WWW::Mechanize - Handy web browsing in a Perl object
version 2.14
WWW::Mechanize supports performing a sequence of page fetches including following links and submitting forms. Each fetched page is parsed and its links and forms are extracted. A link or a form can be selected, form fields can be filled and the next page can be fetched. Mech also stores a history of the URLs you've visited, which can be queried and revisited.
use WWW::Mechanize ();
my $mech = WWW::Mechanize->new();
$mech->get( $url );
$mech->follow_link( n => 3 );
$mech->follow_link( text_regex => qr/download this/i );
$mech->follow_link( url => 'http://host.com/index.html' );
$mech->submit_form(
form_number => 3,
fields => {
username => 'mungo',
password => 'lost-and-alone',
}
);
$mech->submit_form(
form_name => 'search',
fields => { query => 'pot of gold', },
button => 'Search Now'
);
# Enable strict form processing to catch typos and non-existant form fields.
my $strict_mech = WWW::Mechanize->new( strict_forms => 1);
$strict_mech->get( $url );
# This method call will die, saving you lots of time looking for the bug.
$strict_mech->submit_form(
form_number => 3,
fields => {
usernaem => 'mungo', # typo in field name
password => 'lost-and-alone',
extra_field => 123, # field does not exist
}
);
WWW::Mechanize
, or Mech for short, is a Perl module for stateful
programmatic web browsing, used for automating interaction with
websites.
Features include:
- All HTTP methods
- High-level hyperlink and HTML form support, without having to parse HTML yourself
- SSL support
- Automatic cookies
- Custom HTTP headers
- Automatic handling of redirections
- Proxies
- HTTP authentication
Mech is well suited for use in testing web applications. If you use one of the Test::*, like Test::HTML::Lint modules, you can check the fetched content and use that as input to a test call.
use Test::More;
like( $mech->content(), qr/$expected/, "Got expected content" );
Each page fetch stores its URL in a history stack which you can traverse.
$mech->back();
If you want finer control over your page fetching, you can use
these methods. [follow_link()](#mech-follow_link)
and [submit_form()](#mech-submit_form)
are just high
level wrappers around them.
$mech->find_link( n => $number );
$mech->form_number( $number );
$mech->form_name( $name );
$mech->field( $name, $value );
$mech->set_fields( %field_values );
$mech->set_visible( @criteria );
$mech->click( $button );
WWW::Mechanize is a proper subclass of LWP::UserAgent and you can also use any of LWP::UserAgent's methods.
$mech->add_header($name => $value);
Please note that Mech does NOT support JavaScript, you need additional software for that. Please check "JavaScript" in WWW::Mechanize::FAQ for more.
-
https://github.com/libwww-perl/WWW-Mechanize/issues
The queue for bugs & enhancements in WWW::Mechanize. Please note that the queue at http://rt.cpan.org is no longer maintained.
-
https://metacpan.org/pod/WWW::Mechanize
The CPAN documentation page for Mechanize.
-
https://metacpan.org/pod/distribution/WWW-Mechanize/lib/WWW/Mechanize/FAQ.pod
Frequently asked questions. Make sure you read here FIRST.
Creates and returns a new WWW::Mechanize object, hereafter referred to as the "agent".
my $mech = WWW::Mechanize->new()
The constructor for WWW::Mechanize overrides two of the params to the LWP::UserAgent constructor:
agent => 'WWW-Mechanize/#.##'
cookie_jar => {} # an empty, memory-only HTTP::Cookies object
You can override these overrides by passing params to the constructor, as in:
my $mech = WWW::Mechanize->new( agent => 'wonderbot 1.01' );
If you want none of the overhead of a cookie jar, or don't want your bot accepting cookies, you have to explicitly disallow it, like so:
my $mech = WWW::Mechanize->new( cookie_jar => undef );
Here are the params that WWW::Mechanize recognizes. These do not include params that LWP::UserAgent recognizes.
-
autocheck => [0|1]
Checks each request made to see if it was successful. This saves you the trouble of manually checking yourself. Any errors found are errors, not warnings.
The default value is ON, unless it's being subclassed, in which case it is OFF. This means that standalone WWW::Mechanize instances have autocheck turned on, which is protective for the vast majority of Mech users who don't bother checking the return value of
[get()](#mech-get-uri)
and[post()](#mech-post-uri-content-content)
and can't figure why their code fails. However, if WWW::Mechanize is subclassed, such as for Test::WWW::Mechanize or Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst, this may not be an appropriate default, so it's off. -
noproxy => [0|1]
Turn off the automatic call to the LWP::UserAgent
env_proxy
function.This needs to be explicitly turned off if you're using Crypt::SSLeay to access a https site via a proxy server. Note: you still need to set your HTTPS_PROXY environment variable as appropriate.
-
onwarn => \&func
Reference to a
warn
-compatible function, such as[Carp](https://metacpan.org/pod/Carp)::carp
, that is called when a warning needs to be shown.If this is set to
undef
, no warnings will ever be shown. However, it's probably better to use thequiet
method to control that behavior.If this value is not passed, Mech uses
Carp::carp
if Carp is installed, orCORE::warn
if not. -
onerror => \&func
Reference to a
die
-compatible function, such as[Carp](https://metacpan.org/pod/Carp)::croak
, that is called when there's a fatal error.If this is set to
undef
, no errors will ever be shown.If this value is not passed, Mech uses
Carp::croak
if Carp is installed, orCORE::die
if not. -
quiet => [0|1]
Don't complain on warnings. Setting
quiet => 1
is the same as calling$mech->quiet(1)
. Default is off. -
stack_depth => $value
Sets the depth of the page stack that keeps track of all the downloaded pages. Default is effectively infinite stack size. If the stack is eating up your memory, then set this to a smaller number, say 5 or 10. Setting this to zero means Mech will keep no history.
In addition, WWW::Mechanize also allows you to globally enable strict and verbose mode for form handling, which is done with HTML::Form.
