NAME
    ASP - a Module for ASP (PerlScript) Programming

SYNOPSIS
            use strict;
            use ASP qw(:strict);

            print "Testing, testing.<BR><BR>";
            my $item = param('item');

            if($item eq 'Select one...') {
                die "Please select a value from the list.";
            }

            print "You selected $item.";
            exit;

DESCRIPTION
    This module is based on Matt Sergeant's excellent Win32::ASP
    module, which can be found at
    <http://www.fastnetltd.ndirect.co.uk/Perl>. After using Mr.
    Sergeant's module, I took on the task of customizing and
    optimizing it for my own purposes. Feel free to use it if you
    find it useful.

NOTES
    Both of the print() and warn() standard perl funcs are
    overloaded to output to the browser. print() is also available
    via the $ASP::ASPOUT->print() method call.

    $Request->ServerVariables are stuffed in %ENV to more closely
    resemble CGI.pm

    ASP.pm now exports the $ScriptingNamespace symbol. This symbol
    allows PerlScript to call subs/functions written in another
    script language. For example:

        <%@ language=PerlScript %>
        <%
            use ASP qw(:strict);
            print $ScriptingNamespace->SomeSub("arg1");
        %>
        <SCRIPT language=VBScript runat=server>
        Function SomeSub (str)
            SomeSub = SomethingThatReturnsSomething()
        End Function
        </SCRIPT>

INSTALLATION
    This module can be installed via my PPM repository at

       http://dichosoft.com/perl

USE
  use ASP qw(:basic);

    Exports basic subs: Print, Warn, die, exit, param, param_count.

  use ASP qw(:strict);

    Allows the use of the ASP objects under `use strict;'.

    NOTE: This is not the only way to accomplish this, but I think
    it's the cleanest, most convenient way.

  use ASP qw(:all);

    Same as `use ASP;'. Exports all subs except those marked 'not
    exported'.

  use ASP ();

    Overloads print() and warn() and provides the $ASP::ASPOUT
    object.

FUNCTION REFERENCE
  warn LIST

    `warn' (or more specifically, the __WARN__ signal) has been re-
    routed to output to the browser.

    FYI: When implemented, this tweak led to the removal of the
    prototypes Matt placed on his subs.

  print LIST

    `print' is overloaded to write to the browser by default. The
    inherent behavior of print has not been altered and you can
    still use an alternate filehandle as you normally would. This
    allows you to use print just as you would in CGI scripts. The
    following statement would need no modification between CGI and
    ASP PerlScript:

        print param('URL'), " was requested by ", $ENV{REMOTE_HOST}, "\n";

  Print LIST

    Prints a string or comma separated list of strings to the
    browser. Use as if you were using `print' in a CGI application.
    Print gets around ASP's limitations of 128k in a single
    $Response->Write() call.

    NB: `print' calls Print, so you could use either, but print more
    closely resembles perl.

  DebugPrint LIST

    Output is displayed between HTML comments so the output doesn't
    interfere with page aesthetics.

  HTMLPrint LIST

    The same as `Print' except the output is HTML-encoded so that
    any HTML tags appear as sent, i.e. < becomes &lt;, > becomes
    &gt; etc.

  die LIST

    Prints the contents of LIST to the browser and then exits. die
    automatically calls $Response->End for you, it also executes any
    cleanup code you have added with `AddDeathHook'.

  exit

    Exits the current script. $Response->End is called automatically
    for you. Any cleanup code added with `AddDeathHook' is also
    called.

  escape LIST

    Escapes (URL-encodes) a list. Uses ASP object method $Server-
    >URLEncode().

  unescape LIST

    Unescapes a URL-encoded list. Algorithms ripped from CGI.pm
    method of the same name.

  escapeHTML LIST

    Escapes a list of HTML. Uses ASP object method $Server-
    >HTMLEncode().

    If passed an array reference, escapeHTML will return a reference
    to the escaped array.

  unescapeHTML LIST

    Unescapes an HTML-encoded list.

    If passed an array reference, unescapeHTML will return a
    reference to the un-escaped array.

  param EXPR [, EXPR]

        Simplifies parameter access and makes switch from GET to
        POST transparent.

        Given the following querystring:

                myscript.asp?x=a&x=b&y=c

            param()      returns ('x', 'y')
            param('y')   returns 'c'
            param('x')   returns ('a', 'b')
            param('x',1) returns 'a'
            param('x',2) returns 'b'

  param_count EXPR

        Returns the number of times EXPR appears in the request
        (Form or QueryString).

        For example, if URL is

                myscript.asp?x=a&x=b&y=c

        then

                param_count('x');

        returns 2.

  AddDeathHook LIST

        Allows cleanup code to be executed when you `die' or `exit'.
        Useful for closing database connections in the event of a
        fatal error.

                <%
                my $conn = Win32::OLE-new('ADODB.Connection');
                $conn->Open("MyDSN");
                $conn->BeginTrans();
                ASP::AddDeathHook( sub { $Conn->Close if $Conn; } );
                %>

        Death hooks should be executed on a graceful exit of the
        script too but this hasn't been confirmed. If anyone has any
        luck, let me know.

        AddDeathHook is not exported.

  BinaryWrite LIST

        Performs the same function as $Response->BinaryWrite() but
        gets around Perl's lack of unicode support, and the null
        padding it uses to get around this. Example:

                ASP::BinaryWrite($val);

        BinaryWrite is not exported.

  SetCookie Name, Value [, HASH]

        Sets the cookie Name with the value Value. HASH is optional,
        and contains any of the following optional parameters:

            -expires => CGI.pm style expires value
            -domain => domain that the cookie is returned to; eg, ".domain.com"
            -path => a path that the cookie is returned to.
            -secure => cookie only returned under SSL if true.

        If Value is a hash ref, then it creates a cookie dictionary.
        (see either the ASP docs, or my Introduction to PerlScript
        for more info on Cookie Dictionaries).

        Example:

                ASP::SetCookie("Options", { bg=>'white', text=>'black' }, (
                    -expires => "+3h",
                    -domain => ".dichosoft.com",
                    -path => "/perl",
                    -secure => 0 )
                    );

        SetCookie is not exported.

AUTHOR
        Tim Hammerquist <tim@dichosoft.com>

HISTORY
    Version 1.00
            The escapeHTML() and unescapeHTML() functions now accept
            array refs as well as lists, as Win32::ASP::HTMLEncode()
            was supposed to. Thanks to Matt Sergeant for the fix.

    Version 0.97
            Optimized and debugged.

    Version 0.77
            Overloaded warn() and subsequently removed prototypes.

            Exported $ScriptingNamespace object.

            Added methods escape(), unescape(), escapeHTML(),
            unescapeHTML(). Thanks to Bill Odom for pointing these
            out!

            Re-implemented SetCookie and BinaryWrite functions.

    Version 0.11
            Optimized and debugged.

