Total Newbie to Perl

[JimBoCol]

Hi everyone! I am very new to Perl, and have a problem/question.

I downloaded a very simple search script, and configured it for my Website. I was able to customize the output page to match the color, and theme of my site. I was also able to get it to display what it was searching for. My problem now is, I can not for the life of me get it to count the number of results it finds and display that count on the result page. I can post the script here, or email it to someone, (nothing sensitive, it s a recipe/Hobby site), and someone tell me what to put where? I'm not new to coding, I've been coding with MS Access VB for over a decade, but with perl, I'm a babe in the woods. I know how to create a variable for the counts, but it keeps crashing when I try to insert a count function into where I think it's finding it's results. I am lost, and would so much appreciate some help. IF anyone is interested in seeing what I'm talking about, my site is http://www.jimslaptop.com and the count function is in food, and in model cars Real cars is a different site of mine that is linked to it.

Thanks,
Jim.

[mitchems]

Post the script in code brackets and we will look it over.

[JimBoCol]

Post the script in code brackets and we will look it over.

I greatly appreciate your time and effort. $The_Count is the variable that I defined to use for counting. I just could not figure out how to get it to count, and how to display it, unless I'm going about it all wrong. I know it's huge, but it works.

I was thinking about trimming it down to just what I need it for, but I'm not going to fool with it because I don't know that much about it, and of course, if it's not broke and all.

This is nothing at all like the MS Access VB that I'm so used to.

Thanks,
Jim.

#!/usr/bin/perl -Tw
##############################################################################
# nms Simple Search                    Version 1.42                          #
# Copyright 2001 London Perl Mongers   All rights reserved                   #
# Created 11/11/01                     Last Modified 02/01/03                #
# Matt's Script Archive:               http://www.scriptarchive.com/         #
##############################################################################
# nms Simple Search has been created as a drop in replacement for the Simple #
# Search found at Matt's Script Archive. Both the original and nms versions  #
# of this script can be found at the above URL. Support for nms Simple       #
# Search is available through: [e-mail]         #
##############################################################################
#
# $Id: search.pl,v 1.42 2003/02/01 00:18:50 nickjc Exp $
#

use strict;
use CGI qw(param);
use vars qw($DEBUGGING $basedir $baseurl @files $title $title_url
 $search_url @blocked $emulate_matts_code $style $charset
 $hit_threshhold @subdirs $done_headers $no_prune $done_headers $The_Count);
use subs qw(File::Find::chdir); # for old File::Find taint problems
use File::Find;
$ENV{PATH} = '/bin:/usr/bin';# sanitize the environment
delete @ENV{qw(ENV BASH_ENV IFS)};# ditto

$CGI::DISABLE_UPLOADS = $CGI::DISABLE_UPLOADS = 1;
$CGI::POST_MAX = $CGI::POST_MAX = 4096;


