Using Mechanize With Odd Query String

[varanasi]

Using Mechanize, I am trying to pass a name/value pair to a form that looks like this:

<form action="action.cgi?use-a" method="post" >
    <input type="submit" value="entry one" >&nbsp;for&nbsp;
    <select name="target">
     <option value="">User
     <option value='195'>Affiliate
</select>
</form>

Other variants of action.cgi work fine for me, e.g. action.cgi?use-f, but those variants don't require a name value/pair to work. I simply do a $browser->get() on them. If I simply get action.cgi?use-a, the cgi script acts as if I had selected the User option, since it received no name/value pair.

I have tried many ways of structuring the url directly but without any success. I have also tried using LWP's post method, without success, like this:

$browser->post("$BASEURL?use-a", 'target' => '195');

I am stumped (and probably stupid.) Would you be kind enough to help?

[repellent]

Your form key/value pairs need to be specified as Content:


$browser->post("$BASEURL?use-a", { 'target' => '195' } ); # now a hash
+ref


The documentation for ->post mentions $field_name which may be confused as being a form key name. The $field_name => $value pairs actually get pushed onto the Header instead of the Content.

[Anonymous Monk]

Thank you. I did not understand the documentation even when I re-read it. Thank you for explaining it succinctly.

[Gangabass]

Just load this form's page with $mech->get(...) and do:

$mech->submit_form(
    form_number => 1,
    fields => {
        target => "Affiliate",
    },
);

But you need to check form_number param by yourself.