CGI and Methods?

Hi all,

I’m trying my hand at scripting cgi in ruby. At the same time I’m
looking at Rails. So far I love ruby. Still reserving comments on
Rails. I have a question though. When coding a cgi script, is it
possible to have methods as I would say in a n my_app.rb or rails app?
Below is a script I’m working on to provide a web interface to our
syslog servers logs for our tech support dept. I would like to DRY this
up a bit. I’m repeating entirely too much code. I would welcome not
only a response to my question, but any other suggestions/criticism to
aid me in my learning process. Thank you very much.

tonyd

#!/usr/local/bin/ruby -w

Filename: syssearch.cgi

Description:

Open log(s) file and do our searching before we begin to send

data back to the browser. This way we don’t cause the browser to time

out

(in theory…)

Inputs: none

require ‘cgi’

cgi = CGI.new

Our search params passed

search_string = cgi[‘searchit’]
slogtype = cgi[‘logtype’]
smethod = cgi[‘method’]

Do we have something to search on?

if search_string.empty?
puts “Content-type: text/plain\r\n\r\n\n\nCommSpeed
Log Search\n\n\n”
puts “

Please enter a search criteria


puts “\n\n”
exit
end

A hash of possible logs

logs = {‘smtp’ => ‘smtp’, ‘mail’ => ‘maillog’, ‘mx’ => ‘mx’, ‘spam’ =>
‘spam’, ‘Dial Up’ => ‘radius’, ‘DHCP’ => ‘dhcp’ }

if smethod == “CAT”

Array to hold our search result matches

results = Array.new

Open file and look for our search string

File.open("/var/log/"+logs[slogtype],
‘r’).grep(/#{search_string}/).each do |line|
results.push(line) # append it to our results array
end # file is automatically closed

if results.empty?
# No matches found
puts “Content-type:
text/plain\r\n\r\n\n\nCommSpeed Log
Search\n\n\n”
puts “

No DHCP Log Results Found!


puts “\n\n”
exit
else
# Now send results back to browser
puts “Content-type:
text/plain\r\n\r\n\n\nCommSpeed Log
Search\n\n\n”
puts “

DHCP Log Results…

  # Print the results
  results.each do |line|
    puts line+"<br>"
  end

# Close HTML
puts "</BODY>\n</HTML>\n"
            exit

end
end

if smethod == “TAIL”
#TODO
#Need to figure out how to tail a file with our search scope in place
and feed it to the browser window.
end

Tony De wrote:

aid me in my learning process. Thank you very much.

tonyd

Writing code using the CGI library is just like any other Ruby code, so
you can have any methods, classes, or other code that you want.

puts "Content-type:

text/plain\r\n\r\n\n\nCommSpeed Log
Search\n\n\n"
puts “

No DHCP Log Results Found!


puts “\n\n”
exit

The CGI library does this kind of HTML work for you. See the example in
about the middle of the page here:
http://ruby-doc.org/stdlib/libdoc/cgi/rdoc/classes/CGI.html
and the documentation here:
http://ruby-doc.org/stdlib/libdoc/cgi/rdoc/classes/CGI/HtmlExtension.html

-Justin

Justin C. wrote:

Tony De wrote:

aid me in my learning process. Thank you very much.

tonyd

Writing code using the CGI library is just like any other Ruby code, so
you can have any methods, classes, or other code that you want.

puts "Content-type:

text/plain\r\n\r\n\n\nCommSpeed Log
Search\n\n\n"
puts “

No DHCP Log Results Found!


puts “\n\n”
exit

The CGI library does this kind of HTML work for you. See the example in
about the middle of the page here:
http://ruby-doc.org/stdlib/libdoc/cgi/rdoc/classes/CGI.html
and the documentation here:
http://ruby-doc.org/stdlib/libdoc/cgi/rdoc/classes/CGI/HtmlExtension.html

-Justin

Thanks Justin,

That’s what I thought. However, when I place a:

def my_method
end

statement, my code dies. Even if I simply make the definition with no
additional code. Do I need to place it at the top, bottom? And does it
have something to do with the extension I place on the file, .cgi vs
.rb?

tonyd

Justin C. wrote:

Tony De wrote:

you can have any methods, classes, or other code that you want.
about the middle of the page here:

tonyd

It does matter where you place the method definition, in a way. That is,
you can only use it in the code following its definition.

For example:

def my_method
end

my_method

will work, but

my_method

def my_method
end

will not.

Are you getting a specific error message?
If your code is working with .cgi as it is, adding methods should not
change a thing.

-Justin

Justin,

I don’t recall the exact error message now, it was late am yesterday.
But that’s exactly what I was doing. I was defining my method at the
bottom of my code file, much as I would in a rails controller, sort of.

So that I am clear on the file extension stuff. And for your info to
properly respond to my question; our servers run FreeBSD, Apache2, and
on this testing platform, mod_ruby. ? Do I need to use .cgi or .rb?
Does it matter where the file is placed? Seemingly stupid questions,
(and new to ruby) we know that a .cgi file is typically placed in the
user_web_space cgi dir (or based on our tailored Apache config) to be
executed. Would the same .rb file placed in the cgi dir be executed if
called from the html? Would it need to be placed elsewhere? And/or are
we talking about an Apache config mod? Was that clear as mud? Thanks
greatly for your assistance. You’ve already been a great help.

tonyd

Tony De wrote:

you can have any methods, classes, or other code that you want.
about the middle of the page here:

tonyd

It does matter where you place the method definition, in a way. That is,
you can only use it in the code following its definition.

For example:

def my_method
end

my_method

will work, but

my_method

def my_method
end

will not.

Are you getting a specific error message?
If your code is working with .cgi as it is, adding methods should not
change a thing.

-Justin

Tony De wrote:

It does matter where you place the method definition, in a way. That is,

properly respond to my question; our servers run FreeBSD, Apache2, and

Hi Tony,

It really depends on your setup. If you want to use mod_ruby, though,
you will need to modify Apache’s config file, and there it will be
determined where your files will go and what extension you will use. If
you do not use mod_ruby, then your Ruby file can be run just like any
other cgi program from your cgi directory.

-Justin