I am creating a web page that has 3 basic elements, select box, button, & table. From a high level, the user selects an element, and clicks the button. When the button is clicked, a PERL script is executed that puts data in a table in a mySQL db. All those things work successfully.
Now, I am trying to return the DB table values to my HTML file with a dynamic table. But every source I find has my CGI file writing html tags. I don’t feel this is right, because I don’t understand home my CGI knows the table ID, even though I am passing the value. Also, I know my js file is incorrect, having two separate AJAX calls, but that is home I am logically processing in my head.
I am not sure what comes first, fixing the CGI or JS file.
HTML Code (index.html):
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" class="jsbin" src="C:/xampp/DataTables/media/js/jquery.dataTables.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/main.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/RunPerlScript.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/table.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</head>
<body>
<header>
<h1></h1>
</header>
<form name="myForm" method="GET" action="">
<select id="cdLDAP" >
<option/>
</select>
<input type="button" id="btn_run" name="btn_run" value="Run"></input>
</form>
<table id="results_table">
<thead>
<tr>
<th></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</body>
</html>
Perl (CGI):
#!/usr/bin/perl -T
use CGI;
use DBI;
use strict;
use warnings;
# read the CGI params
my $cgi = CGI->new;
my $inputselection = $cgi->param("cdLDAP");
my $html_table = $cgi->param("html_table_results");
my ($base_dn, $tblname);
#my $password = $cgi->param("password");
#my $inputselection = "Disabled Users";
#LDAP Connection parameters
if ($inputselection eq "Disabled Users") {
$base_dn = "";
$tblname = "disabled_user";
} elsif ($inputselection eq "") {
$base_dn = "";
$tblname = "service_account";
} elsif ($inputselection eq "") {
$base_dn = "";
$tblname = "";
} else {
die;
}
# connect to the database
my ($platform,$database,$host,$port,$db_user,$pw) = ("mysql","results","localhost","3306","resultsuser","mysql123");
my $dsn = "DBI:$platform:database=$database,host=$host,port=$port";
my $connect = DBI->connect("DBI:mysql:database=$database;host=$host",$db_user,$pw,{RaiseError => 1});
#query db to get results set for table output
my $query_results = "SELECT * FROM " . $tblname;
my $query_handle = "";
$query_handle = $connect->prepare($query_results) or die $connect->errstr;
$query_handle->execute() or die $query_handle->errstr;
print header;
# HTML for the beginning of the table
# we are putting a border around the table for effect
print "<table border=\"1\" width=\"800\"> \n";
# print your table column headers
print "<tr><td>User ID</td><td>Status</td><td>Last Password Reset</td><td>Reset Needed?</td></tr>\n";
my (@data,$uid,$status,$pwlstset,$resetmsg);
# retrieve the values returned from executing your SQL statement
foreach (@data = $query_handle->fetchrow_array()) {
$uid = $data[0];
$status = $data[1];
$pwlstset = $data[2];
$resetmsg = $data[3];
# print your table rows
print "<tr><td>$uid</td><td>$status</td><td>$pwlstset</td><td>$resetmsg</td></tr>\n";
}
# close your table
print "</table>\n";
# exit the script
exit;
JS/JQuery/AJAX:
$(function() {
$('#btn_run').click(function() {
var tblname = $('#cdLDAP').val();
var html_table = $('#results_table').attr('id');
$.ajax({
type: "GET",
url: "/perl/cgitest.pl", // URL of the Perl script that queries LDPA and inputs to mySQL
data: "cdLDAP=" +tblname,
// script call was *not* successful
error: function() {
alert("ERROR!");
}, // error
// script call was successful
// data contains the JSON values returned by the Perl script
success: function(data){
alert("success!");
} // success
}); // ajax
$.ajax({
type: "GET",
url: "/perl/cgitest2.pl", // URL of the Perl script that retirves data from mySQL
data: "cdLDAP=" +tblname +",html_table_results=" +html_table,
// script call was *not* successful
error: function() {
alert("ERROR!");
}, // error
// script call was successful
// data contains the JSON values returned by the Perl script
success: function(data){
alert("success!");
} // success
}); // ajax
});
});
So here is what I need some help with:
1) Should my PERL script be writing the html tags? If yes, how do I write to index.html and not a new html file?
2) If the table structure is created by the jquery file, a good teaching source would eb appreciated, because I am trying to be taught how to fish, and not given a fish.
There is no such thing as PERL.
If you want to use Ajax to dynamically update a page (note that you should be using unobtrusive JavaScript) then there are two basic approaches you can take:
I’m generally in favour of the former approach (in which case you would construct an array of hashrefs in your Perl, run it through a JSON module and then output it with an
application/jsonContent-Type HTTP header.Given that some versions of Internet Explorer have problems with trying to edit the
innerHTMLof a table element, this makes the first option better.You don’t write to a file at all. You return the data via STDOUT and the webserver passes it back to the client.
http://api.jquery.com/category/manipulation/