6. "Using a Perl module that is not in the standard Perl distribution"

One of the nice features about Perl is that you hardly ever have to do much programming but there is a wide range of modules available doing almost everything you can imagine. In addition that these modules are usually quite well documented, you can also rely on them being already sufficiently debugged. 

Modules that are not included in the standard perl distribution can be easily obtained from several places e.g.  CPAN  (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) or ActiveState. However you have to put them into a location where PERL finds them or tell Perl to look for them where you put them !

i) Create a directory within your Web-site for the additional Perl modules you want to use, call it e.g.  'perllib'

ii) Copy the perlmodule that into the directory 

ii) From within your perl-script you have to include the 'perllib' directory to the library search path. Add something similar to the following to your Perl-script:

use lib "\Full\path\to\perllib";

Then you can use the 'new' module as any other module, e.g.

use lib "\Full\path\to\perllib"; use strict; use YourModuleName; # your code to follow ...

 

If you don't specify the correct path in the 'use lib' statement you will get a quite understandable error message that the 'YourModuleName' module can not be located !!!

 

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