How to get WWW::Mechaize::Firefox to get text?

[zerocred]

Hi, I'm trying to automate logging in to a complex javascript webpage.

After inputting username/password the javascript asks an extra question from a list of 6 known questions & answers before actually logging in. The question is in a iframe popup.

The question appears like this - simple text: <span id="LoginQuestion">What is your pets name?</span>

I have an xpath&css locators too

I can't figure out how to lift simple text with WWW-Mechanize-Firefox given the xpath that points at it.

How to grab get_text with Mechanize_Firefox?

How to select a particular iframe in Mechanize/Firefox (like in Selenium), is it even necessary in Mech FF?

Should I look at another tool?

I tried $mech->content (with a regex), but it returns some other html not what I see with Firefox/Firebug...I think it comes from wrong iframe.

I did it before using Selenium which has $sel->get_text(xpath) sort of thing

Thanks in advance

[Corion]

You will need to look inside of the iframe.

Most likely, if you already have the appropriate DOM element via ->xpath, the ->{innerHTML} property can help you.

If you are already using ->xpath, maybe you want to use xpath( "/path/to/element/text()" )?

For selecting frames, have you looked at what WWW::Mechanize::Firefox has to say about frames?

[zerocred]

Thanks Corion!

So here it is:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use Data::Dumper;
  
use WWW::Mechanize::Firefox;
my $mech = WWW::Mechanize::Firefox->new(
    launch => '/usr/bin/firefox',
    tab=>'current',
    frames => 1,

);


$mech->get('http://www.example.com');

# wait for JS to render the login button
my $retries = 10;
#by xpath
while ($retries-- and ! $mech->is_visible( {xpath => '//*[@id="login"]
+' } )) { 
       sleep 1;
};
   die "Timeout while waiting for site to appear" if 0 > $retries;
print "waitiing retries = $retries\n";

#type the uid & pw
$mech->field( username => 'username'); #by name
$mech->field( password => 'password'); #by name
#sync cos hangs here otherwise
$mech->click( {id=>'login', synchronize => 0}); #by id here

my $string;
my @elements = $mech->xpath('xpath/selector/to/secret/question'); #by 
+xpath here
for(my $x=0;$x<=$#elements;$x++){
    $string = $elements[$x]->{innerHTML}; #get the string
    print "secret question is elements[$x] = $string\n"; #in case ther
+e are multiple matches
}
#ok you need some regex here to decide which question is being asked a
+nd reply with corresponding answer
$mech->field( SecQuestion => 'secret answer'); #by name here

$mech->click( {id=>"confirm", synchronize => 0});

There seemed to be issues about the match of the secret question array having multiple responses.

You asked for many elements but seem to only want a single item.
Did you forget to pass the 'single' option with a true value?
Pass 'all => 1' to suppress this message and receive the count of item
+s.

I think it was trouble shooting lines of code I had added that put me in the wrong iframe... or something.

Thanks for the hints, they really helped!

z

[zerocred]

Thanks for the hints. I was already using

frames=>1

It is a iframe within a iframe... and Firebug xpath seems only references within the current iframe.

It's a unique id ... I haven't cracked it yet. I shall report again later!