Using urllib2 for posting data, following redirects and maintaining cookies
Question: I am using `urllib2` in **Python** to post login data to a web site.

After successful login, the site redirects my request to another page. Can
someone provide a simple code sample on how to do this in Python with
`urllib2`? I guess I will need cookies also to be _logged in_ when I get
redirected to another page. Right?

Thanks a lot in advace.


Answer: First, get mechanize: <http://wwwsearch.sourceforge.net/mechanize/>  
You could do this kind of stuff with just urllib2, but you will be writing
tons of boilerplate code, and it will be buggy.

Then:

    
    
    import mechanize
    
    br = mechanize.Browser()
    br.open('http://somesite.com/account/signin/')
    
    br.select_form('loginForm')    
    br['username'] = 'jekyll'
    br['password'] = 'bananas'
    br.submit()
    # At this point, you're logged in, redirected, and the 
    #  br object has the cookies and all that.
    
    br.geturl() # e.g. http://somesite.com/loggedin/
    

Then you can use the Browser object `br` and do whatever you have to do, click
on links, etc. Check the samples on the mechanize site

