Login to some govt. portal programmatically using ID and Password 1

[Sng1]

I can login to govt. web portal using Id and Password and capcha provided and from there I download some reports. Is it possible to do that programmatically if Id and Password is available .

 

[Mike Lewis]

Well, the whole point of Captcha is to enable the target site to distinguish humans from automated processes (aka robots). If there was a reliable way of getting past that programmatically, the whole thing would be useless, and would have fallen into disuse long ago.

I can't say for sure that it can't be done, but it seems unlikely.

Mike

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Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Visual FoxPro articles, tips and downloads

 

[tomk3]

I totally agree with Mike.

There are
a) "simple" captachs where you have to enter a number shown in italic+bold.
b) more complicated where you have to find 3 trafic lights in 9 pictures , sometimes pictures change randomly or ask for 2 more.
c) puzzles where you have to fill in 1-5 parts into a random geometric form. And there is a check for mouse up/down/move and time needed.

To my opinion b) c) are VERY hard to be solved by program.

Regards
tom

 

[Chris Miller]

I agree with Mike and Tom, what you can do is automate browser or integrate the webbrowser control in a form, then do the login manually, and use the session you create that way to do anything else you're able to do logged-in without further captcha hurdles. That pays to do, to automate all but the login.

Since you're not specific about what government site, I can only add, that even the login process may only be necessary to do once, if you can opt for staying logged in, many sites offer that permanent login, so it only becomes a one time manual step. It's less likely for a governmental portal, but I've seen this feature a lot.

The major thing to understand is that you automate an internet session via the webbrowser control or IE automation that's bound to that browser, a chrome or firefox won't be in that same session.

Chriss

 

[Steve Meyerson]

Sng1,

You might consider Dashlane, LastPass (and other free apps) which remember your user name and password for web sites you have accessed previously.

Your VFP app can open your default browser to your predesignated URL. Of course it won't do the captcha thing, as Mike & Chris pointed out. It might amount to an extra click or entering a number sent to the user by the site.

Steve

 

[Chris Miller]

If you talk about things like other software like tax filing software does connecting to government portals, they surely don't go through the pages meant for manual use. Look out for developer interfaces, there surely are a lot. They will not be captcha protected but have their own authentication process for programmatic use of such an API.

Don't try to automate a portal that's meant to be used by people and not software.

Chriss