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

I have been trying to use SAMIE (Simple Automation Module for Internet Explorer) following the directions at http://samie.sourceforge.net/ I uninstalled my perl 5.10 to install 5.8, since 5.10 doesnt support samie. After uninstallying 5.8, i successfully installed samie, but when I try to run a script with use Win32::SAM; I receive an error when running the script. I receive a windows error (i am running XP) that is titled "perl.exe - Unable To Locate Component" - "This application has failed to start because Perl56.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem." I have reinstalled 5.8 twice now, restarted the computer several times, and tried to do everything i can to make this work (I cant make www::mechanize work, and win32:OLE alone doesnt have significant options.) Anyway, this is the command prompt text i receive when I try to run it: 
Can't load 'C:/Perl/site/lib/auto/Time/HiRes/HiRes.dll' for module Tim
+e::HiRes:
load_file:The specified module could not be found at C:/Perl/lib/DynaL
+oader.pm l
ine 229.
 at C:/Perl/site/lib/Win32/SAM.pm line 10
Compilation failed in require at C:/Perl/site/lib/Win32/SAM.pm line 10
+.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at C:/Perl/site/lib/Win32/SAM.pm lin
+e 10.
Compilation failed in require at C:\win.pl line 4.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at C:\win.pl line 4.

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the code of this simple test program is: 
use strict;
use warnings; # just throwing these in just in case
use Win32::OLE;
use Win32::SAM;
use Win32::Slingshot;

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EDIT: also, would it be possible to combine Win32::OLE and Win32::IEAutomation? I find myself requiring methods from both if I must go without SAMIE.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Win32::Sam / SAMIE
by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Jun 16, 2008 at 19:51 UTC
    "This application has failed to start because Perl56.dll was not found.

    You've obviously installed a binary build that was intended to work with perl 5.6>. There's no way to make that work with 5.8 without building it yourself from source.

    Even then, I think that it is probably so old that it will want IE v4 or v5 and won't work with anything newer.

    Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
    "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
    In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
[reply]
      I have tried running it with Perl 5.6 and that doesnt work either... how would I go about editing the source code to make it run off of perl58.dll? has anyone had to solve this problem before? Although I doubt I can make the script work without samie's javascript functions, would it be worthwhile to investigate Win32::IEAutomation? I have looked at ::OLE and it contains insufficient methods for clicking in forms, but I havent thoroughly investigated IEAutomation yet.
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        how would I go about editing the source code to make it run off of perl58.dll?

        Sorry, I have no idea. I did play with it breifly several years ago, but abandoned it back then because it was very flakey. I seriously doubt there is much mileage in trying to upgrade it at this point.

        Beyond I cannot help you much either as I haven't touched IE for many years other than that breif attempt to use Samie for a project which never went anywhere.

        Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
        "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
        In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
[reply]
        SAMIE works okay for me on Active Perl 5.8.8, but I do not know how to click on nested menus created by Javascript. Does anyone have a relevant experience with menus? Tim
[reply]
      I can see that the problem is with the Time::HiRes module installed with Samie, so ppm update Time::HiRes will suffice.
[reply]

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