[lug] cgi text format

[rm at fabula.de]

On Fri, Jun 28, 2002 at 09:15:41AM -0600, Paul Bille wrote:
> jd > Is there away using cgi i can pass the info from the text box
> preserving spacing and format?
> 
> jd,
> 
> I presume users enter text in your text-box as a string.  The browser
> wraps the input to fit within the box but this is just for display.  The
> string of text is returned to the server as a command line parameter,
> appended to the URL pointing to your cgi application e.g.
> 	http://www.taproot.bz/myapp.exe?This%xxis%xxthe%xxinput%xxtext.

Only if you use GET as the form's method - not a good idea for longish
text fields since the max. length of a GET request can be rather limited.


> Everything after the ? Is the data from the text-box.  Some characters
> are encoded including spaces and line feeds.  Your app must convert the
> encoded characters back to the original character to restore the
> formatting.
> 
> A well written cgi application will allow the client to embed HTML
> formatting commands into the text box.

Hmm, he wants to send the content of the text box as a mail. Do we
_really_ want HTML in emails :-? Noooo


Back to the original question: the <textarea> tag has an optional
parameter 'wrap' that can take one of three values:

  off = no authomatic wrapping takes place.

  virtual = the browser will wrap the text so it fits into the textbox
  but will send the content as one string.

  physical = wrap the text in the form and send the inserted line breaks
  to the processing application.

Hope this helps,

     Ralf Mattes
> Hope this helps,
> Paul
> http://bille.cudenver.edu/author
> 
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