WWW::Mechanize to Fill in Fields when no Form Defined

egonspengler3 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hello Everyone,

I am trying to use WWW::Mechanize to automatically fill out a web form.

Ordinarily, it is easy because $mech automatically numbers the <form></form> in order when it first gets the $url. But what if there is no <form></form>?

Ordinarily webforms follow this template:

<form>
<input id="foo" type="" />
<input id="submit" type="submit" />
</form>
[download]

But what if it's only this:

<input id="foo" type="" />
<input id="submit" type="submit" />
[download]

How do I fill in fields when they're not enclosed with <form></form>?
Can I refer to those fields by their "id" in $mech because the "name=" attribute is not defined?

Comment on WWW::Mechanize to Fill in Fields when no Form Defined Select or Download Code

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Re: WWW::Mechanize to Fill in Fields when no Form Defined by Corion (Patriarch) on Apr 01, 2011 at 20:38 UTC
If there is no `<form>`, then it can't be submitted without Javascript. WWW::Mechanize does not handle Javascript. See WWW::Scripter and/or Win32::IEAutomation or WWW::Mechanize::Firefox for alternatives that handle Javascript.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: WWW::Mechanize to Fill in Fields when no Form Defined by cavac (Prior) on Apr 01, 2011 at 22:14 UTC
If there is no `<form>`, then it can't be submitted without Javascript. That's technically not correct. It can't (shouldn't) be submitted by a browser, but there is no reason why you can't do it in Perl. You can view what's going on by using wireshark or something similar. Then, just take the response you captured, and communicate to the server directly using IO::Socket::IP. Just replay the communication with your changes. If you really want the missing `<form>` elements, hack your own proxy with HTTP::Proxy. If you need to "simulate" a full blown browser session, you could try WWW::Mechanize::Firefox. If you are desperate (or want to have some fun with Pay-per-click advertising), there are also the modules X11::GUITest and Win32::GuiTest.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: WWW::Mechanize to Fill in Fields when no Form Defined by Corion (Patriarch) on Apr 01, 2011 at 22:18 UTC
There is no need to go down to raw socket communication. After investigating what happens, you can create the appropriate form as HTML::Form object and use WWW::Mechanize to send the data from the form.	[reply]
Re^4: WWW::Mechanize to Fill in Fields when no Form Defined by cavac (Prior) on Apr 01, 2011 at 22:51 UTC
Re: WWW::Mechanize to Fill in Fields when no Form Defined by Kanji (Parson) on Apr 03, 2011 at 03:15 UTC
If the <form> tags are missing, you can add your own with WWW::Mechanize's `update_html` method:- `$ua->update_html('<form>' . $ua->content . '</form>');` --k.	[reply] [d/l]