use HTML::Form;
$form = HTML::Form->parse($html, $base_uri);
$form->value(query => "Perl");
use LWP;
LWP::UserAgent->new->request($form->click);
DESCRIPTION
Objects of the "HTML::Form" class represents a single HTML <form>
... </form> instance. A form consist of a sequence of inputs that
usually have names, and which can take on various values.
The parse() class method will parse an HTML document and build up
"HTML::Form" objects for each <form> found. If called in scalar
context only returns the first <form>. Returns an empty list if there
are no forms to be found.
The $base_uri is (usually) the URI used to access the $html_document.
It is needed to resolve relative action URIs. For LWP this parameter
is obtained from the $response->base() method.
$form->push_input($type, \%attr)
Adds a new input to the form.
$form->method( [$new] )
$form->action( [$new] )
$form->enctype( [$new] )
These method can be used to get/set the corresponding attribute of the
form.
$form->inputs
This method returns the list of inputs in the form.
$form->find_input($name, $type, $no)
This method is used to locate some specific input within the form. At
least one of the arguments must be defined. If no matching input is
found, "undef"
is returned.
If $name is specified, then the input must have the indicated name.
If $type is specified then the input must have the specified type. In
addition to the types possible for <input> HTML tags, we also have
``textarea'' and ``option''. The $no is the sequence number of the input
with the indicated $name and/or $type (where 1 is the first).
$form->value($name, [$value])
The value() method can be used to get/set the value of some input. If
no input have the indicated name, then this method will croak.
$form->try_others(\&callback)
This method will iterate over all permutations of unvisited enumerated
values (<select>, <radio>, <checkbox>) and invoke the callback for
each. The callback is passed the $form as argument.
$form->make_request
Will return a HTTP::Request object that reflects the current setting
of the form. You might want to use the click method instead.
$form->click([$name], [$x, $y])
Will click on the first clickable input ("input/submit" or
"input/image"), with the indicated $name, if specified. You can
optinally specify a coordinate clicked, which only makes a difference
if you clicked on an image. The default coordinate is (1,1).
$form->form
Returns the current setting as a sequence of key/value pairs.
$form->dump
Returns a textual representation of the form. Mainly useful for
debugging. If called in void context, then the dump is printed on
STDERR.
INPUTS
An "HTML::Form" contains a sequence of inputs. References to the
inputs can be obtained with the $form->inputs or $form->find_input
methods. Once you have such a reference, then one of the following
methods can be used on it:
$input->type
Returns the type of this input. Types are stuff like ``text'',
``password'', ``hidden'', ``textarea'', ``image'', ``submit'', ``radio'',
``checkbox'', ``option''...
$input->name([$new])
$input->value([$new])
These methods can be used to set/get the current name or value of an
input. If the input only can take an enumerated list of values, then
it is an error to try to set it to something else and the method will
croak if you try.
$input->possible_values
Returns a list of all values that and input can take. For inputs that
does not have discrete values this returns an empty list.
$input->other_possible_values
Returns a list of all values not tried yet.
$input->form_name_value
Returns a (possible empty) list of key/value pairs that should be
incorporated in the form value from this input.
$input->click($form, $x, $y)
Some input types (currently ``sumbit'' buttons and ``images'') can be
clicked to submit the form. The
click() method returns the
corrsponding "HTTP::Request" object.
SEE ALSO
LWP, HTML::Parser, webchatpp
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 1998-2000 Gisle Aas.
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.