HTML::Form - Class that represents HTML forms

NAME

HTML::Form - Class that represents HTML forms

SYNOPSIS

 use HTML::Form;
 $form = HTML::Form->parse($html, $base_uri);
 $form->value(query => "Perl");

 use LWP;
 LWP::UserAgent->new->request($form->click);

DESCRIPTION

Objects of the HTML::Form class represents a single HTML <form> ... </form> instance. A form consist of a sequence of inputs that usually have names, and which can take on various values.

The following methods are available:

$form = HTML::Form->new($method, $action_uri, [[$enctype], $input,...])

The constructor takes a $method and a $uri as argument. The $enctype and and initial inputs are optional. You will normally use HTML::Form->parse() to create new HTML::Form objects.

@forms = HTML::Form->parse($html_document, $base_uri)

The parse() class method will parse an HTML document and build up HTML::Form objects for each <form> found. If called in scalar context only returns the first <form>. Returns an empty list if there are no forms to be found.

The $base_uri is (usually) the URI used to access the $html_document. It is needed to resolve relative action URIs. For LWP this parameter is obtained from the $response->base() method.

$form->push_input($type, \%attr)

Adds a new input to the form.

$form->method( [$new] )

$form->action( [$new] )

$form->enctype( [$new] )

These method can be used to get/set the corresponding attribute of the form.

$form->inputs

This method returns the list of inputs in the form.

$form->find_input($name, $type, $no)

This method is used to locate some specific input within the form. At least one of the arguments must be defined. If no matching input is found, undef is returned.

If $name is specified, then the input must have the indicated name. If $type is specified then the input must have the specified type. In addition to the types possible for <input> HTML tags, we also have ``textarea'' and ``option''. The $no is the sequence number of the input with the indicated $name and/or $type (where 1 is the first).

$form->value($name, [$value])

The value() method can be used to get/set the value of some input. If no input have the indicated name, then this method will croak.

$form->try_others(\&callback)

This method will iterate over all permutations of unvisited enumerated values (<select>, <radio>, <checkbox>) and invoke the callback for each. The callback is passed the $form as argument.

$form->make_request

Will return a HTTP::Request object that reflects the current setting of the form. You might want to use the click method instead.

$form->click([$name], [$x, $y])

Will click on the first clickable input (input/submit or input/image), with the indicated $name, if specified. You can optinally specify a coordinate clicked, which only makes a difference if you clicked on an image. The default coordinate is (1,1).

$form->form

Returns the current setting as a sequence of key/value pairs.

$form->dump

Returns a textual representation of the form. Mainly useful for debugging. If called in void context, then the dump is printed on STDERR.

INPUTS

An HTML::Form contains a sequence of inputs. References to the inputs can be obtained with the $form->inputs or $form->find_input methods. Once you have such a reference, then one of the following methods can be used on it:

$input->type: Returns the type of this input. Types are stuff like ``text'', ``password'', ``hidden'', ``textarea'', ``image'', ``submit'', ``radio'', ``checkbox'', ``option''...
$input->name([$new])
$input->value([$new]): These methods can be used to set/get the current name or value of an input. If the input only can take an enumerated list of values, then it is an error to try to set it to something else and the method will croak if you try.
$input->possible_values: Returns a list of all values that and input can take. For inputs that does not have discrete values this returns an empty list.
$input->other_possible_values: Returns a list of all values not tried yet.
$input->form_name_value: Returns a (possible empty) list of key/value pairs that should be incorporated in the form value from this input.
$input->click($form, $x, $y): Some input types (currently ``sumbit'' buttons and ``images'') can be clicked to submit the form. The click() method returns the corrsponding HTTP::Request object.

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