WWW::Mechanize on networksolutions.com

[Stephan Sauerburger]

Hi,

I am trying out WWW::Mechanize for the first time, and am attempting
step-by-step to use it on http://www.networksolutions.com. Despite trying
explicity to login exactly as I do with a browser, it takes the Mech to a
failure screen to login again, whereas the browser gets through. There are 2
idiosyncrasies about it which perhaps I need to do something special for:
1. It uses https, and seems to have a way of setting a new SessionID for
your login session in the URL.
2. It goes to a jhtml page; I'm not sure if that's making any difference.
I do have IO::Socket::SSL and Crypt:SSLeay both installed and used.

Here is simplified source:

-----------------------BEGIN login_netsol.pl--------------------------

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

#Configuration:#########################
my $NETSOL_URL="http://www.netsol.com/";;
my $USERNAME="correctlogin";
my $PASSWORD="correctpass";
#End Configuration######################
# turn on perl's safety features
use strict;
use warnings;
# One or both of these are required for https
use IO::Socket::SSL;
use Crypt::SSLeay;
# create a new mech
use WWW::Mechanize;
my $agent = WWW::Mechanize->new();
# Retrieve main page
$agent->get($NETSOL_URL);
	    
# Login
$agent->submit_form(
   form_name   => 'login', #aka form_number=>2, which I also tried
   fields      => {
       username           => $USERNAME,
       password           => $PASSWORD,
       isAutoLoginEnabled => 'off'
   }
);

my $url = $agent->uri;
print "New URL: $url\n";
system('/usr/bin/mozilla', "$url");
exit(0);

------------------------------EOF-------------------------

The general format of the uri I get when successfully logging in is:

https://www.networksolutions.com/en_US/manage-it/view-account.jhtml;jsessionid=
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVW?accountId=12345678&home=true&_requestid=1234567
(with the letter and number strings different each time)
The url the mech draws up when logging in is:
https://www.networksolutions.com/en_US/manage-it/index.jhtml?_DARGS=/en_US/
index.jhtml.2
Which is an error page with another login prompt for you to try again. And
yes, I did quintuple-check that I was using the right username/password. ;)
There are also a schlew of hidden variables in the form which it only
complains as being read-only when I try to set them here. The cookie jar is
active by default, right? Anybody dealt with networksolutions before?
Thanks for your guidance.

--
Stephan