Open URL from email message

[Lev Altshuler]

Hi,

When reading from email message using Net::POP3 (or other means),
I need my perl program to open URLs incuded into the message. In other
words, I need the program to click links in the message.
So far I have not found the solution for that either in Net::POP3 or
anywhere else.
Does anyone have an idea how to do that?

Thanks, Lev

[Lev Altshuler]

Re: Open URL from email message

Internet Explorer can be launched with the following system call:
system("start $url");
where $url is a variable where we stored URL read by Net::POP3.
But the task is to emulate a click on the link from email message. Launching
the browser is not
an issue here. I am not certain that launching the browser as I described
above will emulate
a click on the link from email message.

"Mina Naguib" <spam@thecouch. homeip.net> wrote in message
news:XLoNa.6368 0$0B.1038336@wa gner.videotron. net...[color=blue]
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> Lev Altshuler wrote:[color=green]
> > Hi,
> >
> > When reading from email message using Net::POP3 (or other means),
> > I need my perl program to open URLs incuded into the message. In other
> > words, I need the program to click links in the message.
> > So far I have not found the solution for that either in Net::POP3 or
> > anywhere else.
> > Does anyone have an idea how to do that?
> >
> > Thanks, Lev[/color]
>
> Net::POP3 handles, obviously, the POP3 protocol. In other words,[/color]
"download this chunk of text, it[color=blue]
> should resemble something parse-able by an email client as an email[/color]
message".[color=blue]
>
> That's all there is to it, a chunk of text in an agreed-on format.
>
> Anything beyond that, you have to do yourself. If you expect that chunk[/color]
of message to have URLs[color=blue]
> that you are interested in, then you need to extract these URLs. For[/color]
simple text emails, you can[color=blue]
> probably get away with using a simple regular expression to collect the[/color]
URLs. For HTML-encoded[color=blue]
> emails, you can probably use HTML::TokeParse r to cleanly extract links.
>
> Once you have the URLs (still, chunks of text) in a variable somewhere,[/color]
you want to simulate a[color=blue]
> "click". In other words, you want to launch a web browser that visits[/color]
these URLs.[color=blue]
>
> Fortunately, perl comes with what you need. Look into any of the LWP*[/color]
family of modules. For simple[color=blue]
> GET requests with no further interaction, LWP::Simple might be what you're[/color]
looking for.[color=blue]
>
> Best of luck.
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>[/color]

[Steve Grazzini]

Re: Open URL from email message

Lev Altshuler <levalt@rogers. com> wrote:

[ dejeopardized, follow-ups set to clpmisc ]
[color=blue]
> "Mina Naguib" <spam@thecouch. homeip.net> wrote:[color=green]
>> Lev Altshuler wrote:[color=darkred]
>>> I need my perl program to open URLs incuded into the message. In other
>>> words, I need the program to click links in the message.[/color]
>>
>> LWP::Simple might be what you're looking for.
>>[/color]
> Internet Explorer can be launched with the following system call:
> system("start $url");
> where $url is a variable where we stored URL read by Net::POP3.
> But the task is to emulate a click on the link from email message.[/color]
^^^^^^^^

Isn't it a little summery for homework?
[color=blue]
> Launching the browser is not an issue here. I am not certain that
> launching the browser as I described above will emulate a click on
> the link from email message.[/color]

You can emulate a *click* on the link using return().

sub click {
my $thing = shift;
return;
}

This is approximately what mutt does when you click on anything,
and I think it's correct behavior.

HTH
--
Steve

[Beable van Polasm]

Re: Open URL from email message

"Lev Altshuler" <levalt@rogers. com> writes:
[color=blue]
> Internet Explorer can be launched with the following system call:
> system("start $url");
> where $url is a variable where we stored URL read by Net::POP3.
> But the task is to emulate a click on the link from email message. Launching
> the browser is not
> an issue here. I am not certain that launching the browser as I described
> above will emulate
> a click on the link from email message.[/color]

You know, top-posting and full-quoting like that will get a lot of
people angry with you. You won't like it when a lot of people get
angry with you. Read this page to find out how to do it so that
everybody will accept your contributions:

http://www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote2.html

As for "emulating a click", what other actions do you think that
clicking on a link would have than to get a web browser to display
the page linked to?


--
No, YOU'RE A CRACKPOT, which is why you think I'm a crackpot...
because all crackpots like you think everybody else is a moron
not them. -- George Hammond

http://beable.com

[Eric Schwartz]

Re: Open URL from email message

Beable van Polasm <beable+unsenet @beable.com.inv alid> writes:[color=blue]
> As for "emulating a click", what other actions do you think that
> clicking on a link would have than to get a web browser to display
> the page linked to?[/color]

The answer, if it's HTML mail, and javascript is enabled, is "darn
near anything". If the machine in question runs Windows, even more
so.

-=Eric
--
Come to think of it, there are already a million monkeys on a million
typewriters, and Usenet is NOTHING like Shakespeare.
-- Blair Houghton.