1CGI::Simple(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation CGI::Simple(3)
2
6 CGI::Simple - A Simple totally OO CGI interface that is CGI.pm
7 compliant
8
10 This document describes CGI::Simple version 1.25.
11
13 use CGI::Simple;
14 $CGI::Simple::POST_MAX = 1024; # max upload via post default 100kB
15 $CGI::Simple::DISABLE_UPLOADS = 0; # enable uploads
16 $q = CGI::Simple->new;
18 $q = CGI::Simple->new( { 'foo'=>'1', 'bar'=>[2,3,4] } );
19 $q = CGI::Simple->new( 'foo=1&bar=2&bar=3&bar=4' );
20 $q = CGI::Simple->new( \*FILEHANDLE );
21 $q->save( \*FILEHANDLE ); # save current object to a file as used by new
23 @params = $q->param; # return all param names as a list
25 $value = $q->param('foo'); # return the first value supplied for 'foo'
26 @values = $q->param('foo'); # return all values supplied for foo
27 %fields = $q->Vars; # returns untied key value pair hash
29 $hash_ref = $q->Vars; # or as a hash ref
30 %fields = $q->Vars("|"); # packs multiple values with "|" rather than "\0";
31 @keywords = $q->keywords; # return all keywords as a list
33 $q->param( 'foo', 'some', 'new', 'values' ); # set new 'foo' values
35 $q->param( -name=>'foo', -value=>'bar' );
36 $q->param( -name=>'foo', -value=>['bar','baz'] );
37 $q->param( 'foo', 'some', 'new', 'values' ); # append values to 'foo'
39 $q->append( -name=>'foo', -value=>'bar' );
40 $q->append( -name=>'foo', -value=>['some', 'new', 'values'] );
41 $q->delete('foo'); # delete param 'foo' and all its values
43 $q->delete_all; # delete everything
44 <INPUT TYPE="file" NAME="upload_file" SIZE="42">
46 $files = $q->upload() # number of files uploaded
48 @files = $q->upload(); # names of all uploaded files
49 $filename = $q->param('upload_file') # filename of uploaded file
50 $mime = $q->upload_info($filename,'mime'); # MIME type of uploaded file
51 $size = $q->upload_info($filename,'size'); # size of uploaded file
52 my $fh = $q->upload($filename); # get filehandle to read from
54 while ( read( $fh, $buffer, 1024 ) ) { ... }
55 # short and sweet upload
57 $ok = $q->upload( $q->param('upload_file'), '/path/to/write/file.name' );
58 print "Uploaded ".$q->param('upload_file')." and wrote it OK!" if $ok;
59 $decoded = $q->url_decode($encoded);
61 $encoded = $q->url_encode($unencoded);
62 $escaped = $q->escapeHTML('<>"&');
63 $unescaped = $q->unescapeHTML('<>"&');
64 $qs = $q->query_string; # get all data in $q as a query string OK for GET
66 $q->no_cache(1); # set Pragma: no-cache + expires
68 print $q->header(); # print a simple header
69 # get a complex header
70 $header = $q->header( -type => 'image/gif'
71 -nph => 1,
72 -status => '402 Payment required',
73 -expires =>'+24h',
74 -cookie => $cookie,
75 -charset => 'utf-7',
76 -attachment => 'foo.gif',
77 -Cost => '$2.00'
78 );
79 # a p3p header (OK for redirect use as well)
80 $header = $q->header( -p3p => 'policyref="http://somesite.com/P3P/PolicyReferences.xml' );
81 @cookies = $q->cookie(); # get names of all available cookies
83 $value = $q->cookie('foo') # get first value of cookie 'foo'
84 @value = $q->cookie('foo') # get all values of cookie 'foo'
85 # get a cookie formatted for header() method
86 $cookie = $q->cookie( -name => 'Password',
87 -values => ['superuser','god','my dog woofie'],
88 -expires => '+3d',
89 -domain => '.nowhere.com',
90 -path => '/cgi-bin/database',
91 -secure => 1
92 );
93 print $q->header( -cookie=>$cookie ); # set cookie
94 print $q->redirect('http://go.away.now'); # print a redirect header
96 dienice( $q->cgi_error ) if $q->cgi_error;
98
100 CGI::Simple provides a relatively lightweight drop in replacement for
101 CGI.pm. It shares an identical OO interface to CGI.pm for parameter
102 parsing, file upload, cookie handling and header generation. This
103 module is entirely object oriented, however a complete functional
104 interface is available by using the CGI::Simple::Standard module.
105 Essentially everything in CGI.pm that relates to the CGI (not HTML)
107 side of things is available. There are even a few new methods and
108 additions to old ones! If you are interested in what has gone on under
109 the hood see the Compatibility with CGI.pm section at the end.
110 In practical testing this module loads and runs about twice as fast as
112 CGI.pm depending on the precise task.
113
115 Here is a very brief rundown on how you use the interface. Full details
116 follow.
117 First you need to initialize an object
119 Before you can call a CGI::Simple method you must create a CGI::Simple
120 object. You do that by using the module and then calling the new()
121 constructor:
122 use CGI::Simple;
124 my $q = CGI::Simple->new;
125 It is traditional to call your object $q for query or perhaps $cgi.
127 Next you call methods on that object
129 Once you have your object you can call methods on it using the -> arrow
130 syntax For example to get the names of all the parameters passed to
131 your script you would just write:
132 @names = $q->param();
134 Many methods are sensitive to the context in which you call them. In
136 the example above the param() method returns a list of all the
137 parameter names when called without any arguments.
138 When you call param('arg') with a single argument it assumes you want
140 to get the value(s) associated with that argument (parameter). If you
141 ask for an array it gives you an array of all the values associated
142 with it's argument:
143 @values = $q->param('foo'); # get all the values for 'foo'
145 whereas if you ask for a scalar like this:
147 $value = $q->param('foo'); # get only the first value for 'foo'
149 then it returns only the first value (if more than one value for 'foo'
151 exists).
152 In case you ased for a list it will return all the values preserving
154 the order in which the values of the given key were passed in the
155 request.
156 Most CGI::Simple routines accept several arguments, sometimes as many
158 as 10 optional ones! To simplify this interface, all routines use a
159 named argument calling style that looks like this:
160 print $q->header( -type=>'image/gif', -expires=>'+3d' );
162 Each argument name is preceded by a dash. Neither case nor order
164 matters in the argument list. -type, -Type, and -TYPE are all
165 acceptable.
166 Several routines are commonly called with just one argument. In the
168 case of these routines you can provide the single argument without an
169 argument name. header() happens to be one of these routines. In this
170 case, the single argument is the document type.
171 print $q->header('text/html');
173 Sometimes methods expect a scalar, sometimes a reference to an array,
175 and sometimes a reference to a hash. Often, you can pass any type of
176 argument and the routine will do whatever is most appropriate. For
177 example, the param() method can be used to set a CGI parameter to a
178 single or a multi-valued value. The two cases are shown below:
179 $q->param(-name=>'veggie',-value=>'tomato');
181 $q->param(-name=>'veggie',-value=>['tomato','tomahto','potato','potahto']);
182
184 For convenience a functional interface is provided by the
185 CGI::Simple::Standard module. This hides the OO details from you and
186 allows you to simply call methods. You may either use AUTOLOADING of
187 methods or import specific method sets into you namespace. Here are the
188 first few examples again using the function interface.
189 use CGI::Simple::Standard qw(-autoload);
191 @names = param();
192 @values = param('foo');
193 $value = param('foo');
194 print header(-type=>'image/gif',-expires=>'+3d');
195 print header('text/html');
196 Yes that's it. Not a $q-> in sight. You just use the module and select
198 how/which methods to load. You then just call the methods you want
199 exactly as before but without the $q-> notation.
200 When (if) you read the following docs and are using the functional
202 interface just pretend the $q-> is not there.
203 Selecting which methods to load
205 When you use the functional interface Perl needs to be able to find the
206 functions you call. The simplest way of doing this is to use
207 autoloading as shown above. When you use CGI::Simple::Standard with the
208 '-autoload' pragma it exports a single AUTOLOAD sub into you namespace.
209 Every time you call a non existent function AUTOLOAD is called and will
210 load the required function and install it in your namespace. Thus only
211 the AUTOLOAD sub and those functions you specifically call will be
212 imported.
213 Alternatively CGI::Simple::Standard provides a range of function sets
215 you can import or you can just select exactly what you want. You do
216 this using the familiar
217 use CGI::Simple::Standard qw( :func_set some_func);
219 notation. This will import the ':func_set' function set and the
221 specific function 'some_func'.
222 To Autoload or not to Autoload, that is the question.
224 If you do not have a AUTOLOAD sub in you script it is generally best to
225 use the '-autoload' option. Under autoload you can use any method you
226 want but only import and compile those functions you actually use.
227 If you do not use autoload you must specify what functions to import.
229 You can only use functions that you have imported. For comvenience
230 functions are grouped into related sets. If you choose to import one or
231 more ':func_set' you may have potential namespace collisions so check
232 out the docs to see what gets imported. Using the ':all' tag is pretty
233 slack but it is there if you want. Full details of the function sets
234 are provided in the CGI::Simple::Standard docs
235 If you just want say the param and header methods just load these two.
237 use CGI::Simple::Standard qw(param header);
239 Setting globals using the functional interface
241 Where you see global variables being set using the syntax:
242 $CGI::Simple::DEBUG = 1;
244 You use exactly the same syntax when using CGI::Simple::Standard.
246
248 new() Creating a new query object
249 The first step in using CGI::Simple is to create a new query object
250 using the new() constructor:
251 $q = CGI::Simple->new;
253 This will parse the input (from both POST and GET methods) and store it
255 into an object called $q.
256 If you provide a file handle to the new() method, it will read
258 parameters from the file (or STDIN, or whatever).
259 Historically people were doing this way:
261 open FH, "test.in" or die $!;
263 $q = CGI::Simple->new(\*FH);
264 but this is the recommended way:
266 open $fh, '<', "test.in" or die $!;
268 $q = CGI::Simple->new($fh);
269 The file should be a series of newline delimited TAG=VALUE pairs.
271 Conveniently, this type of file is created by the save() method (see
272 below). Multiple records can be saved and restored. IO::File objects
273 work fine.
