[MacPerl-WebCGI] Re: Filters

[Leland Beaudrot <leland@arpsynod.org>]

tedd wrote:
> 
> My concern is that the user may enter:
> 
> 1. Too much text and overfill the edit fields. When this is done, it
> creates problems.

In the INPUT TYPE="TEXT" tag, MAXLENGTH="##" can be added to limit the
user's input.  This forces the user to resolve the issue of getting
their information into the available space without any editing on your
script's part.  Unfortunately, this does not work with TEXTAREA, in
which a person is more likely to get verbose.

> 2. Control characters which can fool my cgi script into thinking that
> more news stories have been added than what's actually been entered.

I use

   $findit =~ s/[^ -~]//g;

to eliminate all but the visible 7-Bit character set from $findit, the
input to a search engin.  

> 3. Things beyond my understanding or expectation at this moment
> (which assumes a lot).

To make sure I don't wind up with an empty comparison string (something
beyond my expectation, which caused werid results) I test $findit again
and, if necessary, load a dummy search string which always renders a
"Not Found" result.

   $findit or ($findit = 'Not a valid search string.');

-- 
Leland R. Beaudrot
A fisher of men using the Net.  >((((("> ~Jesus
http://www.arpsynod.org/

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