Based on Juba suggestion, here is a working RCurl template.
The code emulates a browser behaviour, as it:
- retrieves cookies on a login screen and
- reuses them on the following page requests containing the actual data.
### RCurl login and browse private pages ###
library("RCurl")
loginurl ="http=//www.*****"
mainurl ="http=//www.*****"
agent ="Mozilla/5.0"
#User account data and other login pars
pars=list(
RURL="http=//www.*****",
Username="*****",
Password="*****"
)
#RCurl pars
curl = getCurlHandle()
curlSetOpt(cookiejar="cookiesk.txt", useragent = agent, followlocation = TRUE, curl=curl)
#or simply
#curlSetOpt(cookiejar="", useragent = agent, followlocation = TRUE, curl=curl)
#post login form
web=postForm(loginurl, .params = pars, curl=curl)
#go to main url with real data
web=getURL(mainurl, curl=curl)
#parse/print content of web
#..... etc. etc.
#This has the side effect of saving cookie data to the cookiejar file
rm(curl)
gc()