java class to act like a browser

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Edward - 04 Aug 2006 19:33 GMT

I am wondering if anyone knows of a way to use java as a virtual
browser. I hope (and imagine) that there are already classes written
to perform this task.

What I want to do is write a java application that will run on a PC
that will send a request to a particular external web site passing
various input as if submitted by an HTML form, and then read the HTML
that is sent back by the site. I will then parse the HTML that is
returned and perform my own, straighforward manipulations on it.

Any ideas as to where to start?

Thanks.

Edward

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Roland de Ruiter - 04 Aug 2006 19:44 GMT

> I am wondering if anyone knows of a way to use java as a virtual
> browser. I hope (and imagine) that there are already classes written
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
>
> Edward

Sounds you want a HTTP client rather than a full blown browser.
The Apache Commons HTTP Client package allows you to send a HTTP request
(incl. form parameters etc) to some server and receive its response
(which could be a HTML page but also an image or some other document).

See <http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/httpclient/>.

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Regards,

Roland

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B Briggs - 04 Aug 2006 20:01 GMT

> I am wondering if anyone knows of a way to use java as a virtual
> browser. I hope (and imagine) that there are already classes written
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
>
> Edward

possibly java.net.HttpURLConnection ?
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/java/net/HttpURLConnection.html

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B Briggs

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Edward - 04 Aug 2006 21:02 GMT

> > I am wondering if anyone knows of a way to use java as a virtual
> > browser. I hope (and imagine) that there are already classes written
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
> --
> B Briggs

Thanks a lot! I have not tried posting info yet to the URL but the
request is working like a charm.

Edward

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java class to act like a browser

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