11.1.1. Example

Place the following file in a convenient spot in the WWW server's directory tree. E.g., if you place it in the subdirectory test of the root directory and call it test.html, its URL will be http://yourservername/test/test.html.

<TITLE>Test Form Input</TITLE>

<H1>Test Form Input</H1>

<FORM METHOD="POST" ACTION="/cgi-bin/test.py">

<INPUT NAME=Name> (Name)<br>

<INPUT NAME=Address> (Address)<br>

<INPUT TYPE=SUBMIT>

</FORM>

But wait. Before pressing ``submit'', a script that responds to the form must also be installed. The test file as shown assumes that the script is called test.py and lives in the server's cgi-bin directory. Here's the test script:

#!/usr/local/bin/python


import cgi


print "Content-type: text/html"

print                                   # End of headers!

print "<TITLE>Test Form Output</TITLE>"

print "<H1>Test Form Output</H1>"


form = cgi.SvFormContentDict()          # Load the form


name = addr = None                      # Default: no name and address


# Extract name and address from the form, if given


if form.has_key('Name'):

        name = form['Name']

if form.has_key('Address'):

        addr = form['Address']

        

# Print an unnumbered list of the name and address, if present


print "<UL>"

if name is not None:

        print "<LI>Name:", cgi.escape(name)

if addr is not None:

        print "<LI>Address:", cgi.escape(addr)

print "</UL>"

Now that everything is installed correctly, we can try out the form. Bring up the test form in your WWW browser, fill in a name and address in the form, and press the ``submit'' button. The script should now run and its output is sent back to your browser. This should roughly look as follows:

Test Form Output

• Name: the name you entered
• Address: the address you entered