent that you haven't read the docs and you haven't followed any of the
    basic guidelines set out in the FAQs because you haven't read them, people
    either don't reply to your posting or get downright nasty/abusive, because
    they've seen the same kinds of posting over, and over again, and consider
    them only marginally better than spam (but only beause the posters aren't
    trying to squeeze money out of them) :~)


    (from POD FAQ 9: )
    My CGI script runs from the command line but not the browser. (500 Server
    Error)

    If you can demonstrate that you've read the following FAQs and that your
    problem isn't something simple that can be easily answered, you'll probably
    receive a courteous and useful reply to your question if you post it on
    comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi (if it's something to do with HTTP,
    HTML, or
    the CGI protocols). Questions that appear to be Perl questions but are
    really CGI ones that are posted to comp.lang.perl.misc may not be so well
    received.

    The useful FAQs and related documents are:

    CGI FAQ
    http://www.webthing.com/tutorials/cgifaq.html


    Web FAQ
    http://www.boutell.com/faq/


    WWW Security FAQ
    http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/


    HTTP Spec
    http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Protocols/HTTP/


    HTML Spec
    http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/
    http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/MarkUp/


    CGI Spec
    http://www.w3.org/CGI/


    CGI Security FAQ
    http://www.go2net.com/people/paulp/cgi-security/safe-cgi.txt
  • Tedd at Mar 10, 2001 at 7:10 pm ⇧

    ?tedd@sperling.com wrote:
    So, where is it that you're running the code and receiving those errors?
    on my mac under MacPerl

    As to issue of the script running on your mac, but not on the server
    as a CGI :
    this may not be due to the '-w' switch a such, but if you insist on not
    using it you'll find people will be reluctant to help you, (see below)
    Robin:

    I'm not refusing to use the -w option nor have I said that I refuse
    to do so. Apparently, I have not been clear as to the problems I
    experienced and my inquiries regarding as to its use -- for that I
    apologize.

    As for reading FAQ's -- I read everything I can and all referenced
    me. The reference you provided is one that I was not aware, but shall
    use. I do find that there is a vast amount of information on Perl and
    as such, I am simply overwhelmed by its shear volume. I am probably
    like many others in that not everything I read is immediately
    comprehended - sometimes the elusive nature of the syntax evades my
    immediate acknowledgement. Furthermore, I have found errors in some
    reference material which has lead me astray and it takes a while to
    sort things out.

    Granted, I have purpose and have probably leaped past some of the
    introductory aspects of the language in an attempt to fulfill my
    goal. But from my perspective, it's hard to sort out what is actually
    introductory and what is not -- considering the shear volume of the
    reference material. So, I am sure there remains a significant amount
    of introductory material for me to consider -- that in itself is a
    problem. But, I have not intentionally taken advantage of other's
    time beyond what I would consider to be unreasonable. I am simply
    trying to understand and thought that this list was a forum to assist
    me. To me, the questions I post are not trivial -- but apparently, I
    am alone in that view. It's almost humorous in that some things are
    so obvious to some, but not others.

    In any event, I consider myself forewarned. You have been very
    helpful, gracious and polite in pointing out my failing to read the
    relevant references. In the future I shall make very effort to
    research all sources of information available to me before posting
    another question to this list.

    I thank you for your time and guidance.

    tedd

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