How to open mozilla browser from a java application and submit it??

Question

Hi,

I am wokring on a linux applicaiton which should open an URL in mozilla, populate username and password in the form (url, username and password are obtained from mysql db) and submit it.

Can anyone suggest how to use mozilla API's to do it.

Regards, Sunil.

Answer 1

Do you need to do this via the browser ? Can you not submit a form using an HTTP client application written with (say) HttpClient ?

If you do need to do this via a browser, must it be Mozilla ? Watij provides a trivial way to launch a copy of IE, populate fields and submit forms.

Answer 2

You will need a JNI library which allows you to access the methods from Mozilla. Probably the most simple solution is to use SWT and create a browser with SWT.MOZILLA (see this snippet for an example).

Note that you just get a browser widget, not a fully featured browser like Firefox.

Answer 3

Are you looking for something like MozSwing ?

more info here

Answer 4

You might be able to use JavaXPCOM please check out the Mozilla Embedding for Java

Here is some sample code

import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Component;
import java.awt.Container;
import java.awt.FlowLayout;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException; 
import java.io.File; 

import javax.swing.*;

import org.mozilla.xpcom.*; 
import org.mozilla.interfaces.*;

/*
Websites ref
http://groups.google.com/group/mozilla.dev.tech.java/browse_thread/thread/898ba6751d0c57f7 
http://skrul.com/blog/code/
http://wirestorm.net/blog/?cat=9

*/


public class BrowserTest  implements nsIWebProgressListener,nsIWeakReference, nsIInterfaceRequestor, nsIWebBrowserChrome, nsISHistoryListener{ 
    static {
        try {
            System.loadLibrary("NativeWindow");
        } catch (UnsatisfiedLinkError e) {
            System.err.println("can't find your library");
        }
    }
    private static final String frameTitle="GRE Embedded";
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        BrowserConroller controler=new BrowserConroller();
        controler.run();
        new BrowserTest().start();
    } 

    public void start(){


        JFrame f = new JFrame( frameTitle );
        f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        f.setSize(400, 150);
        Container content = f.getContentPane();
        content.setBackground(Color.white);
        content.setLayout(new FlowLayout()); 
        content.add(new JLabel("Initializing ... "));
        f.setVisible(true);

        File grePath = null; 
        LocationProvider locProvider; 
        Mozilla mozilla = Mozilla.getInstance(); 

        GREVersionRange[] range = new GREVersionRange[1]; 
        range[0] = new GREVersionRange("1.8.0", true, "1.9", false); 

        try { 
            grePath = Mozilla.getGREPathWithProperties(range, null);
            mozilla.initialize(grePath);
            locProvider = new LocationProvider(grePath); 
            mozilla.initEmbedding(grePath, grePath, locProvider); 
        } 

        catch (FileNotFoundException e) { 
            System.out.println("Error: FileNotFoundException"); 
        } 
        catch (XPCOMException e) { 
            System.out.println("Error: XPCOMException"); 
        } 


        //---------- END GRE INITIALIZATION------------


        nsIServiceManager serviceManager = mozilla.getServiceManager(); 

        nsIAppStartup appStartup = (nsIAppStartup)serviceManager.getServiceByContractID("@mozilla.org/toolkit/app-startup;1", nsIAppStartup.NS_IAPPSTARTUP_IID); 
        nsIWindowCreator windowCreator = (nsIWindowCreator)appStartup.queryInterface(nsIWindowCreator.NS_IWINDOWCREATOR_IID); 

        nsIWindowWatcher windowWatcher =(nsIWindowWatcher)serviceManager.getServiceByContractID("@mozilla.org/embedcomp/window-watcher;1",nsIWindowWatcher.NS_IWINDOWWATCHER_IID); 

        windowWatcher.setWindowCreator(windowCreator); 

        nsIDOMWindow win = windowWatcher.openWindow(null, "http://google.com", "MAIN_WIN","chrome,resizable,centerscreen", null);
        windowWatcher.setActiveWindow( win ); 

        nsIComponentManager componentManager = mozilla.getComponentManager();
        String NS_IWEBBROWSER_CID = "F1EAC761-87E9-11d3-AF80-00A024FFC08C"; //$NON-NLS-1$
        nsIWebBrowser webBrowser = (nsIWebBrowser) componentManager.createInstance(NS_IWEBBROWSER_CID, null, nsIWebBrowser.NS_IWEBBROWSER_IID);
        webBrowser.setContainerWindow(this);
        webBrowser.addWebBrowserListener(this, nsIWebProgressListener.NS_IWEBPROGRESSLISTENER_IID);


