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**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [November 14, 2007, 5:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-read-html-from-a-password-protected-page/120184 "2007-11-14T17:16:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1
**Author:**  [@joep](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/joep)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2007, 5:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-read-html-from-a-password-protected-page/120184/1 "2007-11-14T17:16:49Z")
Hello,
I have a method that gets the html off a page. I give it a _word_ to
look up, and it returns the results. I just switched to read from a
password-protected page, and I can’t figure out how to send along the
password so I can get authorized to read the page. Anyone know how to
do this?
def getWordResults(word)
require ‘open-uri’
begin
@page = open(“[http://joe.com/find?word=#{word}&lb=1&user=joe](http://joe.com/find?word=#%7Bword%7D&lb=1&user=joe)”).read
rescue # if page won’t open
nil
end
end
---
**Author:**  [@joep](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/joep)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2007, 6:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-read-html-from-a-password-protected-page/120184/2 "2007-11-14T18:22:08Z")
Joe P. wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I have a method that gets the html off a page. I give it a _word_ to
> look up, and it returns the results. I just switched to read from a
> password-protected page, and I can’t figure out how to send along the
> password so I can get authorized to read the page. Anyone know how to
> do this?
>
> def getWordResults(word)
> require ‘open-uri’
> begin
> @page = open(“[http://joe.com/find?word=#{word}&lb=1&user=joe](http://joe.com/find?word=#%7Bword%7D&lb=1&user=joe)”).read
> rescue # if page won’t open
> nil
> end
> end
> If it helps at all, I can get to the page using a browser and manually
> entering the user and password. Does anyone know how to do that
> automatically?
---
**Author:**  [@joep](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/joep)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2007, 6:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-read-html-from-a-password-protected-page/120184/3 "2007-11-14T18:45:50Z")
If it is using http authentication, you can use the format of
[http://user:removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid?restofurl](http://user:removed_email_address@domain.invalid?restofurl)
* * *
Chris
---
**Author:**  [@joep](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/joep)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2007, 8:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-read-html-from-a-password-protected-page/120184/4 "2007-11-14T20:25:26Z")
On Nov 14, 2007, at 12:45 PM, Chris E. wrote:
> > > Hello,
> > > def getWordResults(word)
> > > entering the user and password. Does anyone know how to do that
> > > automatically?
You can use httpclient for this kind of thing:
require ‘rubygems’
require ‘httpclient’
url = “[http://joe.com/find?word=#{word}&lb=1&user=joe](http://joe.com/find?word=#%7Bword%7D&lb=1&user=joe)”
client = HTTPClient.new
client.debug\_dev = STDOUT if $DEBUG
client.set\_auth(url, ‘joe’, ‘thePassw0rd’)
resp = client.get(url)
@page = resp.content
You might have to make the first arg to .set\_auth be just the URL
without the query string.
Also, if the service doesn’t send back an authorization request (which
it sounds like it does since the browser asks you), then HTTPClient
won’t volunteer the credentials you’ve provided.
You can check things like if resp.status != 200
-Rob
Rob B. [http://agileconsultingllc.com](http://agileconsultingllc.com)
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid