Automating Web Interfaces with Python

[Cameron Laird]

In article <mailman.1042572205.4047.python-list at python.org>,
Rick Richardson  <rrichardson at eti-main.enabletech.com> wrote:
>I assume by automate you mean create html forms that automagically post to
>automagically generated receivers given some database or XML scheme. I'd
>recommed XSLT for something like this. Python can manage the html file
>generation/management processes for you quite easily.
>
>Also if you're not stuck on JSP there is Zope, which many enjoy but I've
>never used. 
>Another option, Twisted has created a really neat Widget/Gadget template
>Model/View/Controller based web devel/deployment system. I have used that
>one and I must say it's the first thing that's ever made web development fun
>:)
>
>I never did get into JSP much, most (free) systems were too hard to
>configure and the servlet/bean/jsp 
>system was cool but just didn't feel right to me. But some people swear by
>it, so hey. 
			.
			.
			.
Maybe.

Web testing's a specialized area.  That's an oblique way of
saying that there's a professional level of Web testing that's
a lot different from the amateur one.

My estimate is that we're still at the stage of gathering re-
quirements.  Mr. Reyes could mean by his questions just that
he's not familiar with the topic of "Web scraping", and doesn't
know how to automate validation of a modest number of Web pages.
Or he could be saying that he has large-scale requirements to
verify the rendered appearance of tens of thousands of distinct
pages, as seen through either of several browsers.

Chatter about JSP makes me suspect that the question is an
introductory one for him.  JSP is probably *not* among the
ten (let's say) most salient technical dimensions of this task.

I consider XSLT a disservice for someone at the stage I believe
Mr. Reyes is.

Twisted is truly remarkable.  I don't think we know enough yet
to decide whether it's pertinent.

So:  my recommendation is that this thread start back at the 
beginning.  Mr. Reyes, how will you know when you're done?  If
we can teach you how to automate retrieval of the content of
one Web page, with parametrized forms values and such, will you
be substantially nearer your goal?
-- 

Cameron Laird <Cameron at Lairds.com>
Business:  http://www.Phaseit.net
Personal:  http://phaseit.net/claird/home.html