NAME
CGI::Test::Input - Abstract representation of POST input
SYNOPSIS
# Deferred class, only heirs can be created
# $input holds a CGI::Test::Input object
$input->add_widget($w); # done internally for you
$input->add_field("name", "value"); # manual input construction
$input->add_file("name", "path"); # deferred reading
$input->add_file_now("name", "/tmp/path"); # read file immediately
syswrite INPUT, $input->data, $input->length; # if you really have to
# $test is a CGI::Test object
$test->POST("http://server:70/cgi-bin/script", $input);
DESCRIPTION
The CGI::Test::Input
class is deferred. It is an abstract representation of HTTP POST request input, as expected by the POST
routine of CGI::Test
.
Unless you wish to issue a POST
request manually to provide carefully crafted input, you do not need to learn the interface of this hierarchy, nor even bother knowing about it.
Otherwise, you need to decide which MIME encoding you want, and create an object of the appropriate type. Note that file uploading requires the use of the multipart/form-data
encoding:
MIME Encoding Type to Create
--------------------------------- ---------------------------
application/x-www-form-urlencoded CGI::Test::Input::URL
multipart/form-data CGI::Test::Input::Multipart
Once the object is created, you will be able to add name/value tuples corresponding to the CGI parameters to submit.
For instance:
my $input = CGI::Test::Input::Multipart->new();
$input->add_field("login", "ram");
$input->add_field("password", "foobar");
$input->add_file("organization", "/etc/news/organization");
Then, to inspect what is normally sent to the HTTP server:
print "Content-Type: ", $input->mime_type, "\015\012";
print "Content-Length: ", $input->length, "\015\012";
print "\015\012";
print $input->data;
But usually you'll hand out the $input object to the POST
routine of CGI::Test
.
INTERFACE
Creation Routine
It is called new
as usual. All subclasses have the same creation routine signature, which takes no parameter.
Adding Parameters
CGI parameter are name/value tuples. In case of file uploads, they can have a content as well, the value being the file path on the client machine.
add_field
name, value-
Adds the CGI parameter name, whose value is value.
- add_file name, path
-
Adds the file upload parameter name, located at path.
The file is not read immediately, so it must remain available until the data routine is called, at least. It is not an error if the file cannot be read at that time.
When not using the
multipart/form-data
encoding, only the name/path tuple will be transmitted to the script. - add_file_now name, path
-
Same as
add_file
, but the file is immediately read and can therefore be disposed of afterwards. However, the file must exist. - add_widget widget
-
Add any widget, i.e. a
CGI::Test::Form::Widget
object. This routine is called internally byCGI::Test
to construct the input data when submiting a form via POST.
Generation
data
-
Returns the data, under the proper encoding.
mime_type
-
Returns the proper MIME encoding type, suitable for inclusion within a Content-Type header.
length
-
Returns the data length.
BUGS
Please let me know about them.
WEBSITE
You can find information about CGI::Test and other related modules at:
http://cgi-test.sourceforge.net
PUBLIC CVS SERVER
CGI::Test now has a publicly accessible CVS server provided by SourceForge (www.sourceforge.net). You can access it by going to:
http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=89570
AUTHORS
The original author is Raphael Manfredi <Raphael_Manfredi@pobox.com>.
Send bug reports, hints, tips, suggestions to Steven Hilton at <mshiltonj@mshiltonj.com>
SEE ALSO
CGI::Test(3), CGI::Test::Input::URL(3), CGI::Test::Input::Multipart(3).
1 POD Error
The following errors were encountered while parsing the POD:
- Around line 375:
You forgot a '=back' before '=head1'