Unable to check checkbox via Perl LWP::UserAgent

Question

How should I check a checkbox like this:

<td><center><INPUT name="test2%40mydomain.com_notmetoo" type="CHECKBOX" value="off" ></center></td>

with Perl's LWP::UserAgent module?

This code doesn't do it (the output is as if it was submitted without the checkbox being checked - i.e. the webpage gets refreshed and the checkbox cleared).

#!/usr/bin/perl
use LWP::UserAgent;

$ua = new LWP::UserAgent;
$ua->cookie_jar({ file => "$ENV{HOME}/.mailmanrc" });

$res = $ua->post('http://mydomain.com/mailman/admin/test1_mydomain.com/members/list',
    Content_Type => 'form-data',
    Content => [
        'test2%40mydomain.com_notmetoo' => 'on',
        setmemberopts_btn => 'Submit Your Changes'
    ]
);
if ($res->is_success) {
    print $res->decoded_content;
    print "Changed user setting...I hope!\n";
}
else {
    die $res->status_line;
}

I'm not sure why the "@" is represented by "%40" in the element name (any ideas?), but I've also tried: 'test2\%40mydomain.com_notmetoo' => 'on', and '[email protected]_notmetoo' => 'on', without success.

There seems to be no JavaScript on the website (i.e. it works fine in my browser with JavaScript disabled). I just can't get it to work in Perl.

Thanks.

Terry.

---

Update #1: Here's the POSTDATA value from Firefox's 'Tamper Data' extension when I submit after checking Test2's notmetoo box:

POSTDATA =-----------------------------2921376274802
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="findmember"


-----------------------------2921376274802
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="test1%40mydomain.com_realname"

Test1
-----------------------------2921376274802
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="user"

test1%40mydomain.com
-----------------------------2921376274802
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="test1%40mydomain.com_hide"

on
-----------------------------2921376274802
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="test1%40mydomain.com_notmetoo"

on
-----------------------------2921376274802
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="test1%40mydomain.com_plain"

on
-----------------------------2921376274802
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="test1%40mydomain.com_language"

en
-----------------------------2921376274802
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="test2%40mydomain.com_realname"

Test2
-----------------------------2921376274802
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="user"

test2%40mydomain.com
-----------------------------2921376274802
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="test2%40mydomain.com_hide"

on
-----------------------------2921376274802
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="test2%40mydomain.com_notmetoo"

off
-----------------------------2921376274802
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="test2%40mydomain.com_plain"

on
-----------------------------2921376274802
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="test2%40mydomain.com_language"

en
-----------------------------2921376274802
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="test3%40mydomain.com_realname"

Test3
-----------------------------2921376274802
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="user"

test3%40mydomain.com
-----------------------------2921376274802
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="test3%40mydomain.com_hide"

on
-----------------------------2921376274802
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="test3%40mydomain.com_plain"

on
-----------------------------2921376274802
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="test3%40mydomain.com_language"

en
-----------------------------2921376274802
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="setmemberopts_btn"

Submit Your Changes
-----------------------------2921376274802
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="allmodbit_val"

0
-----------------------------2921376274802--

Does that help anyone to help me?

Answer 1

My understanding of checkboxes is that the value= specifies the value which the variable will have when the checkbox is checked. So your confusing value="off" actually means thay you need

'test2%40mydomain.com_notmetoo' => 'off'

To indicate that the box is checked.

Answer 2

In your case the checkbox will have value "off" when checked. This would be less confusing if value is something like value="checkbox1". In this case the value of the checkbox would be checkbox1 when checked.

Also, consider using WWW::Mechanize for basic web operations like this (without javascript), its much easier and intuitive, also WWW::Mechanize is a subclass of LWP::UserAgent so you could still use LWP's methods.