README
1NAME
2 CGI::Thin - A very lightweight Parser for CGI Forms
3
4SYNOPSIS
5 `use CGI::Thin;'
6
7 `my %cgi_data = &Parse_CGI ();'
8
9DESCRIPTION
10 This module is a very lightweight parser of CGI forms. And it
11 has a special feature that it will return an array if the same
12 key is used twice in the form. You can force an array even if
13 only one value returned to avoid complications.
14
15 The hash %cgi_data will have all the form data from either a
16 POST or GET form and will also work for "multipart/form-data"
17 forms necessary for uploading files.
18
19USAGE
20 Functions
21
22 * `CGI::Thin::Parse_CGI(@keys)'
23 The optional @keys will be used to force arrays to be returned.
24
25 The function also has special features for getting multiple values for a
26 single form key. For example if we have this form...
27
28 <input type="checkbox" name="color" value="red">red
29 <input type="checkbox" name="color" value="green">green
30 <input type="checkbox" name="color" value="blue">blue
31
32 One of three things can happen.
33
34 1) The user does not select any color.
35 So $cgi_data{'color'} will not exist.
36 2) The user selects exactly one color.
37 So $cgi_data{'color'} will be the scalar value selected.
38 3) The user selects exactly more than one color.
39 So $cgi_data{'color'} will be a reference to an array of the values selected.
40
41 To fix this you could call the parser by giving it a list of keys that you want
42 to force to be arrays. In this case like...
43
44 use CGI::Thin;
45 my %cgi_data = &Parse_CGI ('color');
46
47 Now it they pick exactly one color, $cgi_data{'color'} will be a reference to
48 an array of the one value selected. And thus there will be no need for
49 special cases later in the code.
50
51BUGS
52 Fixed
53
54 * Added %([0-9a-fA-F]{2} to the regular expression to avoid
55 illegal escapes
56
57 * Now split the key/value pairs by [;&] not just the ampersand
58
59 Pending
60
61 * Long headers lines that have been broken over multiple lines in
62 multipart/form-data don't seem to be handled.
63
64 * Large file uploads (like 150MB) will clobber main memory. One
65 possible addition is to change how multipart/form-data is
66 read and to spit files directly to the temp directory and
67 return to the script a filename so it can be retreived from
68 there.
69
70 * Any thoughts on adapting it for use withing a mod_perl
71 environment?
72
73 Under Apache::Registry, which emulates a CGI environmnet, it
74 should be. Under plain ol' mod_perl, we need to interact
75 with the Apache::Request class a bit instead of %ENV and
76 STDIN.
77
78 This feature may be added in the next incarnation of the
79 module, or possibly a companion CGI::Thin::Mod_Perlish may
80 be created to do it if the code will be too different.
81
82SEE ALSO
83 CGI::Thin::Cookies
84
85SUPPORT
86 Visit CGI::Thin's web site at
87 http://www.PlatypiVentures.com/perl/modules/cgi_thin.shtml
88 Send email to
89 mailto:cgi_thin@PlatypiVentures.com
90
91AUTHOR
92 R. Geoffrey Avery
93 CPAN ID: RGEOFFREY
94 rGeoffrey@PlatypiVentures.com
95 http://www.PlatypiVentures.com/perl
96
97COPYRIGHT
98 This module is free software, you may redistribute it or modify
99 in under the same terms as Perl itself.
100
101