PHP accept cookies?

[ReGenesis0@aol.com]

Okay, so I want to do this THANG, which involves some fairly ugly
screenscraping since it's a mashup with another site that doesn't have
friendly, mashable, controls.

Problem- I need to log into the site from a PHP script- and when I
send my login info, it responds with the following:

Download the Flash plugin.
You must have cookies enabled to use the site. Please enable cookies
and click here.

The possible causes of this problem are:

* Your browser is setup to block cookies.
* Your firewall is setup to block cookies.
* Your AntiVirus program is setup to block cookies.

I gather the server is using something to test for flash, and then
settignt he appropriate cookie. I don't care about the flash- all i
need is the HTML on the next page. So how do I accept its cookie so
that I can scrape this?

(Ironically, none of this is strictly necessary for the mashup- but I
have to do this part to verify login names in order to keep users from
messing with other users' accounts. Clearly I am a saint for enduring
this unnecessary suffering.)

-Derik

[Edward Z. Yang]

Re: PHP accept cookies?

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ReGenesis0@aol. com wrote:

Problem- I need to log into the site from a PHP script- and when I
send my login info, it responds with the following:

If you are using cURL, use curl_setopt()
http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.curl-setopt.php with
CURLOPT_COOKIEJ AR and CURLOPT_COOKIEF ILE to ensure cookies sent back get
carried over.

You can also use a PHP browser emulator like SimpleTest to get similar
functionality.

- --
Edward Z. Yang GnuPG: 0x869C48DA
HTML Purifier <htmlpurifier.o rg Anti-XSS HTML Filter
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[yawnmoth]

Re: PHP accept cookies?

On May 30, 8:46 pm, "Edward Z. Yang" <edwardzy...@th ewritingpot.com >
wrote:

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>
ReGenes...@aol. com wrote:

Problem- I need to log into the site from a PHP script- and when I
send my login info, it responds with the following:

>
If you are using cURL, use curl_setopt()http://us2.php.net/manual/en/functio...setopt.phpwith
CURLOPT_COOKIEJ AR and CURLOPT_COOKIEF ILE to ensure cookies sent back get
carried over.
>
You can also use a PHP browser emulator like SimpleTest to get similar
functionality.

Although I can't say, for sure, I suspect the problem may be more
complicated then that.

What if the cookies aren't being set with HTTP headers but rather,
with javascript? cURL won't catch them, then, and unless SimpleTest
has a full blown javascript parser, I doubt it will, either.

So what if the Flash file, itself, is setting the cookies?

Well, I guess you could always decode the Flash file and create your
own "cookiejar" from that...

The Flash specifications are available here:

http://www.adobe.com/licensing/

(scroll down to "Macromedia Flash (SWF) and Flash Video (FLV) File
Format Specification (Version 8)")

[Edward Z. Yang]

Re: PHP accept cookies?

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yawnmoth wrote:

Although I can't say, for sure, I suspect the problem may be more
complicated then that. [snip]

If that is indeed the case, I would throw up my hands and give up. It
should be fairly simple to determine with a little request tampering on
the site.

- --
Edward Z. Yang GnuPG: 0x869C48DA
HTML Purifier <htmlpurifier.o rg Anti-XSS HTML Filter
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