NAME
Win32::HTA - HTML Applications with Perl as local backend
SYNOPSIS
use Win32::HTA;
my $hta = Win32::HTA->new();
# Simple MessageBox with return value
my $chosen = $hta->show(
TITLE => 'Important Information!',
DLG_HTML => qq(
<p id="msg_txt">Something happened!</p><br>
<button id="bok" type="button" onclick="ret_handler();">OK</button>
<button id="bcancel" type="button" onclick="esc_handler();">CANCEL</button>
),
CSS => q(
p { width: 250px; text-align: center; }
button { width: 80px; margin-left: 30px;}
),
ON_LOAD => q[
bok.focus();
],
RET_HANDLER => q(pipe_string('OK')),
ESC_HANDLER => q(pipe_string('CANCEL')),
);
print $chosen, "\n";
# Reset to default
$hta->clear();
# AJAX communication
require JSON;
$hta->show(
AJAX => sub {
my($request) = @_;
print JSON::encode_json($request);
my $ok = int(rand()+0.5);
return {
succeeded => $ok,
data => {
name => $request->{request},
text => $request->{data},
},
$ok ? () : ( errtxt => 'Something went wrong!'),
};
},
IE_MODE => 11,
BG_COLOR => '#888800',
DLG_HTML => qq(
<button id="but" type="button" onclick="bpress()">Talk to Perl</button><br>
),
RET_HANDLER => q(but.click();),
CSS => 'button {width: 150px;}',
JS_HEAD => q(
function bpress() {
var reply = ajax_request({request : "test", data : 'testdata'});
if ( reply['succeeded'] ) {
alert(reply['data']['text']);
} else {
alert(reply['errtxt']);
}
close();
}
),
);DESCRIPTION
HTML Applications are an easy way to build simple and not so simple GUI applications using HTML with script languages supported by Internet Explorer (Javascript, VBScript and even PerlScript if you are using ActivePerl).
As I am using Strawberry Perl, I thought launching mshta.exe from inside perl and then communicating via AJAX could be interesting.
CONSTRUCTOR
new(%args)
Creates a new Win32::HTA object with the options given. See "OPTIONS"
METHODS
clear(%args)
Resets the object to the default values and sets the given values afterwards. For options see "OPTIONS"
show(%args)
Displays the Application window with mshta.exe. Waits for the application to close. Will return the string written by pipe_string() from the javascript side of the HTA unless the 'AJAX' option is used.
For options see "OPTIONS".
Accessor methods
There are lower case accessor methods for all options. So instead of passing options to new() clear() and show() you can do e.g.:
$hta->title("Titletext");
$hta->show();OPTIONS
AJAX
Reference to a subroutine that acts as a request handler. It will get passed a reference to whatever you request from the javascript side of your HTA. It will be already parsed by JSON::decode_json, so you can access the contents directly.
If you want to return something it has to be a reference to an array or hash. It will be run through JSON::encode_json() and parsed by JSON.parse on the javascript side automatically.
You can use the javascript function 'ajax_request(<obj>)' from inside your javascript blocks given in the options JS_HEAD or JS_BODY. The synopsis has a working example.
BG_COLOR
Shortcut for setting the background color for the HTML <body> tag.
CSS
Verbatim style sheet block. It will be set inside the <head> tag.
DEBUG
If set to a true value will output the generated HTML to stderr.
DLG_HTML
The HTML text for the interface. It will be placed inside a div with id '__DIV__' that is a direct child of <body>
ESC_HANDLER
Javascript code that gets called when <Escape> is pressed. The event is bound to the HTML <body>. There is a corresponding javascript funtion called 'esc_handler(obj)' that will be called
H_ADJUST
Number of pixels to adjust the height of the main window to account for window decorations. Defaults to 44.
HEAD
additional tags place at the beginning of the header (before JS_HEAD)
IE_MODE
Internet Explorer version that will be emulated by mshta.exe. Defaults to 8. This could be important especially for javascript capabilities.
IP_PORT
The tcp/ip port that will be used for listening to ajax requests. The default is 0, which will let the OS chose the port. This is the safe option. Use at your own risk.
JS_BODY
Javascript code that gets inserted after the main <div> tag.
JS_HEAD
Javascript code that gets inserted inside the <head> tag.
ON_LOAD
Javascript code that gets inserted inside a window.onload handler.
POST_HANDLER
Reference to a subroutine that will be called with expanded HTML text as only parameter after variable expansion. Has to return the HTML text. Use at your own risk.
PRE_HANDLER
Reference to a subroutine that will be called with the HTML template text as only parameter before variable expansion. Has to return the new template text. Use at your own risk.
RET_HANDLER
Javascript code that gets called when <Return> is pressed. The event is bound to the HTML <body>.
TITLE
Text for the <title> tag.
W_ADJUST
Number of pixels to adjust the width of the main window to account for window decorations. Defaults to 24.
JAVASCRIPT FUNCTIONS
There are some predefined utility functions you can use in your javascript code:
dump_obj(obj)
Use this for dumping object information if your choosen IE Version does not contain the better JSON.stringify(obj).
add_event(obj, type, function)
Wrapper for obj.addEventListener() or obj.attachEvent() that should do the right thing for the different IE versions.
pipe_string(str)
Writes the string to stdout and closes the HTA. Will only work when you don't use AJAX for communication.
ajax_request(obj)
Sends the stringified object data as AJAX request to the perl scripts callback that has been specified with the AJAX option.
AUTHOR
Thomas Kratz <tomk@cpan.org>
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
Copyright (C) 2016 by Thomas Kratz
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.8.8 or, at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.