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c#javascriptcmdscreen-scrapingphantomjs

Problems with PhantomJS: phantom.args doesn't seem to work


Here is my PhantomJS test project which I run in cmd.exe by typing (for example):

>phantomjs.exe abacus.js 1111 222
name: 1111
pass: 222
load started
load finished
jQuery loaded
console> name:
console> pass: undefined
step 0
step 1
done

Abacus.js:

var name, pass;
if (phantom.args.length !== 2) {
    console.log('not enough arguments!');
    phantom.exit();
} else {
    name = phantom.args[0];
    pass = phantom.args[1];
}
console.log("name: " + name);  //output: "name: MyUsername"
console.log("pass: " + pass);  //output: "pass: MyPassword"
var stepIndex = 0;
var page = new WebPage();
var loadInProgress = true;
var jQueryLoad = false;
page.onConsoleMessage = function (msg, line, source) {
    console.log('console> ' + msg);
};
page.onAlert = function (msg) {
    console.log('alert> ' + msg);
};
page.onLoadStarted = function () {
    loadInProgress = true;
    console.log("load started");
};
page.onLoadFinished = function () {
    loadInProgress = false;
    console.log("load finished");
    jQueryLoad = page.injectJs("jquery-1.7.1.min.js");
    if (jQueryLoad)
        console.log('jQuery loaded');
};
var interval = setInterval(function () {
    if (jQueryLoad && !loadInProgress && typeof steps[stepIndex] == "function") {
        steps[stepIndex]();
        page.render("step " + stepIndex + ".png");
        console.log("step " + stepIndex++);
    } 
    if (typeof steps[stepIndex] != "function") {
        console.log("done");
        phantom.exit(); 
    } 
}, 1000);
var steps = [
function () {
    page.evaluate(function () {
        console.log("name: " + this.name);  //output: "console> name:"
        console.log("pass: " + this.pass);  //output: "console> pass: undefined"
        var arr = document.frmMain;
        if (arr !== null) {
            arr.elements["username"].value = "MyUsername";  //Only fils in form if it's a string literal
            arr.elements["password"].value = "MyPassword";
        } else {
            console.log("Could not find frmMain");
        }
    });
}, function () {
    page.evaluate(function () {
        document.frmMain.submit();
    });
} ];
page.open("http://www.abacusdatagraphics.com/");
page.viewportSize = { width: 1280, height: 1024 };

Any help would be appreciated as to why phantom.args & name/pass suddenly lose their values.

I am running cmd.exe in C# since the name and password change every now and then and are kept in a database. This is simply a small test program to see if it can be done.

(Also, thanks to Stack Overflow for giving me most of this code in the first place)


Solution

  • @jlafay

    The solution I used from this is as such:

    PhantomJS wasn't able to fill in the forms with variables because page.evaluate can't handle parameters so when filling out the form, the variables (and the forms) are null.

    So instead I treated function() as a string and passed the variables like this:

    page.evaluate('function () {' +
        'var theName = ' + name + ';' +
        'var thePass = ' + pass + ';' +
        'console.log(\"name: \" + this.name);' +  //output: "console> name:"
        'console.log(\"pass: \" + this.pass);' +  //output: "console> pass: undefined"
        'var arr = document.frmMain;' +
        'if (arr !== null) {' +
        '    arr.elements["username"].value = theName;' +
        '    arr.elements["password"].value = thePass;' +
        '} else {' +
        '    console.log("Could not find frmMain");' +
        '}' +
    '}');
    

    Or something like that, I don't have the code anymore.