-
strict_forms => [0|1]
Globally sets the HTML::Form strict flag which causes form submission to croak if any of the passed fields don't exist in the form, and/or a value doesn't exist in a select element. This can still be disabled in individual calls to
[submit_form()](#mech-submit_form)
.Default is off.
-
verbose_forms => [0|1]
Globally sets the HTML::Form verbose flag which causes form submission to warn about any bad HTML form constructs found. This cannot be disabled later.
Default is off.
-
marked_sections => [0|1]
Globally sets the HTML::Parser marked sections flag which causes HTML
CDATA[[
sections to be honoured. This cannot be disabled later.Default is on.
To support forms, WWW::Mechanize's constructor pushes POST
on to the agent's requests_redirectable
list (see also
LWP::UserAgent.)
Sets the user agent string to the expanded version from a table of actual user strings.
$alias
can be one of the following:
- Windows IE 6
- Windows Mozilla
- Mac Safari
- Mac Mozilla
- Linux Mozilla
- Linux Konqueror
then it will be replaced with a more interesting one. For instance,
$mech->agent_alias( 'Windows IE 6' );
sets your User-Agent to
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)
The list of valid aliases can be returned from
[known_agent_aliases()](#mech-known_agent_aliases)
.
The current list is:
- Windows IE 6
- Windows Mozilla
- Mac Safari
- Mac Mozilla
- Linux Mozilla
- Linux Konqueror
Returns a list of all the agent aliases that Mech knows about. This can also be called as a package or class method.
@aliases = WWW::Mechanize::known_agent_aliases();
@aliases = WWW::Mechanize->known_agent_aliases();
@aliases = $mech->known_agent_aliases();
Given a URL/URI, fetches it. Returns an HTTP::Response object.
$uri
can be a well-formed URL string, a URI object, or a
WWW::Mechanize::Link object.
The results are stored internally in the agent object, but you don't know that. Just use the accessors listed below. Poking at the internals is deprecated and subject to change in the future.
get()
is a well-behaved overloaded version of the method in
LWP::UserAgent. This lets you do things like
$mech->get( $uri, ':content_file' => $filename );
and you can rest assured that the params will get filtered down appropriately. See "get" in LWP::UserAgent for more details.
NOTE: Because :content_file
causes the page contents to be
stored in a file instead of the response object, some Mech functions
that expect it to be there won't work as expected. Use with caution.
Here is a non-complete list of methods that do not work as expected with
:content_file
:
[forms()](#mech-forms)
,
[current_form()](#mech-current_form)
,
[links()](#mech-links)
,
[title()](#mech-title)
,
[content(...)](#mech-content)
,
[text()](#mech-text)
,
all content-handling methods,
all link methods,
all image methods,
all form methods,
all field methods,
[save_content(...)](#mech-save_content-filename-opts)
,
[dump_links(...)](#mech-dump_links-fh-absolute)
,
[dump_images(...)](#mech-dump_images-fh-absolute)
,
[dump_forms(...)](#mech-dump_forms-fh)
,
[dump_text(...)](#mech-dump_text-fh)
POSTs $content
to $uri
. Returns an HTTP::Response object.
$uri
can be a well-formed URI string, a URI object, or a
WWW::Mechanize::Link object.
PUTs $content
to $uri
. Returns an HTTP::Response object.
$uri
can be a well-formed URI string, a URI object, or a
WWW::Mechanize::Link object.
my $res = $mech->head( $uri );
my $res = $mech->head( $uri , $field_name => $value, ... );
Performs a HEAD request to $uri
. Returns an HTTP::Response object.
$uri
can be a well-formed URI string, a URI object, or a
WWW::Mechanize::Link object.
Acts like the reload button in a browser: repeats the current request. The history (as per the back() method) is not altered.
Returns the HTTP::Response object from the reload, or undef
if there's no current request.
The equivalent of hitting the "back" button in a browser. Returns to the previous page. Won't go back past the first page. (Really, what would it do if it could?)
Returns true if it could go back, or false if not.
This deletes all the history entries and returns true.
This returns the number of items in the browser history. This number does include the most recently made request.
This returns the _n_th item in history. The 0th item is the most recent
request and response, which would be acted on by methods like
[find_link()](#mech-find_link)
.
The 1st item is the state you'd return to if you called
[back()](#mech-back)
.
The maximum useful value for $n
is $mech->history_count - 1
.
Requests beyond that bound will return undef
.
History items are returned as hash references, in the form:
{ req => $http_request, res => $http_response }
Returns a boolean telling whether the last request was successful. If there hasn't been an operation yet, returns false.
This is a convenience function that wraps $mech->res->is_success
.
Returns the current URI as a URI object. This object stringifies to the URI itself.
Return the current response as an HTTP::Response object.
Synonym for $mech->response()
.
Returns the HTTP status code of the response. This is a 3-digit number like 200 for OK, 404 for not found, and so on.
Returns the content type of the response.
Returns the base URI for the current response
When called in a list context, returns a list of the forms found in the last fetched page. In a scalar context, returns a reference to an array with those forms. The forms returned are all HTML::Form objects.
Returns the current form as an HTML::Form object.
When called in a list context, returns a list of the links found in the last fetched page. In a scalar context it returns a reference to an array with those links. Each link is a WWW::Mechanize::Link object.
Returns true/false on whether our content is HTML, according to the HTTP headers.
Returns the contents of the <TITLE>
tag, as parsed by
HTML::HeadParser. Returns undef
if the content is not HTML.
Convenience method to get the redirects from the most recent HTTP::Response.
Note that you can also use is_redirect to see if the most recent response was a redirect like this.
$mech->get($url);
do_stuff() if $mech->res->is_redirect;
Returns the content that the mech uses internally for the last page
fetched. Ordinarily this is the same as
$mech->response()->decoded_content()
,
but this may differ for HTML documents if [update_html](#mech-update_html-html)
is
overloaded (in which case the value passed to the base-class
implementation of same will be returned), and/or extra named arguments
are passed to content()
:
-
$mech->content( format => 'text' )
Returns a text-only version of the page, with all HTML markup stripped. This feature requires HTML::TreeBuilder version 5 or higher to be installed, or a fatal error will be thrown. This works only if the contents are HTML.
