Reading lines from a file and printing variable values

[widevision7]

I am creating a web site where I want to have the same menu on each page.

I created a "menu file", and put the html print statements in the file. The menu file contains html code:

<table>
<tr>
<td>
<a href=get_plans_ summary.pl?Invo ice=$FORM{Invoi ce}</a>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

Inside of my perl script, I print out each line from the file, including a value for the variable $FORM{Invoice} (which I am getting from a previous link):

$FORM{Invoice} = "2007_08";
$top_menu = "top_menu.t xt";

open(line, "$top_menu" ) || die ("\nERROR - could not open file: $filename\n");
while (<line>)

{

print "$_\n";

}

My problem is that it prints the following:

<a href=get_plans_ summary.pl?Invo ice=$FORM{Invoi ce}</a>

and it doesn't translate the variable $FORM{Invoice} to the value that I have set for it earlier.

If I don't have it print from the file, then it works - so I know that the value is being retrieved from the previous html page.

How do I tell it to print from the file and at the same time, translate the value of $FORM{Invoice}?

Thanks

[KevinADC]

I am creating a web site where I want to have the same menu on each page.

I created a "menu file", and put the html print statements in the file. The menu file contains html code:

<table>
<tr>
<td>
<a href=get_plans_ summary.pl?Invo ice=$FORM{Invoi ce}</a>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

Inside of my perl script, I print out each line from the file, including a value for the variable $FORM{Invoice} (which I am getting from a previous link):

$FORM{Invoice} = "2007_08";
$top_menu = "top_menu.t xt";

open(line, "$top_menu" ) || die ("\nERROR - could not open file: $filename\n");
while (<line>)

{

print "$_\n";

}

My problem is that it prints the following:

<a href=get_plans_ summary.pl?Invo ice=$FORM{Invoi ce}</a>

and it doesn't translate the variable $FORM{Invoice} to the value that I have set for it earlier.

If I don't have it print from the file, then it works - so I know that the value is being retrieved from the previous html page.

How do I tell it to print from the file and at the same time, translate the value of $FORM{Invoice}?

Thanks

Input from files is treated as single-quoted strings, so no variable expansion is done on what looks like perl varibles in the text. It's just treated as literal text.

You can look into using templates, HTML::Template is often sighted as an example of how to use templates with perl scripts. Personally, I find templates to be a bit restriciting and just another layer of code to have to worry about but its pretty much dejur these days as code and content are said to be better seperated from each other. I don't really agree with that except in certain situations.

Another way is to use a "marker" in your html code, could be something like:

<<INVOICE>>

inserted into the place you want to use it in your html code. Then you use a regexp to perfrom the magic:

$html =~ s/<<INVOICE>>/$FORM{'Invoice'}/;

where $html is the text of the file. Or you can make your text perform an actual expansion of the variable using a regexp with the "e" (eval) option:

$html =~ s/(\$FORM{'Invoice'})/$1/eeg;

the "g" is added in case there is more than one instance of the variable in the string. If you have multiple variables you need to use a more generic regexp.




.

[widevision7]

This is a really great suggestion - and one that is so easy - I can't believe I didn't think of it... I guess that happens after sitting at a computer for 14 hours...

Thanks!