I've successfully downloaded and printed the content of the site I need to a file. However, the real information I need is found by going to the site and then typing in the date you want.
I'm confused here. In the first sentence, you claim you've had success, then the second sentence suggests you haven't had success. You can't have it both ways.
Unfortunately, these pages do not have unique URLs.
Have you tried doing a GET request with the CGI parameters? Many forms that are set up for POST can actually deal with GET requests as well.
Is there any way for me to automate inputting each date I need into the text box and then hit Submit to bring up the next page?
Well, that would be a browser issue. But not being able to do what you want with LWP::Simple doesn't mean the next step up is driving an actual browser. There are other steps as well. LWP::UserAgent, and WWW::Mechanize. They much more suitable to deal with pure HTML forms than LPW::Simple. Of course, it's also possible that the input of the text box first gets manipulated using javascript, or that one or more Ajax calls are involved. In which case, LWP::UserAgent or WWW::Mechanize still wouldn't be much improvement over LWP::Simple.

In reply to Re^3: LWP::Simple... Enough for Site Query & Data Download? by JavaFan
in thread LWP::Simple... Enough for Site Query & Data Download? by cheech

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.