Question

I need to Post Forms and Upload Files to a website using Linux Command Line.

I have done some search, and I would like to write the script in Python.

I need to first log in the website, save the cookies and then post form data and upload files to that website.

Here is the details:

The website’s log in page is:hxxp://www.example.com/login.html

<form action="/signin.html" method="post"> 
Username:<input type="text" name="username">
Password:<input type="password" name="password">
<input type="hidden" name="referer" value="http://www.example.com/"> 
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="  Login  ">
</form>

The upload page is:hxxp://www.example.com.com/upload/

<form action="http://www.example.com:81/upload/upload.cgi" enctype="multipart/form-data" method="post"> 
<input type="hidden" name="MAX_FILE_SIZE" value="314572800" /> 

File:
<input name="filename[]" type="file" />
Type:
<input type="radio" name="typeID" value=1> Option One
<input type="radio" name="typeID" value=2> Option Two
<input type="radio" name="typeID" value=3> Option Three
Title:
<input type="text" name="title" > 
Description:
<textarea name="description"></textarea>

<input type="checkbox" name="agree" value="agree_terms"> I Accept Terms

<input type="submit" value="Upload It!">
</form>

This form contains radio, text, checkbox, file etc input.

Please give me some hint!

I am using CentOS 5.5, with Python, wget, PHP installed. I think this can be done in Python script.

Thanks a lot! Your answer will be the best Christmas gift I have received. 😉

Answer 1

You could of course use urllib2 to accomplish this task. Read the docs on how to deal with cookies and how to upload files. However, I think using mechanize could save a lot of time. Mechanize allows you to deal with webpages as if you were using a browser:

import mechanize

br = mechanize.Browser()
br.open("http://www.example.com/")
br.select_form()
br['username'] = 'user'
br['password'] = 'pass'
br.submit()

etc.