Filling textarea with Python mechanize module

Question

Is there a way to fill out textarea that is part of form using mechanize module for Python?

Answer 1

The forms reference has a couple of examples of filling text controls in response objects.

A relevant quote:

# The kind argument can also take values "multilist", "singlelist", "text",
# "clickable" and "file":
#  find first control that will accept text, and scribble in it
form.set_value("rhubarb rhubarb", kind="text", nr=0)

The kind argument can be used with the form.find_control() and form.set_value() methods to locate "text" controls.

Digging a little into the mechanize _form.py source, We have an explanation. Mechanize TextControl covers (among others) the TEXTAREA form element.

#---------------------------------------------------
class TextControl(ScalarControl):
    """Textual input control.

    Covers:

    INPUT/TEXT
    INPUT/PASSWORD
    INPUT/HIDDEN
    TEXTAREA

    """
    def __init__(self, type, name, attrs, index=None):
        ScalarControl.__init__(self, type, name, attrs, index)
        if self.type == "hidden": self.readonly = True
        if self._value is None:
            self._value = ""

    def is_of_kind(self, kind): return kind == "text"

Answer 2

You can do something like

import mechanize

br = mechanize.Browser()
br.open("http://pypi.python.org/pypi")
br.select_form("searchform")
br['term'] = "Mechanize"
response = br.submit()

The br['term'] = "Mechanize" is the relevant line.

And you seriously need to accept some answers on your questions.

Answer 3

you can inspect element form first and how many forms in the page can be done with

for form in br.forms():
    print form