Kirsle.net
If you're a JavaScript developer (in the Node.js world), you're probably used to typing in commands like sudo npm install -g gulp-cli (unless you installed Node via Homebrew on Mac OS X so that your local user account owns /usr/local). But I never liked the idea of having files installed under /usr/local (root-owned or otherwise) that my package manager didn't know about, and would prefer to have these global npm commands installed into a user-specific root instead.
Here's how to set this up.
First, edit your .bashrc (or .bash_profile or .zshrc) to add some environment variables:
# Node/npm
export NPM_PACKAGES="${HOME}/.npm-global-pkg"
export NODE_PATH="${NPM_PACKAGES}/lib/node_modules:${NODE_PATH}"
export PATH="${NPM_PACKAGES}/bin:$PATH"
What this does:
$NPM_PACKAGES is a variable we use so we don't have to define the path more than once (Node/npm doesn't use this variable itself). We want our global modules to be installed under ~/.npm-global-pkg$NODE_PATH is used by Node when you require() a module; if the module isn't in the local project's directory it will try to import it from our new global directory.$PATH to add ~/.npm-global-pkg/bin, so when we install a global npm package that contains a command line program (like gulp, coffee, bower, etc.) it's available as a command in our shell.Then, create or edit the file ~/.npmrc to specify the same path from $NPM_PACKAGES as your npm prefix:
prefix = ${HOME}/.npm-global-pkg
This tells Node where to install packages when you run npm install -g.
Restart your terminal session or re-source your configuration so the environment variables take effect. Now, when you run a command like (the sudo-less!) npm install -g coffee-script, it will place its binary in ~/.npm-global-pkg/bin/coffee.
I've spent the last few months porting over the JavaScript version of my chatbot scripting language, RiveScript, into CoffeeScript. I mainly did this because I didn't like to maintain raw JavaScript code (especially after I ran a linter on it and had to rearrange my variable declarations because JavaScript's variable scoping rules are stupid), but I also took the opportunity to restructure the code and make it more maintainable in the future.
For some historical background, the first RiveScript implementation was written in Perl, and I designed it to be one big monolithic file (RiveScript.pm), because then I could tell noobs that they can update to a new version of RiveScript in their bots by just dropping in a new file to replace the old one, and avoid overwhelming them with the complexity of doing a CPAN installation (especially if they're generally new to Perl as well, and all they really wanna do is just run a chatbot.)
This is a re-do of my previous blog post about Perl upload progress bars - my previous approach was completely wrong. By the time $q->upload(); is used, the file has already been received and stored in a temporary location, and so the "progress bar" in this case is really just gauging how fast the server can copy the file from one place to another on its hard drive.
So this post is how to really do a real working file uploader progress bar in Perl.
The basic steps required to do this include:
$q->upload(); and everything like before.The source code needed for this is still amazingly short and concise, compared to the source codes you'll get when you download solutions from elsewhere.
Implementing this doesn't require any special Apache handlers or mod_perl or anything fancy like that.
Sources:
upload.html<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Upload Test</title>
<style type="text/css">
body {
background-color: #FFFFFF;
font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif;
font-size: small;
color: #000000
}
#trough {
border: 1px solid #000000;
height: 16px;
display: block;
background-color: #DDDDDD
}
#bar {
background-color: #0000FF;
background-image: url("blue-clearlooks.png");
border-right: 1px solid #000000;
height: 16px
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>File Upload Test</h1>
<div id="progress-div" style="display: none; width: 400px; margin: auto">
<fieldset>
<legend>Upload Progress</legend>
<div id="trough">
<div id="bar" style="width: 0%"></div>
</div>
Received <span id="received">0</span>/<span id="total">0</span> (<span id="percent">0</span>%)
</fieldset>
</div>
<div id="upload-form" style="display: block; width: 600px; margin: auto">
<fieldset>
<legend>Upload a File</legend>
<form name="upload" method="post" action="upload.cgi" enctype="multipart/form-data" onSubmit="return startUpload()" id="theform">
<input type="hidden" name="do" value="upload">
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
<tr>
<td align="left" valign="middle">
Session ID<span style="color: #FF0000">*</span>:
</td>
<td align="left" valign="middle">
<input type="text" size="40" name="sessid" id="sessid" readonly="readonly">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left" valign="middle">
File:
</td>
<td align="left" valign="middle">
<input type="file" name="incoming" size="40">
</td>
</tr>
</table><p>
<input type="submit" value="Upload It!"><p>
<small>
<span style="color: #FF0000">*</span> Randomly generated by JavaScript. In practice this would be
randomly generated by server-side script and "hard-coded" into the HTML you see on this page.