-
$mech->content( base_href => [$base_href|undef] )
Returns the HTML document, modified to contain a
<base href="$base_href">
mark-up in the header.$base_href
is$mech->base()
if not specified. This is handy to pass the HTML to e.g. HTML::Display. This works only if the contents are HTML. -
$mech->content( raw => 1 )
Returns
$self->response()->content()
, i.e. the raw contents from the response. -
$mech->content( decoded_by_headers => 1 )
Returns the content after applying all
Content-Encoding
headers but with not additional mangling. -
$mech->content( charset => $charset )
Returns
$self->response()->decoded_content(charset => $charset)
(see HTTP::Response for details).
To preserve backwards compatibility, additional parameters will be
ignored unless none of raw | decoded_by_headers | charset
is
specified and the text is HTML, in which case an error will be triggered.
A fresh instance of WWW::Mechanize will return undef
when $mech->content()
is called, because no content is present before a request has been made.
Returns the text of the current HTML content. If the content isn't
HTML, $mech
will die.
The text is extracted by parsing the content, and then the extracted text is cached, so don't worry about performance of calling this repeatedly.
Lists all the links on the current page. Each link is a WWW::Mechanize::Link object. In list context, returns a list of all links. In scalar context, returns an array reference of all links.
Follows a specified link on the page. You specify the match to be
found using the same params that [find_link()](#mech-find_link)
uses.
Here some examples:
-
3rd link called "download"
$mech->follow_link( text => 'download', n => 3 );
-
first link where the URL has "download" in it, regardless of case:
$mech->follow_link( url_regex => qr/download/i );
or
$mech->follow_link( url_regex => qr/(?i:download)/ );
-
3rd link on the page
$mech->follow_link( n => 3 );
-
the link with the url
$mech->follow_link( url => '/other/page' );
or
$mech->follow_link( url => 'http://example.com/page' );
Returns the result of the GET
method (an HTTP::Response object) if a link
was found.
If the page has no links, or the specified link couldn't be found, returns
undef
. If autocheck
is enabled an exception will be thrown instead.
Finds a link in the currently fetched page. It returns a
WWW::Mechanize::Link object which describes the link. (You'll
probably be most interested in the
[url()](https://metacpan.org/pod/WWW%3A%3AMechanize%3A%3ALink#link-url)
property.)
If it fails to find a link it returns undef
.
You can take the URL part and pass it to the get()
method. If
that's your plan, you might as well use the [follow_link()](#mech-follow_link)
method directly, since it does the get()
for you automatically.
Note that <FRAME SRC="...">
tags are parsed out of the HTML and
treated as links so this method works with them.
You can select which link to find by passing in one or more of these key/value pairs:
-
text => 'string',
andtext_regex => qr/regex/,
text
matches the text of the link against string, which must be an exact match. To select a link with text that is exactly "download", use$mech->find_link( text => 'download' );
text_regex
matches the text of the link against regex. To select a link with text that has "download" anywhere in it, regardless of case, use$mech->find_link( text_regex => qr/download/i );
Note that the text extracted from the page's links are trimmed. For example,
<a> foo </a>
is stored as 'foo', and searching for leading or trailing spaces will fail. -
url => 'string',
andurl_regex => qr/regex/,
Matches the URL of the link against string or regex, as appropriate. The URL may be a relative URL, like
foo/bar.html
, depending on how it's coded on the page. -
url_abs => string
andurl_abs_regex => regex
Matches the absolute URL of the link against string or regex, as appropriate. The URL will be an absolute URL, even if it's relative in the page.
-
name => string
andname_regex => regex
Matches the name of the link against string or regex, as appropriate.
-
rel => string
andrel_regex => regex
Matches the rel of the link against string or regex, as appropriate. This can be used to find stylesheets, favicons, or links the author of the page does not want bots to follow.
-
id => string
andid_regex => regex
Matches the attribute 'id' of the link against string or regex, as appropriate.
-
class => string
andclass_regex => regex
Matches the attribute 'class' of the link against string or regex, as appropriate.
-
tag => string
andtag_regex => regex
Matches the tag that the link came from against string or regex, as appropriate. The
tag_regex
is probably most useful to check for more than one tag, as in:$mech->find_link( tag_regex => qr/^(a|frame)$/ );
The tags and attributes looked at are defined below.
If n
is not specified, it defaults to 1. Therefore, if you don't
specify any params, this method defaults to finding the first link on the
page.
Note that you can specify multiple text or URL parameters, which will be ANDed together. For example, to find the first link with text of "News" and with "cnn.com" in the URL, use:
$mech->find_link( text => 'News', url_regex => qr/cnn\.com/ );
The return value is a reference to an array containing a
WWW::Mechanize::Link object for every link in
[$self->content](#mech-content)
.
The links come from the following:
<a href=...>
<area href=...>
<frame src=...>
<iframe src=...>
<link href=...>
<meta content=...>
Returns all the links on the current page that match the criteria. The
method for specifying link criteria is the same as in
[find_link()](#mech-find_link)
.
Each of the links returned is a WWW::Mechanize::Link object.
In list context, find_all_links()
returns a list of the links.
Otherwise, it returns a reference to the list of links.
find_all_links()
with no parameters returns all links in the
page.
find_all_inputs()
returns an array of all the input controls in the
current form whose properties match all of the regexes passed in.
The controls returned are all descended from HTML::Form::Input.
See "INPUTS" in HTML::Form for details.
If no criteria are passed, all inputs will be returned.
If there is no current page, there is no form on the current page, or there are no submit controls in the current form then the return will be an empty array.
You may use a regex or a literal string:
# get all textarea controls whose names begin with "customer"
my @customer_text_inputs = $mech->find_all_inputs(
type => 'textarea',
name_regex => qr/^customer/,
);
# get all text or textarea controls called "customer"
my @customer_text_inputs = $mech->find_all_inputs(
type_regex => qr/^(text|textarea)$/,
name => 'customer',
);
find_all_submits()
does the same thing as
[find_all_inputs()](#mech-find_all_inputs-criteria)
except that it only returns controls that are submit controls,
ignoring other types of input controls like text and checkboxes.
