call Perl script from javascript using AJAX

Question

I want to call a perl script from javascript. I have tried this using AJAX:

function create_request(obj) {
  var req = \"id=\"+0;
  var req_http =new XMLHttpRequest();
  req_http.open(\"POST\", \"create_file.pl\", false);
  req_http.setRequestHeader(\"Content-type\", \"application/x-www-form-urlencoded\");
  req_http.send(req);
  req_http.onreadystatechange = function() {
   if (req_http.readyState == 4) {
     var resp=req_http.responseText;
     document.write(resp); // *** echoes the content of create_file.pl
   }
  }
 }

create_file.pl:

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

my $cgi = CGI->new;

open FILE, ">>file.txt" or die $!;
print FILE "aaa";
close(FILE);

print $cgi->header('text/plain;charset=UTF-8');
print 0;

The perl script only creates a text file.

After javascript calls the perl script, the print of the returned result is the entire content of create_file.pl, and the file file.txt it is not created.

Ignoring AJAX entirely, what happens if you call the perl script in your web browser? — Glitch Desire
– Glitch Desire, Commented Feb 26, 2014 at 14:41

Glitch Desire · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-26 15:11:00Z

2

This has nothing to do with AJAX

If you are getting the contents of your perl file returned from your AJAX call, what this means is that your web server is not configured to handle perl (Javascript is accessing the location correctly, or you'd get a 404).

As for how to do this, without knowing your server it's hard to say. Usually you need to set up a rule to pass requests to .pl files through to your CGI handler.

In lighttpd (what I use), that's:

$HTTP["url"] =~ "/cgi-bin/" {
      cgi.assign = ( ".pl" => "/usr/bin/perl" )
}

If you're not using lighttpd, I'd suggest taking a Google for your-server cgi and following the instructions to configure it to parse those files through perl.

edited Feb 26, 2014 at 15:11

answered Feb 26, 2014 at 14:45

Glitch Desire

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Comments

Quentin · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-26 14:41:22Z

2

After javascript calls the perl script, the print of the returned result is the entire content of create_file.pl, and the file file.txt it is not created.

Then either:

You are working on a local file system instead of through a webserver or
You have not configured your server to treat the Perl program as CGI instead of a static file.

answered Feb 26, 2014 at 14:41

Quentin

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Comments

Len Jaffe · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-26 19:27:31Z

1

When you receive the text of a Perl script back from your web server, and you were expecting the web server to execute the script, then what you have is misconfigured web server.

You need to configure your web server so that it knows to execute files.

Typically one separates one's executables from one's static content. and then configures the web server to allow execution of the programs in the executables directory. The exact syntax of that configuration will depend on which web server you're running.

edited Feb 26, 2014 at 19:27

answered Feb 26, 2014 at 14:46

Len Jaffe

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