perl LWP::User Agent credentials ignored on redirect

jobro has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

hey perl monks, I am trying to login to a webmail server using the perl LWP::User Agent. This works well but before I can access the INBOX I am redirected back to the login page. Here is what I have so far:

use strict;
use LWP;
use LWP::Debug qw(+);

my $url = 'https://www.a-university.edu/horde/imp/';

my $url_redi = $url . "redirect.php";

# there is a problem with the server's certificate, 
# but this is not the issue here

my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new(
         ssl_opts => { SSL_verify_mode => 'SSL_VERIFY_NONE'});

my $form = $ua->get($url_redi) or die "couldn't fetch $url_redi";
$form->is_success() or die $form->message(); 

# extract cookie 
my $formcont = $form->content(); 
my $sessionid;
if ($formcont =~ m/Horde=(.*?)" method/s) {
   $sessionid = $1;  
}

# submit user name and password
# all other items required as shown by the web page source code 
my $response = $ua->post(
           $url . "?Horde=" . $sessionid,
           [
               'imapuser' => 'jobro',
               'pass'  => 'verysecret',
               'actionID' => '105',
               'url' => '', 
               'mailbox' => 'INBOX', 
               'server' => 'hardy.a-university.edu',
               'port' => '143',
               'namespace' => '', 
               'maildomain' => 'a-university.edu',
               'protocol' => 'imap/notls',
               'realm' => 'a-university.edu', 
               'folders' => 'mail/', 
               'new_lang' => 'en_US',
               'button' => 'Log in'           
           ] ); 
# at his point the 
# print $response->as_string(); 
# is as expected  

# now the server sends (as part of the http header) 
# a location for redirection
# (I know that I can follow redirections automatically, but this 
# leads to the same problem)  
# so I read off the address and try to get this page 

my $inbox = $ua->get(
              $url . "mailbox.php?Horde=" . $sessionid,
              [
                 'actionID' => '149',               
                 'mailbox' => 'INBOX'            
              ] );

# but now I am back to the login page :(
[download]

(I asked the same question on stack overflow, but no result)

Comment on perl LWP::User Agent credentials ignored on redirect Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: perl LWP::User Agent credentials ignored on redirect by Corion (Patriarch) on Dec 20, 2015 at 10:08 UTC
You need to be using cookies, like ikegami already told you on Stackoverflow. Maybe you want to use WWW::Mechanize instead, which adds many convenience features to LWP::UserAgent? Also, have you investigated whether there also is IMAP or POP3 access to that mail server? There are dedicated protocols for transferring mail between computers so scraping a web interface to mail seems a bit convoluted.	[reply]
Re^2: perl LWP::User Agent credentials ignored on redirect by Anonymous Monk on Dec 20, 2015 at 10:33 UTC
thanks for your reply, Corion, via POP3 I can do it, but wanted to learn LWP and relatives. For the GET request I though it was the right way of using the cookie, but apparently it's not. So next I will look into WWW::Mechanize.	[reply]
Re: perl LWP::User Agent credentials ignored on redirect by beech (Parson) on Dec 20, 2015 at 09:52 UTC
(I asked the same question on stack overflow, but no result) Yes its at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/34373187/perl-lwpuser-agent-credentials-ignored-on-redirect	[reply]