Pressing A Webpage Button

[Grant Edwards]

On 2005-06-02, Grant Edwards <grante at visi.com> wrote:
> On 2005-06-01, Elliot Temple <curi at curi.us> wrote:
>
>> How do I make Python press a button on a webpage?
>
> You just do whatever action is specified for the form
> containing the button.
>
>> I looked at urllib, but I only see how to open a URL with
>> that.
>
> Guess what happens when you push that button:  the browser
> opens a URL.
>
>> I searched google but no luck.
>>
>> For example, google has a button   <input type=submit value="Google  
>> Search" name=btnG>  how would i make a script to press that button?
>
> Find the <form> containing the button, and look to see what the
> URL is specified.   For Google, it looks something like this:
>
><form action="/search" naem="f">
>
> So, /search is the URL you open.
>
>> Just for fun, is there any way to do the equivalent of typing
>> into a text field like the google search field before hitting
>> the button?  (I don't actually need to do this.)
>
> Sure.  Just send back the field value in the normal manner
> using a GET.
>
>> If someone could point me in the right direction it'd be appreciated.
>
> You need an introductory book on HTTP and HTML.
>
> If all you care about is a google query here's a python program
> that prints the URL you need to open for a google query:
>
> #!/usr/bin/python
> import urllib,sys,os
> queryString="whatever you're searching for"
> print 'http://www.google.com/search?'+urllib.urlencode({'q':queryString})
>
> I presume you can figure out how to open the URL instead of
> printing it?

Ah, never mind.  That doesn't work.  Google somehow detects
you're not sending the query from a browser and bonks you.

-- 
Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow!  ... I'm IMAGINING a
                                  at               sensuous GIRAFFE, CAVORTING
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