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**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [August 7, 2006, 5:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cgi-rb-html-construction-tools-from-within-webrick-servlet/101727 "2006-08-07T17:57:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1
**Author:**  [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2006, 5:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cgi-rb-html-construction-tools-from-within-webrick-servlet/101727/1 "2006-08-07T17:57:48Z")
Folks, I’m just playing with webrick and writing a servlet
for the first time here.
I’ve previously used Perl’s CGI.pm to write a lot of stuff,
and used extensively its tools for generating HTML, especially
forms - and having the form construction elements retain state
data.
I’ve started writing up a handful of similar form generation
elements for my own use form within my servlet. If I were
writing a cgi script, I’d have, of course, used cgi.rb (which
looks like it behaves a lot like CGI.pm).
But I’m not writing cgi. I’m writing a servlet and I can’t
believe that I’m the first person who needed to generate
form elements, sometimes reusing the data from the req.query, etc.
Am I missing something? Re-creating a wheel unnecessarily?
Can I just use cgi.rb (can I feed it the req.query)?
BTW, thanks, everyone. I haven’t had so much fun writing code
in years as I’ve been having in the couple of weeks since
I started playing with Ruby.
---
**Author:**  [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2006, 9:28pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cgi-rb-html-construction-tools-from-within-webrick-servlet/101727/2 "2006-08-07T21:28:13Z")
Hi,
On 8/7/06, removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)
wrote:
> elements for my own use form within my servlet. If I were
> writing a cgi script, I’d have, of course, used cgi.rb (which
> looks like it behaves a lot like CGI.pm).
>
> But I’m not writing cgi. I’m writing a servlet and I can’t
> believe that I’m the first person who needed to generate
> form elements, sometimes reusing the data from the req.query, etc.
>
> Am I missing something? Re-creating a wheel unnecessarily?
well, there are many web frameworks from large to small ones (rails,
nitro, camping)
then there is markaby, builder et al. to generate markup
and even erb for templates.
> Can I just use cgi.rb (can I feed it the req.query)?
It seems you can mixin CGI::HtmlExtension to your servlet - that way
you’ll have all the methods there.
require ‘cgi.rb’
class YourServlet \< WEBrick::Whatever
include CGI::HtmlExtension
```
def a_method()
checkbox("name", "value", true)
end
```
end
I haven’t tried it - therefore i’m not 100% sure.
Jano
---
**Author:**  [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 11:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cgi-rb-html-construction-tools-from-within-webrick-servlet/101727/3 "2006-08-16T23:58:07Z")
“Jan S.” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) writes:
> On 8/7/06, removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:
> > Folks, I’m just playing with webrick and writing a servlet
> > for the first time here.
> >
> > I’ve previously used Perl’s CGI.pm to write a lot of stuff,
> > and used extensively its tools for generating HTML, especially
> well, there are many web frameworks from large to small ones (rails,
> nitro, camping)
> then there is markaby, builder et al. to generate markup
> and even erb for templates.
>
> > Can I just use cgi.rb (can I feed it the req.query)?
>
> It seems you can mixin CGI::HtmlExtension to your servlet - that way
> you’ll have all the methods there.
I haven’t had a chance to try out your suggestion yet, but I
wanted to thank you for making it. I’ll give it a shot.
In the meantime, I just wrote a handy-dandy HtmlTools object
which generates some of the common stuff for me - pop-ups,
checkboxes, markup for headers, etc. It’s very primitive,
and I should replace it.
Thanks