Hi everyone!
I would love to hear from anyone regarding how to solve the problem
I am facing.
I am trying to make a call to a form at a site varsityBooks.com
using the libwww package.
The downloaded the source for the form that I want to submit is given below.
It's simple except it hs a "sessid" field with a huge hex value.
I kept the value as it is.
---------form source-----------
<TABLE width="592" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border="0">
<TR>
<TD width="1" bgcolor="#003366"><IMG SRC="Images/dot_clear.gif" WIDTH=1
HEIGHT=1 BORDER=0 ALT=" "></TD>
<TD align="center" width="270" bgcolor="#E5E5E5" valign="top">
<form name="search" method="get" action="http://www.varsitybooks.com/Search.as
p?dqs=4">
<input type="hidden" name="sessid" value="F132182C060850C518C735257A026C4A">
<input TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="SearchBy" VALUE="advanced">
<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td align=right><b>Title:</b></td>
<td><input TYPE="TEXT" NAME="Title" size="20" MAXLENGTH="100"
VALUE=""></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align=right><b>Author:</B></td>
<td><input TYPE="TEXT" NAME="Author" MAXLENGTH="100" VALUE=""
size="20"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align=right><b>ISBN:</b></font></td>
<td><input TYPE="TEXT" NAME="ISBN" MAXLENGTH="100" VALUE=""
size="20"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align=right><b>Keyword:</b></td>
<td><input TYPE="TEXT" NAME="Keyword" MAXLENGTH="100" VALUE=""
size="20">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align=right><b>Publisher:</b></td>
<td><input TYPE="TEXT" NAME="Publisher" MAXLENGTH="100" VALUE=""
size="20">
</td>
</tr>
<TR>
<TD> </TD>
<TD align="center"><input type="image"
src="images/button_searchforbooks.gif"
width=137 height=29 border=0 alt="Search for Books" name="goBook"></TD>
</TR>
</TABLE></form>
</table>
------------------form ends------------------------------
I wrote the following program to submit the form.
----------Perl code starts-------------------
#!/usr/bin/perl
use LWP::Debug qw(+);
#use LWP::Simple;
use URI::URL;
use strict;
use HTTP::Cookies;
use LWP::UserAgent;
use HTTP::Request::Common;
#Set up the cookie jar
my $cookie = new HTTP::Cookies (ignore_discard => 1);
#Creat the user agent
my $ua = new LWP::UserAgent;
#Attach the cookie jar to the user agent
$ua -> cookie_jar ($cookie);
#Signature for our User Agent
$ua->agent ("Mozilla/5.0");
my $url = new URI::URL
("http://www.varsitybooks.com/search.asp");
#$url -> query_form (searchBy => "title",
# search => "Applied Cryptography");
my $req = GET $url,
["searchBy" => "title",
"sessid" => "F132182C060850C518C735257A026C4A",
"dqs" => 4,
"search" => "Applied Cryptography"];
my $content = $ua -> request ($req) -> as_string ();
print $content;
----------------------Perl code ends--------------------
When I run the program, this the response I get.
It always complains saying the page has moved. I am running the program at
a machine at school. There is no proxy server here. It's a Linux machine using
Red Hat 6.1.
--------------------runtime debug trace begins---------------
LWP::UserAgent::new: ()
LWP::UserAgent::request: ()
LWP::UserAgent::simple_request: GET http://www.varsitybooks.com/search.asp
LWP::UserAgent::_need_proxy: Not proxied
HTTP::Cookies::add_cookie_header: Checking www.varsitybooks.com for cookies
HTTP::Cookies::add_cookie_header: Checking .varsitybooks.com for cookies
LWP::Protocol::http::request: ()
LWP::Protocol::http::request: GET /search.asp HTTP/1.0
Host: www.varsitybooks.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0
LWP::Protocol::http::request: reading response
LWP::Protocol::http::request: HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily
Server: Microsoft-IIS/4.0
Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 00:33:00 GMT
Set-Cookie: SITESERVER=ID=e9551cfbf537b05bf85ab028b0c2480d; expires=Monday,
01-Jan-2035 00:00:00 GMT; path=/; domain=.varsitybooks.com
Expires: Thu, 01 Dec 1994 16:00:00 GMT
Connection: close
Location: /search.asp?wfx2=lh2hj34l8s
LWP::Protocol::http::request: HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily
HTTP::Cookies::extract_cookies: Set cookie SITESERVER =>
ID=e9551cfbf537b05bf85ab028b0c2480d
LWP::UserAgent::request: Simple response: Found
LWP::UserAgent::request: ()
LWP::UserAgent::simple_request: GET http://www.varsitybooks.com/search.asp?wfx2
=lh2hj34l8s
LWP::UserAgent::_need_proxy: Not proxied
HTTP::Cookies::add_cookie_header: Checking www.varsitybooks.com for cookies
HTTP::Cookies::add_cookie_header: Checking .varsitybooks.com for cookies
HTTP::Cookies::add_cookie_header: - checking cookie path=/
HTTP::Cookies::add_cookie_header: - checking cookie
SITESERVER=ID=e9551cfbf537b05bf85ab028b0c2480d
HTTP::Cookies::add_cookie_header: it's a match
LWP::Protocol::http::request: ()
LWP::Protocol::http::request: GET /search.asp?wfx2=lh2hj34l8s HTTP/1.0
Host: www.varsitybooks.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0
Cookie: SITESERVER=ID=e9551cfbf537b05bf85ab028b0c2480d
Cookie2: $Version=1
LWP::Protocol::http::request: reading response
LWP::Protocol::http::request: HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily
Server: Microsoft-IIS/4.0
Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 00:33:01 GMT
Connection: close
Location: /search.asp
Set-Cookie:SITESERVER=GUID=e9551cfbf537b05bf85ab028b0c2480d;path=/;expires=Sat,
29-Oct-2030 23:12:40 GMT; domain=.varsitybooks.com
Expires: Thu, 01 Dec 1994 16:00:00 GMT
LWP::Protocol::http::request: HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily
HTTP::Cookies::extract_cookies: Set cookie SITESERVER =>
GUID=e9551cfbf537b05bf85ab028b0c2480d
LWP::UserAgent::request: Simple response: Found
HTTP/1.1 302 (Found) Moved Temporarily
Connection: close
Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 00:33:01 GMT
Location: /search.asp
Server: Microsoft-IIS/4.0
Expires: Thu, 01 Dec 1994 16:00:00 GMT
Client-Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 18:35:48 GMT
Client-Peer: 206.132.46.66:80
Client-Warning: Redirect loop detected
Set-Cookie: SITESERVER=GUID=e9551cfbf537b05bf85ab028b0c2480d;path=/;expires=Sat
, 29-Oct-2030 23:12:40 GMT; domain=.varsitybooks.com
--------------------runtime trace ends--------------------
Will someone be kind enough to tell me what the problem is?
Is it the sessid field? Can someone tell me such a field's value
is created? Is there a way to simulate it? Or, is there something
else wrong? I am searching for books using "title" words. When
I bring up the exact same form in the browser and fill it up and
click on the submit button, it goes to varsityBooks.com and gives
me the results I want. The result is a Web page with a list of books.
Any pointer you can give me will be very much appreciated.
I am new to using LIBWWW. I have used it with several Unix based sites
and it works. I am having problems with IIS/ASP based sites.
The problems are all similar.
Thanks a lot!
Jugal Kalita
Associate Professor
Computer Science
University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
