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From: "Life is hard... and then you die." <Ronald.Tschalaer@psi.ch>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.java
Subject: Re: "POST"ing to a cgi-script
Date: Sat, 06 Jan 1996 15:03:19 +0100
Organization: IIS, ETHZ
Lines: 195
Message-ID: <30EE8127.41C67EA6@psi.ch>
References: <9601061625.AA11048@18423-news.bilbo.wipsys.soft.net>
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To: trk@bilbo.wipsys.soft.net

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trk@bilbo.wipsys.soft.net wrote:

  Hi,

> I would like to create a form in java and which should
> be posted to a CGI script once it is filled up. I suppose
> one can take care of this situation if the cgi-script is
> called by the "GET" method. But if the method is "POST",
> where the script reads form contents from its stdin, how
> should I go about doing it?

The only difference with using POST really is that you need
to specify a Content-length and Content-type and write the
data following the request header.

 
> Any help would be greatly appreciated..

I posted a simple example here of how to POST to a cgi-script
a few days ago, but because of the traffic you might not have
it stored on your news-server anymore. So here it is again
(with a small change, and a few notes in the comments added).


  Cheers,

  Ronald

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/*
 * This applet is a simple example of how contact a cgi-script using the
 * POST method. It sends the data in sdata puts any received data into
 * rdata; rdata is then displayed in the applet.
 *
 * The variable script is the cgi-script to be contacted. Note: since we're
 * doing raw HTTP here the variable script must contain the full (absolute)
 * path to the cgi-script.
 *
 * Note also: The cgi-script must reside on the same machine as where the
 * applet was loaded from (this is a security constraint in Netscape
 * browsers, and will probably be around in other browsers too).
 */

import java.applet.Applet;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.net.Socket;
import java.io.*;
import java.util.StringTokenizer;


public class PostExample extends Applet
{
    private final String script = "/cgi-bin/show_input.cgi";
    private final String ctype  = "application/octet-stream";
    private       String sdata  = "Hello World";
    private       String rdata  = "";
    private       String home;
    private       int    port;


    public void init()
    {
	home = getCodeBase().getHost();
	port = getCodeBase().getPort();
	if (port == -1)  port = 80;
    }


    public void start()
    {
	Socket           sock;
	OutputStream     outp;
	InputStream      inp;
	DataOutputStream dataout;
	DataInputStream  datain;


	rdata = "";


	//create a client socket 
	try
	    sock = new Socket(home, port);
	catch (Exception e)
	{
	    rdata = e+" (socket: Host: "+home+"\tPort: "+port+")";
	    return;
	}


	// Obtain output stream to communicate with the server
	try
	{
	    outp = sock.getOutputStream();
	    inp  = sock.getInputStream();
	}
	catch (Exception e)
	{
	    rdata = e+" (get IOStream)";
	    try
		sock.close();
	    catch (IOException ee) ;
	    return;
	}

	try
	{
	    dataout = new DataOutputStream(outp);
	    datain  = new DataInputStream(inp);
	}
	catch (Exception e)
	{
	    rdata = e+" (get DataIOStream)";
	    try
		sock.close();
	    catch (IOException ee) ;
	    return;
	}


	// Send http request to server and get return data
	try
	{
	    // HTTP header
	    dataout.writeBytes("POST " + script + " HTTP/1.0\r\n");
	    dataout.writeBytes("Content-type: " + ctype + "\r\n");
	    dataout.writeBytes("Content-length: " + sdata.length() + "\r\n");
	    dataout.writeBytes("\r\n");		// end of header
	    // POST data
	    dataout.writeBytes(sdata);

	    boolean body = false;
	    String line;
	    while ((line = datain.readLine()) != null)
	    {
		if (body)
		    rdata += "\n" + line;
		else if (line.equals(""))	// end of header
		    body = true;
	    }
	}
	catch (Exception e)
	{
	    rdata = e+" (read/write data)";
	    try
		sock.close();
	    catch (IOException ee) ;
	    return;
	}


	// close up shop
	try
	{
	    dataout.close();
	    datain.close();
	}
	catch (IOException e) ;
	try
	    sock.close();
	catch (IOException e) ;
    }


    public void stop() {}


    public void paint(Graphics g)
    {
	StringTokenizer st = new StringTokenizer(rdata, "\n");
	int line    = 1,
	    line_sp = getFontMetrics(getFont()).getHeight()+1;

	while (st.hasMoreTokens())
	{
	    g.drawString(st.nextToken(), 5, line*line_sp);
	    line++;
	}
    }
}


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