Lists all the images on the current page. Each image is a WWW::Mechanize::Image object. In list context, returns a list of all images. In scalar context, returns an array reference of all images.
Finds an image in the current page. It returns a
WWW::Mechanize::Image object which describes the image. If it fails
to find an image it returns undef
.
You can select which image to find by passing in one or more of these key/value pairs:
-
alt => 'string'
andalt_regex => qr/regex/
alt
matches the ALT attribute of the image against string, which must be an exact match. To select a image with an ALT tag that is exactly "download", use$mech->find_image( alt => 'download' );
alt_regex
matches the ALT attribute of the image against a regular expression. To select an image with an ALT attribute that has "download" anywhere in it, regardless of case, use$mech->find_image( alt_regex => qr/download/i );
-
url => 'string'
andurl_regex => qr/regex/
Matches the URL of the image against string or regex, as appropriate. The URL may be a relative URL, like
foo/bar.html
, depending on how it's coded on the page. -
url_abs => string
andurl_abs_regex => regex
Matches the absolute URL of the image against string or regex, as appropriate. The URL will be an absolute URL, even if it's relative in the page.
-
tag => string
andtag_regex => regex
Matches the tag that the image came from against string or regex, as appropriate. The
tag_regex
is probably most useful to check for more than one tag, as in:$mech->find_image( tag_regex => qr/^(img|input)$/ );
The tags supported are
<img>
and<input>
. -
id => string
andid_regex => regex
id
matches the id attribute of the image against string, which must be an exact match. To select an image with the exact id "download-image", use$mech->find_image( id => 'download-image' );
id_regex
matches the id attribute of the image against a regular expression. To select the first image with an id that contains "download" anywhere in it, use$mech->find_image( id_regex => qr/download/ );
-
classs => string
andclass_regex => regex
class
matches the class attribute of the image against string, which must be an exact match. To select an image with the exact class "img-fuid", use$mech->find_image( class => 'img-fluid' );
To select an image with the class attribute "rounded float-left", use
$mech->find_image( class => 'rounded float-left' );
Note that the classes have to be matched as a complete string, in the exact order they appear in the website's source code.
class_regex
matches the class attribute of the image against a regular expression. Use this if you want a partial class name, or if an image has several classes, but you only care about one.To select the first image with the class "rounded", where there are multiple images that might also have either class "float-left" or "float-right", use
$mech->find_image( class_regex => qr/\brounded\b/ );
Selecting an image with multiple classes where you do not care about the order they appear in the website's source code is not currently supported.
If n
is not specified, it defaults to 1. Therefore, if you don't
specify any params, this method defaults to finding the first image on the
page.
Note that you can specify multiple ALT or URL parameters, which will be ANDed together. For example, to find the first image with ALT text of "News" and with "cnn.com" in the URL, use:
$mech->find_image( image => 'News', url_regex => qr/cnn\.com/ );
The return value is a reference to an array containing a
WWW::Mechanize::Image object for every image in
[$mech->content](#mech-content)
.
Returns all the images on the current page that match the criteria. The
method for specifying image criteria is the same as in
[find_image()](#mech-find_image)
.
Each of the images returned is a WWW::Mechanize::Image object.
In list context, find_all_images()
returns a list of the images.
Otherwise, it returns a reference to the list of images.
find_all_images()
with no parameters returns all images in the page.
These methods let you work with the forms on a page. The idea is to choose a form that you'll later work with using the field methods below.
Lists all the forms on the current page. Each form is an HTML::Form object. In list context, returns a list of all forms. In scalar context, returns an array reference of all forms.
Selects the _number_th form on the page as the target for subsequent
calls to [field()](#mech-field-name-value-number)
and [click()](#mech-click-button-x-y)
.
Also returns the form that was selected.
If it is found, the form is returned as an HTML::Form object and set internally
for later use with Mech's form methods such as
[field()](#mech-field-name-value-number)
and
[click()](#mech-click-button-x-y)
.
When called in a list context, the number of the found form is also returned as
a second value.
Emits a warning and returns undef
if no form is found.
The first form is number 1, not zero.
Selects a form by action, using a regex containing $action
.
If there is more than one form on the page matching that action,
then the first one is used, and a warning is generated.
If it is found, the form is returned as an HTML::Form object and
set internally for later use with Mech's form methods such as
[field()](#mech-field-name-value-number)
and
[click()](#mech-click-button-x-y)
.
Returns undef
if no form is found.
Selects a form by name.
By default, the first form that has this name will be returned.
my $form = $mech->form_name("order_form");
If you want the second, third or nth match, pass an optional arguments hash
reference as the final parameter with a key n
to pick which instance you
want. The numbering starts at 1.
my $third_product_form = $mech->form_name("buy_now", { n => 3 });
If the n
parameter is not passed, and there is more than one form on the page
with that name, then the first one is used, and a warning is generated.
If it is found, the form is returned as an HTML::Form object and
set internally for later use with Mech's form methods such as
[field()](#mech-field-name-value-number)
and
[click()](#mech-click-button-x-y)
.
Returns undef
if no form is found.
Selects a form by ID.
By default, the first form that has this ID will be returned.
my $form = $mech->form_id("order_form");
Although the HTML specification requires the ID to be unique within a page,
some pages might not adhere to that. If you want the second, third or nth match,
pass an optional arguments hash reference as the final parameter with a
key n
to pick which instance you want. The numbering starts at 1.
my $third_product_form = $mech->form_id("buy_now", { n => 3 });
If the n
parameter is not passed, and there is more than one form on the page
with that ID, then the first one is used, and a warning is generated.
If it is found, the form is returned as an HTML::Form object and
set internally for later use with Mech's form methods such as
[field()](#mech-field-name-value-number)
and
[click()](#mech-click-button-x-y)
.
If no form is found it returns undef
. This will also trigger a warning,
unless quiet
is enabled.
Selects a form by passing in a list of field names it must contain. All matching forms (perhaps none) are returned as a list of HTML::Form objects.
