Automated web form submission

Question

Do you know any good methodologies/tools/scripts/approaches for automated web form submission? The form I want to operate on is NOT in my possession. That is, on any given website that's the action I'd like to perform.

Example: On http://autos.yahoo.com/ the script would choose certain value in "Make" combo box, then in "Model" combo box and then hit button 'Go'.

Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

You could set the data in form and then submit the form using JavaScript.

document.myform.submit();

Answer 2

With the help of jQuery you could do something like this:

<select name="make" class="mltsel">
  <option value="acura">Acura</option>
  <option value="alfa_romeo">Alfa Romeo</option>
  <option value="am_general">Am General</option>
</select>

<script type="text/javascript">
  $("select").change(function () {
    $("#text").text("Something was selected").show().fadeOut(1000); 
  });
</script>

Instead of displaying some text you could do a AJAX call to get the needed information for the second selection. jQuery provides some helpful methods too - just take a look at the API.

Answer 3

What about this ?