NAME
    CGI::Thin - A very lightweight Parser for CGI Forms

SYNOPSIS
    `use CGI::Thin;'

    `my %cgi_data = &Parse_CGI ();'

DESCRIPTION
    This module is a very lightweight parser of CGI forms. And it
    has a special feature that it will return an array if the same
    key is used twice in the form. You can force an array even if
    only one value returned to avoid complications.

    The hash %cgi_data will have all the form data from either a
    POST or GET form and will also work for "multipart/form-data"
    forms necessary for uploading files.

USAGE
      Functions

        * `CGI::Thin::Parse_CGI(@keys)'
            The optional @keys will be used to force arrays to be returned.

            The function also has special features for getting multiple values for a
            single form key.  For example if we have this form...

              <input type="checkbox" name="color" value="red">red
              <input type="checkbox" name="color" value="green">green
              <input type="checkbox" name="color" value="blue">blue

            One of three things can happen.

            1)  The user does not select any color.
                So $cgi_data{'color'} will not exist.
            2)  The user selects exactly one color.
                So $cgi_data{'color'} will be the scalar value selected.
            3)  The user selects exactly more than one color.
                So $cgi_data{'color'} will be a reference to an array of the values selected.

            To fix this you could call the parser by giving it a list of keys that you want
            to force to be arrays.  In this case like...

              use CGI::Thin;
              my %cgi_data = &Parse_CGI ('color');

            Now it they pick exactly one color, $cgi_data{'color'} will be a reference to
            an array of the one value selected.  And thus there will be no need for
            special cases later in the code.

BUGS
  Fixed

    *   Added %([0-9a-fA-F]{2} to the regular expression to avoid
        illegal escapes

    *   Now split the key/value pairs by [;&] not just the ampersand

  Pending

    *   Long headers lines that have been broken over multiple lines in
        multipart/form-data don't seem to be handled.

    *   Large file uploads (like 150MB) will clobber main memory. One
        possible addition is to change how multipart/form-data is
        read and to spit files directly to the temp directory and
        return to the script a filename so it can be retreived from
        there.

    *   Any thoughts on adapting it for use withing a mod_perl
        environment?

        Under Apache::Registry, which emulates a CGI environmnet, it
        should be. Under plain ol' mod_perl, we need to interact
        with the Apache::Request class a bit instead of %ENV and
        STDIN.

        This feature may be added in the next incarnation of the
        module, or possibly a companion CGI::Thin::Mod_Perlish may
        be created to do it if the code will be too different.

SEE ALSO
    CGI::Thin::Cookies

SUPPORT
        Visit CGI::Thin's web site at
            http://www.PlatypiVentures.com/perl/modules/cgi_thin.shtml
        Send email to
            mailto:cgi_thin@PlatypiVentures.com

AUTHOR
        R. Geoffrey Avery
        CPAN ID: RGEOFFREY
        rGeoffrey@PlatypiVentures.com
        http://www.PlatypiVentures.com/perl

COPYRIGHT
    This module is free software, you may redistribute it or modify
    in under the same terms as Perl itself.