</small>
</fieldset>
</div>
<div id="debug"></div>
<script type="text/javascript">
// a jquery-like function, a shortcut to document.getElementById
function $(o) {
return document.getElementById(o);
}
// called on page load to make up a session ID (in real life the session ID
// would be made up via server-side script and "hard-coded" in the HTML received
// by the server, thus it wouldn't require javascript at all)
function init() {
// Make up a session ID.
var hex = [ "0", "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9",
"A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F" ];
var ses = "";
for (var i = 0; i < 8; i++) {
var rnd = Math.floor(Math.random()*16);
ses += hex[rnd];
}
$("sessid").value = ses;
// we set the form action to send the sessid in the query string, too.
// this way it's available inside the CGI hook function in a very easy
// way. In real life this would probably be done better.
$("theform").action += "?" + ses;
}
window.onload = init;
// This function is called when submitting the form.
function startUpload() {
// Hide the form.
$("upload-form").style.display = "none";
// Show the progress div.
$("progress-div").style.display = "block";
// Begin making ajax requests.
setTimeout("ping()", 1000);
// Allow the form to continue submitting.
return true;
}
// Make an ajax request to check up on the status of the upload
function ping() {
var ajax = new XMLHttpRequest();
ajax.onreadystatechange = function () {
if (ajax.readyState == 4) {
parse(ajax.responseText);
}
};
ajax.open("GET", "upload.cgi?do=ping&sessid=" + $("sessid").value + "&rand=" + Math.floor(Math.random()*99999), true);
ajax.send(null);
}
// React to the returned value of our ping test
function parse(txt) {
$("debug").innerHTML = "received from server: " + txt;
var parts = txt.split(":");
if (parts.length == 3) {
$("received").innerHTML = parts[0];
$("total").innerHTML = parts[1];
$("percent").innerHTML = parts[2];
$("bar").style.width = parts[2] + "%";
}
// Ping again!
setTimeout("ping()", 1000);
}
</script>
</body>
</html>
upload.cgi#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use warnings;
use CGI;
use CGI::Carp "fatalsToBrowser";
# Make a file upload hook.
my $q = new CGI (\&hook);
# This is the file upload hook, where we can update our session
# file with the dirty details of how the upload is going.
sub hook {
my ($filename,$buffer,$bytes_read,$file) = @_;
# Get our sessid from the form submission.
my ($sessid) = $ENV{QUERY_STRING};
$sessid =~ s/[^A-F0-9]//g;
# Calculate the (rough estimation) of the file size. This isn't
# accurate because the CONTENT_LENGTH includes not only the file's
# contents, but also the length of all the other form fields as well,
# so it's bound to be at least a few bytes larger than the file size.
# This obviously doesn't work out well if you want progress bars on
# a per-file basis, if uploading many files. This proof-of-concept only
# supports a single file anyway.
my $length = $ENV{'CONTENT_LENGTH'};
my $percent = 0;
if ($length > 0) { # Don't divide by zero.
