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dinesh · February 10th, 2009, 02:57 AM

I need to write a windows application to automatically login to a website(with username and password being provided) to retrieve some data from the website. Can someone show me an example on how to accomplish this in VB.NET?

Lee Dumond · February 10th, 2009, 11:17 AM

You can handle authentication from a Windows application exactly as you would handle authentication from a web application.

There is nothing that prevents you from adding a reference to System.Web and using the System.Web.Security namespace in Windows. Then, you could use the Membership.ValidateUser method.

Old Pedant · February 10th, 2009, 05:16 PM

I think he means he wants his windows .exe to "screen scrape" some web site. So I don't think there is any question of authentication, per se, in use here. I think he just needs to "login" to the web site, using the right username and password, and then hit the page he wants to scrape. Naturally, he will likely need to remember any cookies and pass them back to the page he wants to scrape.

Just a guess. Hopefully, he will give us better info on what he is really doing.

Lee Dumond · February 10th, 2009, 05:36 PM

I'm not getting where you assume he wants to scrape the screen. He said he wants to "retrieve some data", which I suppose could mean a lot of things.

No matter though. I'm not sure I agree with you about this not being a question of authentication. The act of "logging in" to a site means you are asking the site to authenticate your identity, using a supplied name and password. If you use the Membership.ValidateUser(name. password) method and supply valid credentials, you are "logged in", which is to say, you are "authenticated."

I also don't see where cookies would apply here. An authentication cookie is only useful for "staying" logged in as you navigate a site. If he only needs to hit one page, of what use would a cookie be?

Yiou are right though, we are both whistling in the dark without more information...

Old Pedant · February 10th, 2009, 05:44 PM

Ummm...and how would you use ASP.NET Membership.ValidateUser on a PHP site??? <grin style="sneaky"/>

I would bet that 90% of existing sites use session-based credentials and a starting login page, which is why I suggested the need to maintain cookies. But 90% isn't 100%, of course.

Never mind. Let's see what Dinesh comes back with.

Lee Dumond · February 10th, 2009, 05:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Old Pedant

Ummm...and how would you use ASP.NET Membership.ValidateUser on a PHP site??? <grin style="sneaky"/>

Damn, you got me there. You ARE sneaky!

dinesh · February 23rd, 2009, 06:18 AM

hi frnds, sorry for very late reply.

I just want to access the page which is restricted by using session. in simple , i just want to access the page by setting the session value from code.

for ex,
if session("age") <> ""
'Here is the block i want to get.
End if

Now can i set the session("age") to some value. and thus i can access the proceeding data.

Old Pedant · February 23rd, 2009, 08:26 PM

If you mean that SESSION("age") is on one server and you want to change it from some unrelated server...NO! Of course not!

If *YOU* could do that then every hacker in the world would have long since wiped out all functioning ASP sites. That would be a security whole large enough to drive a steamship through!