//      nsIWebNavigation webNavigation=(nsIWebNavigation)webBrowser.queryInterface(nsIWebNavigation.NS_IWEBNAVIGATION_IID);
//      webNavigation.loadURI("http://www.zdnet.com", nsIWebNavigation.LOAD_FLAGS_NONE, null, null, null);
//      

        nsIBaseWindow baseWindow = (nsIBaseWindow) webBrowser.queryInterface(nsIBaseWindow.NS_IBASEWINDOW_IID);             
        long handle=FindWindow.getHWND( frameTitle );

        baseWindow.initWindow(handle, 0, 0, 0,350,350);
        baseWindow.create();
        baseWindow.setVisibility(true);




//      
//      nsIDOMWindow domWin=webBrowser.getContentDOMWindow();
//      nsIDOMEventTarget domEventTarget= (nsIDOMEventTarget)domWin.queryInterface(nsIDOMEventTarget.NS_IDOMEVENTTARGET_IID);
//      domEventTarget.addEventListener("click", new EventListener(), false);
//      
        //Hide JFrame after it have been initialized
        f.setVisible(true);
//      
//      nsIWebNavigation webNavigation=(nsIWebNavigation)webBrowser.queryInterface(nsIWebNavigation.NS_IWEBNAVIGATION_IID);
//      webNavigation.loadURI("http://www.zdnet.com", nsIWebNavigation.LOAD_FLAGS_NONE, null, null, null);
//      
        appStartup.run(); 
        System.out.println("try termEmbedding"); 
        try { 
            System.out.println("mozilla.termEmbedding(); START"); 
            mozilla.termEmbedding(); 
            System.out.println("mozilla.termEmbedding(); FINISHED"); 
        } 
        catch (XPCOMException e) { 
            System.out.println("Fehler: XPCOMException"); 
        } 
        System.out.println("finished termEmbedding"); 
        System.out.println("All done"); 
    }



    public void onLocationChange(nsIWebProgress webProgress, nsIRequest request, nsIURI location) {
        c("onLocationChange");

    }

    public void onProgressChange(nsIWebProgress webProgress, nsIRequest request, int curSelfProgress, int maxSelfProgress, int curTotalProgress, int maxTotalProgress) {
        c("onProgressChange");

    }

    public void onSecurityChange(nsIWebProgress webProgress, nsIRequest request, long state) {
        c("onSecurityChange");

    }

    public void onStateChange(nsIWebProgress webProgress, nsIRequest request, long stateFlags, long status) {
        c("onStateChange");

    }

    public void onStatusChange(nsIWebProgress webProgress, nsIRequest request, long status, String message) {
        c("onStatusChange");

    }

    public nsISupports queryInterface(String uuid) {
        c("queryInterface");
        return null;
    }



    public nsISupports queryReferent(String uuid) {
        c("queryReferent");
        return null;
    }

    public nsISupports getInterface(String uuid) {
        c("getInterface");
        return null;
    }
    private void c(Object o){
        System.out.println(o);
    }

    public void destroyBrowserWindow() {
        c("destroyBrowserWindow");

    }

    public void exitModalEventLoop(long status) {
        c("exitModalEventLoop");

    }

    public long getChromeFlags() {
        c("getChromeFlags");
        return 0;
    }

    public nsIWebBrowser getWebBrowser() {
        c("getWebBrowser");     
        return null;
    }

    public boolean isWindowModal() {
        c("isWindowModal");     
        return false;
    }

    public void setChromeFlags(long chromeFlags) {
        c("setChromeFlags");    

    }

    public void setStatus(long statusType, String status) {
        c("setStatus"); 

    }

    public void setWebBrowser(nsIWebBrowser webBrowser) {
        c("setWebBrowser");         
    }

    public void showAsModal() {
        c("showAsModal");   

    }

    public void sizeBrowserTo(int acx, int acy) {
        c("sizeBrowserTo"); 

    }

    public boolean onHistoryGoBack(nsIURI backURI) {
        c("onHistoryGoBack");
        return false;
    }

    public boolean onHistoryGoForward(nsIURI forwardURI) {
        c("onHistoryGoForward");
        return false;
    }

    public boolean onHistoryGotoIndex(int index, nsIURI gotoURI) {
        c(" onHistoryGotoIndex");
        return false;
    }

    public void onHistoryNewEntry(nsIURI newURI) {
        c(" onHistoryNewEntry");
    }

    public boolean onHistoryPurge(int numEntries) {
        c(" onHistoryPurge");
        return false;
    }

    public boolean onHistoryReload(nsIURI reloadURI, long reloadFlags) {
        c(" onHistoryReload");
        return false;
    }


} //public class JavaXPCOM_test1[/code]

of course this simply loads a Mozilla Browser in a JFrame but you should be able to get access to form fields from the code to populate and submit them.

Answer 5

You could create your own greasemonkey script to call submit