From: Dossy <dossy@...>
Date: 2002-09-19T10:26:38+09:00
Subject: Re: Semi-OT: Web issues

On 2002.09.19, Hal E. Fulton <hal9000@hypermetrics.com> wrote:
> 
> And no, I don't blame you if you don't bother.

If this isn't the most pathetic guilt trip I'd ever heard!  :-)

Since I'd just spent the last two days writing web screen-scrapers
as a favor to a friend -- part of which was defeating some website's
attempt to limit access to some portions of their site -- your challenge
wasn't very tough.  :-)

Here's the skinny:

The CafePress account side can either be accessed via SSL or non-SSL.

Here are the cookies that the site sets:

Cookie: fcP=C=0&T=1032397984660; ASP.NET_SessionId=ptqg1xrfd5ivxinux3ai2art

So, we've got "fcP" which is set to "C=0" and "T" which is set to what
looks like a Unix timestamp:

$ date
Wed Sep 18 21:22:48 EDT 2002

$ ruby -e 'p Time.at(1032397984660)'
-e:1:in `at': bignum too big to convert into `int' (RangeError)
	from -e:1

Hmm.  It definitely looks like Unix time, but too many digits.
Lets take the least significant ones off:

$ ruby -e 'p Time.at(1032397984)'
Wed Sep 18 21:13:04 EDT 2002

There you go.

So, there's some server-side state that's being maintained using the
ASP.NET_SessionId cookie to associate your browser to the server-side
session.  Then there's some client-side timestamp and some other misc.
cookie.

So, you'll have to write your auto-uploader to hit the CafePress login
page in order to get the ASP.NET_SessionId.  Once you've got that, then
go on your merry way.

Ruby's Net::HTTP makes this pretty easy.

-- Dossy

-- 
Dossy Shiobara                       mail: dossy@panoptic.com 
Panoptic Computer Network             web: http://www.panoptic.com/ 
  "He realized the fastest way to change is to laugh at your own
    folly -- then you can let go and quickly move on." (p. 70)