How can I use Ajax, perl and JSON easy together?

Question

I am trying to make a webpage with Ajax.

Example:

1. I create a Perl/CGU file that triggers a simple post;

   File: ..test.cgi?name=Thomas

   Text back: Your name is Thomas!

2. I create a html file that can use the post, but then the page have to reload. I use text input and a button.

How can I use Ajax, Perl and JSON easy together? This is how it should work together, but how?

Html + Ajax/JavaScript CALL Perl + "JSON-perl-string" RETURN-TO Ajax CONVERT-JSON -> Html

Answer 1

For JSON try the CPAN JSON module.

For using the XMLHttpRequest I recommend these wonderful tutorials from IBM.

Mastering Ajax, Part 1: Introduction to Ajax

The two articles you'll probably be most interested in are these two:

Mastering Ajax, Part 10: Using JSON for data transfer

Mastering Ajax, Part 11: JSON on the server side

You can get the entire 11 Part series using this search link.

Answer 2

You just need to have your application return JSON (you can just use the JSON module on CPAN for this) instead of HTML. This means you need a Content-type header of application/json instead of text/html and then you need to use that JSON in your Javascript (using a Javascript library like jQuery or Prototype is your best bet here).

Answer 3

jquery provides very easy ajax and JSON support with their API, It handles all of the XMLHttpRequest objects for you. jQuery

Answer 4

If your main goal is to avoid refreshing to update the page you could try remote scripting by using the XMLHttpRequest object in XML.

More on this here.

Answer 5

Give the new CPAN module Yote a try. It binds javascript objects to perl via a JSON rpc.

Here is an example of it on the client :

Server

package Hello;
use base 'Yote::AppRoot';

sub hello {
  return "Hello World";

1;

Client

$.yote.init();
var hello_app = $.yote.fetch_app('Hello');

alert( hello_app.hello() );
   // outputs "Hello World"