Selects a form by passing in a list of field names it must contain. By default, the first form that matches all of these field names will be returned.
my $form = $mech->form_with_fields( qw/sku quantity add_to_cart/ );
If you want the second, third or nth match, pass an optional arguments hash
reference as the final parameter with a key n
to pick which instance you
want. The numbering starts at 1.
my $form = $mech->form_with_fields( 'sky', 'qty', { n => 2 } );
If the n
parameter is not passed, and there is more than one form on the page
with that ID, then the first one is used, and a warning is generated.
If it is found, the form is returned as an HTML::Form object and set internally
for later used with Mech's form methods such as
[field()](#mech-field-name-value-number)
and
[click()](#mech-click-button-x-y)
.
Returns undef
and emits a warning if no form is found.
Note that this functionality requires libwww-perl 5.69 or higher.
Searches for forms with arbitrary attribute/value pairs within the <form>
tag.
(Currently does not work for attribute action
due to implementation details
of HTML::Form.)
When given more than one pair, all criteria must match.
Using undef
as value means that the attribute in question must not be present.
All matching forms (perhaps none) are returned as a list of HTML::Form objects.
Searches for forms with arbitrary attribute/value pairs within the <form>
tag.
(Currently does not work for attribute action
due to implementation details
of HTML::Form. Use [form_action()](#mech-form_action-action)
instead.)
When given more than one pair, all criteria must match.
Using undef
as value means that the attribute in question must not be present.
By default, the first form that matches all criteria will be returned.
my $form = $mech->form_with( name => 'order_form', method => 'POST' );
If you want the second, third or nth match, pass an optional arguments hash
reference as the final parameter with a key n
to pick which instance you
want. The numbering starts at 1.
my $form = $mech->form_with( method => 'POST', { n => 4 } );
If the n
parameter is not passed, and there is more than one form on the page
matching these criteria, then the first one is used, and a warning is generated.
If it is found, the form is returned as an HTML::Form object and set internally
for later used with Mech's form methods such as
[field()](#mech-field-name-value-number)
and
[click()](#mech-click-button-x-y)
.
Returns undef
if no form is found.
These methods allow you to set the values of fields in a given form.
Given the name of a field, set its value to the value specified.
This applies to the current form (as set by the
[form_name()](#mech-form_name-name-args)
or
[form_number()](#mech-form_number-number)
method or defaulting to the first form on the page).
If the field is of type "file", its value should be an arrayref. Example:
$mech->field( $file_input, ['/tmp/file.txt'] );
Value examples for "file" inputs, followed by explanation of what each index mean:
# 0: filepath 1: filename 3: headers
['/tmp/file.txt']
['/tmp/file.txt', 'filename.txt']
['/tmp/file.txt', 'filename.txt', @headers]
['/tmp/file.txt', 'filename.txt', Content => 'some content']
[undef, 'filename.txt', Content => 'content here']
Index 0 is the filepath that will be read from disk. Index 1 is the
filename which will be used in the HTTP request body; if not given,
filepath (index 0) is used instead. If <Content =
'content here'>> is
used as shown, then filepath will be ignored.
The optional $number
parameter is used to distinguish between two fields
with the same name. The fields are numbered from 1.
Given the name of a select
field, set its value to the value
specified. If the field is not <select multiple>
and the
$value
is an array, only the first value will be set. [Note:
the documentation previously claimed that only the last value would
be set, but this was incorrect.] Passing $value
as a hash with
an n
key selects an item by number (e.g.
{n => 3}
or {n => [2,4]}
).
The numbering starts at 1. This applies to the current form.
If you have a field with <select multiple>
and you pass a single
$value
, then $value
will be added to the list of fields selected,
without clearing the others. However, if you pass an array reference,
then all previously selected values will be cleared.
Returns true on successfully setting the value. On failure, returns
false and calls $self->warn()
with an error message.
This method sets multiple fields of the current form. It takes a list of field name and value pairs. If there is more than one field with the same name, the first one found is set. If you want to select which of the duplicate field to set, use a value which is an anonymous array which has the field value and its number as the 2 elements.
# set the second $name field to 'foo'
$mech->set_fields( $name => [ 'foo', 2 ] );
The value of a field of type "file" should be an arrayref as described
in [field()](https://metacpan.org/pod/%24mech-%3Efield%28%20%24name%2C%20%24value%2C%20%24number%20%29)
. Examples:
$mech->set_fields( $file_field => ['/tmp/file.txt'] );
$mech->set_fields( $file_field => ['/tmp/file.txt', 'filename.txt'] );
The value for a "file" input can also be an arrayref containing an
arrayref and a number, as documented in
[submit_form()](https://metacpan.org/pod/%24mech-%3Esubmit_form%28%20...%20%29)
.
The number will be used to find the field in the form. Example:
$mech->set_fields( $file_field => [['/tmp/file.txt'], 1] );
The fields are numbered from 1.
For fields that have a predefined set of values, you may also provide a reference to an integer, if you don't know the options for the field, but you know you just want (e.g.) the first one.
# select the first value in the $name select box
$mech->set_fields( $name => \0 );
# select the last value in the $name select box
$mech->set_fields( $name => \-1 );
This applies to the current form.
This method sets fields of the current form without having to know
their names. So if you have a login screen that wants a username and
password, you do not have to fetch the form and inspect the source (or
use the mech-dump
utility, installed with WWW::Mechanize) to see
what the field names are; you can just say
$mech->set_visible( $username, $password );
and the first and second fields will be set accordingly. The method is called set_visible because it acts only on visible fields; hidden form inputs are not considered. The order of the fields is the order in which they appear in the HTML source which is nearly always the order anyone viewing the page would think they are in, but some creative work with tables could change that; caveat user.
Each element in @criteria
is either a field value or a field
specifier. A field value is a scalar. A field specifier allows
you to specify the type of input field you want to set and is
denoted with an arrayref containing two elements. So you could
specify the first radio button with
$mech->set_visible( [ radio => 'KCRW' ] );
Field values and specifiers can be intermixed, hence
$mech->set_visible( 'fred', 'secret', [ option => 'Checking' ] );
would set the first two fields to "fred" and "secret", and the next
OPTION
menu field to "Checking".
