Login to a web forum

[John Doven]

I am trying to create a java program that will log in to a PHP web forum, then navigate to a page that can only be accessed by a logged in user and finally printout the HTML source code for that page. I have been trying to figure out a solution to this problem to no avail. I would consider myself a novice programmer (I took some classes several years ago).

I think the problem that I'm running into has to do with handling cookies. After failing to figure this out from scratch, I came across the HTTPClient package and I have been trying to run their log in example found at HTTP Client Example however that doesn't seem to work. Can anyone point me in the right direction or give me an idea of where I am going wrong. Any insight is very appreciated as I'm very frustrated right now. Thanks.

[Nitesh Kant]

TellTheDetails. Show us what you are trying and what is not working. We are happy to help if we know what is the problem

[Ulf Dittmer]

I'd advise to use a library like HtmlUnit instead of HTTPClient; it has a much higher level API for working with web sites.

[John Doven]

Okay I decided to use HTMLUnit as suggested. I'm still not getting it to print out the "hidden" URL so far. I created an example user name and password on a random forum for testing. Any advice? Thanks.

 
package testWeb;

import com.gargoylesoftware.htmlunit.WebClient;
import com.gargoylesoftware.htmlunit.html.*;
import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
import org.apache.log4j.BasicConfigurator;
import java.net.*;
import java.io.*;

public class JUnitTest {
private static final Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(JUnitTest.class);
public static void main(String[]args)throws Exception {
    BasicConfigurator.configure();


    final WebClient webClient = new WebClient();

    // Get the first page
    final HtmlPage page1 = webClient.getPage("http://www.honda-tech.com");



    // Get the form that we are dealing with and within that form,
    // find the submit button and the field that we want to change.
    final HtmlForm form = page1.getForms().get(2);
            //page1.getFormByName("login.php?do=login");


    final HtmlSubmitInput button = form.getInputByValue("Log in");
    final HtmlTextInput textField = form.getInputByValue("User Name");
    final HtmlPasswordInput textFieldPW=form.getInputByName("vb_login_password");


    // Change the value of the text field
    textField.setValueAttribute("JavaTest5");
    textFieldPW.setValueAttribute("test");

    // Now submit the form by clicking the button and get back the second page.
    final HtmlPage page2 = button.click();

    //System.out.println(page2.getInputEncoding());
    System.out.println();
    System.out.println();
    System.out.println();
    System.out.println();
    //Webpage only accessible to logged in users URL+private.php
    printWebpage("http://www.honda-tech.com/private.php");
}
public static void printWebpage(String st)throws Exception {
        URL u = new URL(st);
	BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(
				new InputStreamReader(
				u.openStream()));

	String inputLine;

	while ((inputLine = in.readLine()) != null)
	    System.out.println(inputLine);

	in.close();
}
}

[Kamal Wickramanayake]

I haven't used HTMLUnit. But instead of

//Webpage only accessible to logged in users URL+private.php
printWebpage("http://www.honda-tech.com/private.php");

what if you try something like

  
HtmlPage page2 = webClient.getPage("http://www.honda-tech.com/private.php");

System.out.println(page2);

[Ulf Dittmer]

The printWebpage method does not use HtmlUnit, so it has no idea of what happened before. You need to work with page2 to obtain the results of your logging in.