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Form
In the form, 'action' attribute of the _form command has a URL
value that refers to a CGI program. 'method' attribute has one of
the value GET, POST, and ENCTYPE. GET method sends the information through
env variables; POST method sends the information through stdout;
and ENCTYPE method specifies the MIME type for POST data(default
'application/x-www-form-data').
_html "xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'
xml:lang='en' lang='en'"
_head
_title; quote "Form"; title_
head_
_body
_form "action='/cgi-bin/form.sml' method='POST'"
form_
body_
html_
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Button
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Submit
'submit' button will send the name=value string to a CGI program. The 'type' attribute of the __input command must be the value 'submit'. The 'value' attribute sets the label of a button (default submit). Finally, 'name' attribute sets the submit name.
_body
_form "action='/cgi-bin/form.tcl' method='POST'"
__input "type='submit' name='submit_name'
value='button_label'"
form_
body_
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Reset
Reset button clears all the input data. The 'type' attribute of a __input command must be the value 'reset'.
_body
_form "action='/cgi-bin/form.sml' method='POST'"
__input "type='reset'"
form_
body_
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Image
When user clicks on an image button, browser will send the coordinates of the mouse clicking point to a CGI program. The 'type' attribute of the __input command has the value 'image'; 'src' attribute specifies the file name of the image; and the 'name' attribute is the button id.
_body
_form "action='/cgi-bin/form.sml' method='POST'"
__input "type='image' src='icon.gif' name='icon'"
form_
body_
-
EditBox
Editbox will open a box with width specified in the 'size' attribute. When
'type' attribute has the value
'text', __input command allows you input
text in an editbox. If 'type' has the
value 'password', the input characters
will be displayed as asterisks. The
'hidden' value of 'type' will hide
editbox from display.
'name' attribute of
the __input command specifies the name of an
editbox. The 'value' attribute specifies
the initial string in the editbox (default
'string'). 'maxlength' attribute
specifies the max length of a string.
_body
_form "action='/cgi-bin/form.tcl' method='POST'"
__input "type='text' name='user' size='20' maxlength='50'"
form_
body_
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RadioBox
Radiobox is a group of circle buttons that only one can be checked. The 'type' attribute in an __input command has the value 'radio'. In a group of radiobox all of them must be the same 'name' attribute. However, they must be different in the 'value' attribute. A CGI program will receive the selected radiobox. 'CHECKED' attribute sets a radiobox as default.
_body
_form "action='/cgi-bin/form.tcl' method='GET'"
quote "First"
__input "type='radio' name='order' value='first'"
quote "Second"
__input "type='radio' name='order' value='second'"
form_
body_
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CheckBox
Checkbox is a group of square
buttons that can be checked on or off. The
'type' attribute of a __input command
has the value 'checkbox'. Each checkbox must have
a different 'name' attribute. The checked
box will send a value 'on' to a CGI program in
default. When the 'value' attribut is
defined the name=value will be send. The
'CHECKED' attribute sets a checkbox on as
default. You may check more than one box at the same
time.
_body
_form "action='/cgi-bin/form.tcl' method='GET'"
__input "type='checkbox' name='red' CHECKED"
__input "type='checkbox' name='green'"
__input "type='checkbox' name='blue' CHECKED"
form_
body_
-
MenuBox
MenuBox shows a long
selectable list in a small space. The
'size' attribute in _select command
sets to 1 will make the form work as a menubox. An
_option command lists an item. The
'SELECTED' attribute in the _option command
selects this item as default.
_body
_form "action='/cgi-bin/form.tcl' method='GET'"
_select "name='color' size='1'"
_option; quote "red"
_option; quote "green"
_option SELECTED; quote "blue"
select_
form_
body_
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ListBox
Similar to the MenuBox, however, ListBox must set 'size' a greater than 1 value in the _select command. It is displayed as scrolled list. 'MULTIPLE' attribute in the _select command will allow you select multiple items.
_body
_form "action='/cgi-bin/form.tcl' method='GET'"
_select "name='color' size='2' MULTIPLE"
_option; quote red
_option; quote green
_option SELECTED; quote blue
select_
form_
body_
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EditText
_textarea command defines a scrolled text editbox with attribute 'rows' and 'cols'. The 'name' attribute specifies the name of a text area. Unlike the HTML text, the text in an EditText area will not ignore newlines.
_body
_form "action='/cgi-bin/form.tcl' method='GET'"
_textarea "rows='20' cols='40' name='words'"
quote "Demo of Text Editor."
textarea_
form_
html_
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CGI and Form
Client Form is a basic interactive interface connected to a CGI program. Client browser encodes form data by using a MIME type. The default MIME type in the ENCTYPES attribute is application/x-www-form-urlencoded. The value of 'name' attribute attached with '=' and the entered string construct a key/value pair. All the pairs are linked by the '&' character to form a string. CGI encoder will translate control characters into hexadecimal codes with the prefix '%'. For example, the space character is translated to %20.
For EditBox and EditText in
a form if user did not input anything, the value will be
left to empty. For RadioBox and CheckBox in
a form if a box is checked, the value will be the string
in 'value' attribute. Its default value is
'on'. A client will not send a key/value
pair if a box is not checked. For MenuBox and
ListBox a client will send a key/value pair if user
select the item of a _option command.
Following procdure describes how a
CGI program decode the data. First, it checks
REQUEST_METHOD environment variable. If the value is
GET then read QUERY_STRING and
PATH_INFO, otherwise, get the CONTENT_LENGTH
and read data from the stdin. In GET method, the
QUERY_STRING is the string that has been appended to
the URL after the '?' character. It is
possible to access a CGI program without using a form.
Furthermore, CGI program splits the string to get the
key/value pairs. Finally, CGI program converts the
hexadecimal and '+' characters for all the
key/value pairs. It also sets an array where key is index
and value is an elemnet. The ParseForm program has an
error checking as well.
#
# Report report the exception
# status server status
# keyword short description
# message detail description
#
proc Report {status keyword message} {
quote "Status: $status; Keyword: $keyword; Message: $message"
}
#
# ParseForm parse CGI string
# aFormInfo return form data array with key/value.
# Return RESULT_OK or RESULT_ERROR
#
proc ParseForm {aFormInfo} {
upvar $aFormInfo sFormData
set sMethod $::env(REQUEST_METHOD)
switch -exact -- $sMethod {
POST {set sQuery [file::read stdin $::env(CONTENT_LENGTH)]}
GET {set sQuery $::env(QUERY_STRING)}
default {Report 500 "server error" "unsupport method"
return RESULT_ERROR}
}
set pairs [string::split $sQuery &]
foreach item $pairs {
set pair [string::split $item "="]
set key [list::index $pair 0]
set value [list::index $pair 1]
regsub -all {\+} $value { } value
set range {[0-9a-fA-F]}
while {[regexp "%$range$range" $value match]} {
scan $match "%%%x" hex
set symbol [string::format %c $hex]
regsub -all $match $value $symbol value
}
if {[info exists sFormData($key)]} {
string::append sFormData($key) "\0" $value
} else {
set sFormData($key) $value
}
}
return RESULT_OK
}
#
# cgi main program
#
#!/usr/local/bin/tclsh8.0
__cgi {Content-type: text/html}
_html "xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml' xml:lang='en' lang='en'"
_head
_title
quote "CGI Form Program Sample"
title_
head_
_body
if {[string::compare [ParseForm sForm] RESULT_OK] == 0} {
foreach item $sForm {
quote "$item=$sForm($item)"
}
}
body_
html_