I get an error in python3 when importing mechanize

Question

I get an error in python3 when importing mechanize.

I've just installed mechanize into my virtualenv where python3 is installed.

$ which python3
/Users/myname/.virtualenvs/python3/bin/python3

$ pip freeze
mechanize==0.2.5

But, when I try to import mechanize in my python code, I get this error.

import mechanize

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ImportError                               Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-1-6b82e40e2c8e> in <module>()
----> 1 import mechanize

/Users/myname/.virtualenvs/python3/lib/python3.3/site-packages/mechanize/__init__.py in <module>()
    117 import sys
    118 
--> 119 from _version import __version__
    120 
    121 # high-level stateful browser-style interface

ImportError: No module named '_version'

Does anyone know how to fix this problem?

I'm new to python and I've been studying how to program in python these days.

Thanks for your help in advance!

update

I've installed mechanize for python3 . Now, I have an another error.

In [1]: import mechanize
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ImportError                               Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-1-6b82e40e2c8e> in <module>()
----> 1 import mechanize

/Users/myname/.virtualenvs/python3/lib/python3.3/site-packages/mechanize-0.2.6.dev_20140305-py3.3.egg/mechanize/__init__.py in <module>()
    120 
    121 # high-level stateful browser-style interface
--> 122 from ._mechanize import \
    123      Browser, History, \
    124      BrowserStateError, LinkNotFoundError, FormNotFoundError

/Users/myname/.virtualenvs/python3/lib/python3.3/site-packages/mechanize-0.2.6.dev_20140305-py3.3.egg/mechanize/_mechanize.py in <module>()

/Users/myname/.virtualenvs/python3/lib/python3.3/site-packages/mechanize-0.2.6.dev_20140305-py3.3.egg/mechanize/_html.py in <module>()

ImportError: cannot import name _sgmllib_copy

I checked what I've installed in my working virtualenv. I found some warnings.

$ pip freeze
cssselect==0.9.1
httplib2==0.8
ipython==1.1.0
lxml==3.2.4
## FIXME: could not find svn URL in dependency_links for this package:
mechanize==0.2.6.dev-20140305
pyquery==1.2.8
Warning: cannot find svn location for mechanize==0.2.6.dev-20140305

Answer 1

Alas, mechanize doesn't support Python 3. http://wwwsearch.sourceforge.net/mechanize/faq.html

Python 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, or 2.7. Python 3 is not yet supported.

You might like to comment on the issue at https://github.com/jjlee/mechanize/issues/96

---

Update: I wrote my own automating library MechanicalSoup. It's Python 3 compatible https://github.com/hickford/MechanicalSoup

Answer 2

The module MechanicalSoup merged Mechanical and BeautifulSoup in the same Library and can be used since Python 2.6 through 3.4.

in command prompt install MechanicalSoup:

pip install MechanicalSoup

Then import in python,

import mechanicalsoup # Don’t forget to import the new module

Answer 3

I think you may have installed the Python 2 version of mechanize, and the new Python 3 import semantics are breaking the old Python 2 code. A quick search, and it seems like Python 3 support for mechanize is still a bit weak. However, I did find a Python 3 branch .

You could try manually installing from the source code I linked to. Once you've downloaded the source, change your directory so that you're in the mechanize directory. Then enter $python3 setup.py install in the terminal.