asked on

Help needed with hidden fields and current date

I am trying to use a hidden field in a form, but I am trying to get it to automaticly generate the date. I am using the following line:

<FORM METHOD="POST" ACTION="/cgi-bin/tester.pl">
KBID:
<BLOCKQUOTE>

<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="kbid" value="%Y%m%d">

I have used value= 'date + "%y%m%d"'> as well but nothing works. I use the above in a cgi in the follwoing manner:

KBID: $param{kbid}

But it just prints either date + --or-- %y%m%d.... Can I use year month day in a hidden field? Please let me know how I can get the above done.

Thanks!

BassTeQ

Add this code to your program

#date stuff
($sec,$min,$hour,$mday,$mon,$year,$wday,$yday,$isdst) = localtime;
$mon=$mon+1;
$year=$year+1900 if ($year >= 100);
$currdate="$mday/$mon/$year";

Then change this line
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="kbid" value="%Y%m%d">

to this
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="kbid" value="$currdate">

You can change the $currdate variable to display the date format you require.
eg
$currdate="$mday-$mon-$year";
$currdate="$mday"."$mon"."$year";
etc ...

Hope this helps!

Tintin

BassTeQ.

$year=$year+1900 if ($year >= 100);

No need for the if test.

$year+=1900;

will *always* be accurate for any dates >= 1900

Also no need to set a whole bunch of variables that aren't used in:

($sec,$min,$hour,$mday,$mon,$year,$wday,$yday,$isdst) = localtime;

better to do:

($mday,$mon,$year) = (localtime)[3,4,5];

And a neater way of doing the whole lot is:

use POSIX;
$date = strftime("%Y/%m/%d",localtime);

jovato.

In order to get the form to put in the date, you will need to use javascript, unless you are automatically generating the form with a language such as Perl.

BassTeQ

A few good points there tintin, thats just the standard code I use for all my date/time functions, thats why I declare everything, never know when you're going to need it :)

Cheers

ahoffmann

$param{kbid}= '<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="kbid" value="'
. `date +"%Y%m%d"` . '">';

amitabhrai

You can change your .html to .shtml to utilize the "server side includes" and use the following code.



<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="kbid"
value=''>

jovato

ASKER

I have tried the above comments and none work. Let me add a little more:

I am bouncing this form off of a perl script. This is for a knowledgebase. All I am tring to do is automaticly make a knowledgebase number for the html document that the perl script kicks out. For example: A user enters all of the relevent data into the fields and hits submit. At that time the script takes the current date and the script uses it to create a name for the page. So when a user hits submit, the parameter kbid should be like 022320030845.html. (month day year hour minute). I just need a way to configure this either on the form itself (as a hidden field) or within the script.

ahoffmann

> At that time the script takes the current date
does this mean that the time should be created at client side?
If so, you need JavaScript(or any anyother active scripting language).
Are you aware that such a solution might create multiple identical timestamps?

jovato

ASKER

Good point. I would rather see the time be server side. Seems like it would be easier as well.

jovato

ASKER

Here is the perl script:

sh-2.05$ more tester.pl
#!/usr/bin/perl

use CGI;
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);

my $q = new CGI;
print $q->header;
my %param = $q->Vars;

my $template = <<"EOF";
<html>
<head>
<title>cpconfig.com KB: $param{issue}</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
</head>

<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#FF0000" vlink="#FF0000" alink="#FF
0000">
<center>
<table width="600" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td width="600" height="550" valign="top">
<div align="center">
 
cpconfig
</div>
<div align="center">
KnowledgeBase</div>
<blockquote>
<div align="center">
<hr>
 |
<a href="#">cpconfig forum</a> | <a href="#">Home</a>
| <a href="#">Documentation</a> |
<a href="#">FAQ</a> | <a href="#">Links</a> | <a href="#">KB Help</a> |<div align="left">
<hr>
 

KBID: $param{kbid}

Issue:
$param{issue}
Version:
$param{version}
Platform:
$param{platform}
Abstract:
$param{abstract}
Solution:
$param{solution}
Links/Sources:
$param{links}
Submitted By:
$param{submitted}
 

DISCLAIMER: The
following information is believed to be accurate. If you find
anything wrong with any of the documentation, please e-mail us at
<a href="mailto:docs\@cpconfig.com?subject=KnowledgeBase problems">kb\@cpconfig.com</a> and let us know. We take n
o responsibility for
the accuracy or completeness of the documentation here. As always,
please test everything in a lab environment and not in production.
 