The possible field specifier types are: "text", "password", "hidden", "textarea", "file", "image", "submit", "radio", "checkbox" and "option".
set_visible
returns the number of values set.
"Ticks" the first checkbox that has both the name and value associated with it on the current form. If there is no value to the input, just pass an empty string as the value. Dies if there is no named checkbox for the value given, if a value is given. Passing in a false value as the third optional argument will cause the checkbox to be unticked. The third value does not need to be set if you wish to merely tick the box.
$mech->tick('extra', 'cheese');
$mech->tick('extra', 'mushrooms');
$mech->tick('no_value', ''); # <input type="checkbox" name="no_value">
Causes the checkbox to be unticked. Shorthand for
tick($name,$value,undef)
Given the name of a field, return its value. This applies to the current form.
The optional $number
parameter is used to distinguish between two fields
with the same name. The fields are numbered from 1.
If the field is of type file (file upload field), the value is always cleared to prevent remote sites from downloading your local files. To upload a file, specify its file name explicitly.
Has the effect of clicking a button on the current form. The first argument is the name of the button to be clicked. The second and third arguments (optional) allow you to specify the (x,y) coordinates of the click.
If there is only one button on the form, $mech->click()
with
no arguments simply clicks that one button.
Returns an HTTP::Response object.
Has the effect of clicking a button on the current form by specifying its attributes. The arguments are a list of key/value pairs. Only one of name, id, number, input or value must be specified in the keys.
Dies if no button is found.
-
name => name
Clicks the button named name in the current form.
-
id => id
Clicks the button with the id id in the current form.
-
number => n
Clicks the _n_th button with type submit in the current form. Numbering starts at 1.
-
value => value
Clicks the button with the value value in the current form.
-
input => $inputobject
Clicks on the button referenced by
$inputobject
, an instance of HTML::Form::SubmitInput obtained e.g. from$mech->current_form()->find_input( undef, 'submit' )
$inputobject
must belong to the current form. -
x => x
-
y => y
These arguments (optional) allow you to specify the (x,y) coordinates of the click.
Submits the current form, without specifying a button to click. Actually, no button is clicked at all.
Returns an HTTP::Response object.
This used to be a synonym for $mech->click( 'submit' )
, but is no
longer so.
This method lets you select a form from the previously fetched page,
fill in its fields, and submit it. It combines the form_number
/form_name
,
set_fields
and click
methods into one higher level call. Its arguments
are a list of key/value pairs, all of which are optional.
-
fields => \%fields
Specifies the fields to be filled in the current form.
-
with_fields => \%fields
Probably all you need for the common case. It combines a smart form selector and data setting in one operation. It selects the first form that contains all fields mentioned in
\%fields
. This is nice because you don't need to know the name or number of the form to do this.(calls
[form_with_fields()](#mech-form_with_fields-fields-args)
and[set_fields()](#mech-set_fields-name-value)
).If you choose
with_fields
, thefields
option will be ignored. Theform_number
,form_name
andform_id
options will still be used. An exception will be thrown unless exactly one form matches all of the provided criteria. -
form_number => n
Selects the _n_th form (calls
[form_number()](#mech-form_number-number)
. If this param is not specified, the currently-selected form is used. -
form_name => name
Selects the form named name (calls
[form_name()](#mech-form_name-name-args)
) -
form_id => ID
Selects the form with ID ID (calls
[form_id()](#mech-form_name-name-args)
) -
button => button
Clicks on button button (calls
[click()](#mech-click-button-x-y)
) -
x => x, y => y
Sets the x or y values for
[click()](#mech-click-button-x-y)
-
strict_forms => bool
Sets the HTML::Form strict flag which causes form submission to croak if any of the passed fields don't exist on the page, and/or a value doesn't exist in a select element. By default HTML::Form sets this value to false.
This behavior can also be turned on globally by passing
strict_forms => 1
toWWW::Mechanize->new
. If you do that, you can still disable it for individual calls by passingstrict_forms => 0
here.
If no form is selected, the first form found is used.
If button is not passed, then the [submit()](#mech-submit)
method is used instead.
If you want to submit a file and get its content from a scalar rather than a file in the filesystem, you can use:
$mech->submit_form(with_fields => { logfile => [ [ undef, 'whatever', Content => $content ], 1 ] } );
Returns an HTTP::Response object.
Sets HTTP headers for the agent to add or remove from the HTTP request.
$mech->add_header( Encoding => 'text/klingon' );
If a value is undef
, then that header will be removed from any
future requests. For example, to never send a Referer header:
$mech->add_header( Referer => undef );
If you want to delete a header, use delete_header
.
Returns the number of name/value pairs added.
NOTE: This method was very different in WWW::Mechanize before 1.00.
Back then, the headers were stored in a package hash, not as a member of
the object instance. Calling add_header()
would modify the headers
for every WWW::Mechanize object, even after your object no longer existed.
Removes HTTP headers from the agent's list of special headers. For instance, you might need to do something like:
# Don't send a Referer for this URL
$mech->add_header( Referer => undef );
# Get the URL
$mech->get( $url );
# Back to the default behavior
$mech->delete_header( 'Referer' );
Allows you to suppress warnings to the screen.
$mech->quiet(0); # turns on warnings (the default)
$mech->quiet(1); # turns off warnings
$mech->quiet(); # returns the current quietness status
Allows you to enable and disable autochecking.
Autocheck checks each request made to see if it was successful. This saves you
the trouble of manually checking yourself. Any errors found are errors, not
warnings. Please see [new](#new)
for more details.
$mech->autocheck(1); # turns on automatic request checking (the default)
$mech->autocheck(0); # turns off automatic request checking
$mech->autocheck(); # returns the current autocheck status
Get or set the page stack depth. Use this if you're doing a lot of page scraping and running out of memory.
A value of 0
means "no history at all." By default, the max stack depth
is humongously large, effectively keeping all history.
