views:

324

answers:

3

I sign up Spring courses tomorrow morning (transferring in to the Computer Science program). Since I'm a transfer student, I get the last pick of leftover classes not already taken. Emphasis on 'last pick' and 'leftover'. It's highly probable that whatever classes I intend on picking tomorrow, I might not even get because other students will be vying for those same classes. Add on top of this, even with scheduling, an extremely sluggish server when it gets hit with a big load.

So, when I register next semester (or even register for different classes for Spring if others drop 'em) I'd like to have a script or code ready to go so I could just automate my inputs without filling out web forms and hoping the server parses them correctly. (By inputs, I'm being general -- from automatically filling in form fields to SQL inputs). Obviously, this might not work. But, what I'm looking for is a kind of keylogger for a web browser, which would download all web pages visited, any javascript executed, forms filled out, anything and everything. This way, I could analyze the data later, and at my leisure, to see if I could do this in a better way.

Any suggestions on what could do this? (I'm thinking maybe some testing software?). Thanks in advance.

+2  A: 

Selenium can automate most browser based tasks. http://selenium.seleniumhq.org/

The Grinder comes with a local proxy that can record traffic and is scriptable with Python. http://grinder.sourceforge.net/

jakber
Make sure you look at Selenium IDE firefox plugin for incredibly easy script generation. http://selenium-ide.seleniumhq.org/
Alex B
A: 

CoScripter does pretty much exactly what you need.

SquareCog
+2  A: 

I would highly suggest you check out your university's acceptable use policy, at mine, such a thing would be considered a serious infraction and possibly get you kicked out.

Danny
Yeah, you're probably right...Because if I could figure out how to input directly into the database(s), I'd probably do more with that power.
Kevin