How can I make a POST request from HTML form without browser using Python?

Question

I have an automatically generated form, as shown below. My task is to check POST request from this form. It is necessary to unittest. How can I make a POST request from this form without browser using Python?

UPD:

Selenium - used browser and I want without it
requests - can not generate POST request from form (like click submit)

<form action="" method="post">

    <fieldset class="panel panel-default">

        <div class="panel-body">

                <input type="hidden" value="foo:mapping" name="__start__">


    <fieldset class="panel panel-default">
    <legend>Foo</legend>
        <div class="panel-body">

                <input type="hidden" value="foo1:mapping" name="__start__">


    <fieldset class="panel panel-default">
    <legend>Foo1</legend>
        <div class="panel-body">

                <input type="hidden" value="foo2:mapping" name="__start__">


    <fieldset class="panel panel-default">
    <legend>Foo2</legend>
        <div class="panel-body">

                <input type="hidden" value="foo3:mapping" name="__start__">


    <fieldset class="panel panel-default">
    <legend>Foo3</legend>
        <div class="panel-body">

                <input type="hidden" value="foo4:mapping" name="__start__">


    <fieldset class="panel panel-default">
    <legend>Foo4</legend>
        <div class="panel-body">

                <input type="hidden" value="foo5:mapping" name="__start__">


    <fieldset class="panel panel-default">
    <legend>Foo5</legend>
        <div class="panel-body">



    <div class="text-danger">Required</div>


    <div class="form-group">

        <label>Foo  </label>




        <input type="text" value="" name="foo" id="foo" class="form-control">
    </div>



        </div>
    </fieldset>

<input type="hidden" value="foo5:mapping" name="__end__">

        </div>
    </fieldset>

<input type="hidden" value="foo4:mapping" name="__end__">

        </div>
    </fieldset>

<input type="hidden" value="foo3:mapping" name="__end__">

        </div>
    </fieldset>

<input type="hidden" value="foo2:mapping" name="__end__">

        </div>
    </fieldset>

<input type="hidden" value="foo1:mapping" name="__end__">

        </div>
    </fieldset>

<input type="hidden" value="foo:mapping" name="__end__">

                <input type="hidden" value=":mapping" name="__start__">


    <fieldset class="panel panel-default">

        <div class="panel-body">

                <input type="hidden" value=":mapping" name="__start__">


    <fieldset class="panel panel-default">

        <div class="panel-body">

                <input type="hidden" value="foo100:mapping" name="__start__">


    <fieldset class="panel panel-default">
    <legend>Foo100</legend>
        <div class="panel-body">

                <input type="hidden" value=":mapping" name="__start__">


    <fieldset class="panel panel-default">

        <div class="panel-body">

                <input type="hidden" value=":mapping" name="__start__">


    <fieldset class="panel panel-default">

        <div class="panel-body">

                <input type="hidden" value=":mapping" name="__start__">


    <fieldset class="panel panel-default">

        <div class="panel-body">




    <div class="form-group">

        <label>Foo  </label>




        <input type="text" value="" name="foo" id="foo" class="form-control">
    </div>



        </div>
    </fieldset>

<input type="hidden" value=":mapping" name="__end__">

        </div>
    </fieldset>

<input type="hidden" value=":mapping" name="__end__">

        </div>
    </fieldset>

<input type="hidden" value=":mapping" name="__end__">

        </div>
    </fieldset>

<input type="hidden" value="foo100:mapping" name="__end__">

        </div>
    </fieldset>

<input type="hidden" value=":mapping" name="__end__">

        </div>
    </fieldset>

<input type="hidden" value=":mapping" name="__end__">

        </div>
    </fieldset>


<button class="btn btn-primary" type="submit">Submit</button>

</form>

You may use selenium to rule browser-like engine from Python or you may post form directly from python using requests (it is http client) — user996142
– user996142, Commented Oct 30, 2015 at 11:46
Your best bet would be to use an HTML parser such as BeautifulSoup to extract the input elements from the HTML and then use requests to create a POST request out of that. — user4815162342
– user4815162342, Commented Oct 30, 2015 at 11:56

makeMonday · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-30 11:56:18Z

1

You can use Selenium, indeed, but with a headless browser such as PhantomJS, so you do not need GUI and there will be no instance of a browser (like Firefox, Chrome, etc.).

Then in your code just change the instantiation of the WebDriver:

from selenium import webdriver

driver = webdriver.PhantomJS()
driver.get("...")

answered Oct 30, 2015 at 11:56

makeMonday

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1 Comment

uralbash Over a year ago

I also tend to make this decision. It is a pity that no stand alone HTML form engine.

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