NAME

Win32::ASP::Extras - a extension to Win32::ASP that provides more methods

SYNOPSIS

  use Win32::ASP::Extras;

  Win32::ASP::Set('my_hash',
      { fullname => 'Toby Everett',
        username => 'EverettT',
        role => 'Editor'
      } );

  Win32::ASP::Redirect('userinfo.asp', reason => "I just feel like redirecting.");

  exit;



  use Win32::ASP::Extras;

  my $userinfo = Win32::ASP::Get('my_hash');

  foreach my $i (sort keys %{$userinfo}) {
    $main::Response->Write("$i $userinfo->{$i}<P>\n");
  }

  exit;

DESCRIPTION

Installation instructions

This installs with MakeMaker.

To install via MakeMaker, it's the usual procedure - download from CPAN, extract, type "perl Makefile.PL", "nmake" then "nmake install". Don't do an "nmake test" because the ASP objects won't be available and so won't work properly.

Function Reference

use Win32::ASP::Extras;

This imports the following methods into the Win32::ASP namespace. There is no need to use Win32::ASP; in order to use Win32::ASP::Extras;. The modules are independent of each other and only share a namespace.

To be more precise, use Win32::ASP::Extras' loads everything into Win32::ASP::Extras and then aliases the symbol table entries over into Win32::ASP. This is to avoid any weirdness with respect to AutoLoader.

FormatURL Url [, HASH]

This is designed to take a base URL and a hash of parameters and return the properly assembled URL. It does, however, have some weird behavior.

If the first character of the URL is not a forward slash and $main::WEBROOT is defined, the function will automatically prepend $main::WEBROOT/ to the URL. This has the side effect of making 95% of URLs absolute relative to $main::WEBROOT, if it is defined. This makes it easier to move Webs around just by changing $main::WEBROOT.

If the first character of the URL is a forward slash, the URL is left unchanged.

If the first characters are "./", the "./" is stripped off and the URL left unchanged. This allows one to specify relative URLs - just put a "./" in front of it.

The parameters are URLEncoded, but the keys for them are not. The resultant parameter list is HTML encoded so that &timestamp doesn't become xtamp (× encodes a multiplication symbol).

QueryStringList

This returns a list of QueryString keys and values. It does not deal with multi-valued parameters.

Redirect Url [, HASH]

A safe redirect that redirects and then absolutely and positively terminates your program. If you thought $Response-Redirect> behaved liked die and were disappointed to discover it didn't, mourn no longer.

It takes a base URL and a hash of parameters. The URL will be built using FormatURL.

MyURL

This return the URL used to access the current page, including its QueryString. Because it uses QueryStringList, it doesn't properly deal with multi-valued parameters.

CreatePassURLPair

The function returns both passurl and the result from calling MyURL. The return values are suitable for inclusion in a hash for passing to FormatURL. The PassURL functions are generally used for dealing with expired sessions. If the session expires, the Redirect is passed CreatePassURLPair for the parameters. That page then explains to the user what is going on and has a link back to the login page along with PassURLPair. The login page can then use GetPassURL to extract the URL from the QueryString and redirect to that URL.

GetPassURL

This extracts the passurl value from the QueryString.

PassURLPair

This returns passurl along with the result from calling GetPassURL. The return values are suitable for inclusion in a hash for passing to FormatURL.

StampPage

This returns HTML that says:

  Refresh this page.

The text this page is a link to the results of MyURL.

Set

Set and Get can be used to store arbitrary Perl objects in $Session. It uses Data::Dumper to store things and eval to retrieve them. Notice that this is safe only because we are the only ones who can store stuff in $Session.

<LECTURE_MODE>

Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT use Data::Dumper to serialize a Perl object and then stuff it in a user's cookie, presuming that you can then use eval to extract it when they pass it back to you. If you do, you deserve to have someone stuff system("del /s *.*") or some such funny Perl code in that cookie and then visit your web site. Never, ever, ever use eval on code that comes from an untrusted source. If you need to do so for some strange reason, take a look at the Safe module, but be careful.

</LECTURE_MODE>

Oh, the call takes two parameters, the name to store it under and the thing to store (can be a reference to a hash or some other neat goodie). Keep in mind that references to CODE objects (i.e. anonymous subroutines) or Win32::OLE objects or anything like that will not make it.

Get

Takes a parameter and returns the thing. Both Set and Get use the same memoization cache to improve performance. Take care if you modify the thing you get back from Get - future calls to Get will return the modified thing (even though it hasn't been changed in $Session). Calls to Set empty the memoization cache so that the next call to Get will reload it from $Session and add it to the cache.

cpanm Win32::ASP::Extras

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Win32::ASP::Extras