websites and cookies?

[Tomasz Chmielewski]

I have a webmail which is protected by a "user/password" form (one which
you can find in any webmail, i.e. squirrelmail, yahoo/google mail etc.).

The webmail is the only way to fetch mail; there is no POP3/IMAP there.


Therefore, I'd like to write a Perl script which will "log in" to that
page automatically, parse certain pages (inbox, new mail, save it as
files etc.).

As far as I understand, I need to "emulate" a webbrowser a bit:
1) log in to a website (fill proper form fields, send it to the web server)
2) get the cookie, browse other pages using that cookie


What do I need to implement it in a Perl script?

I'm not looking for a ready solution, I just need some terms to look up
(CGI::Cookie perhaps for handling cookies; but how do I fill a form to
obtain the cookie? links browser?).

Any links to Perl examples would be great too, of course.

 

[Sherm Pendley]

As far as I understand, I need to "emulate" a webbrowser a bit:
1) log in to a website (fill proper form fields, send it to the web server)
2) get the cookie, browse other pages using that cookie

What do I need to implement it in a Perl script?

Have a look at WWW::Mechanize

sherm--

 

[Tad J McClellan]

I have a webmail which is protected by a "user/password" form (one which
you can find in any webmail, i.e. squirrelmail, yahoo/google mail etc.).

The webmail is the only way to fetch mail; there is no POP3/IMAP there.


Therefore, I'd like to write a Perl script which will "log in" to that
page automatically, parse certain pages (inbox, new mail, save it as
files etc.).

As far as I understand, I need to "emulate" a webbrowser a bit:

You can use the Web Scraping Proxy to write Perl code that
emulates a browser. Google for "Web Scraping Proxy".

1) log in to a website (fill proper form fields, send it to the web server)
2) get the cookie, browse other pages using that cookie


What do I need to implement it in a Perl script?

WWW::Mechanize (or LWP::UserAgent).