Retrieving pages

The presence of a url command, either on the command line or interactively, causes webisoget to retrieve the specified web page. In certain conditions it will use content in that page to retrieve a second page:

The second page may lead in a similar manner to a third and fourth and etc.

Filling in forms

Web forms consist of name-value pairs. Webisoget's form file contains descriptions, one line per form, of forms you want to fill out and submit. General syntax is name=value, with entries separated by semicolons.

1. You may specify the same field name more than once to submit multiple values, as for example a form with checkboxes might do.
2. In value strings you may use:
   • "\;" to specify a semicolon
   • "\n" for a newline
   • "\\" for a backslash.
3. Specify name=form_name; to match a a specific form by name.
4. Specify name=; to match a form with no name.
5. Omit the name= to match any form.
6. Specify a domain name, "domain=some.domain.org;", to match forms only in that domain.
7. Specify a submit name, "submit_name=name;", to match a form with a submit button with that name.
8. Specify a submit value, "submit_value=value;", to match a form with a submit button with that value.
9. Textareas are treated like text inputs.

For example, the form specification

Many forms have name-value pairs with default values, hidden fields, for example. Webisoget will automatically fill in any default values.

Working with cookies

Web ISO login systems use cookies to communicate between their various components and to maintain a session once logged-in. Webisoget allows you to cache and reuse those session cookies - so you don't have to repeat the entire login sequence each time you test the application.

Using certificates

As with any application using SSL, webisoget allows you to specify a CA file of trusted certificate authorities; certificate and key files containing a certificate to use if a target site requires one. You can also choose to ignore verification of the server's certificate.

Accessing cluster members

A service is often supported by a cluster of several systems, each responding to the same domain name. A weblogin service at "weblogin.ivy.edu" might consist of the servers "wl01.login.ivy.edu", "wl02.login.ivy.edu", ..., "wl05.login.ivy.edu". Webisoget allows you to map the generic cluster name to a specific system in that cluster.

Working with RESTful services

Webisoget supports the most common REST operations,

	GET	default
	PUT	see -putfile
	DELETE	see -delete
	POST	see -postfile

but cannot help you with the XML.

Webisoget processes commands on the command line in the order they appear. It does NOT read the entire set of arguments before proceeding. If no URL is specified webisoget will process the arguments and wait for interactive commands.

Interactive commands are just like arguments except they don't use the leading dash.

Controlling verbosity
	-cookies	Show any cookies received for the session.
	-pagetimes	Show elapsed time of operations.
	-verbose	Give commentary on progress.
	-debug	More commentary than verbose.
	-debug2	More commentary than debug.
	-debug3	A really lot of commentary.
Specifying forms and links
	-anchor anchor_text	Follow the specified link: <a href=..>anchor_text</a>
	-frame name	Follow the named frame
	-form form_description	In-line form description. Better to use a form file.
	-formfile form_filename	A file of form descriptions.
Using certificates
	-cafile CA_filename	A file of Certificate Authority certificates. These will be used to authenticate any certificates sent by a server.
	-cert cert_filename	A file containing a certificate to use when a site requires certificate authentication. Must be PEM format.
	-certkey key_for_cert	A file containing your certificate's key. Must be PEM format.
	-noverify	Do NOT verify certificates from servers.
Retrieving pages
	-header header_text	Add a header to the request. Do NOT include and CR or LF.
	-text	Display the text of the page. If there are redirections or forms, only the last page will be displayed.
	-out output_file	The last page retrieved will be saved to this file.
	-url url	Retrieve the URL, following forms and redirections as requested. If specified as an argument webisoget will exit and not enter interactive mode.
	-map alias=real	Any request for alias (the cluster) will be sent to real (the menber).
	-cache cache_file	Load session cookies from this file. Save session cookies to this file before exit.
	-maxhop count	Maximum number of redirections to follow. Default is 20. Zero means get only one page.
	-continue	If processing was stopped due to a hop count this will continue page processing.
	-timeout seconds	Maximum time to wait for a page.
	-delete	The next request will be a DELETE.
Uploading content
	-postfile filename	POST the content of the specified file.
	-putfile filename	PUT the content of the specified file.
Miscellaneous
	-quit	Exit the program.
	-version	Show program's version information and exit.

Pubcookie

Pubcookie uses several Location redirection and one form (query).

To retrieve a page protected by pubcookie, using the user user with id "spud" and password "potato" use this formfile (spud.login)

  name=query; user=spud; pass=potato;

  $ webisoget -verbose -out page.txt -formfile spud.login \
      -url https://target.ivy.edu/pubcookie_protected_path/

Shibboleth

Shibboleth uses several Location redirections, possibly a form at the wayf, and, of course, the IdP's login requirements.

To retrieve a page protected by shibboleth (with pubcookie), using the user user with id "spud" and password "potato" use this formfile (spud.login)

  domain=wayf.incommonfederation.org; origin=urn:mace:incommon:ivy.edu;
  name=query; user=spud; pass=potato;
  name=shibboleth;

  $ webisoget -verbose -out page.txt -formfile spud.login \
      -url https://target.ivy.edu/shibboleth_protected_path/