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

I tracked a bug in my script down to one small section of code but I can't get a legit error response. Can someone help me get it to spit out an error that'd be useful for fixing whatever problem there is? 
CODE
    $mech->submit_form(
        form_number => $number,
        fields      => \%fields,
        
    ) or die "Error";
}

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ERROR

Software error:
 at /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.5/WWW/Mechanize.pm line 1492.

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I'd imagine it'd at least print ERROR, but it does not, so for the life of me I can't figure out what's wrong.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: how to get useful errors with WWW::Mechanize
by MonkE (Hermit) on Oct 16, 2006 at 18:42 UTC
    After looking at the (5.8.8) source code, I'd have to say that in your case I would first insure that I was using a valid form number. Then I would check your "fields" hash to make sure it is good. It looks like it expects a hash. Your best bet would be to look at line 1492 of /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.5/WWW/Mechanize.pm on your computer.

    From Mechanize.pm (5.8.8): Notice the "or die" code.

    sub submit_form {
    my( $self, %args ) = @_ ;

    for ( keys %args ) {
        if ( !/^(form_(number|name)|fields|button|x|y)$/ ) {
            $self->warn( qq{Unknown submit_form parameter "$_"} );
        }
    }

    if ( my $form_number = $args{'form_number'} ) {
        $self->form_number( $form_number ) or die;
    }
    elsif ( my $form_name = $args{'form_name'} ) {
        $self->form_name( $form_name ) or die;
    }

    if ( my $fields = $args{'fields'} ) {
        if ( isa( $fields, 'HASH' ) ) {
            $self->set_fields( %{$fields} ) ;
        } # TODO: What if it's not a hash?  We just ignore it silently
+?
    }

    my $response;
    if ( $args{button} ) {
        $response = $self->click( $args{button}, $args{x} || 0, $args{
+y} || 0 );
    }

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[d/l]
Re: how to get useful errors with WWW::Mechanize
by ptum (Priest) on Oct 16, 2006 at 18:08 UTC

    Did you intentionally omit the (optional) 'button' argument to submit_form? Why the comma character after \%fields? It seems to me that the interpreter is complaining about your failure to call submit_form in a recognizable way.

    Update: Yeah, sorry, that was nonsense -- a quick sample script works fine with or without the comma after \%fields. (Blush).

    Have you tried using Data::Dumper to look at the contents of $mech before you attempt the submit_form? I'm getting decent error messages in my sample attempt with screwed up arguments (no form by that number exists, no field by that name exists, etc.). What version of WWW::Mechanize are you using? Line 1492 on the most recent version is in the middle of some POD ...

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      Yes, it was intentionally omitted because it's optional. As for the trailing comma, that was a mistake but it was removed and the unknown error still errors out.

      Thank you

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        I also added button=>"post" as suggested and it still errors out.

        Anyone have other ideas?

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