# PROGRAM INFORMATION
# -------------------
# search.pl $Revision: 1.42 $
#
# This program is licensed in the same way as Perl
# itself. You are free to choose between the GNU Public
# License <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>  or
# the Artistic License
# <http://www.perl.com/pub/a/language/misc/Artistic.html>
#
# For a list of changes see CHANGELOG
#
# For help on configuration or installation see README
#
# USER CONFIGURATION SECTION
# --------------------------
# Modify these to your own settings. You might have to
# contact your system administrator if you do not run
# your own web server. If the purpose of these
# parameters seems unclear, please see the README file.
#
BEGIN {
   $DEBUGGING           = 1;
   $basedir             = '/home/jimbocol/jimslaptop.com/food';
   $baseurl             = 'http://www.jimslaptop.com/food/';
   @files               = ('bigoven/alton/*.htm','bigoven/beef/*.htm','bigoven/bobby/*.htm','bigoven/can/*.htm','bigoven/crockpot/*.htm','bigoven/emeril/*.htm','bigoven/giada/*.htm','bigoven/ina/*.htm','bigoven/paula/*.htm','bigoven/pie/*.htm','bigoven/pork/*.htm','bigoven/rachel/*.htm','bigoven/sandra/*.htm','bigoven/sara/*.htm','bigoven/soup/*.htm','bigoven/tyler/*.htm','bigoven/wolfgang/*.htm','bigoven/app/*.htm','bigoven/potato/*.htm','bigoven/cookie/*.htm','bigoven/yan/*.htm','bigoven/cakes/*.htm','nyc/brisket/*.htm','nyc/alcohol/*.htm','nyc/app/*.htm','nyc/asian/*.htm','nyc/bbq/*.htm','nyc/bbqs/*.htm','nyc/beef/*.htm','nyc/bread/*.htm','nyc/breakfast/*.htm','nyc/burma/*.htm','nyc/cakes/*.htm','nyc/candy/*.htm','nyc/carib/*.htm','nyc/casserole/*.htm','nyc/chicken/*.htm','nyc/chocolate/*.htm','nyc/condiment/*.htm','nyc/cookies/*.htm','nyc/crockpot/*.htm','nyc/dessert/*.htm','nyc/diabetic/*.htm','nyc/dips/*.htm','nyc/dressing/*.htm','nyc/dumpling/*.htm','nyc/easy/*.htm','nyc/eggs/*.htm','nyc/fav/*.htm','nyc/ffd/*.htm','nyc/fish/*.htm','nyc/fruit/*.htm','nyc/game/*.htm','nyc/german/*.htm','nyc/goose/*.htm','nyc/grill/*.htm','nyc/ham/*.htm','nyc/italian/*.htm','nyc/jam/*.htm','nyc/kidney/*.htm','nyc/nuts/*.htm','nyc/pork/*.htm','nyc/poultry/*.htm','nyc/veal/*.htm');
   $title               = "Jim's Recipes";
   $title_url           = 'http://www.jimslaptop.com/food/rec.html';
   $search_url          = 'http://www.jimslaptop.com/food/recnav.html';
   @blocked             = ('arc/*','images/*','search/*');
   $emulate_matts_code  = 1;
   $style               = '';
   $charset             = 'iso-8859-1';
   $The_Count           = 0;

# the following config variables only affect the program if
# $emulate_matts_code is switched off $hit_threshhold is what the minimum
# amount of hits per page that are required for the match to be outputted

   $hit_threshhold      = 1;
   @subdirs             = ('','/manual','/vmanual');
   $no_prune            = 1;

#
# USER CONFIGURATION << END >>
# ----------------------------
# (no user serviceable parts beyond here)

# a common error is to put a trailing / on $basedir.
$basedir =~ s#/$##;

} # BEGIN

# We need finer control over what gets to the browser and the CGI::Carp
# set_message() is not available everywhere :(
# This is basically the same as what CGI::Carp does inside but simplified
# for our purposes here.

BEGIN
{
   sub fatalsToBrowser
   {
      my ( $message ) = @_;

      if ( $DEBUGGING )
      {
         $message =~ s/</&lt;/g;
         $message =~ s/>/&gt;/g;
      }
      else
      {
         $message = '';
      }

      my ( $pack, $file, $line, $sub ) = caller(0);
      my ($id ) = $file =~ m%([^/]+)$%;

      return undef if $file =~ /^\(eval/;

      print "Content-Type: text/html\n\n" unless $done_headers;

      print <<EOERR;
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
  <head>
    <title>Error</title>
  </head>
  <body>
     <h1>Application Error</h1>
     <p>
     An error has occurred in the program
     </p>
     <p>
     $message
     </p>
  </body>
</html>
EOERR
     die @_;
   };

   $SIG{__DIE__} = \&fatalsToBrowser;
}

use vars qw($cs);
$cs = CGI::NMS::Charset->new($charset);

# %E is a fake hash for escaping HTML metachars as things are
# interploted into strings.
use vars qw(%E);
tie %E, __PACKAGE__;
sub TIEHASH { bless {}, shift }
sub FETCH { $cs->escape($_[1]) }


use vars qw($style_element);
$style_element = $style ?
                    qq%<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="$style" />%
                  : '';

# Parse Form Search Information
use vars qw($case $bool $terms);
$case   = param("case") ? param("case") : "Insensitive";
$bool   = param("boolean") ? param("boolean") : "OR";
$terms  = param("terms") ? param("terms") : "";

my $directory = param('directory') || 0;
my $seldir = $directory && $directory < @subdirs ?
                                            $subdirs[$directory] : "";

