CGI Application Modules for CPAN

CGI::Application::MailPage was to install them in a Perl module path by specifying 

them as modules using the PM option to WriteMakeFile() in my Makefile.PL:

WriteMakefile(

               NAME  =>  CGI::Application::MailPage ,

               VERSION_FROM  =>  MailPage.pm ,

               PM  => {

                        MailPage.pm  =>  $(INST_LIBDIR)/MailPage.pm ,

                        email.tmpl   =>  $(INST_LIBDIR)/MailPage/email.tmpl ,

                        form.tmpl    =>  $(INST_LIBDIR)/MailPage/form.tmpl ,

                        thanks.tmpl  =>  $(INST_LIBDIR)/MailPage/thanks.tmpl ,

                      },

               );

Then when loading them, I simply added the contents of @INC to HTML::Template's 

search path for template files (via the path option):

    $template = $self >load_tmpl( CGI/Application/MailPage/form.tmpl ,

                                 path => [@INC]);

Another possibility would have been to include the template text directly 

inside the module file or interactively prompt the user for a template location 

during module installation.

Summary

This chapter has introduced you to a new module, CGI::Application, that can greatly 

improve the way you build CGI programs. CGI::Application also provides an oppor 

tunity, for the first time, to distribute fully functional Web applications through 

CPAN. This could be an area of tremendous growth in the utility of CPAN and you 

now have the tools you need to make a major contribution. See you on PAUSE!

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