274 If you are using the function-oriented interface provided by
276 CGI::Simple::Standard and want to initialize from a file handle, the
277 way to do this is with restore_parameters(). This will (re)initialize
278 the default CGI::Simple object from the indicated file handle.
279 restore_parameters($fh);
281 In fact for all intents and purposes restore_parameters() is identical
283 to new() Note that restore_parameters() does not exist in CGI::Simple
284 itself so you can't use it.
285 You can also initialize the query object from an associative array
287 reference:
288 $q = CGI::Simple->new( { 'dinosaur' => 'barney',
290 'song' => 'I love you',
291 'friends' => [qw/Jessica George Nancy/] }
292 );
293 or from a properly formatted, URL-escaped query string:
295 $q = CGI::Simple->new( 'dinosaur=barney&color=purple' );
297 or from a previously existing CGI::Simple object (this generates an
299 identical clone including all global variable settings, etc that are
300 stored in the object):
301 $old_query = CGI::Simple->new;
303 $new_query = CGI::Simple->new($old_query);
304 To create an empty query, initialize it from an empty string or hash:
306 $empty_query = CGI::Simple->new("");
308 -or-
310 $empty_query = CGI::Simple->new({});
312 keywords() Fetching a list of keywords from a query
314 @keywords = $q->keywords;
315 If the script was invoked as the result of an <ISINDEX> search, the
317 parsed keywords can be obtained as an array using the keywords()
318 method.
319 param() Fetching the names of all parameters passed to your script
321 @names = $q->param;
322 If the script was invoked with a parameter list (e.g.
324 "name1=value1&name2=value2&name3=value3"), the param() method will
325 return the parameter names as a list. If the script was invoked as an
326 <ISINDEX> script and contains a string without ampersands (e.g.
327 "value1+value2+value3") , there will be a single parameter named
328 "keywords" containing the "+"-delimited keywords.
329 NOTE: The array of parameter names returned will be in the same order
331 as they were submitted by the browser. Usually this order is the same
332 as the order in which the parameters are defined in the form (however,
333 this isn't part of the spec, and so isn't guaranteed).
334 param() Fetching the value or values of a simple named parameter
336 @values = $q->param('foo');
337 -or-
339 $value = $q->param('foo');
341 Pass the param() method a single argument to fetch the value of the
343 named parameter. If the parameter is multi-valued (e.g. from multiple
344 selections in a scrolling list), you can ask to receive an array.
345 Otherwise the method will return a single value.
346 If a value is not given in the query string, as in the queries
348 "name1=&name2=" or "name1&name2", it will be returned by default as an
349 empty string. If you set the global variable:
350 $CGI::Simple::NO_UNDEF_PARAMS = 1;
352 Then value-less parameters will be ignored, and will not exist in the
354 query object. If you try to access them via param you will get an undef
355 return value.
356 param() Setting the values of a named parameter
358 $q->param('foo','an','array','of','values');
359 This sets the value for the named parameter 'foo' to an array of
361 values. This is one way to change the value of a field.
362 param() also recognizes a named parameter style of calling described in
364 more detail later:
365 $q->param(-name=>'foo',-values=>['an','array','of','values']);
367 -or-
369 $q->param(-name=>'foo',-value=>'the value');
371 param() Retrieving non-application/x-www-form-urlencoded data
373 If POSTed or PUTed data is not of type
374 application/x-www-form-urlencoded or multipart/form-data, then the data
375 will not be processed, but instead be returned as-is in a parameter
376 named POSTDATA or PUTDATA. To retrieve it, use code like this:
377 my $data = $q->param( 'POSTDATA' );
379 -or-
381 my $data = $q->param( 'PUTDATA' );
383 (If you don't know what the preceding means, don't worry about it. It
385 only affects people trying to use CGI::Simple for REST webservices)
386 add_param() Setting the values of a named parameter
388 You nay also use the new method add_param to add parameters. This is an
389 alias to the _add_param() internal method that actually does all the
390 work. You can call it like this:
391 $q->add_param('foo', 'new');
393 $q->add_param('foo', [1,2,3,4,5]);
394 $q->add_param( 'foo', 'bar', 'overwrite' );
395 The first argument is the parameter, the second the value or an array
397 ref of values and the optional third argument sets overwrite mode. If
398 the third argument is absent of false the values will be appended. If
399 true the values will overwrite any existing ones
400 append() Appending values to a named parameter
402 $q->append(-name=>'foo',-values=>['yet','more','values']);
403 This adds a value or list of values to the named parameter. The values
405 are appended to the end of the parameter if it already exists.
406 Otherwise the parameter is created. Note that this method only
407 recognizes the named argument calling syntax.
408 import_names() Importing all parameters into a namespace.
410 This method was silly, non OO and has been deleted. You can get all the
411 params as a hash using Vars or via all the other accessors.
412 delete() Deleting a parameter completely
414 $q->delete('foo');
415 This completely clears a parameter. If you are using the function call
417 interface, use Delete() instead to avoid conflicts with Perl's built-in
418 delete operator.
419 If you are using the function call interface, use Delete() instead to
421 avoid conflicts with Perl's built-in delete operator.
422 delete_all() Deleting all parameters
424 $q->delete_all();
425 This clears the CGI::Simple object completely. For CGI.pm compatibility
427 Delete_all() is provided however there is no reason to use this in the
428 function call interface other than symmetry.
429 For CGI.pm compatibility Delete_all() is provided as an alias for
431 delete_all however there is no reason to use this, even in the function
432 call interface.
433 param_fetch() Direct access to the parameter list
435 This method is provided for CGI.pm compatibility only. It returns an
436 array ref to the values associated with a named param. It is
437 deprecated.
438 Vars() Fetching the entire parameter list as a hash
440 $params = $q->Vars; # as a tied hash ref
441 print $params->{'address'};
442 @foo = split "\0", $params->{'foo'};
443 %params = $q->Vars; # as a plain hash
445 print $params{'address'};
446 @foo = split "\0", $params{'foo'};
447 %params = $q->Vars(','); # specifying a different separator than "\0"
449 @foo = split ',', $params{'foo'};
450 Many people want to fetch the entire parameter list as a hash in which
452 the keys are the names of the CGI parameters, and the values are the
453 parameters' values. The Vars() method does this.
454 Called in a scalar context, it returns the parameter list as a tied
456 hash reference. Because this hash ref is tied changing a key/value
457 changes the underlying CGI::Simple object.
458 Called in a list context, it returns the parameter list as an ordinary
460 hash. Changing this hash will not change the underlying CGI::Simple
461 object
462 When using Vars(), the thing you must watch out for are multi-valued
464 CGI parameters. Because a hash cannot distinguish between scalar and
465 list context, multi-valued parameters will be returned as a packed
466 string, separated by the "\0" (null) character. You must split this
467 packed string in order to get at the individual values. This is the
468 convention introduced long ago by Steve Brenner in his cgi-lib.pl
469 module for Perl version 4.
470 You can change the character used to do the multiple value packing by
472 passing it to Vars() as an argument as shown.
473 url_param() Access the QUERY_STRING regardless of 'GET' or 'POST'
475 The url_param() method makes the QUERY_STRING data available regardless
476 of whether the REQUEST_METHOD was 'GET' or 'POST'. You can do anything
477 with url_param that you can do with param(), however the data set is
478 completely independent.
479 Technically what happens if you use this method is that the
481 QUERY_STRING data is parsed into a new CGI::Simple object which is
482 stored within the current object. url_param then just calls param() on
483 this new object.
484 parse_query_string() Add QUERY_STRING data to 'POST' requests
486 When the REQUEST_METHOD is 'POST' the default behavior is to ignore
487 name/value pairs or keywords in the $ENV{'QUERY_STRING'}. You can
488 override this by calling parse_query_string() which will add the
489 QUERY_STRING data to the data already in our CGI::Simple object if the
490 REQUEST_METHOD was 'POST'
491 $q = CGI::Simple->new;
493 $q->parse_query_string; # add $ENV{'QUERY_STRING'} data to our $q object
494 If the REQUEST_METHOD was 'GET' then the QUERY_STRING will already be
496 stored in our object so parse_query_string will be ignored.
497 This is a new method in CGI::Simple that is not available in CGI.pm
499 save() Saving the state of an object to file
501 $q->save(\*FILEHANDLE)
502 This will write the current state of the form to the provided
504 filehandle. You can read it back in by providing a filehandle to the
505 new() method.
506 The format of the saved file is:
508 NAME1=VALUE1
510 NAME1=VALUE1'
511 NAME2=VALUE2
512 NAME3=VALUE3
513 =
514 Both name and value are URL escaped. Multi-valued CGI parameters are
516 represented as repeated names. A session record is delimited by a
517 single = symbol. You can write out multiple records and read them back
518 in with several calls to new().
519 open my $fh, '<', "test.in" or die $!;
521 $q1 = CGI::Simple->new($fh); # get the first record
522 $q2 = CGI::Simple->new($fh); # get the next record
523 Note: If you wish to use this method from the function-oriented (non-
525 OO) interface, the exported name for this method is save_parameters().
526 Also if you want to initialize from a file handle, the way to do this
527 is with restore_parameters(). This will (re)initialize the default
528 CGI::Simple object from the indicated file handle.
529 restore_parameters($fh);
531
533 File uploads are easy with CGI::Simple. You use the upload() method.
534 Assuming you have the following in your HTML:
535 <FORM
537 METHOD="POST"
538 ACTION="http://somewhere.com/cgi-bin/script.cgi"
539 ENCTYPE="multipart/form-data">
540 <INPUT TYPE="file" NAME="upload_file1" SIZE="42">
541 <INPUT TYPE="file" NAME="upload_file2" SIZE="42">
542 </FORM>
543 Note that the ENCTYPE is "multipart/form-data". You must specify this
545 or the browser will default to "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
546 which will result in no files being uploaded although on the surface
547 things will appear OK.
548 When the user submits this form any supplied files will be spooled onto
550 disk and saved in temporary files. These files will be deleted when
551 your script.cgi exits so if you want to keep them you will need to
552 proceed as follows.
