emulating a browser programmatically in C# / .Net

Question

We would like to automate certain tasks in a website, like having a user 'login', perform some functionality, read their account history etc.

We have tried emulating this with normal POST/GETs, however the problem is that for example for 'login', the website uses javascript code to execute an AJAX call, and also generate some random tokens.

Is it possible to literally emulate a web-browser? For example:

Visit 'www.[test-website].com'
Fill in these DOM items
- DOM item 'username' fill in with 'testuser'
- DOM item 'password' fill in with 'testpass'
- Click' button DOM item 'btnSubmit'
Visit account history
- Read HTML (So we can parse information about each distinct history item)
...

The above could be translated into say the below sample code:

var browser = new Browser();
var pageHomepage = browser.Load("www.test-domain.com");
pageHomepage.DOM.GetField("username").SetValue("testUser");
pageHomepage.DOM.GetField("password").SetValue("testPass");
pageHomepage.DOM.GetField("btnSubmit").Click();
var pageAccountHistory = browser.Load("www.test-domain.com/account-history/");
var html = pageAccountHistory.GetHtml();
var historyItems = parseHistoryItems(html);

try Fiddler to do this.

Sam Leach
– Sam Leach

2013-06-20 13:58:41 +00:00
Commented Jun 20, 2013 at 13:58 — Sam Leach
– Sam Leach, Commented Jun 20, 2013 at 13:58

Piotr Stapp · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-20 13:58:38Z

2

You could use for example Selenium in C#. There is a good tutorial: Data Driven Testing Using Selenium (webdriver) in C#.

answered Jun 20, 2013 at 13:58

Piotr Stapp

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2 Comments

Bill Agee Over a year ago

If the goal is to use .NET, the Selenium C# bindings are good, or you can use Selenium with IronPython as well. Lately I prefer IronPython over C# for automated GUI/browser tests in .NET.

Niek Over a year ago

This tutorial is outdated, a better one is available here.

Romano Zumbé · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-20 13:59:47Z

1

I would suggest to instantiate a WebBrowser control in code and do all your work with this instance but never show it on any form. I've done this several times and it works pretty good. The only flaw is that it makes use of the Internet Explorer ;-)

answered Jun 20, 2013 at 13:59

Romano Zumbé

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Simon Achmüller · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-20 13:59:58Z

1

Or just try System.Windows.Forms.WebBrowser, for example:

this.webBrowser1.Navigate("http://games.powernet.com.ru/login");
while (webBrowser1.ReadyState != WebBrowserReadyState.Complete)
     System.Windows.Forms.Application.DoEvents();
HtmlDocument doc = webBrowser1.Document;
HtmlElement elem1 = doc.GetElementById("login");
elem1.Focus();
elem1.InnerText = "login";
HtmlElement elem2 = doc.GetElementById("pass");
elem2.Focus();
elem2.InnerText = "pass";

answered Jun 20, 2013 at 13:59

Simon Achmüller

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2 Comments

Karl Cassar Over a year ago

And can you simulate a click on an anchor link, which actually contains javascript code? (e.g: <a href="javascript:alert('hello world');">Click here</a>)

Simon Achmüller Over a year ago

Yep, I can: foreach (HtmlElement elem in doc.GetElementsByTagName("a")) { Console.WriteLine(elem.InnerHtml + "->" + elem.DomElement); elem.InvokeMember("Click"); }

Gangadhar Heralgi · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-20 13:57:10Z

0

Try JMeter, it is a nice too for automating web requests, also quite popularly used for performance testing of web sites

answered Jun 20, 2013 at 13:57

Gangadhar Heralgi

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