Labelling and valueing a button differently

[chrismassey]

Here is a standard HTML submit button...

<input type="submit" name="button" value="Button">

The issue I have with this button is that its value is not only the value carried by the form (i.e. $button = param('button'); ) but also the value thats printed on the button itself.

However, the value I use in the script thats carried by the button is entirely different to the value that should be printed on the button. Therefore I tried using this...

<button type="submit" name="button" value="$_">Button</button>

(Note that $_ is the value that should be carried forward from a loop)...

However the source code of the HTML page that the form prints shows that everything looks correct...

However the value that is carried forward is not $_ but its Button

I am totally confused.

Cheers,

Chris

 

[travs69]

Do you have different submit button's doing different things?

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Travis - Those who say it cannot be done are usually interrupted by someone else doing it; Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions;

 

[travs69]

http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_button.asp

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Travis - Those who say it cannot be done are usually interrupted by someone else doing it; Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions;

 

[chrismassey]

Hey yes I do. For every file within a directory, a submit button is produced instead of listing the files. This is so that when a user clicks on the button, its value will make sure that the user enters that file.

I'm going to check out that website link now.

Cheers

 

[chrismassey]

Yeah I followed similar guidelines and everything seems fine. Is it probably a problem due to using different submit buttons? If I do this...

<button type="submit" name="button" value="$_">$_</button>

It works fine! But the value contains text i.e. .htm which I want removed from the label.

 

[travs69]

so you want to have one value submitted but another displayed.

So the value=test but once submitted you get test.html?

I don't know if you can do that with a submit button.. If you know they are all .html just submit test and add .html to it after you submit it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Travis - Those who say it cannot be done are usually interrupted by someone else doing it; Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions;

 

[chrismassey]

Thats correct. However you may be able to help me with this...

Basically, a client needs to be able to sort his directory into any order he wants. Therefore I have used the = as a separator between a unique number and the file name.

So for example. This directory contains 3 files

01=Home
02=About
03=Contact

Now if I didn't use the numbers then the order would look like this once sorted into alphabetical order

About
Contact
Home

Which isn't correct... Therefore I split the file using the = symbol as the split character... And then print the button

foreach (@directory_array) {
## Remove Position Indicator
if ($_ =~ m/=/) {
@directory_array_2 = split (/=/, $_);
shift(@directory_array_2);
$button_print = @directory_array_2[0];
}
else { $button_print = $_; }
## Open Directory
print <<"HTML code";
        <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="280" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
          <tr>
            <td width="45" align="right" valign="middle">
            
            <img border="0" src="Directory.bmp" width="24" height="12">
            
            </td>
            <td width="230" align="center" valign="middle">
            
            <p align="center">
            
            <button type="submit" name="button" value="$_" style="background-color: #FFFFFF; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; color: #0000FF; border-style: solid; border-color: #FFFFFF">$button_print</button>
            
            </p>
            
            </td>
          </tr>
        </table>
HTML code
}

But obviously it isn't neat to have i.e. 01=Home

When I just want Home

The value must be 01=Home because this is the name the file is created under i.e.

http://hello.com/hello1/hello2/01=Home

I could not think of a better way to allow the user to have full manipulation over the position of files in a directory, and there is possibly a much better way... Or a different method to remove the 01= from the button label.

Thanks again,

Chris

 

[chrismassey]

If you want to have a play with the system...

The interface where Users can access the Webspace is...

http://chrismassey.co.uk/Perl/Scripts/ControlPanelV1.0/

And the interface which is placed on a webpage for website visitors to view the documents...

http://chrismassey.co.uk/Perl/Scripts/ControlPanelV1.0/inframe.htm

Please note that its under development, so its not meant to look pretty, yet. Hehe

 

[travs69]

Not to mess with your original design, but I would separate your file names from your file structure. Make a mapping file and put your order in it and exclude that file from any globbing you are doing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Travis - Those who say it cannot be done are usually interrupted by someone else doing it; Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions;

 

[chrismassey]

Thats what I had in mind to begin with, to create a text file which maps the directory structure...

i.e. map.txt

Home
  Home1
  Home2
    index.htm
  Home3
About
Contact
  Contact1
  Contact2
    index.htm

Is this what you meant?

It looks like i'm going to have to redevelop much of my scripts :/. Its a pain when this button system should be working, I don't understand :S.

One more question, if I had a file i.e. file.txt

Line 1
Line 2
Line 3
Line 4
Line 5

I would assume if I wanted to change Line 3 I would use something like this...

open (LOG, ">>$initial_path$create_pageb_path$forward_slash$page_name.htm") || Error('open', 'file');
flock (LOG, 2) || Error('lock', 'file');
print LOG[2] "Changes Line 3"
close (LOG);

Where [2] is Line 3 in the file.txt file.

However this isn't the correct syntax, what have I done wrong?

 

[chrismassey]

Forget the general syntax errors :s... I meant...

open (LOG, ">>file.txt") || Error('open', 'file');
flock (LOG, 2) || Error('lock', 'file');
print LOG[2] "Changes Line 3";
close (LOG);

 

[travs69]

I don't know if you can treat a file handle as an array.

Is there a reason why you are trying to specifically write to line 3 in the file? Is it for your directory structure? My idea was to keep your original naming schema but put it in a file. So the file would contain 01=home.html 02=about.html and you would use that file for sorting your display but wouldn't ever change the original file names.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Travis - Those who say it cannot be done are usually interrupted by someone else doing it; Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions;

 

[chrismassey]

Surely the same problem would occur? Again the value of each button would have to be 01=home.html and the label home.html?

If I were to store each item in the file in order from 1st to last then I wouldn't need to use an indicator anymore (01=).

Maybe I haven't thought about it enough and you are right. I'm going to think about it and get back to you.

The reason for writing to a specific line is because I want to use a txt file almost like a database for a different script. i.e.

Chris, 18, England,
John, 23, Australia,
Peter, 19, Russia,

Now say John changed his age from 23 to 40 (lol), I would need to access the 2nd line and then the 2nd element on the 2nd line.

Accessing the 2nd element is easy enough, but I don't know how I would access just line 2. Unless I were to take all the data and put it into an array of 9 elements (in this example)... And then split the first 3 elements, second 3 elements and then thrid 3 elements. However this isn't very efficient, though I would use references.

Chris

 

[KevinADC]

use the Tie::Fie module and you can treat a file like an array. But not FH[2], the filehandle itself is not the array. Read the Tie::File documentation its pretty easy to use.

The issue I have with this button is that its value is not only the value carried by the form (i.e. $button = param('button'); ) but also the value thats printed on the button itself.

Huh? The form submits key/value pairs. Even for submit buttons. If you have this:

<input type="submit" name="button" value="Button">

in the script you will get:

button=Button

if get something else there is a problem with your form or you are parsing the form incorrectly. If you want to sort files into alpha order you have to sort them case-insensitively if you don't want names with upper-case characters sorted before names without upper-case characters. If you use the generic sort() function it sorts in ASCII order, not alpha order. Upper-case characters have a lower ASCII value than lower-case characters.

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- Kevin, perl coder unexceptional!

 

[chrismassey]

Hi Kevin,

I understand that I will get button=button (name=Value), but I want the label on the button to be different to the value that is used by the script. Using the <button type> input allows me to have a value and a label, rather than input type which just allows me to have a value (which is also used as the label). However it is strangely not working.

Thanks for the advice on Tie::File, I will have a go.

Cheers,
Chris

 

[KevinADC]

OK, I think I misunderstood your question. The <button> tag is parsed differently by different browsers and by different versions of the same browser. Newer browsers might have a more consistent behavior with the <button> tag but I never use that particular form widget so I am not sure how it is treated by the various browsers these days. I know in the past, some browsers sent the inner text: (value="inner text") and some sent the outter text: <button>outter text</button>. Like many things html, it was a mess.

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- Kevin, perl coder unexceptional!

 

[chrismassey]

Okay I have solved my problem...

Although I was trying to avoid using a link to submit data I have been forced to...

<A HREF="$script_name?button=$_&path_carry=$path_carry_2&i_frame_url=$i_frame_url">$button_print</A>

However I have thought about travs idea of using a map and I think it seems the sensible solution.

Chris

 

[chrismassey]

Kevin,

Just noted your response. Thanks for the info on the <button> tag. Its a really strange problem :s, hopefully it will be fixed in later versions.

Chris

 

[KevinADC]

I doubt it. The problems have been around for years. The button tag is not really used much anyway. Probably because of the buggy behavior.

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- Kevin, perl coder unexceptional!

 

[brigmar]

One way around your issue is for each button to be in it's own form.

<form action="yoururl.pl"><input type=hidden name="dothing" value="01=Home">blah blah blah<input type="submit" value="Home"></form>
..
<form action="yoururl.pl"><input type=hidden name="dothing" value="02=About">blah blah blah<input type="submit" value="About"></form>

..and at your backend, you would be checking the value of the hidden "dothing"


Another way is to change the NAME of your submit buttons..

<input type=submit name="Z01_Home" value="Home">
<input type=submit name="Z02_About" value="About">

In this version, you would need your backend to check all the form variables passed that start with "Z". If "Z01_Home" exists, then they pressed the "Home" button.