# Print page headers

start_of_html($title, $style);

use vars qw(@term_list @paths @hits @titles $wclist $dirlist $termlist);
local (@term_list,@paths,@hits,@titles,$wclist,$dirlist,$termlist);
use vars qw($startdir);
local $startdir;

use vars qw($mess_with_file_find_chdir);
BEGIN { $mess_with_file_find_chdir = 0; }

if ($terms)
{
    @term_list = split(/\s+/, $terms);
    ($wclist, $dirlist) = build_list(@files);
    my @temp_list = @term_list;

    $termlist = join '|', map { "\Q$_\E" } @temp_list;
    $termlist = "(?:$termlist)";

    if ( $emulate_matts_code )
    {
       $startdir = $basedir;
    }
    else
    {
       $startdir = "$basedir$seldir";
    }

    if ($] >= 5.006) {
      # Our perl instalation is new enough that this is worth a try:
      eval <<'END';
        local $SIG{__DIE__};
        find({ wanted          => \&do_search,
               untaint         => 1,
               untaint_pattern => qr<^([:\\+\@\w./ -]*)$>,
             },
             $startdir
            );
END
      if ($@) {
        if ($@ =~ /not a (code|subroutine) ref/i) {
          # File::Find too old for the newer calling convention, fall
          # back to the older way of doing it.
          oldstyle_find();
        }
        else {
          die $@;
        }
      }
    }
    else {
      oldstyle_find();
    }

    if (!$emulate_matts_code)
    {
        my @base = sort {$hits[$b] <=> $hits[$a]} (0 .. $#hits);
        @titles  = @titles[@base];
        @paths   = @paths[@base];

        for my $i (0 .. $#hits)
        {
           print_result($baseurl, $paths[$i], $titles[$i])
                 if ($hits[$i] >= $hit_threshhold);
        }
    }
}
else
{
    print "<li>No Terms Specified</li>";
}

end_of_html($search_url, $title_url, $title, $terms, $bool, $case);

sub oldstyle_find
{
    local $mess_with_file_find_chdir = 1;
    find(\&do_search, $startdir);
}

sub File::Find::chdir
{
    #
    # This sub replaces the chdir() builtin for the code in File::Find.
    #
    # We might be running under mod_perl or similar, so we must be careful
    # not to interfere with File::Find's functionality as seen by other
    # scripts sharing this Perl interpreter.
    #
    # To acheive that, this sub only differs from what CORE::chdir does if
    # the package variable $mess_with_file_find_chdir is true, which will
    # only happen when File::Find is being used by this script.
    #
    my $dir = shift;
    if ($mess_with_file_find_chdir) {
        $dir =~ m|^([:\\+\@\w./ -]*)$| or die "suspect directory name: [$_[0]]";
        $dir = $1;
    }
    CORE::chdir($dir);
}

sub do_search
{
    return if $File::Find::name eq $startdir;
    $File::Find::name =~ m#^\Q$basedir\E(.*/)([^/]+)$#
         or die "can't parse File::Find::name [$File::Find::name]";
    my ($dirname, $basename) = ($1, $2);
    $dirname =~ s#^/+##;

    my @stats = stat $File::Find::name;
    if (-d _ and $basename =~ /^\./) {
        $File::Find::prune = 1;
    }

    return if $basename =~ /^\./;

    if (-d _) {
        if ("$dirname$basename" !~ /$dirlist/o) {
            $File::Find::prune = 1 unless (!$emulate_matts_code and $no_prune);
        }
        foreach my $blocked (@blocked) {
            if ($emulate_matts_code ) {
                $File::Find::prune = 1 if "$dirname$basename" eq $blocked;
            }
            else {
               $File::Find::prune = 1 if "$dirname$basename" =~ /$blocked/;
            }
        }
        return;
    }

    if (!$emulate_matts_code and $no_prune )
    {
       return unless $basename =~ /$wclist/io;
    }
    else
    {
      return unless ("$dirname$basename" =~ m/$wclist/io);
    }
    return unless -r _;
    foreach my $blocked (@blocked) {
        if ($emulate_matts_code ) {
           return if $_ eq $blocked;
        }
        else {
           return if /$blocked/;
        }
    }

    open(FILE, "<$File::Find::name") or return;
    my $string = do { local $/; <FILE> };
    close(FILE);

