CODEWITHSUNDEEP
httpformspostautomation
Alex Spurling
Alex Spurling

Reputation: 55864

Record http form posts via a browser

I'm trying to automate the login to a website and submission of a form.

Is there a browser plugin (for firefox or Chrome) that allows you to record HTTP GET and POST requests in a form that allows them to be played back at a later point? I'm looking for something that will be possible to automate from a script e.g. via curl or wget.

I've tried using the Chrome developer tools to capture POST form data but I get errors when trying to replicate the request with wget which suggests I'm missing some cookies or other parameters. Ideally there would a nice automated way of doing this rather than doing lots of trial and error.

Upvotes: 37

Views: 59947

Answers (9)

Pramod
Pramod

Reputation: 848

Recently I cam across this beautiful chrome extension which does what you ask: Katalon Recorder

Katalon Recorder will make your test automation work a lot easier.

  • Record, play, debug with speed control, pause/resume, breakpoints capabilities.

  • Enjoy fastest execution speed compared to other extensions with Selenium 3 core engine.

  • Make use of multiple locator types including XPath & CSS.

  • Use original Selenium IDE commands (Selenese), plus block statement if...elseIf...else...endIf and while...endWhile. Testing file input control is supported.

  • Import test data from CSV files for data-driven testing.

  • Report easily with logs, screenshots capturing, with historical data and analytics from Katalon Analytics.

  • Compose & organize test cases in suites. Never get your work lost with autosave feature.

  • Import original Selenium IDE (Firefox extension) tests.

  • Export to Selenium WebDriver scripts in these frameworks: C# (MSTest and NUnit), Java (TestNG and JUnit), Ruby (RSpec), Python (unittest), Groovy (Katalon Studio), Robot Framework, and XML.

Upvotes: 0

princecharmx
princecharmx

Reputation: 181

Request Maker chrome plugin does that. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/request-maker/kajfghlhfkcocafkcjlajldicbikpgnp?hl=en

Upvotes: 1

Finn Haakansson
Finn Haakansson

Reputation: 161

In Firefox, turn on the Persist option in Firebug to be sure to capture the POST. Then install and use the "Bookmark POST" add-on to bookmark the POST request for later use.

Upvotes: 5

AzizSM
AzizSM

Reputation: 6289

Firefox Firebug already has a feature which allows you to copy a web request as a curl request, so you see all the various elements of the request on the command line.

Turn on the Firebug and right click on a request in the Net panel and pick Copy as cURL. Then use it in the curl https://hacks.mozilla.org/2013/08/firebug-1-12-new-features/#copyAsCURL

Upvotes: 4

Abby Chau Yu Hoi
Abby Chau Yu Hoi

Reputation: 1398

There are way too many methods for you to choose.

  1. Use Firefox and selenium IDE. It can record your browser action

  2. User selenium Web Driver. It can simulate different browser action by the script you write in Ruby or Java.

  3. Use a macro plugin for Firefox to simulate absolute clicks and keypresses.

  4. Use a OS level macro application and do the same as 3.

  5. Write a script (such as PHP) to simulate the actual form post or cookie interations.

No.1 is common and easy to use. No.4 can be powerful but you need time to polish the automation.
No.3 is in the middle of No.4 and No.1. No.2 can be a tool for environment test and stress test also. No.5 is seeming the most flexible and resource saving.

Upvotes: 2

huyz
huyz

Reputation: 2371

For a simple interaction, you don't really need a tool like Selenium that will record and playback requests.

You only need the tools you've already mentioned:

  1. Chrome already comes with the Developer Tools that you need: use the Network tab. No plugin to download. I don't know if Safari will work -- I don't see a "Network" tab in its Developer Tools.
  2. Both curl and wget support cookies and POST data, but I've only tried curl for automation.

There are several key steps that need to be done properly (this takes some experience):

  1. The sequence of pages that are requested needs to model real user interaction. This is important because you have no idea exactly how the backend handles forms or authentication. This is where the Network tab of Chrome's Developer Tools comes in. (Note that there is "record" button that will prevent the clearing of the log.) When you prepare to log a real user interaction for your analysis, don't forget to clear your cookies at the beginning of each session.
  2. You need to use all the proper options of curl and wget that will ensure that cookies and redirects are properly processed.
  3. All POST form fields will likely need to be sent (you'll often see fields with nonce values to prevent CSRF

Here's a sample of 3 curl calls that I wrote for an automation script that I wrote to download broadband usage from my ISP:

curl \
    --silent \
    --location \
    --user-agent "$USER_AGENT" \
    --cookie-jar "$COOKIES_PATH.txt" \
    'https://idp.optusnet.com.au/idp/optus/Authn/Service?spEntityID=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.optuszoo.com.au%2Fshibboleth&j_principal_type=ISP' >$USAGE_PATH-1.html 2>&1 && sleep 3 &&

# --location because the previous request returns with a series of redirects "302 Moved Temporarily" or "302 Found"
curl \
    --silent \
    --location \
    --user-agent "$USER_AGENT" \
    --cookie "$COOKIES_PATH.txt" \
    --cookie-jar "$COOKIES_PATH.txt" \
    --referer 'https://idp.optusnet.com.au/idp/optus/Authn/Service?spEntityID=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.optuszoo.com.au%2Fshibboleth&j_principal_type=ISP' \
    --data "spEntityID=https://www.optuszoo.com.au/shibboleth&j_principal_type=ISP&j_username=$OPTUS_USERNAME&j_password=$OPTUS_PASSWORD&j_security_check=true" \
    'https://idp.optusnet.com.au/idp/optus/Authn/Service' >$USAGE_PATH-2.html 2>&1 && sleep 1 &&

curl \
    --silent \
    --location \
    --user-agent "$USER_AGENT" \
    --cookie "$COOKIES_PATH.txt" \
    --cookie-jar "$COOKIES_PATH.txt" \
    --referer 'https://www.optuszoo.com.au/' \
    'https://www.optuszoo.com.au//r/ffmu' >$USAGE_PATH-3.html 2>/dev/null

Note the careful use of --cookie-jar, --cookie, and --location. The sleeps, --user-agent, and --referer may not be necessary (the backend may not check) but they're simple enough that I include them to minimize the chance of errors.

In this example, I was lucky that there were no dynamic POST fields, e.g. anti-CSRF nonce fields, that I would have had to extract and pass on to a subsequent request. That's because this automation is for authentication. For automating other types of web interactions, after the user's already logged in, you're likely to run into more of these dynamically-generated fields.

Upvotes: 24

Alessandro
Alessandro

Reputation: 1336

The Safari developer tools and Firebug are sufficient for your needs.

Upvotes: 0

Piskvor left the building
Piskvor left the building

Reputation: 92752

Not exactly a browser plugin, but Fiddler can capture all the HTTP data passing back and forth; with FiddlerScript or FiddlerCore, it is then simple to export that into a text file - and pass that into cURL as request headers and request body.

Upvotes: 4

DanSingerman
DanSingerman

Reputation: 36502

Have you tried Selenium?

Upvotes: 3

Related Questions