Simulate browser using cookielib to fetch url in python

Question

I am using cookielib and some times opening a url in browser downloads many other files by browser making many other requests. Can I replicate the same behaviour using cookie lib or any other python library?

For example: To get all the required information from page https://applicant.keybank.com/psp/hrsappl/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/HRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL?Page=HRS_CE_HM_PRE&Action=A&SiteId=1

I have to make more than 1 GET requests from my python script. I got the request urls of all the requests browser makes by analysing the network requests when I opened the page.

I am seeing if there is any way I can just make 1 request and it fetches all the related requests by itself like browser.

I am not very much interested in the js or css but the main html.

I tried with the following code but it couldn't download whole page

cj = cookielib.CookieJar()
opener = urllib2.build_opener(urllib2.HTTPCookieProcessor(cj))

response = opener.open('https://applicant.keybank.com/psp/hrsappl/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/HRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL?Page=HRS_CE_HM_PRE&Action=A&SiteId=1')
html = response.read()

but when I fetched 3 other GET urls in sequence it is able to give me the required html in the third GET response. I got these urls by examining network tab of the browser

'https://applicant.keybank.com/psc/hrsappl/EMPLOYEE/EMPL/s/WEBLIB_PT_NAV.ISCRIPT1.FieldFormula.IScript_UniHeader_Frame?c=NNTCgkqGs001AcPaisqGbYpTu%2fbGx4jx&Page=HRS_CE_HM_PRE&Action=A&SiteId=1&PortalActualURL=https%3a%2f%2fhronline.keybank.com%2fpsc%2fhrshrm%2fEMPLOYEE%2fHRMS%2fc%2fHRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL%3fPage%3dHRS_CE_HM_PRE%26Action%3dA%26SiteId%3d1&PortalContentURL=https%3a%2f%2fhronline.keybank.com%2fpsc%2fhrshrm%2fEMPLOYEE%2fHRMS%2fc%2fHRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL%3fPage%3dHRS_CE_HM_PRE%26Action%3dA%26SiteId%3d1&PortalContentProvider=HRMS&PortalRegistryName=EMPLOYEE&PortalServletURI=https%3a%2f%2fapplicant.keybank.com%2fpsp%2fhrsappl%2f&PortalURI=https%3a%2f%2fapplicant.keybank.com%2fpsc%2fhrsappl%2f&PortalHostNode=EMPL&PortalIsPagelet=true&NoCrumbs=yes')


'https://applicant.keybank.com/psc/hrsappl/EMPLOYEE/EMPL/s/WEBLIB_PTPPB.ISCRIPT2.FieldFormula.IScript_TemplatePageletBuilder?PTPPB_PAGELET_ID=KC_LNAV_APPLICANT&target=KCNV_KC_LNAV_APPLICANT_TMPL&Page=HRS_CE_HM_PRE&Action=A&SiteId=1&PortalActualURL=https%3a%2f%2fhronline.keybank.com%2fpsc%2fhrshrm%2fEMPLOYEE%2fHRMS%2fc%2fHRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL%3fPage%3dHRS_CE_HM_PRE%26Action%3dA%26SiteId%3d1&PortalContentURL=https%3a%2f%2fhronline.keybank.com%2fpsc%2fhrshrm%2fEMPLOYEE%2fHRMS%2fc%2fHRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL%3fPage%3dHRS_CE_HM_PRE%26Action%3dA%26SiteId%3d1&PortalContentProvider=HRMS&PortalRegistryName=EMPLOYEE&PortalServletURI=https%3a%2f%2fapplicant.keybank.com%2fpsp%2fhrsappl%2f&PortalURI=https%3a%2f%2fapplicant.keybank.com%2fpsc%2fhrsappl%2f&PortalHostNode=EMPL&PortalIsPagelet=true&NoCrumbs=yes&PortalTargetFrame=TargetContent'


'https://hronline.keybank.com/psc/hrshrm/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/HRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL?Page=HRS_CE_HM_PRE&Action=A&SiteId=1&PortalActualURL=https%3a%2f%2fhronline.keybank.com%2fpsc%2fhrshrm%2fEMPLOYEE%2fHRMS%2fc%2fHRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL%3fPage%3dHRS_CE_HM_PRE%26Action%3dA%26SiteId%3d1&PortalContentURL=https%3a%2f%2fhronline.keybank.com%2fpsc%2fhrshrm%2fEMPLOYEE%2fHRMS%2fc%2fHRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL%3fPage%3dHRS_CE_HM_PRE%26Action%3dA%26SiteId%3d1&PortalContentProvider=HRMS&PortalCRefLabel=Careers&PortalRegistryName=EMPLOYEE&PortalServletURI=https%3a%2f%2fapplicant.keybank.com%2fpsp%2fhrsappl%2f&PortalURI=https%3a%2f%2fapplicant.keybank.com%2fpsc%2fhrsappl%2f&PortalHostNode=EMPL&NoCrumbs=yes&PortalKeyStruct=yes'