553 upload() The key file upload method
555 The upload() method is quite versatile. If you call upload() without
556 any arguments it will return a list of uploaded files in list context
557 and the number of uploaded files in scalar context.
558 $number_of_files = $q->upload;
560 @list_of_files = $q->upload;
561 Having established that you have uploaded files available you can get
563 the browser supplied filename using param() like this:
564 $filename1 = $q->param('upload_file1');
566 You can then get a filehandle to read from by calling upload() and
568 supplying this filename as an argument. Warning: do not modify the
569 value you get from param() in any way - you don't need to untaint it.
570 $fh = $q->upload( $filename1 );
572 Now to save the file you would just do something like:
574 $save_path = '/path/to/write/file.name';
576 open my $out, '>', $save_path or die "Oops $!\n";
577 binmode $out;
578 print $out $buffer while read( $fh, $buffer, 4096 );
579 close $out;
580 By utilizing a new feature of the upload method this process can be
582 simplified to:
583 $ok = $q->upload( $q->param('upload_file1'), '/path/to/write/file.name' );
585 if ($ok) {
586 print "Uploaded and wrote file OK!";
587 } else {
588 print $q->cgi_error();
589 }
590 As you can see upload will accept an optional second argument and will
592 write the file to this file path. It will return 1 for success and
593 undef if it fails. If it fails you can get the error from cgi_error
594 You can also use just the fieldname as an argument to upload ie:
596 $fh = $q->upload( 'upload_field_name' );
598 or
600 $ok = $q->upload( 'upload_field_name', '/path/to/write/file.name' );
602 BUT there is a catch. If you have multiple upload fields, all called
604 'upload_field_name' then you will only get the last uploaded file from
605 these fields.
606 upload_info() Get the details about uploaded files
608 The upload_info() method is a new method. Called without arguments it
609 returns the number of uploaded files in scalar context and the names of
610 those files in list context.
611 $number_of_upload_files = $q->upload_info();
613 @filenames_of_all_uploads = $q->upload_info();
614 You can get the MIME type of an uploaded file like this:
616 $mime = $q->upload_info( $filename1, 'mime' );
618 If you want to know how big a file is before you copy it you can get
620 that information from uploadInfo which will return the file size in
621 bytes.
622 $file_size = $q->upload_info( $filename1, 'size' );
624 The size attribute is optional as this is the default value returned.
626 Note: The old CGI.pm uploadInfo() method has been deleted.
628 $POST_MAX and $DISABLE_UPLOADS
630 CGI.pm has a default setting that allows infinite size file uploads by
631 default. In contrast file uploads are disabled by default in
632 CGI::Simple to discourage Denial of Service attacks. You must enable
633 them before you expect file uploads to work.
634 When file uploads are disabled the file name and file size details will
636 still be available from param() and upload_info respectively but the
637 upload filehandle returned by upload() will be undefined - not
638 surprising as the underlying temp file will not exist either.
639 You can enable uploads using the '-upload' pragma. You do this by
641 specifying this in you use statement:
642 use CGI::Simple qw(-upload);
644 Alternatively you can enable uploads via the $DISABLE_UPLOADS global
646 like this:
647 use CGI::Simple;
649 $CGI::Simple::DISABLE_UPLOADS = 0;
650 $q = CGI::Simple->new;
651 If you wish to set $DISABLE_UPLOADS you must do this *after* the use
653 statement and *before* the new constructor call as shown above.
654 The maximum acceptable data via post is capped at 102_400kB rather than
656 infinity which is the CGI.pm default. This should be ample for most
657 tasks but you can set this to whatever you want using the $POST_MAX
658 global.
659 use CGI::Simple;
661 $CGI::Simple::DISABLE_UPLOADS = 0; # enable uploads
662 $CGI::Simple::POST_MAX = 1_048_576; # allow 1MB uploads
663 $q = CGI::Simple->new;
664 If you set to -1 infinite size uploads will be permitted, which is the
666 CGI.pm default.
667 $CGI::Simple::POST_MAX = -1; # infinite size upload
669 Alternatively you can specify all the CGI.pm default values which allow
671 file uploads of infinite size in one easy step by specifying the
672 '-default' pragma in your use statement.
673 use CGI::Simple qw( -default ..... );
675 binmode() and Win32
677 If you are using CGI::Simple be sure to call binmode() on any handle
678 that you create to write the uploaded file to disk. Calling binmode()
679 will do no harm on other systems anyway.
680
682 escapeHTML() Escaping HTML special characters
683 In HTML the < > " and & chars have special meaning and need to be
684 escaped to < > " and & respectively.
685 $escaped = $q->escapeHTML( $string );
687 $escaped = $q->escapeHTML( $string, 'new_lines_too' );
689 If the optional second argument is supplied then newlines will be
691 escaped to.
692 unescapeHTML() Unescape HTML special characters
694 This performs the reverse of escapeHTML().
695 $unescaped = $q->unescapeHTML( $HTML_escaped_string );
697 url_decode() Decode a URL encoded string
699 This method will correctly decode a url encoded string.
700 $decoded = $q->url_decode( $encoded );
702 url_encode() URL encode a string
704 This method will correctly URL encode a string.
705 $encoded = $q->url_encode( $string );
707 parse_keywordlist() Parse a supplied keyword list
709 @keywords = $q->parse_keywordlist( $keyword_list );
710 This method returns a list of keywords, correctly URL escaped and split
712 out of the supplied string
713 put() Send output to browser
715 CGI.pm alias for print. $q->put('Hello World!') will print the usual
716 print() Send output to browser
718 CGI.pm alias for print. $q->print('Hello World!') will print the usual
719
721 CGI.pm has several methods that support cookies.
722 A cookie is a name=value pair much like the named parameters in a CGI
724 query string. CGI scripts create one or more cookies and send them to
725 the browser in the HTTP header. The browser maintains a list of
726 cookies that belong to a particular Web server, and returns them to the
727 CGI script during subsequent interactions.
728 In addition to the required name=value pair, each cookie has several
730 optional attributes:
731 1. an expiration time
733 This is a time/date string (in a special GMT format) that indicates
734 when a cookie expires. The cookie will be saved and returned to
735 your script until this expiration date is reached if the user exits
736 the browser and restarts it. If an expiration date isn't
737 specified, the cookie will remain active until the user quits the
738 browser.
739 2. a domain
741 This is a partial or complete domain name for which the cookie is
742 valid. The browser will return the cookie to any host that matches
743 the partial domain name. For example, if you specify a domain name
744 of ".capricorn.com", then the browser will return the cookie to Web
745 servers running on any of the machines "www.capricorn.com",
746 "www2.capricorn.com", "feckless.capricorn.com", etc. Domain names
747 must contain at least two periods to prevent attempts to match on
748 top level domains like ".edu". If no domain is specified, then the
749 browser will only return the cookie to servers on the host the
750 cookie originated from.
751 3. a path
753 If you provide a cookie path attribute, the browser will check it
754 against your script's URL before returning the cookie. For
755 example, if you specify the path "/cgi-bin", then the cookie will
756 be returned to each of the scripts "/cgi-bin/tally.pl",
757 "/cgi-bin/order.pl", and "/cgi-bin/customer_service/complain.pl",
758 but not to the script "/cgi-private/site_admin.pl". By default,
759 path is set to "/", which causes the cookie to be sent to any CGI
760 script on your site.
761 4. a "secure" flag
763 If the "secure" attribute is set, the cookie will only be sent to
764 your script if the CGI request is occurring on a secure channel,
765 such as SSL.
766 cookie() A simple access method to cookies
768 The interface to HTTP cookies is the cookie() method:
769 $cookie = $q->cookie( -name => 'sessionID',
771 -value => 'xyzzy',
772 -expires => '+1h',
773 -path => '/cgi-bin/database',
774 -domain => '.capricorn.org',
775 -secure => 1
776 );
777 print $q->header(-cookie=>$cookie);
778 cookie() creates a new cookie. Its parameters include:
780 -name
782 The name of the cookie (required). This can be any string at all.
783 Although browsers limit their cookie names to non-whitespace
784 alphanumeric characters, CGI.pm removes this restriction by
785 escaping and unescaping cookies behind the scenes.
786 -value
788 The value of the cookie. This can be any scalar value, array
789 reference, or even associative array reference. For example, you
790 can store an entire associative array into a cookie this way:
791 $cookie=$q->cookie( -name => 'family information',
793 -value => \%childrens_ages );
794 -path
796 The optional partial path for which this cookie will be valid, as
797 described above.
798 -domain
800 The optional partial domain for which this cookie will be valid, as
801 described above.
802 -expires
804 The optional expiration date for this cookie. The format is as
805 described in the section on the header() method:
806 "+1h" one hour from now
808 -secure
810 If set to true, this cookie will only be used within a secure SSL
811 session.
812 The cookie created by cookie() must be incorporated into the HTTP
814 header within the string returned by the header() method:
815 print $q->header(-cookie=>$my_cookie);
817 To create multiple cookies, give header() an array reference:
819 $cookie1 = $q->cookie( -name => 'riddle_name',
821 -value => "The Sphynx's Question"
822 );
823 $cookie2 = $q->cookie( -name => 'answers',
824 -value => \%answers
825 );
826 print $q->header( -cookie => [ $cookie1, $cookie2 ] );
827 To retrieve a cookie, request it by name by calling cookie() method
829 without the -value parameter:
830 use CGI::Simple;
832 $q = CGI::Simple->new;
833 $riddle = $q->cookie('riddle_name');
834 %answers = $q->cookie('answers');
835 Cookies created with a single scalar value, such as the "riddle_name"
837 cookie, will be returned in that form. Cookies with array and hash
838 values can also be retrieved.
839 The cookie and CGI::Simple namespaces are separate. If you have a
841 parameter named 'answers' and a cookie named 'answers', the values
842 retrieved by param() and cookie() are independent of each other.
