How to check a checkbox using WWW::Mechanize?

Question

I read the Perl WWW::Mechanize module and this is the syntax:

$mech->tick( $name, $value [, $set] )

But, when I checked the page source of the web page, this is what I found:

<div class="key-name" title="GLOBAL_PROCESSING">GLOBAL_PROCESSING</div>
    <div class="col-50 col-left">
    <div class="string-controls">
    <a href="#" class="control-expand-toggle"></a>
    <a href="#" class="control-activity-toggle ">0</a>
    <input type="checkbox" class="control-select-string">
    </div>

I do not see an id and value for the checkbox field. How should I do this?

Also the check box is not part of any form. How can I refer to this checkbox in Mechanize?

HTML code

<div id="edit-controls-leftside" class="clear-fix">
<div class="col-left">
<label>
<input id="select-all-visible" class="" type="checkbox">
&nbsp;Select all visible
</label>
<a id="expand-all" class="blue-on-dark-blue text-link arrow-leftside-down"     href="#">Show key names</a>
<a id="show-modify-nav" class="blue-on-dark-blue text-link arrow-leftside-right disabled" href="#">Modify selected...</a>
<nav id="modify-nav" style="display: none;">
<a id="show-order-translation" class="sub-nav-item" href="#">Order translations</a>

Answer 1

Here are the some workarounds for checking checkboxes without values using perl Mechanize.

From the Mechanize manual.

How do I check a checkbox that doesn't have a value defined?

Set it to to the value of "on".

$mech->field( my_checkbox => 'on' );

Another option found here.

$form->find_input('checkbox_id')->check();

The only problem is that your checkbox doesn't have a name/id either. Hope someone else can chime in with how to grab the checkbox using something other than the name/id. I'll keep looking.

EDIT:

You may be able to use:

$mech->find_all_inputs( ... criteria ... )

To locate the checkbox by type and/or classname since it doesn't have a name or id.

Answer 2

Use the method check in HTML::Form. Documentation quote:

Some input types represent toggles that can be turned on/off. This includes "checkbox" and "option" inputs. Calling this method turns this input on without having to know the value name.

Code that works with your HTML:

my $w = WWW::Mechanize->new;
$w->get('file:///tmp/10775965.html');
[$w->forms->[0]->inputs]->[0]->check;

Answer 3

Why are you trying to do this?

Because the checkbox has no name or value, it will not be part of any submission, even if it was part of a form, which it is not.

Do you think the checkbox is used by JavaScript, to toggle other checkboxes?

Answer 4

$mech->tick( 'name' => undef );