process html form submission with ruby to modify local file on server

Question

Given the following example html form:

<html> 
  <head> 
    <title>Sure wish I understood this. :)</title> 
  </head> 
  <body>
    <p>Enter your data:</p>
      <form method="POST" action="bar.rb" name="form_of_doom"> 
        <input type="text" name="data">
        <input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit"> 
      </form> 
  </body> 
</html>

What would "bar.rb" look like to write the submission to a text file on the server? I am running apache, but I am trying to avoid databases and rails.

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-20 09:12:55Z

1

You need some way to invoke the Ruby file as a result of the web request, and to pass in all form data to the script.

It looks like you can do that with Apache by treating Ruby scripts as CGI. Quoting:

DocumentRoot /home/ceriak/ruby

<Directory /home/ceriak/ruby>
    Options +ExecCGI
    AddHandler cgi-script .rb
</Directory>

At this point you can use the CGI library that ships with Ruby to handle the parameters:

#!/usr/bin/ruby -w                                                                                                           

# Get the form data
require 'cgi'
cgi = CGI.new
form_text = cgi['text']

# Append to the file
path = "/var/tmp/some.txt"
File.open(path,"a"){ |file| file.puts(form_text) }

# Send the HTML response
puts cgi.header  # content type 'text/html'
puts "<html><head><title>Doom!</title></head><body>"
puts "<h1>File Written</h1>"
puts "<p>I wrote #{path.inspect} with the contents:</p>"
puts "<pre>#{form_text.inspect}</pre>"
puts "</body></html>"

edited Jun 20, 2020 at 9:12

CommunityBot

11 silver badge

answered Jun 3, 2013 at 3:52

Phrogz

304k115 gold badges669 silver badges758 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

3 Comments

Phrogz Over a year ago

Myself, though, I'd go with Sinatra and Thin with Apache as a reverse proxy. But that's just me.

John Breedlove Over a year ago

The script is not executing, it is just displaying in the browser. I made sure it was executable, but I think I am not getting Apache to obey me. I will look into Sinatra and Thin. Thanks for the quick reply.

Phrogz Over a year ago

See the link to the other question. Did you make the script +x, for example?

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

process html form submission with ruby to modify local file on server

1 Answer 1

3 Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

3 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related