843 However, it's simple to turn a CGI parameter into a cookie, and vice-
844 versa:
845 # turn a CGI parameter into a cookie
847 $c = $q->cookie( -name=>'answers', -value=>[$q->param('answers')] );
848 # vice-versa
849 $q->param( -name=>'answers', -value=>[$q->cookie('answers')] );
850 raw_cookie()
852 Returns the HTTP_COOKIE variable. Cookies have a special format, and
853 this method call just returns the raw form (?cookie dough). See
854 cookie() for ways of setting and retrieving cooked cookies.
855 Called with no parameters, raw_cookie() returns the packed cookie
857 structure. You can separate it into individual cookies by splitting on
858 the character sequence "; ". Called with the name of a cookie,
859 retrieves the unescaped form of the cookie. You can use the regular
860 cookie() method to get the names, or use the raw_fetch() method from
861 the CGI::Simmple::Cookie module.
862
864 Normally the first thing you will do in any CGI script is print out an
865 HTTP header. This tells the browser what type of document to expect,
866 and gives other optional information, such as the language, expiration
867 date, and whether to cache the document. The header can also be
868 manipulated for special purposes, such as server push and pay per view
869 pages.
870 header() Create simple or complex HTTP headers
872 print $q->header;
873 -or-
875 print $q->header('image/gif');
877 -or-
879 print $q->header('text/html','204 No response');
881 -or-
883 print $q->header( -type => 'image/gif',
885 -nph => 1,
886 -status => '402 Payment required',
887 -expires => '+3d',
888 -cookie => $cookie,
889 -charset => 'utf-7',
890 -attachment => 'foo.gif',
891 -Cost => '$2.00'
892 );
893 header() returns the Content-type: header. You can provide your own
895 MIME type if you choose, otherwise it defaults to text/html. An
896 optional second parameter specifies the status code and a human-
897 readable message. For example, you can specify 204, "No response" to
898 create a script that tells the browser to do nothing at all.
899 The last example shows the named argument style for passing arguments
901 to the CGI methods using named parameters. Recognized parameters are
902 -type, -status, -cookie, -target, -expires, -nph, -charset and
903 -attachment. Any other named parameters will be stripped of their
904 initial hyphens and turned into header fields, allowing you to specify
905 any HTTP header you desire.
906 For example, you can produce non-standard HTTP header fields by
908 providing them as named arguments:
909 print $q->header( -type => 'text/html',
911 -nph => 1,
912 -cost => 'Three smackers',
913 -annoyance_level => 'high',
914 -complaints_to => 'bit bucket'
915 );
916 This will produce the following non-standard HTTP header:
918 HTTP/1.0 200 OK
920 Cost: Three smackers
921 Annoyance-level: high
922 Complaints-to: bit bucket
923 Content-type: text/html
924 Note that underscores are translated automatically into hyphens. This
926 feature allows you to keep up with the rapidly changing HTTP
927 "standards".
928 The -type is a key element that tell the browser how to display your
930 document. The default is 'text/html'. Common types are:
931 text/html
933 text/plain
934 image/gif
935 image/jpg
936 image/png
937 application/octet-stream
938 The -status code is the HTTP response code. The default is 200 OK.
940 Common status codes are:
941 200 OK
943 204 No Response
944 301 Moved Permanently
945 302 Found
946 303 See Other
947 307 Temporary Redirect
948 400 Bad Request
949 401 Unauthorized
950 403 Forbidden
951 404 Not Found
952 405 Not Allowed
953 408 Request Timed Out
954 500 Internal Server Error
955 503 Service Unavailable
956 504 Gateway Timed Out
957 The -expires parameter lets you indicate to a browser and proxy server
959 how long to cache pages for. When you specify an absolute or relative
960 expiration interval with this parameter, some browsers and proxy
961 servers will cache the script's output until the indicated expiration
962 date. The following forms are all valid for the -expires field:
963 +30s 30 seconds from now
965 +10m ten minutes from now
966 +1h one hour from now
967 -1d yesterday (i.e. "ASAP!")
968 now immediately
969 +3M in three months
970 +10y in ten years time
971 Thursday, 25-Apr-1999 00:40:33 GMT at the indicated time & date
972 The -cookie parameter generates a header that tells the browser to
974 provide a "magic cookie" during all subsequent transactions with your
975 script. Netscape cookies have a special format that includes
976 interesting attributes such as expiration time. Use the cookie()
977 method to create and retrieve session cookies.
978 The -target is for frames use
980 The -nph parameter, if set to a true value, will issue the correct
982 headers to work with a NPH (no-parse-header) script. This is important
983 to use with certain servers that expect all their scripts to be NPH.
984 The -charset parameter can be used to control the character set sent to
986 the browser. If not provided, defaults to ISO-8859-1. As a side
987 effect, this sets the charset() method as well.
988 The -attachment parameter can be used to turn the page into an
990 attachment. Instead of displaying the page, some browsers will prompt
991 the user to save it to disk. The value of the argument is the
992 suggested name for the saved file. In order for this to work, you may
993 have to set the -type to 'application/octet-stream'.
994 no_cache() Preventing browser caching of scripts
996 Most browsers will not cache the output from CGI scripts. Every time
997 the browser reloads the page, the script is invoked anew. However some
998 browsers do cache pages. You can discourage this behavior using the
999 no_cache() function.
1000 $q->no_cache(1); # turn caching off by sending appropriate headers
1002 $q->no_cache(1); # do not send cache related headers.
1003 $q->no_cache(1);
1005 print header (-type=>'image/gif', -nph=>1);
1006 This will produce a header like the following:
1008 HTTP/1.0 200 OK
1010 Server: Apache - accept no substitutes
1011 Expires: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 03:37:50 GMT
1012 Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 03:37:50 GMT
1013 Pragma: no-cache
1014 Content-Type: image/gif
1015 Both the Pragma: no-cache header field and an Expires header that
1017 corresponds to the current time (ie now) will be sent.
1018 cache() Preventing browser caching of scripts
1020 The somewhat ill named cache() method is a legacy from CGI.pm. It
1021 operates the same as the new no_cache() method. The difference is/was
1022 that when set it results only in the Pragma: no-cache line being
1023 printed. Expires time data is not sent.
1024 redirect() Generating a redirection header
1026 print $q->redirect('http://somewhere.else/in/movie/land');
1027 Sometimes you don't want to produce a document yourself, but simply
1029 redirect the browser elsewhere, perhaps choosing a URL based on the
1030 time of day or the identity of the user.
1031 The redirect() function redirects the browser to a different URL. If
1033 you use redirection like this, you should not print out a header as
1034 well.
1035 One hint I can offer is that relative links may not work correctly when
1037 you generate a redirection to another document on your site. This is
1038 due to a well-intentioned optimization that some servers use. The
1039 solution to this is to use the full URL (including the http: part) of
1040 the document you are redirecting to.
1041 You can also use named arguments:
1043 print $q->redirect( -uri=>'http://somewhere.else/in/movie/land',
1045 -nph=>1
1046 );
1047 The -nph parameter, if set to a true value, will issue the correct
1049 headers to work with a NPH (no-parse-header) script. This is important
1050 to use with certain servers, such as Microsoft ones, which expect all
1051 their scripts to be NPH.
1052
1054 There are a number of pragmas that you can specify in your use
1055 CGI::Simple statement. Pragmas, which are always preceded by a hyphen,
1056 change the way that CGI::Simple functions in various ways. You can
1057 generally achieve exactly the same results by setting the underlying
1058 $GLOBAL_VARIABLES.
1059 For example the '-upload' pargma will enable file uploads:
1061 use CGI::Simple qw(-upload);
1063 In CGI::Simple::Standard Pragmas, function sets , and individual
1065 functions can all be imported in the same use() line. For example, the
1066 following use statement imports the standard set of functions and
1067 enables debugging mode (pragma -debug):
1068 use CGI::Simple::Standard qw(:standard -debug);
1070 The current list of pragmas is as follows:
1072 -no_undef_params
1074 If a value is not given in the query string, as in the queries
1075 "name1=&name2=" or "name1&name2", by default it will be returned as
1076 an empty string.
1077 If you specify the '-no_undef_params' pragma then CGI::Simple
1079 ignores parameters with no values and they will not appear in the
1080 query object.
1081 -nph
1083 This makes CGI.pm produce a header appropriate for an NPH (no
1084 parsed header) script. You may need to do other things as well to
1085 tell the server that the script is NPH. See the discussion of NPH
1086 scripts below.
1087 -newstyle_urls
1089 Separate the name=value pairs in CGI parameter query strings with
1090 semicolons rather than ampersands. For example:
1091 ?name=fred;age=24;favorite_color=3
1093 Semicolon-delimited query strings are always accepted, but will not
1095 be emitted by self_url() and query_string() unless the
1096 -newstyle_urls pragma is specified.
1097 -oldstyle_urls
1099 Separate the name=value pairs in CGI parameter query strings with
1100 ampersands rather than semicolons. This is the default.
1101 ?name=fred&age=24&favorite_color=3
1103 -autoload
1105 This is only available for CGI::Simple::Standard and uses AUTOLOAD
1106 to load functions on demand. See the CGI::Simple::Standard docs for
1107 details.
1108 -no_debug
1110 This turns off the command-line processing features. This is the
1111 default.
1112 -debug1 and debug2
1114 This turns on debugging. At debug level 1 CGI::Simple will read
1115 arguments from the command-line. At debug level 2 CGI.pm will
1116 produce the prompt "(offline mode: enter name=value pairs on
1117 standard input)" and wait for input on STDIN. If no number is
1118 specified then a debug level of 2 is used.
1119 See the section on debugging for more details.
1121 -default
1123 This sets the default global values for CGI.pm which will enable
1124 infinite size file uploads, and specify the '-newstyle_urls' and
1125 '-debug1' pragmas
1126 -no_upload
1128 Disable uploads - the default setting
1129 - upload
1131 Enable uploads - the CGI.pm default
1132 -unique_header
1134 Only allows headers to be generated once per script invocation
1135 -carp
1137 Carp when cgi_error() called, default is to do nothing
1138 -croak
1140 Croak when cgi_error() called, default is to do nothing
1141
1143 NPH, or "no-parsed-header", scripts bypass the server completely by
1144 sending the complete HTTP header directly to the browser. This has
1145 slight performance benefits, but is of most use for taking advantage of
1146 HTTP extensions that are not directly supported by your server, such as
1147 server push and PICS headers.