and following is the complete code for the other fetches I am making

response = opener.open('https://applicant.keybank.com/psc/hrsappl/EMPLOYEE/EMPL/s/WEBLIB_PT_NAV.ISCRIPT1.FieldFormula.IScript_UniHeader_Frame?c=NNTCgkqGs001AcPaisqGbYpTu%2fbGx4jx&Page=HRS_CE_HM_PRE&Action=A&SiteId=1&PortalActualURL=https%3a%2f%2fhronline.keybank.com%2fpsc%2fhrshrm%2fEMPLOYEE%2fHRMS%2fc%2fHRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL%3fPage%3dHRS_CE_HM_PRE%26Action%3dA%26SiteId%3d1&PortalContentURL=https%3a%2f%2fhronline.keybank.com%2fpsc%2fhrshrm%2fEMPLOYEE%2fHRMS%2fc%2fHRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL%3fPage%3dHRS_CE_HM_PRE%26Action%3dA%26SiteId%3d1&PortalContentProvider=HRMS&PortalRegistryName=EMPLOYEE&PortalServletURI=https%3a%2f%2fapplicant.keybank.com%2fpsp%2fhrsappl%2f&PortalURI=https%3a%2f%2fapplicant.keybank.com%2fpsc%2fhrsappl%2f&PortalHostNode=EMPL&PortalIsPagelet=true&NoCrumbs=yes')
response.read()

response = opener.open('https://applicant.keybank.com/psc/hrsappl/EMPLOYEE/EMPL/s/WEBLIB_PTPPB.ISCRIPT2.FieldFormula.IScript_TemplatePageletBuilder?PTPPB_PAGELET_ID=KC_LNAV_APPLICANT&target=KCNV_KC_LNAV_APPLICANT_TMPL&Page=HRS_CE_HM_PRE&Action=A&SiteId=1&PortalActualURL=https%3a%2f%2fhronline.keybank.com%2fpsc%2fhrshrm%2fEMPLOYEE%2fHRMS%2fc%2fHRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL%3fPage%3dHRS_CE_HM_PRE%26Action%3dA%26SiteId%3d1&PortalContentURL=https%3a%2f%2fhronline.keybank.com%2fpsc%2fhrshrm%2fEMPLOYEE%2fHRMS%2fc%2fHRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL%3fPage%3dHRS_CE_HM_PRE%26Action%3dA%26SiteId%3d1&PortalContentProvider=HRMS&PortalRegistryName=EMPLOYEE&PortalServletURI=https%3a%2f%2fapplicant.keybank.com%2fpsp%2fhrsappl%2f&PortalURI=https%3a%2f%2fapplicant.keybank.com%2fpsc%2fhrsappl%2f&PortalHostNode=EMPL&PortalIsPagelet=true&NoCrumbs=yes&PortalTargetFrame=TargetContent')
response.read()

response = opener.open('https://hronline.keybank.com/psc/hrshrm/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/HRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL?Page=HRS_CE_HM_PRE&Action=A&SiteId=1&PortalActualURL=https%3a%2f%2fhronline.keybank.com%2fpsc%2fhrshrm%2fEMPLOYEE%2fHRMS%2fc%2fHRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL%3fPage%3dHRS_CE_HM_PRE%26Action%3dA%26SiteId%3d1&PortalContentURL=https%3a%2f%2fhronline.keybank.com%2fpsc%2fhrshrm%2fEMPLOYEE%2fHRMS%2fc%2fHRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL%3fPage%3dHRS_CE_HM_PRE%26Action%3dA%26SiteId%3d1&PortalContentProvider=HRMS&PortalCRefLabel=Careers&PortalRegistryName=EMPLOYEE&PortalServletURI=https%3a%2f%2fapplicant.keybank.com%2fpsp%2fhrsappl%2f&PortalURI=https%3a%2f%2fapplicant.keybank.com%2fpsc%2fhrsappl%2f&PortalHostNode=EMPL&NoCrumbs=yes&PortalKeyStruct=yes')
required_html = response.read()

Answer 1

requests can handle cookies, as you can see here. It's a great library, far more powerful that urllib2, and yet simpler-looking.

>>> import requests
>>> r = requests.get('https://applicant.keybank.com/psp/hrsappl/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/HRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL?Page=HRS_CE_HM_PRE&Action=A&SiteId=1')
>>> r.cookies

Edit: This answer dos not really address the problem, I read too fast. Sorry about that. As suggested by @J.F.Sebastian, I'm adding a link to a python webkit client, Ghost.py, that could emulate a browser, as you requested.