WWW::Mechanize input value

[packetstormer]

Hello

I have a very small, standard connection to website that gets the value of an input field. I can get the value and print it fine, but I cannot assign it to a variable!!! Can anyone see why this is:

....
my $mech = WWW::Mechanize->new(agent => 'Windows IE 6');
my $url = "https://www.somesite.com";
$mech->get($url);

# This next line prints, to screen, the value as expected
print "Value: " . $mech->field('sessionid');

# These next 2 lines prints nothing!
my $sessionid = $mech->field('sessionid');
print "$sessionid\n";

Can anyone see why this might be!?

[Athanasius]

Hello packetstormer,

The WWW::Mechanize->field method is actually for setting the field value. Your first call sets the value of 'sessionid' to undef (since no second argument is supplied), and returns the previous value. Your second call gets the new, empty value.

Use the WWW::Mechanize->value method instead. This gets the field value without the side effect of resetting it:

my $mech = WWW::Mechanize->new(agent => 'Windows IE 6');
my $url = "https://www.somesite.com";
$mech->get($url);

print "Value: '", $mech->value('sessionid'), "'\n";

my $sessionid = $mech->value('sessionid');
print "\$sessionid = '$sessionid'\n";

See WWW::Mechanize, under “FIELD METHODS.”

HTH,