1148 Servers use a variety of conventions for designating CGI scripts as
1150 NPH. Many Unix servers look at the beginning of the script's name for
1151 the prefix "nph-". The Macintosh WebSTAR server and Microsoft's
1152 Internet Information Server, in contrast, try to decide whether a
1153 program is an NPH script by examining the first line of script output.
1154 CGI.pm supports NPH scripts with a special NPH mode. When in this
1156 mode, CGI.pm will output the necessary extra header information when
1157 the header() and redirect() methods are called. You can set NPH mode in
1158 any of the following ways:
1159 In the use statement
1161 Simply add the "-nph" pragma to the use:
1162 use CGI::Simple qw(-nph)
1164 By calling the nph() method:
1166 Call nph() with a non-zero parameter at any point after using
1167 CGI.pm in your program.
1168 $q->nph(1)
1170 By using -nph parameters
1172 in the header() and redirect() statements:
1173 print $q->header(-nph=>1);
1175 The Microsoft Internet Information Server requires NPH mode.
1177 CGI::Simple will automatically detect when the script is running under
1178 IIS and put itself into this mode. You do not need to do this
1179 manually, although it won't hurt anything if you do. However, note
1180 that if you have applied Service Pack 6, much of the functionality of
1181 NPH scripts, including the ability to redirect while setting a cookie,
1182 b<do not work at all> on IIS without a special patch from Microsoft.
1183 See http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q280/3/41.ASP:
1184 Non-Parsed Headers Stripped From CGI Applications That Have nph- Prefix
1185 in Name.
1186
1188 CGI.pm provides four simple functions for producing multipart documents
1189 of the type needed to implement server push. These functions were
1190 graciously provided by Ed Jordan <ed@fidalgo.net> with additions from
1191 Andrew Benham <adsb@bigfoot.com>
1192 You are also advised to put the script into NPH mode and to set $| to 1
1194 to avoid buffering problems.
1195 Browser support for server push is variable.
1197 Here is a simple script that demonstrates server push:
1199 #!/usr/local/bin/perl
1201 use CGI::Simple::Standard qw/:push -nph/;
1202 $| = 1;
1203 print multipart_init(-boundary=>'----here we go!');
1204 foreach (0 .. 4) {
1205 print multipart_start(-type=>'text/plain'),
1206 "The current time is ",scalar(localtime),"\n";
1207 if ($_ < 4) {
1208 print multipart_end;
1209 }
1210 else {
1211 print multipart_final;
1212 }
1213 sleep 1;
1214 }
1215 This script initializes server push by calling multipart_init(). It
1217 then enters a loop in which it begins a new multipart section by
1218 calling multipart_start(), prints the current local time, and ends a
1219 multipart section with multipart_end(). It then sleeps a second, and
1220 begins again. On the final iteration, it ends the multipart section
1221 with multipart_final() rather than with multipart_end().
1222 multipart_init() Initialize the multipart system
1224 multipart_init(-boundary=>$boundary);
1225 Initialize the multipart system. The -boundary argument specifies what
1227 MIME boundary string to use to separate parts of the document. If not
1228 provided, CGI.pm chooses a reasonable boundary for you.
1229 multipart_start() Start a new part of the multipart document
1231 multipart_start(-type=>$type)
1232 Start a new part of the multipart document using the specified MIME
1234 type. If not specified, text/html is assumed.
1235 multipart_end() End a multipart part
1237 multipart_end()
1238 End a part. You must remember to call multipart_end() once for each
1240 multipart_start(), except at the end of the last part of the multipart
1241 document when multipart_final() should be called instead of
1242 multipart_end().
1243 multipart_final()
1245 multipart_final()
1246 End all parts. You should call multipart_final() rather than
1248 multipart_end() at the end of the last part of the multipart document.
1249 CGI::Push
1251 Users interested in server push applications should also have a look at
1252 the CGI::Push module.
1253
1255 If you are running the script from the command line or in the perl
1256 debugger, you can pass the script a list of keywords or parameter=value
1257 pairs on the command line or from standard input (you don't have to
1258 worry about tricking your script into reading from environment
1259 variables). Before you do this you will need to change the debug level
1260 from the default level of 0 (no debug) to either 1 if you want to debug
1261 from @ARGV (the command line) of 2 if you want to debug from STDIN. You
1262 can do this using the debug pragma like this:
1263 use CGI::Simple qw(-debug2); # set debug to level 2 => from STDIN
1265 or this:
1267 $CGI::Simple::DEBUG = 1; # set debug to level 1 => from @ARGV
1269 At debug level 1 you can pass keywords and name=value pairs like this:
1271 your_script.pl keyword1 keyword2 keyword3
1273 or this:
1275 your_script.pl keyword1+keyword2+keyword3
1277 or this:
1279 your_script.pl name1=value1 name2=value2
1281 or this:
1283 your_script.pl name1=value1&name2=value2
1285 At debug level 2 you can feed newline-delimited name=value pairs to the
1287 script on standard input. You will be presented with the following
1288 prompt:
1289 (offline mode: enter name=value pairs on standard input)
1291 You end the input with your system dependent end of file character.
1293 You should try ^Z ^X ^D and ^C if all else fails. The ^ means hold down
1294 the [Ctrl] button while you press the other key.
1295 When debugging, you can use quotes and backslashes to escape characters
1297 in the familiar shell manner, letting you place spaces and other funny
1298 characters in your parameter=value pairs:
1299 your_script.pl "name1='I am a long value'" "name2=two\ words"
1301 Dump() Dumping the current object details
1303 The Dump() method produces a string consisting of all the query's
1304 object attributes formatted nicely as a nested list. This dump
1305 includes the name/value pairs and a number of other details. This is
1306 useful for debugging purposes:
1307 print $q->Dump
1309 The actual result of this is HTML escaped formatted text wrapped in
1311 <pre> tags so if you send it straight to the browser it produces
1312 something that looks like:
1313 $VAR1 = bless( {
1315 '.parameters' => [
1316 'name',
1317 'color'
1318 ],
1319 '.globals' => {
1320 'FATAL' => -1,
1321 'DEBUG' => 0,
1322 'NO_NULL' => 1,
1323 'POST_MAX' => 102400,
1324 'USE_CGI_PM_DEFAULTS' => 0,
1325 'HEADERS_ONCE' => 0,
1326 'NPH' => 0,
1327 'DISABLE_UPLOADS' => 1,
1328 'NO_UNDEF_PARAMS' => 0,
1329 'USE_PARAM_SEMICOLONS' => 0
1330 },
1331 '.fieldnames' => {
1332 'color' => '1',
1333 'name' => '1'
1334 },
1335 '.mod_perl' => '',
1336 'color' => [
1337 'red',
1338 'green',
1339 'blue'
1340 ],
1341 'name' => [
1342 'JaPh,'
1343 ]
1344 }, 'CGI::Simple' );
1345 You may recognize this as valid Perl syntax (which it is) and/or the
1347 output from Data::Dumper (also true). This is the actual guts of how
1348 the information is stored in the query object. All the internal params
1349 start with a . char
1350 Alternatively you can dump your object and the current environment
1352 using:
1353 print $q->Dump(\%ENV);
1355 PrintEnv() Dumping the environment
1357 You can get a similar browser friendly dump of the current %ENV hash
1358 using:
1359 print $q->PrintEnv;
1361 This will produce something like (in the browser):
1363 $VAR1 = {
1365 'QUERY_STRING' => 'name=JaPh%2C&color=red&color=green&color=blue',
1366 'CONTENT_TYPE' => 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
1367 'REGRESSION_TEST' => 'simple.t.pl',
1368 'VIM' => 'C:\\WINDOWS\\Desktop\\vim',
1369 'HTTP_REFERER' => 'xxx.sex.com',
1370 'HTTP_USER_AGENT' => 'LWP',
1371 'HTTP_ACCEPT' => 'text/html;q=1, image/gif;q=0.42, */*;q=0.001',
1372 'REMOTE_HOST' => 'localhost',
1373 'HTTP_HOST' => 'the.restaurant.at.the.end.of.the.universe',
1374 'GATEWAY_INTERFACE' => 'bleeding edge',
1375 'REMOTE_IDENT' => 'None of your damn business',
1376 'SCRIPT_NAME' => '/cgi-bin/foo.cgi',
1377 'SERVER_NAME' => 'nowhere.com',
1378 'HTTP_COOKIE' => '',
1379 'CONTENT_LENGTH' => '42',
1380 'HTTPS_A' => 'A',
1381 'HTTP_FROM' => 'spammer@nowhere.com',
1382 'HTTPS_B' => 'B',
1383 'SERVER_PROTOCOL' => 'HTTP/1.0',
1384 'PATH_TRANSLATED' => '/usr/local/somewhere/else',
1385 'SERVER_SOFTWARE' => 'Apache - accept no substitutes',
1386 'PATH_INFO' => '/somewhere/else',
1387 'REMOTE_USER' => 'Just another Perl hacker,',
1388 'REMOTE_ADDR' => '127.0.0.1',
1389 'HTTPS' => 'ON',
1390 'DOCUMENT_ROOT' => '/vs/www/foo',
1391 'REQUEST_METHOD' => 'GET',
1392 'REDIRECT_QUERY_STRING' => '',
1393 'AUTH_TYPE' => 'PGP MD5 DES rot13',
1394 'COOKIE' => 'foo=a%20phrase; bar=yes%2C%20a%20phrase&;I%20say;',
1395 'SERVER_PORT' => '8080'
1396 };
1397 cgi_error() Retrieving CGI::Simple error messages
1399 Errors can occur while processing user input, particularly when
1400 processing uploaded files. When these errors occur, CGI::Simple will
1401 stop processing and return an empty parameter list. You can test for
1402 the existence and nature of errors using the cgi_error() function. The
1403 error messages are formatted as HTTP status codes. You can either
1404 incorporate the error text into an HTML page, or use it as the value of
1405 the HTTP status:
1406 my $error = $q->cgi_error;
1408 if ($error) {
1409 print $q->header(-status=>$error);
1410 print "<H2>$error</H2>;
1411 exit;
1412 }
1413
1415 version() Get the CGI::Simple version info
1416 $version = $q->version();
1417 The version() method returns the value of $VERSION
1419 nph() Enable/disable NPH (Non Parsed Header) mode
1421 $q->nph(1); # enable NPH mode
1422 $q->nph(0); # disable NPH mode
1423 The nph() method enables and disables NPH headers. See the NPH section.
1425 all_parameters() Get the names/values of all parameters
1427 @all_parameters = $q->all_parameters();
1428 The all_parameters() method is an alias for param()
1430 charset() Get/set the current character set.
