Listing 7: cookies.tmpl, a sample of what template could be used to
create a home page for users.

<HTML>
<Head>
<Title>Testing cookie retrieval</Title>
</Head>

<Body>
<H1>Testing cookie retrieval</H1>

{
  # Reset value of $outputstring
  my $outputstring = "";

  # Retrieve the cookie's value
  my $person_id = $LJ::query->cookie("person_id");

  # Bring in the package needed for accessing MySQL
  use Mysql;

  # Connect to the MySQL server
  my $dbh = Mysql->connect("localhost", "test");

  # Create the query
  my $command = "select firstname,lastname,email,birthdate ";
  $command .= "from birthdays where person_id = $person_id";

  # Send the query for processing
  my $sth = $dbh->query($command);

  # If nothing came back, or if $person_id was blank, then
  # issue an error message, and let the user enter a birthday
  if (($person_id == 0) || ($sth->numrows == 0))
  {
    $outputstring .= "<P>Error retrieving information.</P>\n";
    $outputstring .= "<P>person_id (from cookie) = \"$person_id\".</P>\n";

    my $numrows = $sth->numrows;
    $outputstring .= "<P>Rows returned from table = \"$numrows\"</P>\n";

    $outputstring .= "<P><a href=\"/birthday.html\">";
	$outputstring .= "Enter your birthday</a></P>\n";
  }

  # If something came back, then grab values and assign them
  else
  {
	while (my @arr = $sth->fetchrow)
	{
	  my ($firstname, $lastname, $email, $birthdate) = @arr;
      $outputstring .= "<P>firstname = \"$firstname\"</P>\n";
      $outputstring .= "<P>lastname = \"$lastname\"</P>\n";
      $outputstring .= "<P>email = \"$email\"</P>\n";
      $outputstring .= "<P>birthdate = \"$birthdate\"</P>\n";
    }
  }

  # Return whatever is in $outputstring
  $outputstring;
}

</Body>

</HTML>