• Why WWW::Mechanize::Firefox?

• What is WWW::Mechanize::Firefox?

• Applications

• Max Maischein

• DZ BANK Frankfurt

• Deutsche Zentralgenossenschaftsbank

• Information management

Automation

• If I can do it manually

• ... then the computer can repeat it

• ... correctly every time

• Perl (of course)

• WWW::Mechanize

• WWW::Mechanize::Shell (GPW 2002)

• Win32::OLE (GPW 2007)

• ... not enough anymore

• Web applications are on the rise

• Web 2.0 is problematic

• Applications hold status in the client

• ... use Javascript

• Perl is not good at Javascript

• Javascript::SpiderMonkey by Mike Schili, Thomas Busch on CPAN

• Mozilla Javascript Interpreter

• Many external prerequisites

• Only Javascript, no DOM

• Javascript::Engine by Father Chrysostomos on CPAN

• Pure Perl

• Slooow

• WWW::Mechanize::Javascript, WWW::Scripter

What if I could use Firefox?

• Accepted Platform

• Compatible Platform

• Interactive Platform

• Send mouse clicks?

• Send key presses?

• not interactive

• not robust if I'm using the machine at the same time

Mozrepl opens a network interface into Firefox

Perl knows TCP

 1:  my $mech = WWW::Mechanize::Firefox->new();
 2:  $mech->get('http://conferences.yapceurope.de/ye2010');

WWW::Mechanize::Firefox provides

• an extended API

• of WWW::Mechanize

• using Firefox as backend

• Normal WWW::Mechanize API

• Javascript

• CSS selectors (via HTML::Selector::XPath)

• XPath selectors

• Javascript events (onLoad)

• Javascript error messages!

• Automation of websites

• Integrated unit tests of Javascript

• Input validation with JS code, even server-side

• Crazy things

Control Firefox

 1:  my $mech = WWW::Mechanize::Firefox->new();
 2:  $mech->get('http://conferences.yapceurope.org/ye2010');

Control Firefox

01-open-local.pl

 1:  my $mech = WWW::Mechanize::Firefox->new();
 2:  $mech->get_local('file.html');

Listen to Firefox events

02-urlbar.pl

Listen to Firefox events

02-urlbar.pl

Test usability of websites

03-dump-links.pl

 1:  my $mech = WWW::Mechanize::Firefox->new();
 2:  $mech->get_local('link.html');
 3:
 4:  sleep 5;
 5:  $mech->highlight_node(
 6:      $mech->selector('a.download'));
 7:  
 8:  print $_->{href}, " - ", $_->{innerHTML}, "\n"
 9:      for $mech->selector('a.download');

Execute Javascript in a website

04-javascript.pl

 1:  my $mech = WWW::Mechanize::Firefox->new();
 2:  $mech->get_local('datei.html');
 3:  $mech->eval_in_page(<<'JS');
 4:      alert('Hello YAPC Europe');
 5:  JS

Manipulate a website:

 1:  var secret = "12345"  + "secret";

Manipulate a website:

 1:  var secret = "12345"  + "secret";

Read Javascript variables (and set them)

05-manipulate-javascript.pl

 1:  my $mech = WWW::Mechanize::Firefox->new();
 2:  $mech->get_local('javascript.html');
 3:
 4:
 5:  my ($val,$type) = $mech->eval_in_page(<<'JS');
 6:      secret
 7:  JS
 8:
 9:
10:  print "The password ist $val";
11:
12:  # Set the value
13:  sleep 5;
14:  $mech->value('pass',$val);

06-screenshot.pl

 1:  my $png = $mech->content_as_png()

• Firefox

• mozrepl Add-On

• MozRepl::RemoteObject (+ MozRepl + Net::Telnet)

• WWW::Mechanize

• (A)Synchronous event model

• Asynchronous communication (AnyEvent)

• More encapsulated Firefox API (MDC)

• More WWW::Mechanize API

• Firefox without a display ("headless")

• DOM without Firefox (js_env), V8 Javascript Engine

• Open browser windows or close them

• Automate download dialogs

• File conversion

• HTML to PNG

• SVG to PNG

• JPG to PNG

• Firefox as charting-engine using Flot(r)

• Instead of Inkscape

• Remotely control Firefox on other computers (TCP)

• Firefox as media converter

• Movie Resize / Video Element

• Webcam in Perl?

All samples are online on CPAN in

WWW::Mechanize::Firefox::Examples

Questions?

Reauthenticate to the Wifi using W:M:F

Reauthenticate to the Wifi using W:M:F

• Check whether http://google.it is reachable

• if not

• Switch off the SOCKS proxy

• Connect to http://google.it

• Enter credentials

• Submit (does some Javascript)

• Launch PuTTY for ssh tunneling

• Re-enable SOCKS proxy

 1:  # Get Firefox settings
 2:  my $prefs = $mech->repl->expr(<<'JS');
 3:  Components.classes["@mozilla.org/preferences-service;1"]
 4:    .getService(Components.interfaces.nsIPrefBranch);
 5:  JS

 1:  # Get Firefox settings
 2:  my $prefs = $mech->repl->expr(<<'JS');
 3:  Components.classes["@mozilla.org/preferences-service;1"]
 4:    .getService(Components.interfaces.nsIPrefBranch);
 5:  JS
 6:
 7:  # Switch off the SOCKS proxy
 8:  if ($prefs->getIntPref('network.proxy.type') != 0) {
 9:      $prefs->setIntPref('network.proxy.type',0);
10:  };

 1:  $mech->get('http://google.it');
 2:  if ($mech->title =~ /\bdevitalia\b/i) {
 3:    # We need to log in
 4:    print "Reauthenticating";
 5:    $mech->field( User_tmp => $credentials->{user} );
 6:    $mech->field( Password => $credentials->{pass} );
 7:    $mech->click({ xpath => q{//input[@type="submit"]}, sync => 1 });
 8:  } else {
 9:    print "Already logged in"
10:  };

 1:  $mech->get('http://google.it');
 2:  if ($mech->title =~ /\bdevitalia\b/i) {
 3:    # We need to log in
 4:    print "Reauthenticating";
 5:    $mech->field( User_tmp => $credentials->{user} );
 6:    $mech->field( Password => $credentials->{pass} );
 7:    $mech->click({ xpath => q{//input[@type="submit"]}, sync => 1 });
 8:  } else {
 9:    print "Already logged in"
10:  };
11:
12:  # Switch on the SOCKS proxy
13:  $prefs->setIntPref('network.proxy.type',1);