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in reply to Re: LWP and Javascript
in thread LWP and Javascript

Joost,

Thanks. This all looks like the kind of things I need to add to a general toolbox for making webpages jump through hoops, mostly for automating testing, and computer aided manual testing. The specific task I wanted to solve is counting sponsored links (ads) on a web page. I cannot see them in LWP, only the Ajax that goes and gets them.

For some reason, I have not even tried the mechanize modules. I guess I thought I was getting more control from LWP. I just heard about Selenium last week for the first time, so I will take a look at that too.

In regard to your note about LWP, that confirms the sense I had about it. So I know now not to bark up that tree anymore.

Thanks

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Re^3: LWP and Javascript
by Joost (Canon) on Mar 29, 2007 at 22:49 UTC
    WWW::Mechanize is a subclass of LWP::UserAgent, so more or less anything you can do with LWP::UA you can do with WWW::Mechanize. Mechanize is just easier to use when automating click-trails (start at link such-and-such, click link named "bla bla", fill in form field "thingy", submit - etc)

    The *::Mechanize::* modules linked in my post above mimic and extend WWW::Mechanize's behaviour but are probably not 100% API compatible - YMMV.

    "What should it profit a man, if he should win a flame war, yet lose his cool?"
[reply]
      I ported Mozilla::Mechanize from Win32::IE::Mechanize, which was in turn ported from WWW::Mechanize. You're right they're not 100% compatible, but mostly they are. I've meant to get a new release out of Mozilla::DOM and Mozilla::Mechanize for a long time, especially since Boris's Mozilla::* modules came out, but I have a little problem where all Gtk2::MozEmbed-based applications segfault for me on Ubuntu, so I'm not able to confirm that things work. (FWIW, I have seen https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/26436 and I have set LD_LIBRARY_PATH and /etc/ld.so.conf and done /sbin/ldconfig, but things still segfault for me.)
[reply]

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