NAME

WWW::Mechanize - automate interaction with websites

SYNOPSIS

    use WWW::Mechanize;
    my $agent = WWW::Mechanize->new();

    $agent->get($url);

    $agent->follow($link);

    $agent->form($number);
    $agent->field($name, $value);
    $agent->click($button);

    $agent->back();

    $agent->add_header($name => $value);

    use Test::More;
    like( $agent->{content}, qr/$expected/, "Got expected content" );

DESCRIPTION

This module is intended to help you automate interaction with a website. It bears a not-very-remarkable outwards resemblance to WWW::Chat, on which it is based. The main difference between this module and WWW::Chat is that WWW::Chat requires a pre-processing stage before you can run your script, whereas WWW::Mechanize does not.

WWW::Mechanize is a subclass of LWP::UserAgent, so anything you can do with an LWP::UserAgent, you can also do with this. See LWP::UserAgent for more information on the possibilities.

VERSION

Version 0.33

    $Header: /home/cvs/www-mechanize/lib/WWW/Mechanize.pm,v 1.25 2003/01/16 15:58:16 alester Exp $

METHODS

new()

Creates and returns a new WWW::Mechanize object, hereafter referred to as the 'agent'.

    my $agent = WWW::Mechanize->new()

$agent->get($url)

Given a URL/URI, fetches it. Returns an HTTP::Response object.

The results are stored internally in the agent object, as follows:

     uri       The current URI
     req       The current request object        [HTTP::Request]
     res       The response received             [HTTP::Response]
     status    The status code of the response
     ct        The content type of the response
     base      The base URI for current response
     content   The content of the response
     forms     Array of forms found in content   [HTML::Form]
     form      Current form                      [HTML::Form]
     links     Array of links found in content

You can get at them with, for example: $agent->{content}, BUT PLEASE DON'T, as these internal hash elements are officially deprecated. Use the accessor methods below.

$agent->uri()

Returns the current URI.

$agent->req()

Returns the current request as an HTTP::Request object.

$agent->res()

Returns the current response as an HTTP::Response object.

$agent->status()

Returns the HTTP status code of the response.

$agent->ct()

Returns the content type of the response.

$agent->base()

Returns the base URI for the current response

$agent->content()

Returns the content for the response

$agent->forms()

Returns an array of HTML::Form objects for the forms found.

$agent->current_form()

Returns the current form as an HTML::Form object. I'd call this form() except that form() already exists and sets the current_form.

$agent->links()

Returns an array of the links found

$agent->follow($string|$num)

Follow a link. If you provide a string, the first link whose text matches that string will be followed. If you provide a number, it will be the nth link on the page.

Returns true if the link was found on the page or undef otherwise.

$agent->quiet(true/false)

Allows you to suppress warnings to the screen.

    $agent->quiet(1); # turns on warnings (the default)
    $agent->quiet(0); # turns off warnings
    $agent->quiet();  # returns the current quietness status

$agent->form($number)

Selects the Nth form on the page as the target for subsequent calls to field() and click(). Emits a warning and returns false if there is no such form. Forms are indexed from 1, that is to say, the first form is number 1 (not zero).

$agent->field($name, $value, $number)

Given the name of a field, set its value to the value specified. This applies to the current form (as set by the form() method or defaulting to the first form on the page).

The optional $number parameter is used to distinguish between two fields with the same name. The fields are numbered from 1.

$agent->click($button, $x, $y);

Has the effect of clicking a button on a 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) cooridinates of the click.

If there is only one button on the form, $agent->click() with no arguments simply clicks that one button.

Returns an HTTP::Response object.

$agent->submit()

Shortcut for $a->click("submit")

$agent->back();

The equivalent of hitting the "back" button in a browser. Returns to the previous page. Won't go back past the first page.

$agent->add_header(name => $value)

Sets a header for the WWW::Mechanize agent to use every time it gets a webpage. This is NOT stored in the agent object (because if it were, it would disappear if you went back() past where you'd set it) but in the hash variable %WWW::Mechanize::headers, which is a hash of all headers to be set. You can manipulate this directly if you want to; the add_header() method is just provided as a convenience function for the most common case of adding a header.

extract_links()

Extracts HREF links from the content of a webpage.

The return value is a reference to an array containing an array reference for every <A> and <FRAME> tag in $self-{content}>.

The array elements for the <A> tag are:

[0]: contents of the href attribute
[1]: text enclosed by the <A> tag
[2]: the contents of the name attribute

The array elements for the <FRAME> tag are:

[0]: contents of the src attribute
[1]: text enclosed by the <FRAME> tag
[2]: contents of the name attribute

INTERNAL METHODS

These methods are only used internally. You probably don't need to know about them.

_push_page_stack() / _pop_page_stack()

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 $agent object.

_do_request()

Performs a request on the $self->{req} request object, and sets a bunch of attributes on $self.