How do you run a subroutine from inside HTML code?

coldmiser has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I have a small bit of code that I'm trying to run a subroutine from here is an example:

    foreach $index (keys %{$_[0]}){
        print "<TD WIDTH=\"$table_vars{$index}\">$index</TD>\n";
    }
[download]

Yes, $index is the name of my subroutine. $index = &login
The problem is that the HTML just prints the name of the subroutine and doesn't actually run it.
Does anyone have any experience with how to run a subroutine from inside a table?

Comment on How do you run a subroutine from inside HTML code? Download Code

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Re: How do you run a subroutine from inside HTML code? by marto (Cardinal) on Mar 15, 2006 at 16:14 UTC
Hi coldmiser, For this sort of work I use the HTML::Template module. If you are unfamiliar with it I would suggest checking it out, there are some tutorials in the Tutorials section relating to HTML::Template should you need some help. Update: Using HTML::Template by Ovid and HTML::Template Tutorial by jeffa are great tutorials on this topic. Hope this helps. Martin	[reply]
Re: How do you run a subroutine from inside HTML code? by dorward (Curate) on Mar 15, 2006 at 16:21 UTC
The short answer is that "You can't". A more accurate answer would mention the client side PerlScript in which case you would do something along the lines of: `<script type="text/perlscript"> mySub </script>` [download] Note that I've never used PerlScript so that syntax could be wrong (since very few people have browsers that support PerlScript there isn't much point in using it on the WWW). The other answer is that you might have something that looks like HTML, but isn't really. Mason for example is a templating language which looks a lot like HTML but with a few extra bits to run Perl. In it `<html>` means "Output the string <html>". The end result is that you can drop Perl code into it so it looks like the HTML is executing the Perl. Personally, I'd use a templating language like Template-Toolkit rather than trying to mix Perl and HTML into a single file.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: How do you run a subroutine from inside HTML code? by ikegami (Patriarch) on Mar 15, 2006 at 16:36 UTC
`print "text", sub(), "text";` [download] or `print "text" . sub() . "text";` [download] or `print "text"; print sub(); print "text";` [download] or `print "text@{[ sub() ]}text";` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: How do you run a subroutine from inside HTML code? by Tanktalus (Canon) on Mar 15, 2006 at 16:19 UTC
I may be a bit dense, but I don't see a subroutine there... perhaps you could expand on what you mean a bit? Is $index supposed to be a subroutine?	[reply]
Re^2: How do you run a subroutine from inside HTML code? by coldmiser (Hermit) on Mar 15, 2006 at 16:23 UTC
Yes, $index is the name of my subroutine. $index = &login	[reply]
Re: How do you run a subroutine from inside HTML code? by matija (Priest) on Mar 15, 2006 at 16:39 UTC
Which is the name of the subroutine, the `$index`? At first I thought you might be needing someting like HTML::Template or TemplateToolkit - that is, if you wanted to fill a space in the table with the result of the subroutine. You'd call the subroutine as `{$index}()`, I think. On second thought, you may be trying to do some AJAX related stuff. In that case, I suggest you look at CGI::Ajax	[reply] [d/l]
Re: How do you run a subroutine from inside HTML code? by coldmiser (Hermit) on Mar 15, 2006 at 17:03 UTC
Thanks for all who helped, but I got it running. I had to edit the code to this: `foreach $index (keys %{$_[0]}){ print "<TD WIDTH=\"$table_vars{$index}\">\n"; &$index(); print "</TD>\n"; }` [download] and I had to remove the & from $index so instead of $index = &login it is now $index = login	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: How do you run a subroutine from inside HTML code? by Anonymous Monk on Mar 15, 2006 at 20:54 UTC
I'd first think to try the following, but that may be perl6 interpolation talking: `my $index = \&login; for (keys %{$_[0]}) { print qq[<TD WIDTH="$table_vars{$_}">\n$index->()\n</TD>\n]; }` [download] Generally, and definitely perl5, `"@{[foo()]}"` calls `&foo` as list context and interpolates the return value as with an array and `"${\foo()]}"` similarly, with scalar context and as a scalar. For your particular example, however, I'd just use printf. `for (keys %{$_[0]}) { printf qq[<TD WIDTH="$table_vars{$_}"\n%s</TD>\n], $index->(); }` [download] There is no need to escape quoting delimeters in Perl.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: How do you run a subroutine from inside HTML code? by Anonymous Monk on Mar 15, 2006 at 20:56 UTC
and I had to remove the & from $index so instead of $index = &login it is now $index = login Please always `use strict;` in your code.	[reply] [d/l]

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