$percent = sprintf("%.1f",
(( $bytes_read / $length ) * 100)
);
}
# Write this data to the session file.
open (SES, ">$sessid.session");
print SES "$bytes_read:$length:$percent";
close (SES);
}
# Now the meat of the CGI script.
print "Content-Type: text/html\n\n";
my $action = $q->param("do") || "unknown";
if ($action eq "upload") {
# They are first submitting the file. This code doesn't really run much
# until AFTER the file is completely uploaded.
my $filename = $q->param("incoming");
my $handle = $q->upload("incoming");
my $sessid = $q->param("sessid");
$sessid =~ s/[^A-F0-9]//g;
$filename =~ s/(?:\\|\/)([^\\\/]+)$/$1/g;
# Copy the file to its final location.
open (FILE, ">./files/$filename") or die "Can't create file: $!";
my $buffer;
while (read($handle,$buffer,2048)) {
print FILE $buffer;
}
close (FILE);
# Delete the session file.
unlink("./$sessid.session");
# Done.
print "Thank you for your file. <a href=\"files/$filename\">Here it is again.</a>";
}
elsif ($action eq "ping") {
# Checking up on the status of the upload.
my $sessid = $q->param("sessid");
$sessid =~ s/[^A-F0-9]//g;
# Exists?
if (-f "./$sessid.session") {
# Read it.
open (READ, "./$sessid.session");
my $data = <READ>;
close (READ);
print $data;
}
else {
print "0:0:0:error session $sessid doesn't exist";
}
}
else {
print "0:0:0:error invalid action $action";
}
You can download my full proof-of-concept test below:
Notice: this code is called "proof of concept"; it is NOT production-ready code. You should NOT download this if all you want is a complete plug-and-play solution you can quickly upload to your web server to get file uploading to work. I wrote this code only to show how to make a file uploader in the simplest way possible; this is useful for developers who only needed to know how this is done and who will write the code themselves to develop their production-ready file uploader.
If you want to treat this as a plug-and-play solution, I'm not your tech support about it. The code was never meant to be secure or useful to allow the general public to upload files through it. Session IDs are made up client side for example which is a bad idea in real use case scenarios, etc.
Update (11/25/09): This method is all wrong. Here is the correct way.
A thread on Tek-Tips came up recently about making a progress bar for a file uploader in Perl.
Investigating the issue more closely, I found a couple of commercial solutions (read: paid for), where even their free edition involves thousands upon thousands of lines of code, spread out across many different files. Nowhere to be found was a simple, straight-to-the-point example of how this could be done.
From poking around at what code I could find, I got the basic gist to it:
It looks like this:
If that sounds complicated, it really isn't. 77 lines for the CGI script, and 126 lines for the HTML page, including the JavaScript (only 60 lines of JavaScript).
The screenshots, code, and download link follow.
The upload form. Simple.
Beginning an upload.
And the progress begins!
Source Code:
upload.html (the HTML form and JavaScript)
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>File Upload Test</title>
<style type="text/css">
body {
background-color: white;
font-family: Verdana;
font-size: small;
color: black
}
#trough {
background-color: silver;
border: 1px solid black;
height: 24px
}
#bar {
background-color: #669900;
height: 24px;
width: 1%
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>File Upload Test</h1>
<div id="progress" style="display: none; margin: auto; width: 350px">
<fieldset>
<legend>Uploading...</legend>
<div id="trough"><div id="bar"></div></div>
Uploaded: <span id="uploaded">0</span>/<span id="size">0</span><br>
Percent: <span id="percent">0</span>%
</fieldset>
</div>
<div id="form" style="display: block; margin: auto; width: 350px">
<fieldset>
<legend>Upload a File</legend>
<form name="upload" action="upload.cgi" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data" onSubmit="return uploadFile(this)">
<input type="hidden" name="action" value="upload">
File: <input type="file" name="file" size="20"><br>
<input type="submit" value="Submit File">
</form>
</fieldset>
</div>
<div id="debug"></div>
<script type="text/javascript">
// When the form is submitted.
function uploadFile(frm) {
// Hide the form.
document.getElementById("form").style.display = "none";
// Show the progress indicator.
document.getElementById("progress").style.display = "block";
// Wait a bit and make ajax requests.
