Re: Possible Perl/CGI Application

On Monday October 22 2007 6:04 pm, [email protected] wrote:
> I'm an engineer and I need to build a web based application for a
> customer to view results of my analysis. To simplify the problem say I
> have a duct with a length, width, and height. I have 'avi' files
> showing the fluid behavior in that duct for various combinations of
> these dimensions. The analysis package I use generates movies with the
> naming convention:
>
> length_width_height.avi
>
> I want to allow the customer to specify the length, width, and height
> and view the appropriate video file. Ideally using some combination of
> radio buttons, drop downs, etc.
>
> I am experienced in Perl and have have worked with simple HTML. I was
> told CGI might be the way to go in developing such an application. My
> question is, does that seem reasonable? I don't want to throw myself
> into learning CGI if I'm going to reach a point a few weeks down the
> road when I realize I should have taken a different approach.
>
> Thaks.
>
> Less

The main  reason you want to use CGI.pm is  the  OO way of  decoding  passed 
parameters from your HTML forms.

I assume your going to let  the client page  select  or build a combination of  
length , width , and height. Then send it to your Perl script to  run your 
application via a system call and  produce your output  AVI file . Then  you  
can again use  functions in the CGI.pm module to  push back  the resulting 
page. , you could do the  same thing without  CGI.pm but why would you want 
to re invent the wheel ?

instead of  decoding  a URL produced by your form manually , you  can  create 
a new CGI object and  then extract  the data like so

example:

use CGI;
use strict;

my $q = new CGI;

 # assuming  length is a  input field  of  some type on the form
my $length = $q->param('length');

then after you built the reply .
open the  file and print it to the browser ,  you  will need the correct mime 
type in your header..

take a look at the docs , it's  pretty common usage of  CGI.

that should get you going

good luck

Greg Jetter 
Alaska Internet Solutions