Driving Internet Explorer with Perl

[zejames]

Description:

The following code can be used to script Internet Explorer actions. The exemple chosen is here is to fill in a form and then validate it through a perl script.

For this test script, let's imagine we have a HTML form named 'log_form' (<form ... name='log_form'>), a login input named 'login' ((<input type='text' name='login'>), a password input named 'pass' and a submit button named 'go'.

To find more information about how to drive IE, have a look here : http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/browser/webbrowser/reference/objects/internetexplorer.asp

use Win32::OLE qw( EVENTS in with valof );
use Win32::OLE::Variant;

Win32::OLE->Option( Warn => 0 );

$HomePage = "http://www.greyhats.org/new/";

$IE = Win32::OLE->GetActiveObject( 'InternetExplorer.Application' );
if( ! defined $IE )
{
    print "Can not find open object. Creating one...\n";
    $IE = Win32::OLE->new( 'InternetExplorer.Application', "Quit" )
             or die "Unable to create a IE Object\n";
}

Win32::OLE->WithEvents( $IE, \&cleanExit, 'DWebBrowserEvents2' );

$IE->{Visible} = 1;
$IE->{RegisterAsDropTarget} = 1;
$IE->{RegisterAsBrowser} = 1;


$IE->Navigate( $HomePage );

# Let IE load the page
while( $IE->{Busy} )
{
    while ($IE->SpinMessageLoop()) { select undef,undef,undef,0.25; }
}


$Doc = $IE->{Document};

$forms = $Doc->{forms} or die "Unable to retrieve forms";
$form = $forms->item("log_form") or die "Unable to find my form";
$elements = $form->{elements} or die "Can't get the elements";

$login = $elements->item("login",0) or die "Where is my login !?";
$pass = $elements->item("pass", 0) or die "I wonder why there isn't a 
+pass";
$go = $elements->item("go", 0) or die "I want my button";

$login->{value} = "zejames";
$pass->{value} = "test";
$go->click;

# Do whatever you want.

sub cleanExit {
    my( $obj, $event, @args ) = @_;
    
    if ($event eq "OnQuit") {
        print "Terminating\n";
        undef $obj;
        exit(1);
    }
}

[tachyon]

Chill on the system resources with a 250 msec sleep while we wait.

while( $IE->{Busy} )
{
    while ($IE->SpinMessageLoop()) { select undef,undef,undef,0.25 }
}

[Shival]

Hi Tachyon, Thanks for the script. I still get error that "unable to find my form ". Any clue?

[marto]

The post you are responding to is almost 10 years old, the user who wrote it has not logged in for 9 years. Consider reading and understanding PerlMonks for the Absolute Beginner, How do I post a question effectively? and posting a new question. Do you have to Automate IE?

[McMahon]

Also take a look at samie

[johnnywang]

Is there any similar module for driving mozilla/netscape, say on linux? Thanks

[johnnywang]

I'm getting the "Unable to find my form" error. I'm sure I will be able to use this code. Thanks.

[Anonymous Monk]

This post was very helpful! Thanks! If I already have several Internet Explorer windows open, how can I instruct Perl which one to latch on to? I could check all IE windows for the URL or target I want, but I don't know how to scan through all of the open IE windows. Thanks in advance, Mike

[rsilvergun]

my $shell = Win32::OLE->new('Shell.Application');
my @ies = grep { $_->FullName =~ /iexplore\.exe$/ } in $shell->Windows
+;

foreach $ie (@ies){#

    eval{
        $ie->{document}->getElementById("PUT THE ID OF AN ELEMENT THAT
+ IDENTIFIES THE PAGE YOU'RE LOOKING FOR HERE");
        $IEWindowYouAreLookingFor = $ie;
    };#end eval

}#END FOREACH

The way it works, if the element you're looking for isn't there the call to getElementById throws an error and the line:

$IEWindowYouAreLookingFor = $ie;

never executes. Otherewise the line runs and $IEWindowYouAreLookingFor gets set to point to the $ie window you're looking for. Use the Microsoft IE Developer toolbar to track down the IDs of stuff on the page.

This doesn't work if the end user has mulitple pages from the same site up. I don't know any way to check if the page has focus...