From: konstantin.mailinglists@...
Date: 2008-05-19T07:40:02+09:00
Subject: Re: Using Mechanize and hpricot to get property taxes

On 18 Mai, 22:15, Cy Gar <i...@bibotu.com> wrote:
> 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'
> --
> Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Just pasted it into irb. I don't run into errors...

>> page = agent.submit(form,form.buttons.first)
=> #<WWW::Mechanize::Page
 {url
  #<URI::HTTPS:0xfdbb0484c URL:https://ttc.lacounty.gov/secured_asp/
vcheck_new/index.php?
page=installments&SSID=3an61rbfpbje0uunii667oj706>}
 {meta}
 {title "Property Tax Payment Status Page"}
 {iframes}
 {frames}
 {links
  #<WWW::Mechanize::Link
   "Select Another Parcel"
   "index.php?page=main&SSID=3an61rbfpbje0uunii667oj706">
  #<WWW::Mechanize::Link
   "\r\n        \r\n    "
   "index.php?page=main&SSID=3an61rbfpbje0uunii667oj706">}
 {forms}>