logging into secure website with script

[Fuzzyman]

dpoehls wrote:
> Hello there,
>
> I am new to python, and shell scriping in general..I have done quite a
> bit of php, but that it about it. Anyhow, I am wondering if it would be
> possible to write a python script that would login to a password
> enabled site (qmailadmin) and then be able to add a new account.  I
> imagine it could be done by accessing the website and then it would
> send POSTs to the website?  If this makes no sense, I apologize, just
> wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction. Thanks ahead
> of time!

You should use urllib2 to fetch URLs. See :

    http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/articles/urllib2.shtml

urllib2 will also allow you to do POST.

How you handle the password depends on whether it is by a form, or by
basic authentication. For basic authentication see :

    http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/articles/authentication.shtml

If it is through a form, you can use ClientForm. Alternatively just
manually do the POST from urllib2. You may want to use
ClientCookie/cookielib for (automatic) cookie handling :

    http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/articles/cookielib.shtml

All the best,

Fuzzyman
http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/index.shtml