Hypermedia Tutorial 99F : Writing Madlibs

Go back to the page and change the exclamation to ``Wicked neat!''.

Read the story again. Does it change?

Look at the source to the two pages. Here's one of them.

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Prepare for a Story</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H1>Write your own adventure ...</H1>

<FORM METHOD="GET" ACTION="madalice.cgi">

<P>
Enter your name: <INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="name">
</P>

<P>
Enter your gender:
<SELECT NAME="gender">
<OPTION VALUE="male">Male
<OPTION VALUE="female">Female
<OPTION VALUE="other" SELECTED>Indeterminate
</SELECT>
</P>

<P>
Enter some singular nouns:
<INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="noun1" VALUE="eggplant">
<INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="noun2" VALUE="Web page">
<INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="noun3" VALUE="zebra">
</P>

<P>
Enter an exclamation, like ``Hey!'' or ``Cool!'' or
``Wicked neat!''
<INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="exclamation" VALUE="Sweet!">
</P>


<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="adjective1" VALUE="strange">
<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="adjective2" VALUE="fascinating">
<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="adjective3" VALUE="beautiful">
<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="adjective4" VALUE="cloudy">
<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="beverage" VALUE="orange juice">

<INPUT TYPE="SUBMIT" VALUE="Tell me a story">

</FORM>

</BODY>
</HTML>

What do you think each part of this does?

Look at the code for the computer program that turns the input from the Web page into the story.

#!/usr/local/bin/perl

# A simple, Mad-libs (tm) type CGI script that tells a story based
# on parameters given in a form page.  The following are the
# parameters used in the story:
#
#   Name, Gender,
#   Adjective1, Adjective2, Adjective3
#   Noun1,Noun2,Noun3
#   Exclamation

use CGI;

# Get the query from the Web page
$query = CGI::new();

# Extract the important parts.
$name = $query->param("name");
$gender = $query->param("gender");
$adj1 = $query->param("adjective1");
$adj2 = $query->param("adjective2");
$adj3 = $query->param("adjective3");
$adj4 = $query->param("adjective4");
$noun1 = $query->param("noun1");
$noun2 = $query->param("noun2");
$noun3 = $query->param("noun3");
$exclamation = $query->param("exclamation");
$beverage = $query->param("beverage");

# Find an appropriate pronoun
if ($gender eq "male") {
  $pronoun = "he";
  $Pronoun = "He";
  $possessive = "his";
}
elsif ($gender eq "female") {
  $pronoun = "she";
  $Pronoun = "She";
  $possessive = "her";
}
else {
  $pronoun = "it";
  $Pronoun = "It";
  $possessive = "its";
}

# The ending depends on the exclamation
if ($exclamation eq "Wicked neat!") {
  $ending = "``What a satisfying drink,'' $name thought as " .
            "$pronoun put the bottle down.";
}
else {
  $ending = "As $name collapsed to the floor, $pronoun thought, " .
            "``I really do need to learn to read the label first!''";
}

print $query->header();
print <<"END";
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>A Story for $name</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H1>${name}'s adventures at the bottom of the slide</H1>
<P>
$name was feeling very dizzy when $pronoun reached the bottom of
the slide.  The room was spinning and $name thought $pronoun saw
$adj1 ${noun1}s bouncing around the room.  $name felt very, very
$adj2.  
</P>

<P>
Once $pronoun had recovered, $pronoun began to look around the room.
$Pronoun quickly noticed a $adj3 $adj4 glass bottle that seemed to
be filled with $beverage.  The bottle was near a $noun.
As $pronoun was quite thirsty and also
enamored of $beverage, $name thought ``$exclamation'' and
decided to drink the bottle.  As $possessive
lips touched the bottle, $pronoun saw the words ``Are you sure you
want to drink me?''
</P>

<P>
$ending
</P>

</BODY>
</HTML>
END

Try to modify both to tell a different story. (Note that you shouldn't have to understand everything in order to change it.)

You will need to save the program as ``madalice.cgi''.
You will also have to use the file manager to make that file executable (ask me for help with that if you've forgotten how).

History

Tuesday, 26 October 1999

Created

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Source text last modified Tue Oct 26 08:23:00 1999.

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