CSci 4608 Problem set 2.

CSci 4608 Problem set 2: forms, Perl

Problem 1

Write an HTML page with a registration form that asks the user to submit the following information:

The name
The password, which needs to be typed twice. Use the input type 'password' for the password.
Address, which consists of the street address, city, state, and zip code. Make the state to be a selection drop-down menu for state (you don't need to include all the states, 3-4 would suffice).
Phone number
e-mail address
The date when the user would like to hear back from the company (or whatever), 2 2-character input areas for month and day and one 4-character for the year.

Validate the form in the following way:

Check that the two passwords are the same. Disable the second password field after it has been validated.
Check that the zip code has exactly 5 digits (don't worry about a possible 4-digit extension).
Check that the phone number has 10 digits. Ignore the separators (spaces, parentheses, dashes)
Check the e-mail address to make sure that it has some non-empty sequence of symbols, the @ symbol, another non-empty sequence, the dot, and another sequence (possibly including more dots). You don't need to check whether the domain name is valid.
Check that the data that the user entered is valid (day <= 31, month <= 12, year can be any 4 digits). Then check to make sure that it's some time in the future (use Date() function for that).

Write the perl script to check the user information (the same way you have validate it), except for the password. If it is entered correctly, display it. Otherwise print the error message (which fields have not been entered correctly). Note that you cannot assume the that the state is among those given as options, so you need to check that, too. Make sure it's reasonably formatted (each piece of information clearly marked and displayed on its own line).

Problem 2

Write an HTML page with a form for electronic voting. It should have at least three options, the user can vote for exactly one of them (use validation to guarantee that at least one option is selected, and use a group of radio buttons so that the selection is mutually exclusive).

Write a Perl script which will keep record of the votes in a text file. When a vote arrives, it is added to the file. Then the results are displayed as numbers and as color bars. To set up the color bars, use tables (one per each voting option) with the background of the cells representing the option. Each table has just one row. The width of the table is set based on the number of votes. Here is an example of what the tables might look like (only you will need to set the width in the perl program based on the number of votes).

Votes for Bart Simpson:

Votes for Lisa Simpson:

Votes for Maggie Simpson:

Problem 3

Please answer the following questions. Explain your answers, give examples if needed.

What is easier: JavaScript validation or Perl pattern-matching?
Is it a good idea to send the password in a form, the way it's done in Problem 1?
Some forms have hidden fields that users can't see or enter data into. Some online shopping companies store the price of a product as a hidden field. Then on the server side the charge to the user account is made according to the data sent with the form. Are there any problems with this approach? Please be specific.
Problem 2 asked you to store data in a file. Is there a danger of unauthorized access to the file (for reading or for writing) using this approach?

This is a problem set from CSci 4608 course at UMM.