Simulate browser - Authentication and performing actions

Question

What I'm trying to accomplish here is a way to log in to a given page and perform certain actions that only logged in users can do.

I've tried cURL (with PHP), but the login form has some security fields (hidden inputs) with random text to verify if the user is real and is using a real browser. I need an effective way to get pass that.

If possible, the script would load the page, fill in the necessary field, submit the form and save the session and cookie login to perform future actions.

Any ideas?

I'm not very familiar with 'websockets', but would it work?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT https://www.pingdom.com/transactionmonitor/

That site does exactly what I need, what technology are they using? Websockets to interact with a website?

Answer 1

With cURL, you could scrape the content of the hidden fields, store in a session and use once you need to send the data. Other wise, it isn't exactly possible with PHP.