    if ($bool eq 'AND') {
        foreach my $term (@term_list) {
           if ($case eq 'Insensitive') {
                return if ($string !~ m/\Q$term\E/i);
           }
           elsif ($case eq 'Sensitive') {
                return if ($string !~ m/\Q$term\E/);
           }
        }
    }
    elsif ($bool eq 'OR') {
       my $find;
       foreach my $term (@term_list) {
          if ($case eq 'Insensitive') {
                $find++ if ($string =~ /\Q$term\E/i);
          }
          elsif ($case eq 'Sensitive') {
                $find++ if ($string =~ /\Q$term\E/)
          }
       }
       return unless $find;
    }

    my $page_title = $basename;

    if ($string =~ m%<title>(.+?)</title>%is) {
        $page_title = $1;
    }

    if ($emulate_matts_code) {
        print_result($baseurl, "$dirname$basename", $page_title);
    }
    else {
        my @m = split(/$termlist/i, $string);
        my $matches = scalar(@m);
        push (@hits, $matches);
        push (@paths, "$dirname$basename");
        push (@titles, $page_title);
    }
}

#
# Returns a list of 2 strings holding regular expressions.  The
# first matches the names of files to be searched.  The second
# matches the names of directories that might have matching
# files in them.
#
# Treats '*' like the shell does, all else is literal.
#

sub build_list
{
    my @files = @_;

    my (@filepat, %dirpat);
    foreach my $file (@files) {
        # The README says 'fun/' means 'fun/*'
        $file =~ s#/$#/*#;

        my $filepat = quotemeta($file);
        $filepat =~ s#\\\*#(?:(?:[^/.][^/]*)?)#g;
        push @filepat, $filepat;

        while ($file =~ s#/[^/]+$##) {
            my $dirpat = quotemeta($file);
            $dirpat =~ s#\\\*#(?:(?:[^/.][^/]*)?)#g;
            $dirpat{$dirpat} = 1;
        }
    }
    return( '^(?:(?:' . join(')|(?:', @filepat)     . '))$',
            '^(?:(?:' . join(')|(?:', keys %dirpat) . '))$'
          );
}


sub start_of_html
{
    my ($title,$style) = @_;
    print "Content-Type: text/html; charset=$charset\n\n";
    $done_headers++;
    print <<END_HTML;
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
  <head>
    <base target="main">
    <style fprolloverstyle>A:hover {color: #E2C0AF; font-style: italic}</style>
    <title>Search Results</title>
    $style_element
  </head>
  <body bgcolor="#965C36" link="#E2C0AF" vlink="#C6B580" alink="#E2C0AF" text="#C6B580">
   <center>
   <a href="../food/rec.html" target=_top><img border=0 src="../food/images/main.gif" alt="Category List"></a>
   <br>
   <a href="../food/arc.html" target=_top><img border=0 src="../food/images/dlarc.gif" alt="Download Archives"></a>
   <br>
   <a href="../food/bigoven/boindex.html" target="nav"><img src="../food/images/bologo.gif" border=0 alt="Big Oven Recipes"></a>
   <br>
   <a href="../food/nyc/nycnav.html" target="nav"><img border=0 src="../food/images/nyc586.gif"></a>
   <br>
   <a href="../food/dhrecreq.html"><img border=0 src="../food/images/recreq.gif" alt="Request a Recipe"></a>
   <br>
   <a href="$E{$title_url}" target=_top><img border=0 src="../food/bigoven/images/search_again.gif"></a>
   <br>
   <font size="6"><b>Results for 
   <br>
   $E{$terms}</font></b>
   <br>
   <hr size="3" width="80%" />
   <font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2">
   <UL>
   </center>
END_HTML
}


sub print_result
{
    my ($baseurl, $file, $title) = @_;

    $file    =~ s#^/##;
    $baseurl =~ s#/$##;
 
#    $The_Count++

    print qq(<li><a href="$E{"$baseurl/$file"}">$E{$title}</a></li>\n);
}


sub end_of_html
{
  my ($search_url, $title_url, $title, $terms, $boolean, $case) = @_;
  print <<END_HTML;
   </UL>
   <center>
   <font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2">
   <hr size="3" width="80%" />
   <br>
   <a href="$E{$title_url}" target=_top><img border=0 src="../food/bigoven/images/search_again.gif"></a>   
   <br>
   <hr size="3" width="80%" />
   <br>
   Search Script(c)
   <br>
   London Perl Mongers 2001
   <br>
   part of <a href="http://nms-cgi.sourceforge.net/">NMS Project</a></p>
   </center> 
</body>
</html>
END_HTML
}

