NAME
HTTP::Recorder - record interaction with websites
VERSION
Version 0.04
SYNOPSIS
Set HTTP::Recorder as the user agent for a proxy, and it rewrites HTTP responses so that additional requests can be recorded.
Set it up like this:
#!/usr/bin/perl
use HTTP::Proxy;
use HTTP::Recorder;
my $proxy = HTTP::Proxy->new();
# create a new HTTP::Recorder object
my $agent = new HTTP::Recorder;
# set the log file (optional)
$agent->file("/tmp/myfile");
# set HTTP::Recorder as the agent for the proxy
$proxy->agent( $agent );
# start the proxy
$proxy->start();
1;Start the proxy script, then change the settings in your web browser so that it will use this proxy for web requests. For more information about proxy settings and the default port, see HTTP::Proxy.
The script will be recorded in the specified file, and can be viewed and modified via the control panel.
The Control Panel
HTTP::Proxy provides a control panel. From this panel, you can view the script as it's being recorded, modify it, delete it, etc.
If you use $agent->showwindow(1) in your proxy script and you have popups enabled in your browser, the control panel will appear as a Javascript popup window will appear after each recorded action.
SSL sessions
As of version 0.03, HTTP::Recorder can record SSL sessions.
To begin recording an SSL session, go to the control URL (http://http-recorder/ by default), and enter the initial URL. Then, interact with the web site as usual.
Script output
By default, HTTP::Recorder outputs WWW::Mechanize scripts.
However, you can override HTTP::Recorder::Logger to output other types of scripts.
Functions
new
Creates and returns a new HTTP::Recorder object, referred to as the 'agent'.
$agent->prefix([$value])
Get or set the prefix string that HTTP::Recorder uses for rewriting responses.
$agent->showwindow([0|1])
Get or set whether HTTP::Recorder opens a JavaScript popup window, displaying the recorder's control panel.
$agent->control([$value])
Get or set the URL of HTTP::Recorder's control panel. By default, the control URL is 'http-recorder'.
The control URL will display a control panel which will allow you to view and edit the current script.
$agent->logger([$value])
Get or set the logger object. The default logger is a HTTP::Recorder::Logger, which generates WWW::Mechanize scripts.
$agent->ignore_favicon([0|1])
Get or set ignore_favicon flag that causes HTTP::Recorder to skip logging requests favicon.ico files. The value is 1 by default.
$agent->file([$value])
Get or set the filename for generated scripts. The default is '/tmp/scriptfile'.
Bugs, Missing Features, and other Oddities
Javascript
WWW::Mechanize can't play back Javascript actions, and HTTP::Recorder doesn't record them.
Why are my images corrupted?
HTTP::Recorder only tries to rewrite responses that are of type text/*, which it determines by reading the Content-Type header of the HTTP::Response object. However, if the received image gives the wrong Content-Type header, it may be corrupted by the recorder. While this may not be pleasant to look at, it shouldn't have an effect on your recording session.
See Also
See also LWP::UserAgent, WWW::Mechanize, HTTP::Proxy.
Requests & Bugs
Please submit any feature requests, suggestions, bugs, or patches at http://rt.cpan.org/, or email to bug-HTTP-Recorder@rt.cpan.org.
If you're submitting a bug of the type "X doesn't record correctly," be sure to include a (preferably short and simple) HTML page that demonstrates the problem, and a clear explanation of a) what it does that it shouldn't, and b) what it should do instead.
Mailing List
There's a mailing list for users and developers of HTTP::Recorder. You can subscribe at http://lists.fsck.com/mailman/listinfo/http-recorder, or by sending email to http-recorder-request@lists.fsck.com with the subject "subscribe".
The archives can be found at http://lists.fsck.com/pipermail/http-recorder.
Author
Copyright 2003-2005 by Linda Julien <leira@cpan.org>
Released under the GNU Public License.