NAME

Win32::ASP - a Module for ASP (PerlScript) Programming

SYNOPSIS

        use Win32::ASP;

        print "This is a test<BR><BR>";

        $PageName = GetFormValue('PageName');
        if($PageName eq 'Select a page...') {
                die "Please go back and select a value from the Pages list";
        }

        print "You selected the ", $PageName, " page";
        exit;

DESCRIPTION

These routines are some I knocked together one day when I was saying the following: "Why don't my "print" statements output to the browser?" and "Why doesn't exit and die end my script?". So I started investigating how I could overload the core functions. "print" is overloaded via the tie mechanism (thanks to Eryq (eryq@zeegee.com), Zero G Inc. for the code which I ripped from IO::Scalar). You can also get at print using the OO mechanism with $Win32::ASP::SH->print(). Also added recently was code that allowed cleanup stuff to be executed when you exit() or die(), this comes in the form of the AddDeathHook function. The BinaryWrite function simply wraps up unicode conversion and BinaryWrite in one call. Finally I was annoyed that I couldn't just develop a script using GET and then change to POST for release because of the difference in how the ASP code handles the different formats, GetFormValue solves that one.

Installation instructions

Usually ActiveState are pretty "on the ball" with CPAN archives, so it should just be a matter of typing:

 ppm install Win32-ASP

on the command line. Make sure you're connected to the internet first.

Function Reference

Print LIST

Prints a string or comma separated list of strings to the browser. Use as if you were using print in a CGI application. Print gets around ASP's limitations of 128k in a single Response->Write call.

Obsolete - use print instead.

NB: print calls Print, so you could use either, but print is more integrated with "the perl way".

DebugPrint LIST

The same as Print except the output is between HTML comments so that you can only see it with "view source". DebugPrint is not exported so you have to use it as Win32::ASP::DebugPrint()

This function is useful to debug your application. For example I use it to print out SQL before it is executed.

HTMLPrint LIST

The same as Print except the output is taken and encoded so that any html tags appear as sent, i.e. < becomes &lt;, > becomes &gt; etc. HTMLPrint is not exported, so use it like Win32::ASP::HTMLPrint.

This function is useful for printing output that comes from a database or a file, where you don't have total control over the input.

wprint LIST

Obsolete: Use Print instead

die LIST

Prints the contents of LIST to the browser and then exits. die automatically calls $Response->End for you, it also executes any cleanup code you have added with AddDeathHook.

exit

Exits the current script. $Response->End is called automatically for you, and any cleanup code added with AddDeathHook is also called.

HTMLEncode LIST

The same as HTMLPrint except the output is not printed but returned as a scalar instead. HTMLEncode is not exported, so use it like Win32::ASP::HTMLEncode.

This function is useful to handle output that comes from a database or a file, where you don't have total control over the input.

If an array ref is passed it uses the ref, otherwise it assumes an array of scalars is used. Using a ref makes for less time spent passing values back and forth, and is the prefered method.

GetFormValue EXPR [, EXPR]

returns the value passed from a form (or non-form GET request). Use this method if you want to be able to develop in GET mode (for ease of debugging) and move to POST mode for release. The second (optional) parameter is for getting multiple parameters as in:

        http://localhost/scripts/test.asp?Q=a&Q=b

In the above GetFormValue("Q", 1) returns "a" and GetFormValue("Q", 2) returns "b".

GetFormValue will work in an array context too, returning all the values for a particular parameter. For example with the above url:

        my @AllQs = GetFormValue('Q');

will return an array: @AllQs = ('a', 'b')

Also just added: If you call GetFormValue without any parameters it will return a list of Form parameters in the same way that CGI.pm's param() function does. This allows easy iteration over the form elements:

        foreach my $key (GetFormValue()) {
                print "$key = ", GetFormValue($key), "<br>\n";
        }

Also added a param() function which works exactly as GetFormValue does, for compatibility with CGI.pm.

GetFormCount EXPR

returns the number of times EXPR appears in the request (Form or QueryString). Use this value as $i to iterate over GetFormValue(EXPR, $i).

For example, url is:

        http://localhost/scripts/myscript.asp?Q=a&Q=b

And code is:

        my $numQs = GetFormCount('Q');

gives $numQs = 2

AddDeathHook LIST

This frightening sounding function allows you to have cleanup code executed when you die or exit. For example you may want to disconnect from your database if there is a problem:

        <%
                my $Conn = $Server->CreateObject('ADODB.Connection');
                $Conn->Open( "DSN=BADEV1;UID=sa;DATABASE=ProjAlloc" );
                $Conn->BeginTrans();

                Win32::ASP::AddDeathHook( sub { $Conn->Close if $Conn; } );
        %>

Now when you die because of an error, your database connection will close gracefully, instead of you having loads of rogue connections that you have to kill by hand, or restart your database once a day.

Death hooks should be executed on a graceful exit of the script too, but I've been unable to confirm this. If anyone has any luck, let me know.

BinaryWrite LIST

Performs the same function as $Response->BinaryWrite() but gets around Perl's lack of unicode support, and the null padding it uses to get around this.

Example:

        Win32::ASP::BinaryWrite($val);

SetCookie Name, Value [, HASH]

Sets the cookie Name with the value Value. HASH is option, and contains any of the following optional parameters:

• -expires => A CGI.pm style expires value (see the CGI.pm docs for header() for this).

• -domain => a domain in the style ".matt.com" that the cookie is returned to.

• -path => a path that the cookie is returned to.

• -secure => cookie only gets returned under SSL if this is true.

If Value is a hash ref, then it creates a cookie dictionary. (see either the ASP docs, or my Introduction to PerlScript for more info on Cookie Dictionaries).

Example:

        Win32::ASP::SetCookie("Matt", "Sergeant", ( -expires => "+3h",
                -domain => ".matt.com",
                -path => "/users/matt",
                -secure => 0 ));

Experimental STDIN support

Version 2.10 adds experimental support for STDIN processing. You should be able to go while(<STDIN) {...}> now. However, I don't have an NT machine to test this on (I dumped NT in favour of Linux a while back), so it's caveat emptor - and feed me with bug reports if you want it to work. The idea is that now CGI.pm should be able to read form data and file uploads appropriately. If it works, let me know. If it doesn't, let me know too :)