From: Hal Fulton <hal9000@...>
Date: 2006-10-25T13:21:13+09:00
Subject: Re: Best way to automate web browser tasks?

Philip Hallstrom wrote:
>>> curl?
>>>
>>> seriously - do you have to do it via firefox?
>>>
>>
>> No, I *don't* have to do it via FF or any other browser.
>>
>> Can curl do that sort of thing? I've never used it
>> except for simple sucking-down of pages.
> 
> 
> Yes.
> 
> -F/--form <name=content>

[snip snip]

Doing a 'man curl' I see now that it has a plethora of options --
someone once said, a metric sh*tload.

It looks a little painful, though. I suppose for a dropdown you'd
have to type the full value of the selected option? Or am I thinking
of a checkbox?

I see now that this thing has a lot of Javascript in it. When I hover
over the New button, it says:

   javascript:hideMainMenu();submitbutton('new');

which just complicates things that much more.

What about Mechanize? Better/worse/different?


Thanks,
Hal




> 
> (HTTP) This lets curl emulate a filled in form in which a user  has
> pressed  the  submit  button.  This causes  curl to POST data using the
> content-type multipart/form-data according to RFC1867.  This enables
> uploading of binary files etc. To force the content part to be be a
> file, prefix the file name with an @ sign. To just get the content part
> from a file, prefix the file name with the letter <. The difference
> between @ and < is then that @ makes a file get attached in the post as
> a file upload, while the < makes a text field and just get the contents
> for that text field from a file.
> 
> Example,  to  send  your  password file to the server, where password is
> the name of the form-field to which /etc/passwd will be the input:
> 
> curl -F password=@/etc/passwd www.mypasswords.com
> 
> To read the files content from stdin insted of a file, use
> - where the file name shouldve  been.  This goes for both @ and <
>   constructs.
> 
> You  can also tell curl what Content-Type to use for the file upload
> part, by using type=, in a manner similar to:
> 
> curl -F "web=@index.html;type=text/html" url.com
> 
> See further examples and details in the MANUAL.
> 
> This option can be used multiple times.
> 
>