# Mechanize to access https links

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mechanize-to-access-https-links/110070>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [July 22, 2007, 2:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mechanize-to-access-https-links/110070 "2007-07-22T14:41:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![anne001](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/34f0e0/32.png) [@anne001](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/anne001)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2007, 2:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mechanize-to-access-https-links/110070/1 "2007-07-22T14:41:09Z")

</div>

I would like to open and save to disk https tutorials which were  
created with Flash i think.

To simplify, I login to the site with a webbrowser, so I don’t need to  
access a form. Just pages with links to the tutorials.

mechanize seems the tool to use from what I found out. I tried this  
code found on this list:

require ‘net/https’  
require ‘uri’

class HTTPS \< Net::HTTP  
def initialize \*a, &b  
super  
self.use\_ssl = true  
self.verify\_mode = OpenSSL::SSL::VERIFY\_NONE  
self.set\_debug\_output $stderr  
end  
end

# the url is of the form

url = ‘[https://tutorials.siteofinterest.com/?page=tutorialView&tId=47](https://tutorials.siteofinterest.com/?page=tutorialView&tId=47)’

uri = URI.parse url

HTTPS.start(uri.host, uri.port) do |https|  
response = https.post(“#{uri.path}?#{uri.query}”)  
puts response.body  
end

-----error message —\>  
opening connection to [tutorials.siteofinterest.com](http://tutorials.siteofinterest.com)…  
opened  
opurl2.rb:18:in `post’: wrong number of arguments (1 for 2)  
(ArgumentError)

I checked with IRB, uri seems to do its parsing, finding the host, the  
path and the arguments after the question mark.

How can I find out what the second argument is that I need to put in?  
or How can I find out what post Safari sends when I click on the same  
link?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![anne001](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/34f0e0/32.png) [@anne001](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/anne001)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2007, 6:13pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mechanize-to-access-https-links/110070/2 "2007-07-22T18:13:19Z")

</div>

require ‘rubygems’  
require ‘mechanize’

mech = WWW::Mechanize.new  
page =  
mech.get(‘[https://tutorials.siteofinterest.com/](https://tutorials.siteofinterest.com/)?  
page=tutorialView&tId=47’)

This code does return a page, but not the page I wanted. So there must  
be something missing, a cookie or something which indicates I have  
logged in.

If I try to access one of the links in ruby  
mech.get(‘[http://tutorials.siteofinterest.com/tutorials/Intro/Intface/](http://tutorials.siteofinterest.com/tutorials/Intro/Intface/)  
Intface.html’)  
I get an error, please provide username and password  
while if I paste the http address in safari, it opens the tutorial  
page. How do I find out what the browser is doing to satisfy the  
tutorial web page server?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![anne001](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/34f0e0/32.png) [@anne001](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/anne001)\
**Post date:** [July 23, 2007, 12:46am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mechanize-to-access-https-links/110070/3 "2007-07-23T00:46:30Z")

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On Mon, Jul 23, 2007 at 12:25:02AM +0900, anne001 wrote:

> logged in.
> 
> If I try to access one of the links in ruby  
> mech.get(‘[http://tutorials.siteofinterest.com/tutorials/Intro/Intface/](http://tutorials.siteofinterest.com/tutorials/Intro/Intface/)  
> Intface.html’)  
> I get an error, please provide username and password  
> while if I paste the http address in safari, it opens the tutorial  
> page. How do I find out what the browser is doing to satisfy the  
> tutorial web page server?

Make sure to clear all your cookies before you do that. I recommend  
getting Firefox, clearing your cookies, and using LiveHTTPHeaders.

[http://livehttpheaders.mozdev.org/](http://livehttpheaders.mozdev.org/)

Hope that helps.