Re: [mv] Accessing Database values from [perl]

[Handytman@aol.com]

Many thanks to Racke for the quick and very helpful answer.
I was *not* successful in getting the following to work:
$number = safe_tag ('data', 'inventory', 'count', $code);

However, that tip definitely pointed me in the right direction, as I found 
another function- &tag_data. This is sparsely mentioned in the archives, but 
it *works*! Apparently, the database name, field name, and key are arguments, 
and the field value is returned. The following actually works ($code is the 
record key):
$number = &tag_data('inventory', 'qty', $code);
Note that this only worked when I put [tag touch inventory][/tag] at the top 
of the page.

In the end, of course, this raises the question in my mind:
What is the difference between &safe_tag and &tag_data, performance-wise? 
(I'm looping through all items in a cart on the basket page.)

Anyone with some knowledge of this will find their input very much 
appreciated!

-Rob Maurer


In a message dated 10/17/99 1:54:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
racke@linuxia.net writes:

> Handytman@aol.com writes:
>  
>  > ******    message to m from Handytman@aol.com     ******
>  > 
>  > I am attempting to use [perl] to check my shopping cart for items that 
are 
> 
>  > out of stock (checking the cart against the Inventory database.) The 
>  > $Safe{items} is well explained. What I cannot find is how to chack an 
>  > arbitrary database, key, field combination from Perl. I found, in the 
> mailing 
>  > list, something called database_field($database, $key, $field), but I 
> cannot 
>  > get this to work, and it isn't in the docs. Is it for real? Or is there 
>  > another way?
>  > 
>  > Thank you very much,
>  > Rob Maurer
>  
>  You may try the function safe_tag. Somelike that may work:
>  
>  $number = safe_tag ('data inventory count [item-code]');
>  
>  Bye
>          Racke