1432 $charset = $q->charset(); # get current charset
1433 $q->charset('utf-42'); # set the charset
1434 The charset() method gets the current charset value if no argument is
1436 supplied or sets it if an argument is supplied.
1437 crlf() Get the system specific line ending sequence
1439 $crlf = $q->crlf();
1440 The crlf() method returns the system specific line ending sequence.
1442 globals() Get/set the value of the remaining global variables
1444 $globals = $q->globals('FATAL'); # get the current value of $FATAL
1445 $globals = $q->globals('FATAL', 1 ); # set croak mode on cgi_error()
1446 The globals() method gets/sets the values of the global variables after
1448 the script has been invoked. For globals like $POST_MAX and
1449 $DISABLE_UPLOADS this makes no difference as they must be set prior to
1450 calling the new constructor but there might be reason the change the
1451 value of others.
1452 auth_type() Get the current authorization/verification method
1454 $auth_type = $q->auth_type();
1455 The auth_type() method returns the value of $ENV{'AUTH_TYPE'} which
1457 should contain the authorization/verification method in use for this
1458 script, if any.
1459 content_length() Get the content length submitted in a POST
1461 $content_length = $q->content_length();
1462 The content_length() method returns the value of $ENV{'AUTH_TYPE'}
1464 content_type() Get the content_type of data submitted in a POST
1466 $content_type = $q->content_type();
1467 The content_type() method returns the content_type of data submitted in
1469 a POST, generally 'multipart/form-data' or
1470 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded' as supplied in $ENV{'CONTENT_TYPE'}
1471 document_root() Get the document root
1473 $document_root = $q->document_root();
1474 The document_root() method returns the value of $ENV{'DOCUMENT_ROOT'}
1476 gateway_interface() Get the gateway interface
1478 $gateway_interface = $q->gateway_interface();
1479 The gateway_interface() method returns the value of
1481 $ENV{'GATEWAY_INTERFACE'}
1482 path_translated() Get the value of path translated
1484 $path_translated = $q->path_translated();
1485 The path_translated() method returns the value of
1487 $ENV{'PATH_TRANSLATED'}
1488 referer() Spy on your users
1490 $referer = $q->referer();
1491 The referer() method returns the value of $ENV{'REFERER'} This will
1493 return the URL of the page the browser was viewing prior to fetching
1494 your script. Not available for all browsers.
1495 remote_addr() Get the remote address
1497 $remote_addr = $q->remote_addr();
1498 The remote_addr() method returns the value of $ENV{'REMOTE_ADDR'} or
1500 127.0.0.1 (localhost) if this is not defined.
1501 remote_host() Get a value for remote host
1503 $remote_host = $q->remote_host();
1504 The remote_host() method returns the value of $ENV{'REMOTE_HOST'} if it
1506 is defined. If this is not defined it returns $ENV{'REMOTE_ADDR'} If
1507 this is not defined it returns 'localhost'
1508 remote_ident() Get the remote identity
1510 $remote_ident = $q->remote_ident();
1511 The remote_ident() method returns the value of $ENV{'REMOTE_IDENT'}
1513 remote_user() Get the remote user
1515 $remote_user = $q->remote_user();
1516 The remote_user() method returns the authorization/verification name
1518 used for user verification, if this script is protected. The value
1519 comes from $ENV{'REMOTE_USER'}
1520 request_method() Get the request method
1522 $request_method = $q->request_method();
1523 The request_method() method returns the method used to access your
1525 script, usually one of 'POST', 'GET' or 'HEAD' as supplied by
1526 $ENV{'REQUEST_METHOD'}
1527 script_name() Get the script name
1529 $script_name = $q->script_name();
1530 The script_name() method returns the value of $ENV{'SCRIPT_NAME'} if it
1532 is defined. Otherwise it returns Perl's script name from $0. Failing
1533 this it returns a null string ''
1534 server_name() Get the server name
1536 $server_name = $q->server_name();
1537 The server_name() method returns the value of $ENV{'SERVER_NAME'} if
1539 defined or 'localhost' otherwise
1540 server_port() Get the port the server is listening on
1542 $server_port = $q->server_port();
1543 The server_port() method returns the value $ENV{'SERVER_PORT'} if
1545 defined or 80 if not.
1546 server_protocol() Get the current server protocol
1548 $server_protocol = $q->server_protocol();
1549 The server_protocol() method returns the value of
1551 $ENV{'SERVER_PROTOCOL'} if defined or 'HTTP/1.0' otherwise
1552 server_software() Get the server software
1554 $server_software = $q->server_software();
1555 The server_software() method returns the value $ENV{'SERVER_SOFTWARE'}
1557 or 'cmdline' If the server software is IIS it formats your hard drive,
1558 installs Linux, FTPs to www.apache.org, installs Apache, and then
1559 restores your system from tape. Well maybe not, but it's a nice
1560 thought.
1561 user_name() Get a value for the user name.
1563 $user_name = $q->user_name();
1564 Attempt to obtain the remote user's name, using a variety of different
1566 techniques. This only works with older browsers such as Mosaic. Newer
1567 browsers do not report the user name for privacy reasons!
1568 Technically the user_name() method returns the value of
1570 $ENV{'HTTP_FROM'} or failing that $ENV{'REMOTE_IDENT'} or as a last
1571 choice $ENV{'REMOTE_USER'}
1572 user_agent() Get the users browser type
1574 $ua = $q->user_agent(); # return the user agent
1575 $ok = $q->user_agent('mozilla'); # return true if user agent 'mozilla'
1576 The user_agent() method returns the value of $ENV{'HTTP_USER_AGENT'}
1578 when called without an argument or true or false if the
1579 $ENV{'HTTP_USER_AGENT'} matches the passed argument. The matching is
1580 case insensitive and partial.
1581 virtual_host() Get the virtual host
1583 $virtual_host = $q->virtual_host();
1584 The virtual_host() method returns the value of $ENV{'HTTP_HOST'} if
1586 defined or $ENV{'SERVER_NAME'} as a default. Port numbers are removed.
1587 path_info() Get any extra path info set to the script
1589 $path_info = $q->path_info();
1590 The path_info() method returns additional path information from the
1592 script URL. E.G. fetching /cgi-bin/your_script/additional/stuff will
1593 result in $q->path_info() returning "/additional/stuff".
1594 NOTE: The Microsoft Internet Information Server is broken with respect
1596 to additional path information. If you use the Perl DLL library, the
1597 IIS server will attempt to execute the additional path information as a
1598 Perl script. If you use the ordinary file associations mapping, the
1599 path information will be present in the environment, but incorrect.
1600 The best thing to do is to avoid using additional path information in
1601 CGI scripts destined for use with IIS.
1602 Accept() Get the browser MIME types
1604 $Accept = $q->Accept();
1605 The Accept() method returns a list of MIME types that the remote
1607 browser accepts. If you give this method a single argument
1608 corresponding to a MIME type, as in $q->Accept('text/html'), it will
1609 return a floating point value corresponding to the browser's preference
1610 for this type from 0.0 (don't want) to 1.0. Glob types (e.g. text/*)
1611 in the browser's accept list are handled correctly.
1612 accept() Alias for Accept()
1614 $accept = $q->accept();
1615 The accept() Method is an alias for Accept()
1617 http() Get a range of HTTP related information
1619 $http = $q->http();
1620 Called with no arguments the http() method returns the list of HTTP or
1622 HTTPS environment variables, including such things as HTTP_USER_AGENT,
1623 HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE, and HTTP_ACCEPT_CHARSET, corresponding to the
1624 like-named HTTP header fields in the request. Called with the name of
1625 an HTTP header field, returns its value. Capitalization and the use of
1626 hyphens versus underscores are not significant.
1627 For example, all three of these examples are equivalent:
1629 $requested_language = $q->http('Accept-language');
1631 $requested_language = $q->http('Accept_language');
1632 $requested_language = $q->http('HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE');
1633 https() Get a range of HTTPS related information
1635 $https = $q->https();
1636 The https() method is similar to the http() method except that when
1638 called without an argument it returns the value of $ENV{'HTTPS'} which
1639 will be true if a HTTPS connection is in use and false otherwise.
1640 protocol() Get the current protocol
1642 $protocol = $q->protocol();
1643 The protocol() method returns 'https' if a HTTPS connection is in use
1645 or the server_protocol() minus version numbers ('http') otherwise.
1646 url() Return the script's URL in several formats
1648 $full_url = $q->url();
1649 $full_url = $q->url(-full=>1);
1650 $relative_url = $q->url(-relative=>1);
1651 $absolute_url = $q->url(-absolute=>1);
1652 $url_with_path = $q->url(-path_info=>1);
1653 $url_with_path_and_query = $q->url(-path_info=>1,-query=>1);
1654 $netloc = $q->url(-base => 1);
1655 url() returns the script's URL in a variety of formats. Called without
1657 any arguments, it returns the full form of the URL, including host name
1658 and port number
1659 http://your.host.com/path/to/script.cgi
1661 You can modify this format with the following named arguments:
1663 -absolute
1665 If true, produce an absolute URL, e.g.
1666 /path/to/script.cgi
1668 -relative
1670 Produce a relative URL. This is useful if you want to reinvoke
1671 your script with different parameters. For example:
1672 script.cgi
1674 -full
1676 Produce the full URL, exactly as if called without any arguments.
1677 This overrides the -relative and -absolute arguments.
1678 -path (-path_info)
1680 Append the additional path information to the URL. This can be
1681 combined with -full, -absolute or -relative. -path_info is
1682 provided as a synonym.