Dumps the contents of [$mech->content](#mech-content)
into $filename
.
$filename
will be overwritten. Dies if there are any errors.
If the content type does not begin with "text/"
, then the content
is saved in binary mode (i.e. binmode()
is set on the output
filehandle).
Additional arguments can be passed as key/value pairs:
-
$mech->save_content( $filename, binary => 1 )
Filehandle is set with
binmode
to:raw
and contents are taken calling$self->content(decoded_by_headers => 1)
. Same as calling:$mech->save_content( $filename, binmode => ':raw', decoded_by_headers => 1 );
This should be the safest way to save contents verbatim.
-
$mech->save_content( $filename, binmode => $binmode )
Filehandle is set to binary mode. If
$binmode
begins with':'
, it is passed as a parameter tobinmode
:binmode $fh, $binmode;
otherwise the filehandle is set to binary mode if
$binmode
is true:binmode $fh;
-
all other arguments
are passed as-is to
[$mech->content(%opts)](#mech-content)
. In particular,decoded_by_headers
might come handy if you want to revert the effect of line compression performed by the web server but without further interpreting the contents (e.g. decoding it according to the charset).
Prints a dump of the HTTP response headers for the most recent
response. If $fh
is not specified or is undef
, it dumps to
STDOUT.
Unlike the rest of the dump_*
methods, $fh
can be a scalar. It
will be used as a file name.
Prints a dump of the links on the current page to $fh
. If $fh
is not specified or is undef
, it dumps to STDOUT.
If $absolute
is true, links displayed are absolute, not relative.
Prints a dump of the images on the current page to $fh
. If $fh
is not specified or is undef
, it dumps to STDOUT.
If $absolute
is true, links displayed are absolute, not relative.
The output will include empty lines for images that have no src
attribute
and therefore no URL.
Prints a dump of the forms on the current page to $fh
. If $fh
is not specified or is undef
, it dumps to STDOUT. Running the following:
my $mech = WWW::Mechanize->new();
$mech->get("https://www.google.com/");
$mech->dump_forms;
will print:
GET https://www.google.com/search [f]
ie=ISO-8859-1 (hidden readonly)
hl=en (hidden readonly)
source=hp (hidden readonly)
biw= (hidden readonly)
bih= (hidden readonly)
q= (text)
btnG=Google Search (submit)
btnI=I'm Feeling Lucky (submit)
gbv=1 (hidden readonly)
Prints a dump of the text on the current page to $fh
. If $fh
is not specified or is undef
, it dumps to STDOUT.
Clone the mech object. The clone will be using the same cookie jar as the original mech.
An overloaded version of redirect_ok()
in LWP::UserAgent.
This method is used to determine whether a redirection in the request
should be followed.
Note that WWW::Mechanize's constructor pushes POST on to the agent's
requests_redirectable
list.
Overloaded version of request()
in LWP::UserAgent. Performs
the actual request. Normally, if you're using WWW::Mechanize, it's
because you don't want to deal with this level of stuff anyway.
Note that $request
will be modified.
Returns an HTTP::Response object.
Allows you to replace the HTML that the mech has found. Updates the forms and links parse-trees that the mech uses internally.
Say you have a page that you know has malformed output, and you want to update it so the links come out correctly:
my $html = $mech->content;
$html =~ s[</option>.{0,3}</td>][</option></select></td>]isg;
$mech->update_html( $html );
This method is also used internally by the mech itself to update its
own HTML content when loading a page. This means that if you would
like to systematically perform the above HTML substitution, you
would overload update_html
in a subclass thusly:
package MyMech;
use base 'WWW::Mechanize';
sub update_html {
my ($self, $html) = @_;
$html =~ s[</option>.{0,3}</td>][</option></select></td>]isg;
$self->WWW::Mechanize::update_html( $html );
}
If you do this, then the mech will use the tidied-up HTML instead of
the original both when parsing for its own needs, and for returning to
you through [content()](#mech-content)
.
Overloading this method is also the recommended way of implementing
extra validation steps (e.g. link checkers) for every HTML page
received. [warn](#warn-messages)
and
[warn](#warn-messages)
would then come in handy to signal
validation errors.
Provide credentials to be used for HTTP Basic authentication for all sites and realms until further notice.
The four argument form described in LWP::UserAgent is still supported.
Returns the credentials for the realm and URI.
Remove any credentials set up with credentials()
.
As a subclass of LWP::UserAgent, WWW::Mechanize inherits all of LWP::UserAgent's methods. Many of which are overridden or extended. The following methods are inherited unchanged. View the LWP::UserAgent documentation for their implementation descriptions.
This is not meant to be an inclusive list. LWP::UA may have added others.
Inherited from LWP::UserAgent.
Inherited from LWP::UserAgent.
Inherited from LWP::UserAgent.
Inherited from LWP::UserAgent.
Inherited from LWP::UserAgent.
Inherited from LWP::UserAgent.
These methods are only used internally. You probably don't need to know about them.
Updates all internal variables in $mech
as if $request
was just
performed, and returns $response. The page stack is not altered by
this method, it is up to caller (e.g.
[request](#mech-request-request-arg-size)
)
to do that.
Modifies a HTTP::Request before the request is sent out, for both GET and POST requests.
We add a Referer
header, as well as header to note that we can accept gzip
encoded content, if Compress::Zlib is installed.
Convenience method to make it easier for subclasses like WWW::Mechanize::Cached to intercept the request.
Resets the internal fields that track page parsed stuff.
Extracts links from the content of a webpage, and populates the {links}
property with WWW::Mechanize::Link objects.
The agent keeps a stack of visited pages, which it can pop when it needs to go BACK and so on.
The current page needs to be pushed onto the stack before we get a new page, and the stack needs to be popped when BACK occurs.
Neither of these take any arguments, they just operate on the $mech object.
Centralized warning method, for diagnostics and non-fatal problems.
Defaults to calling CORE::warn
, but may be overridden by setting
onwarn
in the constructor.
Centralized error method. Defaults to calling CORE::die
, but
may be overridden by setting onerror
in the constructor.
