From: Cy Gar <info@...>
Date: 2008-05-19T05:15:03+09:00
Subject: Using Mechanize and hpricot  to get property taxes

after reading about hpricot, mechanize and htree gems, I made an attempt
to write a simple code to grab property tax info for homes in Los
Angeles.  i wrote this fragment which goes to the assessor's website,
finds the form entries and correctly puts in an apn number (property
parcel number) but fails at the submit line.  I tried page =
agent.submit(form) also to no avail. What am I doing wrong?

Two side questions: How do you auto-indent ruby code?  I am using SciTe
editor and i find myself using my old matlab editor every once in a
while to beautify the codes.  Hw could ruby not have auto-indentor?
Also quick way of turning an html table into a matrix, array of arrays?
thanks in advance.


  require 'rubygems'
  require 'hpricot'
  require 'mechanize'
  agent = WWW::Mechanize.new
  apn='2264-011-027'
  page =
agent.get('https://ttc.lacounty.gov/secured_asp/vcheck_new/index.php')
  form=page.forms.with.name("pageform").first
  form['mapbook']=apn[0,4]
  form.page=apn[5,3]
  form.parcel=apn[9,3]
  page = agent.submit(form,form.buttons.first)  #gives error

error:

c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mechanize-0.7.6/lib/www/mechanize/page.rb:104:in
`bases': undefined method `search' for nil:NilClass (NoMethodError)
  from
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mechanize-0.7.6/lib/www/mechanize.rb:440:in
`to_absolute_uri'
  from
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mechanize-0.7.6/lib/www/mechanize.rb:659:in
`fetch_page'
  from
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mechanize-0.7.6/lib/www/mechanize.rb:466:in
`post_form'
  from
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mechanize-0.7.6/lib/www/mechanize.rb:269:in
`submit'
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