setTimeout("getProgress()", 1000);
return true;
}
// Poll for our progress.
function getProgress() {
var ajax = new XMLHttpRequest();
ajax.onreadystatechange = function() {
if (ajax.readyState == 4) {
gotProgress(ajax.responseText);
}
};
ajax.open("GET", "upload.cgi?action=progress&session=my-session&rand=" + Math.floor(Math.random()*99999), true);
ajax.send(null);
}
// Got an update
function gotProgress(txt) {
document.getElementById("debug").innerHTML = "got: " + txt + "<br>\n";
// Get vars outta it.
var uploaded = 0;
var size = 0;
var percent = 0;
var stat = txt.split(":");
// Was it an error?
if (stat[0] == "error") {
document.getElementById("debug").innerHTML += "error: " + stat[1];
setTimeout("getProgress()", 1000);
return false;
}
// Separate the vars.
var parts = stat[1].split("&");
for (var i = 0; i < parts.length; i++) {
var halves = parts[i].split("=");
if (halves[0] == "received") {
uploaded = halves[1];
}
else if (halves[0] == "percent") {
percent = halves[1];
}
else if (halves[0] == "size") {
size = halves[1];
}
}
document.getElementById("debug").innerHTML += "size:" + size + "; received:" + uploaded + "; percent:" + percent + "<br>\n";
// Update the display.
document.getElementById("bar").style.width = parseInt(percent) + "%";
document.getElementById("uploaded").innerHTML = uploaded;
document.getElementById("size").innerHTML = size;
document.getElementById("percent").innerHTML = percent;
// Set another update.
setTimeout("getProgress()", 1000);
return true;
}
</script>
</body>
</html>
upload.cgi (the CGI script)
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use warnings;
use CGI;
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);
my $q = new CGI();
# Handle actions.
if ($q->param('action') eq "upload") {
# They just submitted the form and are sending a file.
my $filename = $q->param('file');
my $handle = $q->upload('file');
$filename =~ s/(?:\\|\/)([^\\\/]+)$/$1/g;
# File size.
my $size = (-s $handle);
# This session ID would be randomly generated for real.
my $sessid = 'my-session';
# Create the session file.
open (CREATE, ">./sessions/$sessid") or die "can't create session: $!";
print CREATE "size=$size&file=$filename";
close (CREATE);
# Start receiving the file.
open (FILE, ">./files/$filename");
while (<$handle>) {
print FILE;
}
close (FILE);
# Delete the session.
unlink("./sessions/$sessid");
# Done.
print $q->header();
print "Thank you for your file. <a href=\"files/$filename\">Here it is again</a>.";
}
elsif ($q->param('action') eq "progress") {
# They're checking up on their progress; get their sess ID.
my $sessid = $q->param('session') || 'my-session';
print $q->header(type => 'text/plain');
# Does it exist?
if (!-f "./sessions/$sessid") {
print "error:Your session was not found.";
exit(0);
}
# Read it.
open (READ, "./sessions/$sessid");
my $line = <READ>;
close (READ);
# Get their file size and name.
my ($size,$name) = $line =~ /^size=(\d+)&file=(.+?)$/;
# How much was downloaded?
my $downloaded = -s "./files/$name";
# Calculate a percentage.
my $percent = 0;
if ($size > 0) {
$percent = ($downloaded / $size) * 100;
$percent =~ s/\.(\d)\d+$/.$1/g;
}
# Print some data for the JS.
print "okay:size=$size&received=$downloaded&percent=$percent";
exit(0);
}
else {
die "unknown action";
}
Notes on this code: it's just a proof of concept. You'd want to handle the sessions better. Here the session ID is hard-coded as "my-session" -- that wouldn't work in real life. But it's just a barebones working implementation of a file upload progress bar, with all the crap cut out and does specifically what it's supposed to. Others should find it useful, so you can download it.
Update (11/25/09): This method is all wrong. Here is the correct way.
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