The default settings can get you up and running quickly, but there are settings you can change in order to make your life easier.
-
autocheck
autocheck
can save you the overhead of checking status codes for success. You may outgrow it as your needs get more sophisticated, but it's a safe option to start with.my $agent = WWW::Mechanize->new( autocheck => 1 );
-
cookie_jar
You are encouraged to install Mozilla::PublicSuffix and use HTTP::CookieJar::LWP as your cookie jar. HTTP::CookieJar::LWP provides a better security model matching that of current Web browsers when Mozilla::PublicSuffix is installed.
use HTTP::CookieJar::LWP (); my $jar = HTTP::CookieJar::LWP->new; my $agent = WWW::Mechanize->new( cookie_jar => $jar );
-
protocols_allowed
This option is inherited directly from LWP::UserAgent. It may be used to allow arbitrary protocols.
my $agent = WWW::Mechanize->new( protocols_allowed => [ 'http', 'https' ] );
This will prevent you from inadvertently following URLs like
file:///etc/passwd
-
protocols_forbidden
This option is also inherited directly from LWP::UserAgent. It may be used to deny arbitrary protocols.
my $agent = WWW::Mechanize->new( protocols_forbidden => [ 'file', 'mailto', 'ssh', ] );
This will prevent you from inadvertently following URLs like
file:///etc/passwd
-
strict_forms
Consider turning on the
strict_forms
option when you create a new Mech. This will perform a helpful sanity check on form fields every time you are submitting a form, which can save you a lot of debugging time.my $agent = WWW::Mechanize->new( strict_forms => 1 );
If you do not want to have this option globally, you can still turn it on for individual forms.
$agent->submit_form( fields => { foo => 'bar' } , strict_forms => 1 );
WWW::Mechanize is hosted at GitHub.
Repository: https://github.com/libwww-perl/WWW-Mechanize. Bugs: https://github.com/libwww-perl/WWW-Mechanize/issues.
Spidering Hacks from O'Reilly (http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/spiderhks/) is a great book for anyone wanting to know more about screen-scraping and spidering.
There are six hacks that use Mech or a Mech derivative:
- #21 WWW::Mechanize 101
- #22 Scraping with WWW::Mechanize
- #36 Downloading Images from Webshots
- #44 Archiving Yahoo! Groups Messages with WWW::Yahoo::Groups
- #64 Super Author Searching
- #73 Scraping TV Listings
The book was also positively reviewed on Slashdot: http://books.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/12/11/2126256
-
WWW::Mechanize mailing list
The Mech mailing list is at http://groups.google.com/group/www-mechanize-users and is specific to Mechanize, unlike the LWP mailing list below. Although it is a users list, all development discussion takes place here, too.
-
LWP mailing list
The LWP mailing list is at http://lists.perl.org/showlist.cgi?name=libwww, and is more user-oriented and well-populated than the WWW::Mechanize list.
-
Perlmonks
http://perlmonks.org is an excellent community of support, and many questions about Mech have already been answered there.
-
A random array of examples submitted by users, included with the Mechanize distribution.
-
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/wa-perlsecure/
IBM article "Secure Web site access with Perl"
-
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/googlehks2/chapter/hack84.pdf
Leland Johnson's hack #84 in Google Hacks, 2nd Edition is an example of a production script that uses WWW::Mechanize and HTML::TableContentParser. It takes in keywords and returns the estimated price of these keywords on Google's AdWords program.
-
http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2004/06/04/recorder.html
Linda Julien writes about using HTTP::Recorder to create WWW::Mechanize scripts.
-
http://www.developer.com/lang/other/article.php/3454041
Jason Gilmore's article on using WWW::Mechanize for scraping sales information from Amazon and eBay.
-
http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2003/01/22/mechanize.html
Chris Ball's article about using WWW::Mechanize for scraping TV listings.
-
http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/LinuxMag/col47.html
Randal Schwartz's article on scraping Yahoo News for images. It's already out of date: He manually walks the list of links hunting for matches, which wouldn't have been necessary if the
[find_link()](#mech-find_link)
method existed at press time. -
http://www.perladvent.org/2002/16th/
WWW::Mechanize on the Perl Advent Calendar, by Mark Fowler.
-
http://www.linux-magazin.de/ausgaben/2004/03/datenruessel/
Michael Schilli's article on Mech and WWW::Mechanize::Shell for the German magazine Linux Magazin.
Here are modules that use or subclass Mechanize. Let me know of any others:
-
Acts as a proxy for web interaction, and then generates WWW::Mechanize scripts.
-
Just like Mech, but using Microsoft Internet Explorer to do the work.
Thanks to the numerous people who have helped out on WWW::Mechanize in
one way or another, including
Kirrily Robert for the original WWW::Automate
,
Lyle Hopkins,
Damien Clark,
Ansgar Burchardt,
Gisle Aas,
Jeremy Ary,
Hilary Holz,
Rafael Kitover,
Norbert Buchmuller,
Dave Page,
David Sainty,
H.Merijn Brand,
Matt Lawrence,
Michael Schwern,
Adriano Ferreira,
Miyagawa,
Peteris Krumins,
Rafael Kitover,
David Steinbrunner,
Kevin Falcone,
Mike O'Regan,
Mark Stosberg,
Uri Guttman,
Peter Scott,
Philippe Bruhat,
Ian Langworth,
John Beppu,
Gavin Estey,
Jim Brandt,
Ask Bjoern Hansen,
Greg Davies,
Ed Silva,
Mark-Jason Dominus,
Autrijus Tang,
Mark Fowler,
Stuart Children,
Max Maischein,
Meng Wong,
Prakash Kailasa,
Abigail,
Jan Pazdziora,
Dominique Quatravaux,
Scott Lanning,
Rob Casey,
Leland Johnson,
Joshua Gatcomb,
Julien Beasley,
Abe Timmerman,
Peter Stevens,
Pete Krawczyk,
Tad McClellan,
and the late great Iain Truskett.
Andy Lester <andy at petdance.com>
This software is copyright (c) 2004 by Andy Lester.
This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.