How to simulate the browser to login in https website using c++ based on Linux?

Question

everybody,my goal is logging in a https website and downloading webpage using C++ background service program based on Linux. Detail needs is follow: (1)connect to "https://www.space-track.org/auth/login" (2)enter username and password in order to login in successful (3)post some formdata to this website (4)downloading the webpage.

Now,my method is using MFC::CInternetSession(code is follow. It is in the MS-Windows),but it's not successful. there must exist some problems in the codes. I hope you can help me solve the problem. maybe you can come up with better solutions using C++ to simulate the browser based on Linux. thank you very much！

Url = "https://www.space-track.org/auth/login/";

nPort = INTERNET_DEFAULT_HTTP_PORT;
CString strHeaders = _T("Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded");

if (AfxParseURL(Url,dwSeviceType,strServerName,strTarget,nPort) == 0)
    return false;

CInternetSession sess;

sess.SetOption(INTERNET_OPTION_CONNECT_TIMEOUT,1000*20);
sess.EnableStatusCallback(TRUE);

CHttpConnection* pHttpConnect = sess.GetHttpConnection(strServerName,nPort);

CHttpFile* pHttpFile = pHttpConnect->OpenRequest(CHttpConnection::HTTP_VERB_POST,
    strTarget,NULL,1,NULL,NULL,INTERNET_FLAG_SECURE);


 CString strUserName = "*****";
 CString strPassword = "*****";
 CString strUserinfo;
 strUserinfo.Format(_T("identity=%s&password=%s"),strUserName,strPassword);

try
{
    BOOL bResult =pHttpFile->SendRequest(strHeaders,(LPVOID)(LPCTSTR)strUserinfo,strUserinfo.GetLength()* sizeof(TCHAR));
    //BOOL bResult =pHttpFile->SendRequest(strHeaders);
}
catch (CInternetException* pException)
{
    pException->m_dwError;
    pException->Delete();
}
pHttpFile->SetReadBufferSize(2048);
CString str;
CString strGetData;
while(pHttpFile->ReadString(strGetData))
{
    str +="\r\n";
    str +=strGetData;
}
CString fileName("index.html");
CFile file(fileName,CFile::modeCreate | CFile::modeWrite);
file.Write(str,str.GetLength());
file.Close();
pHttpFile->Close();
delete pHttpFile;
pHttpConnect->Close();
delete pHttpConnect;
sess.Close();
return TRUE;

Answer 1

There are a couple of Linux libraries that implement an HTTP client API, that can be used to implement HTTP/HTTPS requests in C or C++.

The grand-daddy of them all is W3C's own libwww:

http://www.w3.org/Library/

A more recent HTTP/HTTPS client library is libcurl:

http://curl.haxx.se/libcurl/

Either one of them can be used to implement an HTTP/HTTPS client in C or C++. However, in all cases, before using them you do need to have some understanding of HTTP/HTTPS protocols work; specifically HTTPS when it comes to certificate validation and verification.

Both of these libraries are fairly common, and most Linux distributions already have them packaged. You probably have one or both of them installed already.