Yes, you can simulate form submissions in Perl. You can use LWP::Simple for get requests, which is what you appear to need here. The basic syntax is like the following:

use LWP::Simple;
use URI::URL;

my $url = url('http://www.perlmonks.org/index.pl?node_id=32057&lastnod
+e_id=3628');

# Yes, the following is insecure and can be sniffed!

$url->query_form(username => 'joe',
                 password => 'schmoe');
$content = get($url);
[download]

If you need a post request, you should use LWP::UserAgent.

The problem you have is the password. If you're using HTTP authentication, you should use the LWP::UserAgent module, which can easily handle said authentication (I am assuming that your issue is not wanting to send the password as plaintext). There is a way to do form submission with Perl over a secure server, but I can't find the reference right now :(

If you'd like to know the nitty-gritty about Web automation, check out Web Client Programming with Perl which is out of print, but available through the O'Reilly Open Books Project (how many publishers do you know who release out-of-print books for free over the web?).

Cheers,
Ovid

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