Using Mechanize to submit a form for web-automation - returning an error.

Question

for control in form.controls:

        if control.type == 'text':
            if 'user' in control.name:
                control.value = 'blah'
            if 'mail' in control.name:
                control.value = 'blah'

        if control.type == 'password':
            if 'pass' in control.name:
                control.value = 'blah'

        if control.type == 'checkbox':
            if 'agree' in control.name:
                control.selected = True

        if control.type == 'submit':
            if 'Submit' in control.name:
                control.readonly = False

I fill the form out this way. Then I go to selected the "Agree" checkbox, after doing that I try to use br.submit() to submit the form and send the data. The error I get it:

AttributeError: SubmitControl instance has no attribute 'click'

This is the HTML source of the submit and agree controls:

<input type="submit" name="regSubmit" value="Register" />
<label for="regagree"><input type="checkbox" name="regagree" onclick="checkAgree();" id="regagree" class="check" /> <b>I Agree</b></label>

The HTML source of this particular website has this JavaScript:

function verifyAgree()
{
    if (document.forms.creator.passwrd1.value != document.forms.creator.passwrd2.value)
    {
        alert("The two passwords you entered are not the same!");
        return false;
    }

    if (!document.forms.creator.regagree.checked)
    {
        alert("Please read and accept the agreement before registering.");
        return false;
    }

    return true;
}
function checkAgree()
{
    document.forms.creator.regSubmit.disabled = isEmptyText(document.forms.creator.user) || isEmptyText(document.forms.creator.email) || isEmptyText(document.forms.creator.passwrd1) || !document.forms.creator.regagree.checked;
    setTimeout("checkAgree();", 1000);
}
setTimeout("checkAgree();", 1000);

When I type print forms into IDLE, the form is returned as filled and all the proper controls are selected. I can't for the life of me figure out WHY this isn't working. I've been at it for two days.

Help is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Why not just submit the form as it is shown in the documentation sample:

br.select_form(name="whatever")
response = br.submit()

Clicking on the submit button is just one way to submit the form; using JavaScript is another. So you don't need to go through the trouble of finding the submit control.

Answer 2

We found that Mechanize has often problems with some Javascript on certain pages. That is no surprise, as it is not a real web browser => Did you try it with a tool that is based on a real browser? (e. g. WatiN or iMacros for IE/Firefox/Chrome)?