Loading IE Cookies into Perl's WWW::Mechanize

Question

I'm having a heck of a time with this...

I am trying to connect to a website which requires a login. I can obviously go directly to the page without logging in because IE has a cookie to do so.

I am working on a script that will be run by people other than myself, so I don't want to send around a file with my login information. Ideally, others wouldn't have to put that information in as well.

Here is the small, relevant part of the code. I just want to load the cookies from IE and print them (since I assume once they are in there, they will be accessed properly).

I've searched for hours and have even read people claim that this loads cookies. I see it being able to store cookies now, but not load existing cookies on my computer.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use WWW::Mechanize;
use HTTP::Cookies::Microsoft;
use Win32::TieRegistry(Delimiter => "/");

my $cookies_dir = $Registry-> {"CUser/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer/Shell Folders/Cookies"};
my $cookie_jar = HTTP::Cookies::Microsoft->new(file => "$cookies_dir\\index.dat",'delayload'=>0,);
my $mech = WWW::Mechanize->new(cookie_jar => $cookie_jar);
print "Set Cookie Jar?\n", $cookie_jar->as_string, "\n";
print "Set Cookie Jar?\n", $mech->cookie_jar->as_string, "\n";

Can I load existing cookies?

Is HTTP::Cookies::Microsoft not compatible with IE9? (Website lists IE6 and IE7, but hasn't been updated since 2002).

I don't even see where in this example or any example it actually LOADS existing cookies. If it is just a compatibility issue, what options are there for IE9? (I have to stick to IE9 since it is the support browser in this company)

Thanks!

Answer 1

With IE8 on my Windows XP system, cookies are in C:\\Documents and Settings\\userid\\Local Settings\\Temporary Internet Files . There is no index.dat , the cookies are in their own files.

I don't know where IE9 stores cookies .

However, if you are trying to automate something on a site where users log on via IE, and start your program, you can use Win32::IE::Mechanize or drive IE via Win32::OLE . See, for example, my blog post Using Win32::OLE with events to capture Internet Explorer screenshots with Perl . Information on the methods, properties, and events available, see InternetExplorer object documentation .