Simulate submitting data from a web browser

httpPostRequest

by Nick Wright

I just spent a while trying to figure the chttpRequest class out and the help has no real world examples so i am posting so as to save somebody the time I wasted. Lets say you need to post to a location e.g. http://www.test.com/testlogin.php and you are trying to simulate filling in forms and posting as in the following html:

<form action=/testlogin.php method=post>
  Name:  <input type=text name=uid />

  Pass:  <input type=password name=pass />

  <input type=submit name=submit>
</form>

then this example view works:

Use cHttpTransfer.pkg
Use cTextEdit.pkg
    
Deferred_View Activate_ovwtestLogin for ;
Object ovwtestLogin is a dbView
  Set Border_Style to Border_Thick
  Set Size to 200 350
  Set Location to 2 2
  Set Maximize_Icon to True
  Set Verify_Data_Loss_Msg to 0
  Set Verify_Exit_Msg      to 0
  Object oForm1 is a Form
    Set Size to 13 100
    Set Location to 15 124
    Set Label to "username"    
  End_Object
  Object oForm2 is a Form
    Set Size to 13 100
    Set Location to 31 124
    Set Label to "password"    
  End_Object
  Object oHttpTransfer1 is a cHttpTransfer
    Set psRemoteHost to "www.test.com"
    
    Property String psAllData
    
    Procedure OnDataReceived String sContentType String sData
      String sAll
    
      Get psAllData to sAll
      Set psAllData to (sAll + sData) 
    End_Procedure
  End_Object
  Object oButton1 is a Button
    Set Location to 58 130
    Set Label to 'Test'
    
    // fires when the button is clicked
    Procedure OnClick
      Send Check_Pass            
    End_Procedure
  End_Object
  Object oTextEdit1 is a cTextEdit
    Set Size to 116 278
    Set Location to 80 47
    Procedure ShowResult
      Address aMyAddress
      String  sText
    
      Get psAllData of oHttpTransfer1 to sText
    
      GetAddress of sText to aMyAddress
      Set paValue to aMyAddress
    End_Procedure  // GetControlContents
  End_Object
  Procedure Check_Pass
    String sPost sUser sPass
    Integer iOK iErr
    
    Set psAllData of oHttpTransfer1 to 
    Get Value of oForm1 to sUser
    Get Value of oForm2 to sPass
    Move ('uid=' + trim(sUser) + '&pass=' + trim(sPass)) to sPost
    Get AddHeader of oHttpTransfer1 "CONTENT-TYPE" "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" to iErr
    Get HttpPostRequest of oHttpTransfer1 "/testlogin.php" sPost False to iErr
    Send ShowResult of oTextEdit1
  End_Procedure
    
Cd_End_Object

Note the help documentation in older VDF versions appears to be wrong: parameter sData==== Memory address of the data to be posted the string will do, does not need to be memory address!

External Links

httpPostRequest