/ 
Form-0.1
/ HTTP::Request::Form

NAME

HTTP::Request::Form - Construct HTTP::Request objects for form processing

SYNOPSIS

use HTTP::Request::Form;
use HTML::TreeBuilder;
use URI::URL;

$ua = LWP::UserAgent->new;
$url = url 'http://www.sn.no/';
$res = $ua->request(GET $url);
$p = HTML::TreeBuilder->new;
foreach $i (@{$p->extract_links(qw(form))}) {
   $f = HTTP::Request::Form->new($i, $url);
   $f->field("user", "hugo");
   $f->field("password", "duddi");
   $ua->request($f->press("Send"));
}
$p->delete();

DESCRIPTION

This module provides functions that return newly created HTTP::Request objects that allow the automated processing of HTML form elements.

CLASS METHODS

new($form [, $base [, $debug]])

The new-method constructs a new form processor. It get's an HTML::Element object that contains a form as the single parameter. If an base-url is given as an additional parameter, this is used to make the form-url absolute in regard to the given URL.

If debugging is true, the following functions will be a bit "talky" on stdio.

INSTANCE METHODS

base()

This returns the parameter $base to the "new" constructor.

link()

This returns the action attribute of the original form structure. This value is cached within the form processor, so you can safely delete the form structure after you created the form processor.

method()

This returns the method attribute of the original form structure. This value is cached within the form processor, so you can safely delete the form structure as soon as you created the form processor.

fields()

This method delivers a list of fieldnames that are of "open" type. This excludes the "hidden" and "submit" elements, because they are already filled with a value (and as such declared as "closed") or as in the case of "submit" are buttons, of which only one must be used.

allfields()

This delivers a list of all fieldnames in the order as they occured in the form-source excluding the submit fields.

field($name [, $value])

This method retrieves or sets a field-value. The field is identified by it's name. You have to be sure that you only put a allowed value into the field.

is_selection($name)

This tests if a field is a selection or an input.

field_selection($name)

This delivers the array of the options of a selection. The element that is marked with selected in the source is given as the default value.

buttons()

This delivers a list of all defined and named buttons of a form.

button($button [, $value])

This gets or sets the value of a button. Normally only getting a button value is needed. The value of a button is a reference to an array of values (because a button can exist multiple times).

button_exists($button)

This gives true if the named button exists, false (undef) otherwise.

press([$name [, $number]])

This method creates a HTTP::Request object (via HTTP::Request::Common) that sends the formdata to the server with the requested method. If you give a button-name, that button is used. If you give no button name, it assumes a button without a name and just leaves out this last parameter. If the number of the button is given, that button value is delivered. If the number is not given, 0 (the first button of this name) is assumed.

dump()

This method dumps the form-data on stdio for debugging purpose.

SEE ALSO

HTTP::Request, HTTP::Request::Common, LWP::UserAgent, HTML::Element, URI::URL

VERSION

HTTP::Request::Form version 0.1, February 13th, 1998

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 1998, Georg Bauer <Georg_Bauer@muensterland.org>

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.