Search code examples
pythonmechanize

Mechanize does not find any forms in required website

I am trying to fill in all the forms in the website: https://breast.predict.nhs.uk/tool

import mechanize

br = mechanize.Browser()
br.set_handle_robots(False) #ignore robots.txt
br.open("https://breast.predict.nhs.uk/tool")
print(br.forms())

the output is an empty list and br.select_form(nr=0) gives this error:

File " line 18, in <module>
br.select_form(nr=0)
line 668, in select_form
raise FormNotFoundError("no form matching " + description)
mechanize._mechanize.FormNotFoundError: no form matching nr 0

I know there are forms in this website, so what am I missing?

Thank you for your help

Solution

  • As far as I can see, mechanize does not support JavaScript rendering, which is happening on this site via React.js: There actually are no <form> in the initial HTML. They are generated later through JS.