HTTP::Recorder(3)

NAME
HTTP::Recorder - record interaction with websites

VERSION
Version 0.05

SYNOPSIS

  Using HTTP::Recorder as a Web Proxy
Set HTTP::Recorder as the user agent for a proxy, and it rewrites HTTP responses so that additional requests can be recorded.

The Proxy Script

Set it up like this:

    #!/usr/bin/perl

    use HTTP::Proxy;
    use HTTP::Recorder;

    my $proxy = HTTP::Proxy->new();

    # create a new HTTP::Recorder object
    my $agent = new HTTP::Recorder;

    # set the log file (optional)
    $agent->file("/tmp/myfile");

    # set HTTP::Recorder as the agent for the proxy
    $proxy->agent( $agent );

    # start the proxy
    $proxy->start();

    1;

Start the proxy script, then change the settings in your web browser so that it will use this proxy for web requests. For more information about proxy settings and the default port, see HTTP::Proxy.

The script will be recorded in the specified file, and can be viewed and modified via the control panel.

Start Recording

Now you can use your browser as your normally would, and your actions will be recorded in the file you specified. Alternatively, you can start recording from the Control Panel.

Using the Control Panel

If you have Javascript enabled in your browser, go to the HTTP::Recorder control URL (http://http-recorder by default), optionally type a URL into the "Goto page" field, and click "Go".

In the new window, interact with web sites as you normally do, including typing a new address into the address field. The Control Panel will be updated after each recorded action.

The Control Panel allows you to modify, delete, or save your script.

  SSL sessions
As of version 0.03, HTTP::Recorder can record SSL sessions.

To begin recording an SSL session, go to the control URL (http://http-recorder/ by default), and enter the initial URL. Then, interact with the web site as usual.

  Script output
By default, HTTP::Recorder outputs WWW::Mechanize scripts.

However, you can override HTTP::Recorder::Logger to output other types of scripts.

Functions

  new
Creates and returns a new HTTP::Recorder object, referred to as the 'agent'.

  $agent->prefix([$value])
Get or set the prefix string that HTTP::Recorder uses for rewriting responses.

  $agent->control([$value])
Get or set the URL of the control panel. By default, the control URL is 'http-recorder'.

The control URL will display a control panel which will allow you to view and edit the current script.

  $agent->logger([$value])
Get or set the logger object. The default logger is a HTTP::Recorder::Logger, which generates WWW::Mechanize scripts.

  $agent->ignore_favicon([0|1])
Get or set ignore_favicon flag that causes HTTP::Recorder to skip logging requests favicon.ico files. The value is 1 by default.

  $agent->file([$value])
Get or set the filename for generated scripts. The default is '/tmp/scriptfile'.

Bugs, Missing Features, and other Oddities

  Javascript
WWW::Mechanize can't play back Javascript actions, and HTTP::Recorder doesn't record them.

  Why are my images corrupted?
HTTP::Recorder only tries to rewrite responses that are of type text/*, which it determines by reading the Content-Type header of the HTTP::Response object. However, if the received image gives the wrong Content-Type header, it may be corrupted by the recorder. While this may not be pleasant to look at, it shouldn't have an effect on your recording session.

See Also
See also LWP::UserAgent, WWW::Mechanize, HTTP::Proxy.

Requests & Bugs
Please submit any feature requests, suggestions, bugs, or patches at http://rt.cpan.org/, or email to bug-HTTP-Recorder@rt.cpan.org.

If you're submitting a bug of the type "X doesn't record correctly," be sure to include a (preferably short and simple) HTML page that demonstrates the problem, and a clear explanation of a) what it does that it shouldn't, and b) what it should do instead.

More information
You can read more about HTTP::Recorder, including browsing the current source tree, at http://www.bitmistress.org/.

There's a mailing list for users and developers of HTTP::Recorder. You can subscribe at http://lists.fsck.com/mailman/listinfo/http-recorder, or by sending email to http-recorder-request@lists.fsck.com with the subject "subscribe".

Mailing list archives can be found at http://lists.fsck.com/pipermail/http-recorder.

Author
Copyright 2003-2005 by Linda Julien <leira@cpan.org>

Released under the GNU Public License.