###################################################################

BEGIN {
  eval 'local $SIG{__DIE__} ; require CGI::NMS::Charset';
  $@ and $INC{'CGI/NMS/Charset.pm'} = 1;
  $@ and eval <<'END_CGI_NMS_CHARSET' || die $@;

## BEGIN INLINED CGI::NMS::Charset
package CGI::NMS::Charset;
use strict;

require 5.00404;

use vars qw($VERSION);
$VERSION = sprintf '%d.%.2d', (q$revision: 1.3 $ =~ /(\d+)\.(\d+)/);

=head1 NAME

CGI::NMS::Charset - a charset-aware object for handling text strings

=head1 SYNOPSIS

   my $cs = CGI::NMS::Charset->new('iso-8859-1');

   my $safe_to_put_in_html = $cs->escape($untrusted_user_input);

   my $printable = &{ $cs->strip_nonprint_coderef }( $input );
   my $escaped = &{ $cs->escape_html_coderef }( $printable );

=head1 DESCRIPTION

Each object of class C<CGI::NMS::Charset> is bound to a particular
character set when it is created.  The object provides methods to
generate coderefs to perform a couple of character set dependent
operations on text strings.

=cut

=head1 CONSTRUCTORS

=over

=item new ( CHARSET )

Creates a new C<CGI::NMS::Charset> object, suitable for handing text
in the character set CHARSET.  The CHARSET parameter must be a
character set string, such as C<us-ascii> or C<utf-8> for example.

=cut

sub new
{
   my ($pkg, $charset) = @_;

   my $self = { CHARSET => $charset };

   if ($charset =~ /^utf-8$/i)
   {
      $self->{SN} = \&_strip_nonprint_utf8;
      $self->{EH} = \&_escape_html_utf8;
   }
   elsif ($charset =~ /^iso-8859/i)
   {
      $self->{SN} = \&_strip_nonprint_8859;
      if ($charset =~ /^iso-8859-1$/i)
      {
         $self->{EH} = \&_escape_html_8859_1;
      }
      else
      {
         $self->{EH} = \&_escape_html_8859;
      }
   }
   elsif ($charset =~ /^us-ascii$/i)
   {
      $self->{SN} = \&_strip_nonprint_ascii;
      $self->{EH} = \&_escape_html_8859_1;
   }
   else
   {
      $self->{SN} = \&_strip_nonprint_weak;
      $self->{EH} = \&_escape_html_weak;
   }

   return bless $self, $pkg;
}

=back

=head1 METHODS

=over

=item charset ()

Returns the CHARSET string that was passed to the constructor.

=cut

sub charset
{
   my ($self) = @_;

   return $self->{CHARSET};
}

=item escape ( STRING )

Returns a copy of STRING with runs of non-printable characters
replaced with spaces and HTML metacharacters replaced with the
equivalent entities.

If STRING is undef then the empty string will be returned.

=cut

sub escape
{
   my ($self, $string) = @_;

   return &{ $self->{EH} }(  &{ $self->{SN} }($string)  );
}

=item strip_nonprint_coderef ()

Returns a reference to a sub to replace runs of non-printable
characters with spaces, in a manner suited to the charset in
use.

The returned coderef points to a sub that takes a single readonly
string argument and returns a modified version of the string.  If
undef is passed to the function then the empty string will be
returned.

=cut

sub strip_nonprint_coderef
{
   my ($self) = @_;

   return $self->{SN};
}

=item escape_html_coderef ()

Returns a reference to a sub to escape HTML metacharacters in
a manner suited to the charset in use.

The returned coderef points to a sub that takes a single readonly
string argument and returns a modified version of the string.

=cut

sub escape_html_coderef
{
   my ($self) = @_;

   return $self->{EH};
}

=back

=head1 DATA TABLES

=over

=item C<%eschtml_map>

The C<%eschtml_map> hash maps C<iso-8859-1> characters to the
equivalent HTML entities.

