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Inline Perl in HTML-Pages using mod_perl

1. Introduction
2. Download
3. Installation
4. Syntax
5. Security
6. Other Perl Packages

InlinePerlPages is a very experimental script with use of mod_perl perl-modules for Apache HTTPD. It provides following features:

1. Inline perl statements: stdout goes to output of resulting page.
2. Include files: include html/perl from a page (recursivly).
3. No seen CGIs (search-engines parse all your dynamic pages)

Inline Perl Pages 2. Download

$MyVersion: 0.010 - Fri May 10 14:08:44 CEST 2002 - kiwi$

IPP.tar.gz

Inline Perl Pages 3. Installation

You require to run Apache Web-Server then install mod_perl, follow the instructions given at http://perl.apache.org.

Unpack and install IPP.pm:

tar zxf IPP.tar.gz

cd IPP

perl Makefile.PL

make

make install

then edit your http.conf:

<VirtualHost 192.168.0.28>

ServerAdmin webmaster@host.some_domain.com

DocumentRoot /mypath/whatever/

<Location />

SetHandler perl-script

# PerlSetVar IPPStrict off

PerlHandler Apache::IPP

PerlSendHeader On

</Location>

</VirtualHost>

Run as root

/usr/local/apache/sbin/apachectl restart

By default 'use strict' is enabled within all perl-code, if you want to write unsafe perl-code then remove comment at 'PerlSetVar IPPStrict off'.

Inline Perl Pages 4. Syntax

Following inline commands are available:

#perl ... #/perl source-code in perl #include <filename> include a file #include <filename:arg1,arg2,...> include a file with arguments (they become available as @ARGV) <perl> ... </perl> source code in perl <include "file"> include a file <include "file:arg1,arg2,..."> include a file with arguments

All above tags must start at the beginning of a line and alone on a line.

Sample Code

Sample test.html, two version which are identical using two different styles:  <title>Sample</title>   #perl   open(F,"sample");   while(<F>) {      print $_;   }   close(F);   #/perl      Another part   #include <stuff>   <title>Sample</title>   <perl>   open(F,"sample");   while(<F>) {      print $_;   }   close(F);   </perl>      Another part   <include "stuff">  Available variables %in has all (possible) CGI variables (GET/POST) %ENV contains all CGI related variables like in normal CGIs Be careful when changing global variables with in-line perl since it's not sure a script is excecuted in its entirety, httpd may terminate the perl-code at any point.

IPP Cookbook More examples ...

Inline Perl Pages 5. Security

Security is always a problem on the net, especially on web-servers. InlinePerlPages is powerful, and therefore following recommendations should be considered:

• Don't allow any web-user to write HTML pages at all.
• Don't use guestbooks, or threaded discussions which create HTML pages direct, web-user could enter malicious #perl code by themselves.
• Use guestbooks or discussion-forums which store their submission as text or HTML in separate file(s) (but not .html pages); those files you include from an InlinePerlPages page. This way the data doesn't get interpreted by InlinePerlPages and #perl and #include don't take any effect.
• In general, anything which is requested direct via http:// is wrapped via InlinePerlPages; anything you include (read from a file or db) within an InlinePerlPages is not interpreted.

Inline Perl Pages 6. Other Perl Packages

PowerPerl Inline perl using <script language="PerlScript"> tags	Embperl: Embed Perl in HTML Embedded perl within HTML using [- and -] as tags	ePerl Alike package, uses <? and !> as tags
ProgrammerHTML Handler() The more sophisticated handler()

                                                                                                                                   

Mason

Perl Lab