Mozilla::Mechanize
WWW::Mechanize is great, but it has a major shortcoming: it completely ignores JavaScript. There's a port of WWW::Mechanize, Win32::IE::Mechanize by Abe Timmerman, that uses OLE automation to control an Internet Explorer browser, and therefore does deal with JavaScript. However, it has its own shortcoming: it only works with Internet Explorer.
This module, Mozilla::Mechanize, is a port of Win32::IE::Mechanize that uses an embedded Gecko widget. I say "an embedded Gecko widget" and not "Mozilla", because it doesn't use a technology like OLE automation or DCOM to remotely control a separate, "real" browser. Instead, using Mozilla::DOM, you control an embedded Gecko widget (currently based on Gtk2::MozEmbed). Since Gecko is the HTML rendering engine of Mozilla/Firefox, it's the same as Mozilla, at least as far as the DOM is concerned.
I haven't found the Holy Grail of web automation yet, though. That would involve rendering an HTML page exactly as a real browser does, on any platform, but without having to open a browser window. The quest continues... :)
DEPENDENCIES
Mozilla::DOM
Gtk2::MozEmbed
URI
Mime::Base64 (only if Basic auth (currently unimplemented) is used)
INSTALLATION
To install this module, execute the following commands:
perl Build.PL
./Build
./Build test
./Build install
or you can instead do the traditional
perl Makefile.PL
make
make test
make install
BUGS
COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE
Copyright 2005,2009 Scott Lanning. This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.