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</td>
</tr>
</table></center>
</body>
</html>
EOF

open (FILE, ">/usr/local/apache/htdocs/knowledgebase/$param{kbid}.html") or die "Can not open $param{kbid}.html $!\n";
print FILE $template;
close (FILE);

print "<h1>Created File</h1>";
exit;
sh-2.05$

jovato

ASKER

And here is the form:

sh-2.05$ more blank_kb.htm
<html>
<head>
<title>Template</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">


</head>

<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#FF0000" vlink="#FF0000" alink="#FF
0000">
<center>
<table width="600" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td width="600" height="550" valign="top">
<div align="center">
 
cpconfig
</div>
<div align="center">
KnowledgeBase</div>
<blockquote>
<div align="center">
<hr>
 |
<a href="/forums/index.php">cpconfig forum</a> | <a href="/">Home</a>
| <a href="/kbhelp.htm">Documentation</a> |
<a href="/faq.htm">FAQ</a> | <a href="/links.htm">Links</a> | <a href="#">KB Help</a> |<div align="left">
<hr>

<FORM METHOD="POST" ACTION="/cgi-bin/tester.pl">
KBID:
<BLOCKQUOTE>

<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="kbid" value=''>

 

</BLOCKQUOTE>

Issue:
<BLOCKQUOTE>

<TEXTAREA NAME="issue" ROWS=5 COLS=43></TEXTAREA>
 

</BLOCKQUOTE>

Version:
<BLOCKQUOTE>

<INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME="version" SIZE=51>
 

</BLOCKQUOTE>

Platform:
<BLOCKQUOTE>

<INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME="platform" SIZE=51>
 

</BLOCKQUOTE>

Abstract:
<BLOCKQUOTE>

<TEXTAREA NAME="abstract" ROWS=5 COLS=44></TEXTAREA>
 

</BLOCKQUOTE>

Solution:
<BLOCKQUOTE>

<TEXTAREA NAME="solution" ROWS=5 COLS=44></TEXTAREA>
 

</BLOCKQUOTE>

Links/Sources:
<BLOCKQUOTE>

<TEXTAREA NAME="links" ROWS=5 COLS=44></TEXTAREA>
 

</BLOCKQUOTE>

Submitted By:
<BLOCKQUOTE>

<INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME="submitted" SIZE=53>
 

</BLOCKQUOTE>

<INPUT TYPE=SUBMIT VALUE="Submit Form">
<INPUT TYPE=RESET VALUE="Reset Form"> 
</FORM>
 

DISCLAIMER: The
following information is believed to be accurate. If you find
anything wrong with any of the documentation, please e-mail us at
<a href="mailto:docs@cpconfig.com?subject=KnowledgeBase problems">kb@cpconfig.com</a> and let us know. We take n
o responsibility for
the accuracy or completeness of the documentation here. As always,
please test everything in a lab environment and not in production.
 
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</td>
</tr>
</table></center>
</body>
</html>

BassTeQ

Change your perl script to be.
You can chage the date stuff with the suggestions Tintin made if you wish.

#!/usr/bin/perl

use CGI;
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);

#date stuff
($sec,$min,$hour,$mday,$mon,$year,$wday,$yday,$isdst) = localtime;
$mon=$mon+1;
$year=$year+1900 if ($year >= 100);
$currdate="$mon"."$mday"."$year"."$hour"."$min";

my $q = new CGI;
print $q->header;
my %param = $q->Vars;

my $template = <<"EOF";
<html>
<head>
<title>cpconfig.com KB: $param{issue}</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
</head>

<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#FF0000" vlink="#FF0000" alink="#FF
0000">
<center>
<table width="600" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td width="600" height="550" valign="top">
<div align="center">
 
cpconfig
</div>
<div align="center">
KnowledgeBase</div>
<blockquote>
<div align="center">
<hr>
 |
<a href="#">cpconfig forum</a> | <a href="#">Home</a>
| <a href="#">Documentation</a> |
<a href="#">FAQ</a> | <a href="#">Links</a> | <a href="#">KB Help</a> |<div align="left">
<hr>
 

KBID: $param{kbid}

Issue:
$param{issue}
Version:
$param{version}
Platform:
$param{platform}
Abstract:
$param{abstract}
Solution:
$param{solution}
Links/Sources:
$param{links}
Submitted By:
$param{submitted}
 

DISCLAIMER: The
following information is believed to be accurate. If you find
anything wrong with any of the documentation, please e-mail us at
<a href="mailto:docs\@cpconfig.com?subject=KnowledgeBase problems">kb\@cpconfig.com</a> and let us know. We take n
o responsibility for
the accuracy or completeness of the documentation here. As always,
please test everything in a lab environment and not in production.
 
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</td>
</tr>
</table></center>
</body>
</html>
EOF

open (FILE, ">/usr/local/apache/htdocs/knowledgebase/$currdate.html") or die "Can not open $currdate.html $!\n";
print FILE $template;
close (FILE);

print "<h1>Created File</h1>";
exit;

jovato

ASKER

BassTeQ,

I made the changes above, but the files are being saved as $currdate.html. The script modifiactions are exactly as you specified. Can you think of any reason this wouldn't work?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Tintin

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

jovato

ASKER

That was the ticket.