Get Mechanize to handle cookies from an arbitrary POST (to log into a website programmatically)
- by Horace Loeb
I want to log into https://www.t-mobile.com/ programmatically. My first idea was to use Mechanize to submit the login form:
However, it turns out that this isn't even a real form. Instead, when you click "Log in" some javascript grabs the values of the fields, creates a new form dynamically, and submits it.
"Log in" button HTML:
<button onclick="handleLogin(); return false;" class="btnBlue" id="myTMobile-login"><span>Log in</span></button>
The handleLogin() function:
function handleLogin() {
if (ValidateMsisdnPassword()) { // client-side form validation logic
var a = document.createElement("FORM");
a.name = "form1";
a.method = "POST";
a.action = mytmoUrl; // defined elsewhere as https://my.t-mobile.com/Login/LoginController.aspx
var c = document.createElement("INPUT");
c.type = "HIDDEN";
c.value = document.getElementById("myTMobile-phone").value; // the value of the phone number input field
c.name = "txtMSISDN";
a.appendChild(c);
var b = document.createElement("INPUT");
b.type = "HIDDEN";
b.value = document.getElementById("myTMobile-password").value; // the value of the password input field
b.name = "txtPassword";
a.appendChild(b);
document.body.appendChild(a);
a.submit();
return true
} else {
return false
}
}
I could simulate this form submission by POSTing the form data to https://my.t-mobile.com/Login/LoginController.aspx with Net::HTTP#post_form, but I don't know how to get the resultant cookie into Mechanize so I can continue to scrape the UI available when I'm logged in.
Any ideas?
