python urllib form post

Question

<div id="login-section">
    <fieldset class="validation-group">
        <table id="navLgnMember" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="border-collapse:collapse;">
    <tr>
        <td>
                    <div id="login-user">
                        <div class="input" id="username-wrapper">
                            <div class="loginfield-label"><a href="/help" title="click for help logging in" style="color: White; text-decoration: none">Number / ID / Email</a></div>
                            <div class="input-field-small float-left submit-on-enter"><div class="left"></div><input name="ctl00$ctl01$navLgnMember$Username" type="text" maxlength="80" id="Username" title="Username" class="center" style="width:85px;" /><div class="right"></div></div>
                        </div>
                        <div class="input" id="password-wrapper">
                            <div class="loginfield-label">
                                Password</div>
                            <div class="input-field-small float-left submit-on-enter"><div class="left"></div><input name="ctl00$ctl01$navLgnMember$Password" type="password" id="Password" title="Password" class="center" title="Password" style="width:85px;" /><div class="right"></div></div>
                        </div>
                        <div id="login-wrapper">
                            <input type="submit" name="ctl00$ctl01$navLgnMember$Login" value="" onclick="javascript:WebForm_DoPostBackWithOptions(new WebForm_PostBackOptions(&quot;ctl00$ctl01$navLgnMember$Login&quot;, &quot;&quot;, false, &quot;&quot;, &quot;https://tatts.com/tattersalls&quot;, false, false))" id="Login" class="button-login" />

                        </div>

how would one go about submitting to this form from urllib as the current code i have:

import cookielib
import urllib
import urllib2


# Store the cookies and create an opener that will hold them
cj = cookielib.CookieJar()
opener = urllib2.build_opener(urllib2.HTTPCookieProcessor(cj))

# Add our headers
opener.addheaders = [('User-agent', 'RedditTesting')]

# Install our opener (note that this changes the global opener to the one
# we just made, but you can also just call opener.open() if you want)
urllib2.install_opener(opener)

# The action/ target from the form
authentication_url = 'https://tatts.com/tattersalls'

# Input parameters we are going to send
payload = {
  '_EVENTTARGET:' ''
  '__EVENTARGUMENT:' ''
  '__VIEWSTATE:' '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'
  '__PREVIOUSPAGE:' 'PnGXOHeTQRfdct4aw9jgJ_Padml1ip-t05LAdAWQvBe5-2i1ECm5zC0umv9-PrWPJIXsvg9OvNT2PNp99srtKpWlE4J-6Qp1mICoT3eP49RSXSmN6p_XiieWS68YpbKqyBaJrkmYbJpZwCBw0Wq3tSD3JUc1'
  '__EVENTVALIDATION:': '/wEdAAfZmOrHFYG4x80t+WWbtymCH/lQNl+1rLkmSESnowgyHVo7o54PGpUOvQpde1IkKS5gFTlJ0qDsO6vsTob8l0lt1XHRKk5WhaA0Ow6IEfhsMPG0mcjlqyEi79A1gbm2y9z5Vxn3bdCWWa28kcUm81miXWvi1mwhfxiUpcDlmGDs/3LMo4Y='
  'ctl00$ctl01$showUpgradeReminderHid:' 'false'
  'ctl00$ctl01$navLgnMember$Username:' 'x-tinct'
  'ctl00$ctl01$navLgnMember$Password:' '########'
  'ctl00$ctl01$navLgnMember$Login:'

  }

# Use urllib to encode the payload
data = urllib.urlencode(payload)

# Build our Request object (supplying 'data' makes it a POST)
req = urllib2.Request(authentication_url, data)

# Make the request and read the response
resp = urllib2.urlopen(req)
contents = resp.read()

print (resp)

is a fair way off submitting to the right part of the webfrom.

im trying to log in and create a session to then be able to post further webform data to further parts of the site.

Thanks in advance.

If you don't mind use a third party module, I suggest `requests`, it much more convenient to use. — WKPlus, Oct 13 '14 at 08:15
still the same issue with how do i submit to a javascript login submit — Tom Martin, Oct 13 '14 at 08:22

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:20

According to this other post from SO : Mechanize and Javascript, you have different options, from simulating in Python what javascript script is doing, to using the full fledged Selenium with its Python bindings.

If you try to proceed the simple Python way, I would strongly urge you to use a network spy such as the excellent wireshark to analyse what a successful login through a real browser actualy gets and sends, and what your Python simulation sends.

python urllib form post

1 Answers1