Re: Log In To guardian.co.uk with WWW::Mechanize

What seems to be the problem to me is that I think the http standard calls for Location: redirected requests to be in the same method as the original call (if a POSTed page redirects to another, that page should also be POSTed) - this, I think, is what WWW::Mechanize does - but not what Firefox and other standard browsers are doing, a behavior that the site developers are taking into account (even though they should be using a Status: 303 See Other, not a 301)... What you want to do is load up the cookie_jar with the authentication information, then request the particular pages you're looking for - you're falling to an error because autocheck is set to on, and when Mechanize POSTs to a page that expects a GET, it checks to see if it worked, realizes that it didnt, and all goes ka-ploowey. So... what you need to do, is authenticate yourself, like you wonderfully did (but with autocheck off)... then go ahead an request the user-particular webpage from which you wish to pull data: for instance, this modification of your code will authenticate you, and then pull up the 'mydetails' page:

use WWW::Mechanize;
my $browser = WWW::Mechanize->new(
    cookie_jar => {},
    autocheck => 0
);
$browser->get(
    'http://users.guardian.co.uk/signin/0,12930,-1,00.html'
);
$browser->form_name('regpss1') || die "$!";
$browser->set_fields(
    AU_LOGIN_ID => 'your email',
    AU_PASSWORD => 'your password'
  );
$browser->submit() || die "$!";

$browser->{autocheck} = 1;

$browser->get('http://users.guardian.co.uk/mydetails/');

print $browser->content();
[download]

Now, there's no reason to parse all that funky javascript - lots of folks have js turned off in their browsers - if the guardian didnt allow these people to browse their site, they would be losing a good portion of their readers - all that js hashing is for added security, but isn't required - as the above code demonstrates.

I hope this helps - I mean given your request, I think this is what you're looking for. And you should give yourself a pat on the back - you were like 98% right already!

Best,
-Adam

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Re^2: Log In To guardian.co.uk with WWW::Mechanize
by Cody Pendant (Prior) on May 31, 2005 at 05:53 UTC

($_='kkvvttuu bbooppuuiiffss qqffssmm iibbddllffss')
=~y~b-v~a-z~s; print

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