NAME¶
WWW::Mechanize::FormFiller - framework to automate HTML forms
SYNOPSIS¶
Form fields can be specified by name or by a regular expression. A field
specified by name takes precedence over a matching regular expression.
You are not limited to fixed form values - callbacks and interactive editing are
also already provided :
# Create a form filler that asks us for the password
# Normally, the HTML would come from a LWP::UserAgent request
my $html = "<html><body><form name='f' action='/login.asp'>
<input type='text' name='login'>
<input type='password' name='password' >
<input type='submit' name=Login value='Log in'>
<input type='hidden' name='session' value='0xDEADBEEF' />
</form></body></html>";
my $f = WWW::Mechanize::FormFiller->new();
my $form = HTML::Form->parse($html,"http://www.fbi.gov/super/secret/");
$f->add_filler( password => Interactive => []);
$f->fill_form($form);
my $request = $form->click("Login");
# Now we have a complete HTTP request, which we can hand off to
# LWP::UserAgent or (preferrably) WWW::Mechanize
print $request->as_string;
DESCRIPTION¶
The module is intended as a simple way to fill out HTML forms from a set of
predetermined values. You set up the form filler with value elements, retrieve
the HTML form, and let the form filler loose on that form.
There are value classes provided for many tasks - fixed values, values to be
queried interactively from the user, values taken randomly from a list of
values and values specified through a callback to some Perl code.
- new %ARGS
- Creates a new instance. The %ARGS hash has two possible keys :
"default", whose value should be an array reference consisting
of the name of a "WWW::Mechanize::FormFiller::Value" subclass
and the optional constructor values. "values" must be an array
reference, which contains array and "Files", which takes an
array reference to the filenames to watch.
Example :
- add_filler NAME, CLASS, @ARGS
- Adds a new value to the list of filled fields. "NAME" is the
name of the form field, "CLASS" is the name of the class in the
"WWW::Mechanize::FormFiller::Value" namespace - it must live
below there ! @ARGS is an optional array reference to the parameters that
the subclass constructor takes.
- add_value NAME, VALUE
- Adds a new WWW::Mechanize::FormFiller::Value subclass to the list of
filled fields. "NAME" is the name of the form field,
"VALUE" is an object that responds to the interface of
"WWW::Mechanize::FormFiller::Value".
- fill_form FORM
- Sets the field values in FORM to the values returned by the
"WWW::Mechanize::FormFiller::Value" elements. FORM should be of
type HTML::Forms or respond to the same interface.
- fillout @ARGS
- This is a very dwimmy routine that allows you to intuitively set up values
and fill out a form, if needed. It works as both a constructor and a
method. The parameters are decoded according to the following examples :
$filler = WWW::Mechanize::FormFiller->new();
$filler->fillout(
# For the the simple case, assumed 'Fixed' class,
name => 'Mark',
# With an array reference, create and fill with the right kind of object.
widget_id => [ 'Random', (1..5) ],
);
$filler = WWW::Mechanize::FormFiller->new();
$filler->fillout(
# If the first parameter isa HTML::Form, it is
# filled out directly
$form,
name => 'Mark',
motto => [ 'Random::Word', size => 5 ],
);
# This works as a direct constructor as well
WWW::Mechanize::FormFiller->fillout(
$form2,
name => 'Mark',
motto => [ 'Random::Word', size => 5 ],
);
Value subclasses¶
The following WWW::Mechanize::FormFiller::Value subclasses are currently
distributed :
- WWW::Mechanize::FormFiller::Value::Callback
- WWW::Mechanize::FormFiller::Value::Default
- WWW::Mechanize::FormFiller::Value::Fixed
- WWW::Mechanize::FormFiller::Value::Interactive
- WWW::Mechanize::FormFiller::Value::Keep
- WWW::Mechanize::FormFiller::Value::Random
- WWW::Mechanize::FormFiller::Value::Random::Word
- WWW::Mechanize::FormFiller::Value::Random::Chars
- WWW::Mechanize::FormFiller::Value::Random::Date
EXPORT¶
None by default.
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE¶
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the same terms as Perl itself.
Copyright (C) 2002,2003 Max Maischein
AUTHOR¶
Max Maischein, <corion@cpan.org>
Please contact me if you find bugs or otherwise improve the module. More tests
are also very welcome !
Bug reports are best done via RT at
https://rt.cpan.org
SEE ALSO¶
WWW::Mechanize,WWW::Mechanize::Shell,WWW::Mechanize::FormFiller::Value