The Guestbook CGI code
#********* BEGIN BODY********************
open (LOGFILE, ">>guestbook.log");
$newline=join('::',@value);
print LOGFILE ("$newline\n");
close LOGFILE;
print "<BODY BGCOLOR='BEIGE'><H1>Thank you. ";
print "Your comments have been added</H1>";
#******** END BODY************************
The first line of the code is this:
open (LOGFILE, ">>guestbook.log");
- This line prepares the file guestbook.log to be written to.
The open command is used to open files for both input and output.
The word LOGFILE (which could have been anything) is called a "file
handle." Later, when I want to append to the guestbook.log
file, I will write print LOGFILE. For the remainder of the
program, LOGFILE means guestbook.log.
- < - open file for input (read what's in the file).
- > - open file for output (overwrite the file).
- >> - append to file (tack something on to the end).
After the comma and the quotes, the name of the file begins with 2 Greater-than signs >>. This is one of about 12 special symbols to determine what kind of input or output is being opened. Will the program read from this file? Will it write to it? Will it do both? Will it overwrite it? There are 3 symbols that I use frequently here:
The next line is the join statement. This is an extremely
useful tool for adding data to delimited text files. The statement
$newline=join('::',@value);
means take each value in the @value array (each entry box on the HTML
form), and join them with double colons.
$newline could now contain this:
Robert::Young::5 Main St.::Anytown::MA::02177::(617) 555-1212::robyoung@mediaone.net::on::This
is Great
Now that $newline is complete, I am ready to add it to the end of guestbook.log.
Since I already have a file handle for the log file, appending to it is
as easy as this:
print LOGFILE ("$newline\n");
It will add the entire contents of $newline to the end of guestbook.log.
I also asked it to add a \n (carriage return) to the end of $newline, so
that the next time I append something, it will start at the beginning of
a new line.
close LOGFILE;
It stands to reason that if I have to open a connection to the file
when I begin my program, I should close that connection when I am through.
Lastly, I printed something to the screen. This is more than just a courtesy. You have to write something or else you get a 'document contains no data' error. So we wrote this:
print "<BODY BGCOLOR=\'BEIGE\'><H1>Thank you. Your comments
have been added</H1>";
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