Writing XML data to a user provided file

Unfortunately I haven't much experience at XML..to be precise .. just about NULL experience. However if I am grasping the concept of your problem, you just want to write the XML text to a file. If that is so, this little code would do exactly what I think you want.

############## COPY CODE BELOW #################

#!/usr/bin/perl

&Parse_Form; # puts the input in a hash
$file = $formdata{'xmlfn'} # user specified file
$xmldata = $formdata{'xmldata'}; # inputed xml data

# open text file change the extension if you don't want txt
open (FILE, "> ../$file.txt") || &error('file open error');
flock(FILE, 2); # lock the file
print FILE "$xmldata"; # print the xmldata to file
flock(FILE, 8); # unlock the file
close (FILE); # close the file

print "Content-type:text/html\n\n"; # mime type
print "Done"; # so it won't error with no content
exit;

# Parser subroutine : use either post or get
sub Parse_Form {
if ($ENV{'REQUEST_METHOD'} eq 'GET') {
@pairs = split(/&/, $ENV{'QUERY_STRING'});
} elsif ($ENV{'REQUEST_METHOD'} eq 'POST') {
read (STDIN, $buffer, $ENV{'CONTENT_LENGTH'});
@pairs = split(/&/, $buffer);

if ($ENV{'QUERY_STRING'}) {
@getpairs =split(/&/, $ENV{'QUERY_STRING'});
push(@pairs,@getpairs);
}
} else {
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
print "Use Post or Get";
}

foreach $pair (@pairs) {
($key, $value) = split (/=/, $pair);
$key =~ tr/+/ /;
$key =~ s/%([a-fA-F0-9][a-fA-F0-9])/pack("C", hex($1))/eg;
$value =~ tr/+/ /;
$value =~ s/%([a-fA-F0-9][a-fA-F0-9])/pack("C", hex($1))/eg;

$value =~s///g;

if ($formdata{$key}) {
$formdata{$key} .= ", $value";
} else {
$formdata{$key} = $value;
}
}
}

# Error Subroutine

sub error {
print "SORRY THERE WAS AN ERROR:$_[0];";
}

######## END OF SCRIPT ########

That little tidbit will take a user specified file from your form, and write the xml data to it. Make sure the permission are set correctly...755 for scripts...777 for text files.

And don't forget to add a submit button to your form.

Now may I ask for a favor? It appears that you have a grasp on XML...something I haven't had time to accomplish. Do you think you can brief me on some of XML's aspects? Perhaps a general tutoring session? Thanx.

Hope that helps you out.

[Edited by Ken Elliott on 10-19-2000 at 09:09 AM]