1683 -query (-query_string)
1685 Append the query string to the URL. This can be combined with
1686 -full, -absolute or -relative. -query_string is provided as a
1687 synonym.
1688 -base
1690 Generate just the protocol and net location, as in
1691 http://www.foo.com:8000
1692 self_url() Get the scripts complete URL
1694 $self_url = $q->self_url();
1695 The self_url() method returns the value of:
1697 $self->url( '-path_info'=>1, '-query'=>1, '-full'=>1 );
1699 state() Alias for self_url()
1701 $state = $q->state();
1702 The state() method is an alias for self_url()
1704
1706 To make it easier to port existing programs that use cgi-lib.pl all the
1707 subs within cgi-lib.pl are available in CGI::Simple. Using the
1708 functional interface of CGI::Simple::Standard porting is as easy as:
1709 OLD VERSION
1711 require "cgi-lib.pl";
1712 &ReadParse;
1713 print "The value of the antique is $in{'antique'}.\n";
1714 NEW VERSION
1716 use CGI::Simple::Standard qw(:cgi-lib);
1717 &ReadParse;
1718 print "The value of the antique is $in{'antique'}.\n";
1719 CGI:Simple's ReadParse() routine creates a variable named %in, which
1721 can be accessed to obtain the query variables. Like ReadParse, you can
1722 also provide your own variable via a glob. Infrequently used features
1723 of ReadParse(), such as the creation of @in and $in variables, are not
1724 supported.
1725 You can also use the OO interface of CGI::Simple and call ReadParse()
1727 and other cgi-lib.pl functions like this:
1728 &CGI::Simple::ReadParse; # get hash values in %in
1730 my $q = CGI::Simple->new;
1732 $q->ReadParse(); # same thing
1733 CGI::Simple::ReadParse(*field); # get hash values in %field function style
1735 my $q = CGI::Simple->new;
1737 $q->ReadParse(*field); # same thing
1738 Once you use ReadParse() under the functional interface , you can
1740 retrieve the query object itself this way if needed:
1741 $q = $in{'CGI'};
1743 Either way it allows you to start using the more interesting features
1745 of CGI.pm without rewriting your old scripts from scratch.
1746 Unlike CGI.pm all the cgi-lib.pl functions from Version 2.18 are
1748 supported:
1749 ReadParse()
1751 SplitParam()
1752 MethGet()
1753 MethPost()
1754 MyBaseUrl()
1755 MyURL()
1756 MyFullUrl()
1757 PrintHeader()
1758 HtmlTop()
1759 HtmlBot()
1760 PrintVariables()
1761 PrintEnv()
1762 CgiDie()
1763 CgiError()
1764
1766 I has long been suggested that the CGI and HTML parts of CGI.pm should
1767 be split into separate modules (even the author suggests this!),
1768 CGI::Simple represents the realization of this and contains the
1769 complete CGI side of CGI.pm. Code-wise it weighs in at a little under
1770 30% of the size of CGI.pm at a little under 1000 lines.
1771 A great deal of care has been taken to ensure that the interface
1773 remains unchanged although a few tweaks have been made. The test suite
1774 is extensive and includes all the CGI.pm test scripts as well as a
1775 series of new test scripts. You may like to have a look at /t/concur.t
1776 which makes 160 tests of CGI::Simple and CGI in parallel and compares
1777 the results to ensure they are identical. This is the case as of CGI.pm
1778 2.78.
1779 You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs. A large number of
1781 methods and global variables have been deleted as detailed below. Some
1782 pragmas are also gone. In the tarball there is a script /misc/check.pl
1783 that will check if a script seems to be using any of these now non
1784 existent methods, globals or pragmas. You call it like this:
1785 perl check.pl <files>
1787 If it finds any likely candidates it will print a line with the line
1789 number, problem method/global and the complete line. For example here
1790 is some output from running the script on CGI.pm:
1791 ...
1793 3162: Problem:'$CGI::OS' local($CRLF) = "\015\012" if $CGI::OS eq 'VMS';
1794 3165: Problem:'fillBuffer' $self->fillBuffer($FILLUNIT);
1795 ....
1796
1798 CGI::Simple is strict and warnings compliant.
1799 There are 4 modules in this distribution:
1801 CGI/Simple.pm supplies all the core code.
1803 CGI/Simple/Cookie.pm supplies the cookie handling functions.
1804 CGI/Simple/Util.pm supplies a variety of utility functions
1805 CGI/Simple/Standard.pm supplies a functional interface for Simple.pm
1806 Simple.pm is the core module that provide all the essential
1808 functionality. Cookie.pm is a shortened rehash of the CGI.pm module of
1809 the same name which supplies the required cookie functionality. Util.pm
1810 has been recoded to use an internal object for data storage and
1811 supplies rarely needed non core functions and/or functions needed for
1812 the HTML side of things. Standard.pm is a wrapper module that supplies
1813 a complete functional interface to the OO back end supplied by
1814 CGI::Simple.
1815 Although a serious attempt has been made to keep the interface
1817 identical, some minor changes and tweaks have been made. They will
1818 likely be insignificant to most users but here are the gory details.
1819 Globals Variables
1821 The list of global variables has been pruned by 75%. Here is the
1822 complete list of the global variables used:
1823 $VERSION = "0.01";
1825 # set this to 1 to use CGI.pm default global settings
1826 $USE_CGI_PM_DEFAULTS = 0 unless defined $USE_CGI_PM_DEFAULTS;
1827 # see if user wants old CGI.pm defaults
1828 do{ _use_cgi_pm_global_settings(); return } if $USE_CGI_PM_DEFAULTS;
1829 # no file uploads by default, set to 0 to enable uploads
1830 $DISABLE_UPLOADS = 1 unless defined $DISABLE_UPLOADS;
1831 # use a post max of 100K, set to -1 for no limits
1832 $POST_MAX = 102_400 unless defined $POST_MAX;
1833 # do not include undefined params parsed from query string
1834 $NO_UNDEF_PARAMS = 0 unless defined $NO_UNDEF_PARAMS;
1835 # separate the name=value pairs with ; rather than &
1836 $USE_PARAM_SEMICOLONS = 0 unless defined $USE_PARAM_SEMICOLONS;
1837 # only print headers once
1838 $HEADERS_ONCE = 0 unless defined $HEADERS_ONCE;
1839 # Set this to 1 to enable NPH scripts
1840 $NPH = 0 unless defined $NPH;
1841 # 0 => no debug, 1 => from @ARGV, 2 => from STDIN
1842 $DEBUG = 0 unless defined $DEBUG;
1843 # filter out null bytes in param - value pairs
1844 $NO_NULL = 1 unless defined $NO_NULL;
1845 # set behavior when cgi_err() called -1 => silent, 0 => carp, 1 => croak
1846 $FATAL = -1 unless defined $FATAL;
1847 Four of the default values of the old CGI.pm variables have been
1849 changed. Unlike CGI.pm which by default allows unlimited POST data and
1850 file uploads by default CGI::Simple limits POST data size to 100kB and
1851 denies file uploads by default. $USE_PARAM_SEMICOLONS is set to 0 by
1852 default so we use (old style) & rather than ; as the pair separator for
1853 query strings. Debugging is disabled by default.
1854 There are three new global variables. If $NO_NULL is true (the default)
1856 then CGI::Simple will strip null bytes out of names, values and
1857 keywords. Null bytes can do interesting things to C based code like
1858 Perl. Uploaded files are not touched. $FATAL controls the behavior when
1859 cgi_error() is called. The default value of -1 makes errors silent.
1860 $USE_CGI_PM_DEFAULTS reverts the defaults to the CGI.pm standard values
1861 ie unlimited file uploads via POST for DNS attacks. You can also get
1862 the defaults back by using the '-default' pragma in the use:
1863 use CGI::Simple qw(-default);
1865 use CGI::Simple::Standard qw(-default);
1866 The values of the global variables are stored in the CGI::Simple object
1868 and can be referenced and changed using the globals() method like this:
1869 my $value = $q->globals( 'VARNAME' ); # get
1871 $q->globals( 'VARNAME', 'some value' ); # set
1872 As with many CGI.pm methods if you pass the optional value that will be
1874 set.
1875 The $CGI::Simple::VARNAME = 'N' syntax is only useful prior to calling
1877 the new() constructor. After that all reference is to the values stored
1878 in the CGI::Simple object so you must change these using the globals()
1879 method.
1880 $DISABLE_UPLOADS and $POST_MAX *must* be set prior to calling the
1882 constructor if you want the changes to have any effect as they control
1883 behavior during initialization. This is the same a CGI.pm although some
1884 people seem to miss this rather important point and set these after
1885 calling the constructor which does nothing.
1886 The following globals are no longer relevant and have all been deleted:
1888 $AUTOLOADED_ROUTINES
1890 $AUTOLOAD_DEBUG
1891 $BEEN_THERE
1892 $CRLF
1893 $DEFAULT_DTD
1894 $EBCDIC
1895 $FH
1896 $FILLUNIT
1897 $IIS
1898 $IN
1899 $INITIAL_FILLUNIT
1900 $JSCRIPT
1901 $MAC
1902 $MAXTRIES
1903 $MOD_PERL
1904 $NOSTICKY
1905 $OS
1906 $PERLEX
1907 $PRIVATE_TEMPFILES
1908 $Q
1909 $QUERY_CHARSET
1910 $QUERY_PARAM
1911 $SCRATCH
1912 $SL
1913 $SPIN_LOOP_MAX
1914 $TIMEOUT
1915 $TMPDIRECTORY
1916 $XHTML
1917 %EXPORT
1918 %EXPORT_OK
1919 %EXPORT_TAGS
1920 %OVERLOAD
1921 %QUERY_FIELDNAMES
1922 %SUBS
1923 @QUERY_PARAM
1924 @TEMP
1925 Notes: CGI::Simple uses IO::File->new_tmpfile to get tempfile
1927 filehandles. These are private by default so $PRIVATE_TEMPFILES is no
1928 longer required nor is $TMPDIRECTORY. The value that were stored in
1929 $OS, $CRLF, $QUERY_CHARSET and $EBCDIC are now stored in the
1930 CGI::Simple::Util object where they find most of their use. The
1931 $MOD_PERL and $PERLEX values are now stored in our CGI::Simple object.