=cut

use vars qw(%eschtml_map);
%eschtml_map = (
                 ( map {chr($_) => "&#$_;"} (0..255) ),
                 '<' => '&lt;',
                 '>' => '&gt;',
                 '&' => '&amp;',
                 '"' => '&quot;',
               );

=back

=head1 PRIVATE FUNCTIONS

These functions are returned by the strip_nonprint_coderef() and
escape_html_coderef() methods and invoked by the escape() method.
The function most appropriate to the character set in use will be
chosen.

=over

=item _strip_nonprint_utf8

Returns a copy of STRING with everything but printable C<us-ascii>
characters and valid C<utf-8> multibyte sequences replaced with
space characters.

=cut

sub _strip_nonprint_utf8
{
   my ($string) = @_;
   return '' unless defined $string;

   $string =~
   s%
    ( [\t\n\040-\176]               # printable us-ascii
    | [\xC2-\xDF][\x80-\xBF]        # U+00000080 to U+000007FF
    | \xE0[\xA0-\xBF][\x80-\xBF]    # U+00000800 to U+00000FFF
    | [\xE1-\xEF][\x80-\xBF]{2}     # U+00001000 to U+0000FFFF
    | \xF0[\x90-\xBF][\x80-\xBF]{2} # U+00010000 to U+0003FFFF
    | [\xF1-\xF7][\x80-\xBF]{3}     # U+00040000 to U+001FFFFF
    | \xF8[\x88-\xBF][\x80-\xBF]{3} # U+00200000 to U+00FFFFFF
    | [\xF9-\xFB][\x80-\xBF]{4}     # U+01000000 to U+03FFFFFF
    | \xFC[\x84-\xBF][\x80-\xBF]{4} # U+04000000 to U+3FFFFFFF
    | \xFD[\x80-\xBF]{5}            # U+40000000 to U+7FFFFFFF
    ) | .
   %
    defined $1 ? $1 : ' '
   %gexs;

   #
   # U+FFFE, U+FFFF and U+D800 to U+DFFF are dangerous and
   # should be treated as invalid combinations, according to
   # http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/unicode.html
   #
   $string =~ s%\xEF\xBF[\xBE-\xBF]% %g;
   $string =~ s%\xED[\xA0-\xBF][\x80-\xBF]% %g;

   return $string;
}

=item _escape_html_utf8 ( STRING )

Returns a copy of STRING with any HTML metacharacters
escaped.  Escapes all but the most commonly occurring C<us-ascii>
characters and bytes that might form part of valid C<utf-8>
multibyte sequences.

=cut

sub _escape_html_utf8
{
   my ($string) = @_;

   $string =~ s|([^\w \t\r\n\-\.\,\x80-\xFD])| $eschtml_map{$1} |ge;
   return $string;
}

=item _strip_nonprint_weak ( STRING )

Returns a copy of STRING with sequences of NULL characters
replaced with space characters.

=cut

sub _strip_nonprint_weak
{
   my ($string) = @_;
   return '' unless defined $string;

   $string =~ s/\0+/ /g;
   return $string;
}

=item _escape_html_weak ( STRING )

Returns a copy of STRING with any HTML metacharacters escaped.
In order to work in any charset, escapes only E<lt>, E<gt>, C<">
and C<&> characters.

=cut

sub _escape_html_weak
{
   my ($string) = @_;

   $string =~ s/[<>"&]/$eschtml_map{$1}/eg;
   return $string;
}

=item _escape_html_8859_1 ( STRING )

Returns a copy of STRING with all but the most commonly
occurring printable characters replaced with HTML entities.
Only suitable for C<us-ascii> or C<iso-8859-1> input.

=cut

sub _escape_html_8859_1
{
   my ($string) = @_;

   $string =~ s|([^\w \t\r\n\-\.\,\/\:])| $eschtml_map{$1} |ge;
   return $string;
}

=item _escape_html_8859 ( STRING )

Returns a copy of STRING with all but the most commonly
occurring printable C<us-ascii> characters and characters
that might be printable in some C<iso-8859-*> charset
replaced with HTML entities.

=cut

sub _escape_html_8859
{
   my ($string) = @_;

   $string =~ s|([^\w \t\r\n\-\.\,\/\:\240-\377])| $eschtml_map{$1} |ge;
   return $string;
}

=item _strip_nonprint_8859 ( STRING )

Returns a copy of STRING with runs of characters that are not
printable in any C<iso-8859-*> charset replaced with spaces.

