Programming Forums > Web Development and Design > Other Web Development Languages

fishtwel · Nov 9th, 2004, 12:28 PM

I wonder if someone can help me with this. I would like to know, if is possible, how to go about taking values from a file and plug them into a form on a website and then submit the form. My problem is figuring out how to get these values into the form and then submitting it. If anyone can lead me in the right direction with possibly a snipet of code, or even just what language would be best for doing this, I would be most grateful. THANKS!!

Pizentios · Nov 9th, 2004, 2:41 PM

It'll be easyer if you grab values from a text file with php and then submit them to what ever page that the form that you imataiting submits to. Does that make sense?

fishtwel · Nov 10th, 2004, 7:34 AM

Yea, I think I got it. I will have to go do some brushing up on my PHP in order to do so. Its been a year or so since I last touched that language. Is there any topics that you could give me to focus on in order to accomplish this problem. It would be much appreciated. I dont want someone to do it for me, I just could use alittle direction, which is what these forums should be for. THANKS!!

Pizentios · Nov 10th, 2004, 8:44 AM

I don't think that your going to find many topics on this forum about what you need. However, you might want to read up on grabing text from a file, also study the webpage that your trying to imatait and find out what gets passed to the next page.

tempest · Nov 10th, 2004, 3:05 PM

you would have to write a local js file with ActiveX file handlers and a filler for the form and then write someone on the address bar of IE like..

// Assuming that you create a "remeber values" thing yourself for a certain site...
javascript:void(var blah = document.createElement("script");blah.src="c:\\yourscript.js"

;

// Or if you're the webmaster put that code in your <head> section...

Or if you wanted to get all complex with it and like, you could use a set of foreach loops and such and get all the forms and form elements into a file with the site that they are from. And have it bring that information back next time it comes... you can do alot of things... Sorry, i dont remember the ActiveX file handlers in JS (this will be IE only, i think) but you can check www.webxpertz.net . They will probably have it.

-- Hope you understood that as i have a tendancy to ramble

kurifu · Nov 10th, 2004, 6:51 PM

When you fill out data in a form and submit the data to the website, it posts the data through either the GET post method in which case the data is passed through the address string, or it uses the POST method which formats and passes the data through HTTP headers.

Look at the page source for something like this:

(Toggle Plain Text)

<FORM NAME="blah" METHOD="GET" ACTION="page">

METHOD is the method the form is using and action is the page that it is posting the data to.

All you have to do is use cURL to simulate that posting to the "page" value with the proper form item names and values, and voila.... it is almost the same as posting the form youself.

cURL can be downloaded as a PEAR module for PHP, simply typing

(Toggle Plain Text)

pear install curl

on your command line will likely do the trick, it may already even be installed. Similarly the HTTP_Request module (which is easier to use than curl) is available through PEAR for PHP as well.

Good luck.

Nov 9th, 2004, 2:41 PM	#2
Pizentios Programming Guru Join Date: May 2004 Location: Brandon, Manitoba, Canada Posts: 2,023 Rep Power: 7	It'll be easyer if you grab values from a text file with php and then submit them to what ever page that the form that you imataiting submits to. Does that make sense? __________________ Profanity is the one language that all programmers understand. Check out my Blog <---updated Nov 30 2007!

Nov 10th, 2004, 8:44 AM	#4
Pizentios Programming Guru Join Date: May 2004 Location: Brandon, Manitoba, Canada Posts: 2,023 Rep Power: 7	I don't think that your going to find many topics on this forum about what you need. However, you might want to read up on grabing text from a file, also study the webpage that your trying to imatait and find out what gets passed to the next page. __________________ Profanity is the one language that all programmers understand. Check out my Blog <---updated Nov 30 2007!

Nov 10th, 2004, 3:05 PM	#5
tempest Programming Guru Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 1,041 Rep Power: 5	you would have to write a local js file with ActiveX file handlers and a filler for the form and then write someone on the address bar of IE like.. // Assuming that you create a "remeber values" thing yourself for a certain site... javascript:void(var blah = document.createElement("script");blah.src="c:\\yourscript.js"; // Or if you're the webmaster put that code in your <head> section... Or if you wanted to get all complex with it and like, you could use a set of foreach loops and such and get all the forms and form elements into a file with the site that they are from. And have it bring that information back next time it comes... you can do alot of things... Sorry, i dont remember the ActiveX file handlers in JS (this will be IE only, i think) but you can check www.webxpertz.net . They will probably have it. -- Hope you understood that as i have a tendancy to ramble __________________

Nov 10th, 2004, 6:51 PM	#6
kurifu Expert Programmer Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada) Posts: 784 Rep Power: 5	When you fill out data in a form and submit the data to the website, it posts the data through either the GET post method in which case the data is passed through the address string, or it uses the POST method which formats and passes the data through HTTP headers. Look at the page source for something like this: (Toggle Plain Text) <FORM NAME="blah" METHOD="GET" ACTION="page"> <FORM NAME="blah" METHOD="GET" ACTION="page"> METHOD is the method the form is using and action is the page that it is posting the data to. All you have to do is use cURL to simulate that posting to the "page" value with the proper form item names and values, and voila.... it is almost the same as posting the form youself. cURL can be downloaded as a PEAR module for PHP, simply typing (Toggle Plain Text) pear install curl pear install curl on your command line will likely do the trick, it may already even be installed. Similarly the HTTP_Request module (which is easier to use than curl) is available through PEAR for PHP as well. Good luck. __________________ Clifford Matthew Roche <geek@cliffordroche.com> Web Hosting: http://www.crd-hosting.com Consulting: http://www.crdev-consulting.com

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Nov 9th, 2004, 12:28 PM	#1
fishtwel Newbie Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	I wonder if someone can help me with this. I would like to know, if is possible, how to go about taking values from a file and plug them into a form on a website and then submit the form. My problem is figuring out how to get these values into the form and then submitting it. If anyone can lead me in the right direction with possibly a snipet of code, or even just what language would be best for doing this, I would be most grateful. THANKS!!

Nov 10th, 2004, 7:34 AM	#3
fishtwel Newbie Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	Yea, I think I got it. I will have to go do some brushing up on my PHP in order to do so. Its been a year or so since I last touched that language. Is there any topics that you could give me to focus on in order to accomplish this problem. It would be much appreciated. I dont want someone to do it for me, I just could use alittle direction, which is what these forums should be for. THANKS!!

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Programming Forums > Web Development and Design > Other Web Development Languages

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