1932 $IIS was only used once in path_info(). $SL the system specific / \ :
1933 path delimiter is not required as we let IO::File handle our tempfile
1934 requirements. The rest of the globals are HTML related, export related,
1935 hand rolled autoload related or serve obscure purposes in CGI.pm
1936 Changes to pragmas
1938 There are some new pragmas available. See the pragmas section for
1939 details. The following CGI.pm pragmas are not available:
1940 -any
1942 -compile
1943 -nosticky
1944 -no_xhtml
1945 -private_tempfiles
1946 Filehandles
1948 Unlike CGI.pm which tries to accept all filehandle like objects only
1949 \*FH and $fh are accepted by CGI::Simple as file accessors for new()
1950 and save(). IO::File objects work fine.
1951 Hash interface
1953 %hash = $q->Vars(); # pack values with "\0";
1954 %hash = $q->Vars(","); # comma separate values
1955 You may optionally pass Vars() a string that will be used to separate
1957 multiple values when they are packed into the single hash value. If no
1958 value is supplied the default "\0" (null byte) will be used. Null bytes
1959 are dangerous things for C based code (ie Perl).
1960 cgi-lib.pl
1962 All the cgi-lib.pl 2.18 routines are supported. Unlike CGI.pm all the
1963 subroutines from cgi-lib.pl are included. They have been GOLFED down to
1964 25 lines but they all work pretty much the same as the originals.
1965
1967 Here is a complete list of all the CGI::Simple methods.
1968 Guts (hands off, except of course for new)
1970 _initialize_globals
1971 _use_cgi_pm_global_settings
1972 _store_globals
1973 import
1974 _reset_globals
1975 new
1976 _initialize
1977 _read_parse
1978 _parse_params
1979 _add_param
1980 _parse_keywordlist
1981 _parse_multipart
1982 _save_tmpfile
1983 _read_data
1984 Core Methods
1986 param
1987 add_param
1988 param_fetch
1989 url_param
1990 keywords
1991 Vars
1992 append
1993 delete
1994 Delete
1995 delete_all
1996 Delete_all
1997 upload
1998 upload_info
1999 query_string
2000 parse_query_string
2001 parse_keywordlist
2002 Save and Restore from File Methods
2004 _init_from_file
2005 save
2006 save_parameters
2007 Miscellaneous Methods
2009 url_decode
2010 url_encode
2011 escapeHTML
2012 unescapeHTML
2013 put
2014 print
2015 Cookie Methods
2017 cookie
2018 raw_cookie
2019 Header Methods
2021 header
2022 cache
2023 no_cache
2024 redirect
2025 Server Push Methods
2027 multipart_init
2028 multipart_start
2029 multipart_end
2030 multipart_final
2031 Debugging Methods
2033 read_from_cmdline
2034 Dump
2035 as_string
2036 cgi_error
2037 cgi-lib.pl Compatibility Routines - all 2.18 functions available
2039 _shift_if_ref
2040 ReadParse
2041 SplitParam
2042 MethGet
2043 MethPost
2044 MyBaseUrl
2045 MyURL
2046 MyFullUrl
2047 PrintHeader
2048 HtmlTop
2049 HtmlBot
2050 PrintVariables
2051 PrintEnv
2052 CgiDie
2053 CgiError
2054 Accessor Methods
2056 version
2057 nph
2058 all_parameters
2059 charset
2060 crlf # new, returns OS specific CRLF sequence
2061 globals # get/set global variables
2062 auth_type
2063 content_length
2064 content_type
2065 document_root
2066 gateway_interface
2067 path_translated
2068 referer
2069 remote_addr
2070 remote_host
2071 remote_ident
2072 remote_user
2073 request_method
2074 script_name
2075 server_name
2076 server_port
2077 server_protocol
2078 server_software
2079 user_name
2080 user_agent
2081 virtual_host
2082 path_info
2083 Accept
2084 accept
2085 http
2086 https
2087 protocol
2088 url
2089 self_url
2090 state
2091
2093 There are a few new methods in CGI::Simple as listed below. The
2094 highlights are the parse_query_string() method to add the QUERY_STRING
2095 data to your object if the method was POST. The no_cache() method adds
2096 an expires now directive and the Pragma: no-cache directive to the
2097 header to encourage some browsers to do the right thing. PrintEnv()
2098 from the cgi-lib.pl routines will dump an HTML friendly list of the
2099 %ENV and makes a handy addition to Dump() for use in debugging. The
2100 upload method now accepts a filepath as an optional second argument as
2101 shown in the synopsis. If this is supplied the uploaded file will be
2102 written to there automagically.
2103 Internal Routines
2105 _initialize_globals()
2106 _use_cgi_pm_global_settings()
2107 _store_globals()
2108 _initialize()
2109 _init_from_file()
2110 _read_parse()
2111 _parse_params()
2112 _add_param()
2113 _parse_keywordlist()
2114 _parse_multipart()
2115 _save_tmpfile()
2116 _read_data()
2117 New Public Methods
2119 add_param() # adds a param/value(s) pair +/- overwrite
2120 upload_info() # uploaded files MIME type and size
2121 url_decode() # decode s url encoded string
2122 url_encode() # url encode a string
2123 parse_query_string() # add QUERY_STRING data to $q object if 'POST'
2124 no_cache() # add both the Pragma: no-cache
2125 # and Expires/Date => 'now' to header
2126 cgi-lib.pl methods added for completeness
2128 _shift_if_ref() # internal hack reminiscent of self_or_default :-)
2129 MyBaseUrl()
2130 MyURL()
2131 MyFullUrl()
2132 PrintVariables()
2133 PrintEnv()
2134 CgiDie()
2135 CgiError()
2136 New Accessors
2138 crlf() # returns CRLF sequence
2139 globals() # global vars now stored in $q object - get/set
2140 content_length() # returns $ENV{'CONTENT_LENGTH'}
2141 document_root() # returns $ENV{'DOCUMENT_ROOT'}
2142 gateway_interface() # returns $ENV{'GATEWAY_INTERFACE'}
2143
2145 Here is a complete list of what is not included in CGI::Simple.
2146 Basically all the HTML related stuff plus large redundant chunks of the
2147 guts. The check.pl script in the /misc dir will check to see if a
2148 script is using any of these.
2149 Guts - rearranged, recoded, renamed and hacked out of existence
2151 initialize_globals()
2152 compile()
2153 expand_tags()
2154 self_or_default()
2155 self_or_CGI()
2156 init()
2157 to_filehandle()
2158 save_request()
2159 parse_params()
2160 add_parameter()
2161 binmode()
2162 _make_tag_func()
2163 AUTOLOAD()
2164 _compile()
2165 _setup_symbols()
2166 new_MultipartBuffer()
2167 read_from_client()
2168 import_names() # I dislike this and left it out, so shoot me.
2169 HTML Related
2171 autoEscape()
2172 URL_ENCODED()
2173 MULTIPART()
2174 SERVER_PUSH()
2175 start_html()
2176 _style()
2177 _script()
2178 end_html()
2179 isindex()
2180 startform()
2181 start_form()
2182 end_multipart_form()
2183 start_multipart_form()
2184 endform()
2185 end_form()
2186 _textfield()
2187 textfield()
2188 filefield()
2189 password_field()
2190 textarea()
2191 button()
2192 submit()
2193 reset()
2194 defaults()
2195 comment()
2196 checkbox()
2197 checkbox_group()
2198 _tableize()
2199 radio_group()
2200 popup_menu()
2201 scrolling_list()
2202 hidden()
2203 image_button()
2204 nosticky()
2205 default_dtd()
2206 Upload Related
2208 CGI::Simple uses anonymous tempfiles supplied by IO::File to spool
2209 uploaded files to.
2210 private_tempfiles() # automatic in CGI::Simple
2212 tmpFileName() # all upload files are anonymous
2213 uploadInfo() # relied on FH access, replaced with upload_info()
2214 Really Private Subs (marked as so)
2216 previous_or_default()
2217 register_parameter()
2218 get_fields()
2219 _set_values_and_labels()
2220 _compile_all()
2221 asString()
2222 compare()
2223 Internal Multipart Parsing Routines
2225 read_multipart()
2226 readHeader()
2227 readBody()
2228 read()
2229 fillBuffer()
2230 eof()
2231
2233 Nothing.
2234
2236 Originally copyright 2001 Dr James Freeman <jfreeman@tassie.net.au>
2237 This release by Andy Armstrong <andy@hexten.net>
2238 This package is free software and is provided "as is" without express
2240 or implied warranty. It may be used, redistributed and/or modified
2241 under the terms of the Perl Artistic License (see
2242 http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html)
2243 Address bug reports and comments to: andy@hexten.net. When sending bug
2245 reports, please provide the version of CGI::Simple, the version of
2246 Perl, the name and version of your Web server, and the name and version
2247 of the operating system you are using. If the problem is even remotely
2248 browser dependent, please provide information about the affected
2249 browsers as well.
2250 Address bug reports and comments to: andy@hexten.net
2252
2254 Lincoln D. Stein (lstein@cshl.org) and everyone else who worked on the
2255 original CGI.pm upon which this module is heavily based
2256 Brandon Black for some heavy duty testing and bug fixes
2258 John D Robinson and Jeroen Latour for helping solve some interesting
2260 test failures as well as Perlmonks: tommyw, grinder, Jaap, vek, erasei,
2261 jlongino and strider_corinth
2262 Thanks for patches to:
2264 Ewan Edwards, Joshua N Pritikin, Mike Barry, Michael Nachbaur, Chris
2266 Williams, Mark Stosberg, Krasimir Berov, Yamada Masahiro
2267
2269 Copyright (c) 2007, Andy Armstrong "<andy@hexten.net>". All rights
2270 reserved.
2271 This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
2273 under the same terms as Perl itself. See perlartistic.
2274
2276 CGI, CGI::Simple::Standard, CGI::Simple::Cookie, CGI::Simple::Util,
2277 CGI::Minimal
2278perl v5.32.1 2021-01-26 CGI::Simple(3)