On 05/03/07, Dan Bezdek <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Well, for one thing, there are 3 sites that I want to login, and I can easily 
do it on all 3 sites using their login form and Post method.  So, I have no 
problem authenticating on all 3 sites.  However, there must be some common way 
of knowing that you've been logged in without having to do something site 
specific (for example, I can go through the response body and find a string 
that indicates that I have been authenticated.  However, then I have to 
customize the solution for each site and I don't see this being a good 
solution).


There is no standard way of indicating login success.
The server application writer can do whatever they like.

However, there are some common methods that servers and applications
use to keep track of the login state.

For example:
* cookies
* hidden fields
* URL rewriting

See 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookiehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie
for some details

You may find that the 3 servers all use the same method.

Or you may find that the 3 servers all use the same or similar
responses to report login failure.

You will have to investigate.

Also, it seems that I can't depend on the response code. For example on many 
sites, even if I fail the authentication, they still send me a 200 response 
code.  If the  authentication fails, shouldn't the site give me a response that 
indicated the authentication has failed?  By the way, I don't have any control 
over those sites that I am trying to authenticate to; so, I can't change the 
behavior of the server.


Response 200 just means that the server was able to return a page successfully.

The HTTP response codes do not say anything about the content.

There are some forms of authentication for which you can use the
response code - e.g. Basic, NTLM - these are handled by the server
before it returns any data, so for these you do get a non-200 response
code.

But in this case the servers are not using that form of authentication.

Thanks,
Dan

sebb <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: This totally depends on how the site is coded.

One approach is to try and access a page that is protected by the
login and see what happens.

But again, how you detect whether access has been granted depends on
how the site is coded.

Try with a browser an see what happens.


On 05/03/07, Dan Bezdek  wrote:
> Hi Everyone,
>
> I am new to HttpClient, and I can't find any source on the proper way of 
authenticating when I am trying to login to a site that has a login form.
>
> Basically, I can login using post method, but I can't find any source that 
tells me what response code should be returned in order for me to be sure that the 
authentication has succeeded.  I don't really care what the server does after 
authentication (for exampale if I get redirected or not), all I want to know is 
that I am logged in.  Someone suggested that the standard way is to use the Head 
method first to make sure authentication would succeed.  In any case, could 
someone please tell me what the common way of doing the authentication is?  I 
don't need details, just a step-by-step outline of what to do and what response 
code I should expect.
>
> I really appreciate your help.
>
> Thanks,
> Dan Bezdek
>
>
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