=cut

sub _strip_nonprint_8859
{
   my ($string) = @_;
   return '' unless defined $string;

   $string =~ tr#\t\n\040-\176\240-\377# #cs;
   return $string;
}

=item _strip_nonprint_ascii ( STRING )

Returns a copy of STRING with runs of characters that are not
printable C<us-ascii> replaced with spaces.

=cut

sub _strip_nonprint_ascii
{
   my ($string) = @_;
   return '' unless defined $string;

   $string =~ tr#\t\n\040-\176# #cs;
   return $string;
}

=back

=head1 MAINTAINERS

The NMS project, E<lt>http://nms-cgi.sourceforge.net/E<gt>

To request support or report bugs, please email
E<lt>[e-mail]<gt>

=head1 COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2002 London Perl Mongers, All rights reserved

=head1 LICENSE

This module is free software; you are free to redistribute it
and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

=cut

1;

## END INLINED CGI::NMS::Charset
END_CGI_NMS_CHARSET
}

[d5e5]

First, make a small change to your print_result subroutine (really, just uncomment a line that was commented out).

sub print_result
{
    my ($baseurl, $file, $title) = @_;

    $file    =~ s#^/##;
    $baseurl =~ s#/$##;
 
    $The_Count++; #Add one to your count of recipes listed

    print qq(<li><a href="$E{"$baseurl/$file"}">$E{$title}</a></li>\n);
}

Second thing to do is scroll down to around line 230 of your script and change the code that looks like this: (Notice the one line I added to print $The_Count.)

if (!$emulate_matts_code)
    {
        my @base = sort {$hits[$b] <=> $hits[$a]} (0 .. $#hits);
        @titles  = @titles[@base];
        @paths   = @paths[@base];

        for my $i (0 .. $#hits)
        {
           print_result($baseurl, $paths[$i], $titles[$i])
                 if ($hits[$i] >= $hit_threshhold);
        }
    }
    print qq(<p><font size="5">$The_Count recipes found.</font></p>); #Print count.
}
else
{
    print "<li>No Terms Specified</li>";
}

end_of_html($search_url, $title_url, $title, $terms, $bool, $case);
#...Remainder of the script follows, unchanged

I hope that does the trick, because I find this script difficult to test.

[JimBoCol]

First, make a small change to your print_result subroutine (really, just uncomment a line that was commented out...

I hope that does the trick, because I find this script difficult to test.

As a matter of fact, it does work.thank you very much. Now if only I can figure out how to make it display at the top of the result page, instead of at the bottom, I'll be cooking with gas. But, at least it's working now,. so that is a major plus for me!!! It's better at the bottom of the result page than not at all.

Jim.

[d5e5]

Yes, that problem arises because the script counts each item as it prints to the browser so the total doesn't exist before the items have already been displayed. Ideally, someone could rewrite the entire script to do all the calculations separately before creating the html output; but that would take a lot of work.

I think the easiest thing to do at this point would be to first print the all the html output to a string variable before printing it to the browser. After the total has been calculated you can put it in the string variable in the desired place near the beginning (i.e. near the top of the page) of the string, perhaps by searching for and replacing a place-holder literal such as !!!ReplaceThis!!!. Then you can print the string variable, thereby sending all the web page content to the browser.

An example of printing to a string variable (i.e. printing to memory):

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

my $buffer; #Instead of printing directly to STDOUT, print to this variable, first

open(MEMORY,'>', \$buffer)
     or die "Can't open memory file: $!";

print MEMORY "The total number of lines to print (not counting this one) is !!!TOTAL_GOES_HERE!!!.\n";
my $The_Count = 0; #Ready to start counting each line as we print it
print MEMORY "Program prints all this to memory first.\n"; # output will appear in $buffer
$The_Count++;
print MEMORY "Here's another line.\n";
$The_Count++;

#Replace the placeholder in string variable with $The_Count
$buffer =~ s/!!!TOTAL_GOES_HERE!!!/$The_Count/;
#Now that we've re-arranged the output in the string, we're ready to print to STDOUT
print $buffer;

This gives the following output

The total number of lines to print (not counting this one) is 2.
Program prints all this to memory first.
Here's another line.

http://perldoc.perl.org/functions/open.html