WWW::Mechanize and forms

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

I am doing some scraping with WWW::Mechanize::find_all_inputs I wanted to update some info in the 3rd form on a page. I am having trouble accessing the 3rd form. When I print out the inputs the @c_inputs array only has the first form in it.

my @c_inputs = $mech->find_all_inputs();
foreach my $str (@c_inputs){
        print STDERR Dumper($str);
}
print STDERR "That was for PAGE: ".$mech->uri."\n";
[download]

How do I point find_all_inputs to proper form, since it only seems to pick up the first form on the page? I did try to select the form first then do run on that, but was unsuccessful.


my @c_inputs = $mech->form_name('account')->find_all_inputs();
foreach my $str (@c_inputs){
        print STDERR Dumper($str);
}
[download]

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Re: WWW::Mechanize and forms by ikegami (Patriarch) on Dec 11, 2007 at 19:47 UTC
`find_all_inputs` is documented to work on the current form. It wasn't hard to find methods that set the current form: `form_number`, `form_name` and `form_with_fields`. Note that `form_name` returns a form, while `find_all_inputs` needs to be called on a Mechanize object. `$mech->form_name('account'); my @c_inputs = $mech->find_all_inputs();` [download] Untested. Just going by the docs.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: WWW::Mechanize and forms by scoobyrico (Beadle) on Dec 11, 2007 at 20:00 UTC
You're right, it wasn't hard to find the methods. I just misunderstood what I was reading. Thanks you for pointing out how to properly make the calls.	[reply]