3 lines (of correct syntax) is all that's required:

1. how to include text output of a perl script in webpage
(it's 
<!-- #include virtual="myscript.pl" -->
 or something.. iirc)

2. the name of the environment variable that gives the time on the
local server
($ENV{Local_Time} or something?)

3. the name of an environment variable from which I could deduce as
accurately as possible, the country from which the web page request
originated
($ENV{HTTP_REFERER}) ??

(I'm writing a short script to only display a contact telephone number
between 9am & 5pm when the page was requested from within the UK,
otherwise display a contact form - but can't quite remember the correct
syntax)

---

Clarification of Question by gan-ga on 03 Jan 2003 13:34 PST

pseudocode so far, any help to get this done quickly appreciated.


#!/usr/bin/perl

print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";

domainextension = regex on $ENV{'original request from'}

timenow = regex on $ENV{'servers local time'} & convert to numeric variable 

if(domainextension=='co.uk'&& timenow >= 900 && timenow <= 1700){
print "Please contact me on xxxxx xxx xxx";
}
else
{
print "<form action ='./cgi-bin/contactform.pl'>\n";
print "Enter email <input type='text' size='30'><br>\n";
print "Enter comment <input type='text' size='30'\n";
print "</form>\n";
}

---

Request for Question Clarification by jes5199-ga on 03 Jan 2003 13:39 PST

what web server are you using?
some of these things are done differently with different servers
so, are you using Apache or Microsoft or something else?
~jes5199-ga

---

Clarification of Question by gan-ga on 03 Jan 2003 13:50 PST

Hello jes5199,

Unix / Apache as far as I'm aware. I'll check and post back as soon as
I can, give me a few minutes..

Here's what I have so far, can you help me out with getting hold of
the current time on my server & deciding if it's between 9am and 5pm
(the localtime environment variable & maybe a couple of regexes on
it)?

Cheers

#!/usr/bin/perl

print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";

$domainextension = $ENV{'REMOTE_HOST'};
$domainextension =~ tr/A-Z/a-z/;
$domainextension =~ s/.*\.//;

$timenow = regex on $ENV{'servers local time'} & convert 24 hr clock
to 4 digit numeric variable

if($domainextension=='uk'&& $timenow >= 900 && $timenow <= 1700){
print "Please contact me on xxxxx xxx xxx";
}
else
{
print "<form action ='./cgi-bin/contactform.pl'>\n";
print "Enter email <input type='text' size='30'><br>\n";
print "Enter comment <input type='text' size='30'\n";
print "</form>\n";
}

---

Clarification of Question by gan-ga on 03 Jan 2003 13:53 PST

Yes, Unix & Apache/1.3.22 Server

---

Clarification of Question by gan-ga on 03 Jan 2003 14:15 PST

Just tested the code, works on my server so far. I can see I might run
into trouble deciding on a user's whereabouts on the basis of
REMOTE_HOST, but that's not too important. Avoiding displaying a
contact phone number at night, based on the server's time, is the
really important thing.

I'm stumped now.. over to you?

ok -- to retrieve the time as variables:

$time = localtime();
$time =~ /(..)\:(..)\:(..)/;
$hours = $1;
$minutes = $2;
$seconds = $3;

if you need help checking to see if these variables are in your range,
just ask for further clarification and i'll hack it together

----

from your initial question (although i think you've already got it)


<!--#include virtual="/wherever/whatever.pl" -->

is the correct syntax according to
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/mod/mod_include.html


REMOTE_HOST is the correct variable to find out what domain a person's
computer is in, but this can be inaccurate or just left out (ie, not
all .coms are in the USA, and not all .tv are in Tuvalu, and many IP
addresses aren't registered at all)
i'd try using REMOTE_ADDR and feeding the IP addresses through
http://where-is.info/freebies.html
of course, then you'd need a whole new perl script to submit and parse
that data

---

Clarification of Answer by jes5199-ga on 03 Jan 2003 14:20 PST

oops, got another clarification request while i was typing. in a
second i'll have the code to check the time vars

---

Clarification of Answer by jes5199-ga on 03 Jan 2003 14:28 PST

$opentime = "0900";
$closetime = "1700";

$time = localtime();
$time =~ /(..)\:(..)\:(..)/;
$hours = $1;
$minutes = $2;
$seconds = $3;

if( ($hours.$minutes ge $opentime) && ($hours.$minutes le $closetime) )
{
  print "OPEN\n"
}

---

Clarification of Answer by jes5199-ga on 03 Jan 2003 14:35 PST

google answers likes me to list what i typed into the search engine to
get my results...
"apache CGI environment variables"
"perl regexp"

i think that was all.

---

Clarification of Answer by jes5199-ga on 03 Jan 2003 14:37 PST

one caveat about the code
i used string compares instead of numeric: that means
0900  works
but 900 does not
because 900 looks a lot like 9000 to the perl interpreter, it will
always be later than the time generated by the localtime call

Fast answer & a great help. Everything works just fine. The link to
whereis.info is really interesting too.
Thank you very much, jes5199!

2: localtime(). One would do well to research 'localtime() function
perl' for getting specific values.

wow! thanks for the tip, gan-ga. i had fun, and got to brush up on my perl