WWW::Mechanize and PDF files

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

Greetings Monks, I have a script that uses WWW::Mechanize to check links on a page. One of those links happens to be to a very large PDF file. I want to check that the PDF is there, but I don't want to have my test download the entire PDF file because it takes a long time. My script currently does:

 foreach my $link (@all_links) {
                my $link_url = $link->url;
                next unless ( $link_url =~ /http/ );
                next if ( $link_url =~ /$url_root/ );
                warn $link_url."\n";
                my $out = $browser->get($link_url);

                #$success is 1 if a successful HTTP status code (2xx) 
+is returned
                my $success = $out->is_success;
                ok($success, "is_success");

                #redirect is 1 if a redirection HTTP status code (3xx)
+ was returned
                #if a redirect is seen, may need to change link to a n
+ew url
                my $redirect = $out->is_redirect;
                ok(!$redirect, "! is_redirect");

                my $error=$out->is_error;

                #print errors
                if($error){
                  my $status = $out->error_as_HTML;
                  warn "The error is:\n$status\n";
                }
        }
[download]

Comment on WWW::Mechanize and PDF files Download Code

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Re: WWW::Mechanize and PDF files by Fletch (Bishop) on Mar 12, 2010 at 21:15 UTC
Another possibility: since a Mechanize instance isa LWP::UserAgent perhaps call the `head` method instead if the link URL matches `/\.pdf\$/` and see if that's successful. The cake is a lie. The cake is a lie. The cake is a lie.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: WWW::Mechanize and PDF files by lostjimmy (Chaplain) on Mar 12, 2010 at 21:29 UTC
++ This is a much better solution, since that's exactly what the HEAD request is for. I can't believe I forgot about it!	[reply]
Re^2: WWW::Mechanize and PDF files by Ineffectual (Scribe) on Mar 12, 2010 at 21:31 UTC
Thanks very much, that works great! :)	[reply]
Re: WWW::Mechanize and PDF files by lostjimmy (Chaplain) on Mar 12, 2010 at 21:11 UTC
I'm not particularly familiar with WWW:Mechanize, but you can always use the `Range` HTTP header to specify a small number of bytes: e.g. `Range: bytes=0-9`	[reply] [d/l] [select]