Re: Java script FAQ revised

On Thu, 6 Apr 2006, Peter Stevens wrote:
[...]
>     One typical use of Javascript is to perform argument checking before
>     posting to the server. The URL you want is probably just buried in
>     the Javascript function. Do a regular expression match on
>    | $mech->content()| to find the link that you want and |$mech->get|
>     it directly (this assumes that you know what your are looking for in
>     advance).
>
>     In more difficult cases, the Javascript is used for URL mangling to
>     satisfy the needs of some middleware. In this case you need to
>     figure out what the Javascript is doing (why are these URLs always
>     really long?). There is probably some function with one or more
>     arguments which calculates the new URL.
[...]

Another very common thing that's important for would-be scrapers is 
manipulation of forms (adding form controls and list items, submitting 
forms).  In a sense that's just URL manipulation, of course, but in the 
FAQ it might be useful to draw people's attention to this specific case.

Script can also set cookies.


John