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

I'm having issues parsing a page with a select multiple dropdown and need a nudge in the right direction. I'm trying to select the names 'pforumClass', 'tforumClass' and 'uforumClass' with values '__all__' from the form prior to submitting it. HTML is below, followed by a code snippet: 
<form method="POST" action="/forums/cs/dispatch.cgi/_admin/util_button
+Dispatch" onSubmit="return formSubmit()" name="CFO" >
<b>Public Forums:<br></b><select name="pforumClass" multiple size=8>
<option value="__none__" selected>-None-
<option value="__all__">--All--
 --snip--
</select><p>
<b>Team Forums:<br></b><select name="tforumClass" multiple>
<option value="__none__" selected>-None-
<option value="__all__">--All--
</select><p>
<b>User Forums:<br></b><select name="uforumClass" multiple>
<option value="__none__" selected>-None-
<option value="__all__">--All--
</select><p>
<br>
<br>

[download]
Code snippet is as follows: 
my $mech = WWW::Mechanize->new();
$mech->get("https://www.site.com/forums/cs/dispatch.cgi/_admin/diskUsa
+geForm");
$mech->form_name('CFO');
$mech->select('pforumClass','__all__');
$mech->select('tforumClass','__all__');
$mech->select('uforumClass','__all__');
$mech->click();

[download]

My LWP::Debug output informs me :

Illegal value '__all__' for field 'pforumClass' at C:/Perl/site/lib/WWW/Mechanize.pm line 1199
Illegal value '__all__' for field 'tforumClass' at C:/Perl/site/lib/WWW/Mechanize.pm line 1199
Illegal value '__all__' for field 'uforumClass' at C:/Perl/site/lib/WWW/Mechanize.pm line 1199

What am I missing? Gotta be something simple ...

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: WWW::Mechanize select from dropdown
by davidrw (Prior) on Apr 20, 2007 at 23:27 UTC
    not sure what the issue is, but maybe try WWW::Mechanize's submit_form method instead? 
    my $mech = WWW::Mechanize->new();
$mech->get("https://www.site.com/forums/cs/dispatch.cgi/_admin/diskUsa
+geForm");
$mech->submit_form(
  form_name => 'CFO',
  fields => {
    pforumClass => '__all__',
    tforumClass => '__all__',
    uforumClass => '__all__',
  },
);

    [download]
    Also maybe see if the output from mech-dump gives you any extra information ...

    And also do a die $mech->content; after the ->get() to make sure it's really the page you expect it is ...
[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
Re: WWW::Mechanize select from dropdown
by codeacrobat (Chaplain) on Apr 21, 2007 at 22:09 UTC
    When things are odd with WWW::Mechanize try to debug/develop with WWW::Mechanize::Shell. It features interactive web browsing, form filling and can generate a WWW::Mechanize script from the recorded session. Here is a bit look'n feel. 
    perl -MWWW::Mechanize::Shell -eshell
(no url)>get http://google.de
Retrieving http://google.de(200)

http://www.google.de/>forms
Form [1]
GET http://www.google.de/search [f]
  hl=de                          (hidden readonly)
  ie=ISO-8859-1                  (hidden readonly)
  q=                             (text)
  btnG=Google-Suche              (submit)
  btnI=Auf gut Glück!            (submit)
  meta=                          (radio)    [*|lr=lang_de|cr=countryDE
+]

    [download]
[reply]
[d/l]
Re: WWW::Mechanize select from dropdown
by Cody Pendant (Prior) on Apr 21, 2007 at 12:58 UTC
    Shouldn't you be trying to select "--All--", which is the content of that element as shown in the interface, rather than "__all__" which is the value hidden in the HTML?

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

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