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I'm pretty new to PhantomJS, so I'm just trying to stumble through some practical examples (the documentation feels a little light on those).

One thing I was attempting was to submit votes to a phony PollDaddy poll, but I'm struggling. Using the script below, I can tell from the first screenshot that my option button is being clicked/selected. But why does my answer not get submitted? The second screenshot looks identical to the first, despite my code executing a click event on the VOTE button in the second evaluate. Anyone know why? Know how to make it work?

var webPage = require('webpage');
var page = webPage.create();

//******* BEGIN LOGGING METHODS *******    
// http://phantomjs.org/api/webpage/handler/on-url-changed.html
page.onUrlChanged = function(targetUrl) {
  console.log('New URL: ' + targetUrl);
};

// http://phantomjs.org/api/webpage/handler/on-console-message.html
page.onConsoleMessage = function(msg, lineNum, sourceId) {
  console.log('CONSOLE: ' + msg + ' (from line #' + lineNum + ' in "' + sourceId + '")');
};

// http://phantomjs.org/api/webpage/handler/on-error.html
page.onError = function(msg, trace) {
  var msgStack = ['ERROR: ' + msg];
  if (trace && trace.length) {
    msgStack.push('TRACE:');
    trace.forEach(function(t) {
      msgStack.push(' -> ' + t.file + ': ' + t.line + (t.function ? ' (in function "' + t.function +'")' : ''));
    });
  }
  console.error(msgStack.join('\n'));
};

// http://phantomjs.org/api/webpage/handler/on-resource-error.html
page.onResourceError = function(resourceError) {
  console.log('Unable to load resource (#' + resourceError.id + ' URL:' + resourceError.url + ')');
  console.log('Error code: ' + resourceError.errorCode + '. Description: ' + resourceError.errorString);
};

// http://phantomjs.org/api/webpage/handler/on-resource-timeout.html
page.onResourceTimeout = function(request) {
    console.log('Response Timeout (#' + request.id + '): ' + JSON.stringify(request));
};
//******* END LOGGING METHODS *******    

page.open('https://polldaddy.com/poll/9424638/', function(status) {
    console.log('Status: ' + status);

    //make selection    
    var myselection = page.evaluate(function() {
        var ev = document.createEvent("MouseEvent");
        ev.initMouseEvent("click", true, true, window, null,0, 0, 0, 0, false, false, false, false, 0, null);

        //radio button for Curly has id=PDI_answer42988707
        var myselection = document.querySelector("#PDI_answer42988707");
        (myselection).dispatchEvent(ev);
        return document.title;
    });
    //screen capture the selection
    page.render('selection.png');
    console.log(myselection);

    //click the Vote button
    var dovote = page.evaluate(function() {
        var ev = document.createEvent("MouseEvent");
        ev.initMouseEvent("click", true, true, window, null,0, 0, 0, 0, false, false, false, false, 0, null);

        //get a handle to the vote button
        var votebutton = document.querySelector("a.vote-button");
        //click the vote button
        (votebutton).dispatchEvent(ev);
        return document.title;
    });
    //delay, then take screenshot...
    setTimeout(
        function(){
            page.render('voted.png');
            console.log(dovote);
        }
        ,2000
    );

});

I'm executing the script using PhantomJS 1.9.0 on Linux Mint. The execution parameters are like this to overcome any SSL Handshake failures:

phantomjs --ignore-ssl-errors=true --ssl-protocol=any myscript.js

I've also tried setting --cookies-file and --local-storage-path on the command line, but that didn't help either.

The output I get from all of the console logging above is this:

New URL: https://polldaddy.com/poll/9424638/  <-- from urlChange
CONSOLE: JQMIGRATE: Logging is active (from line # in "") <-- from onConsoleMessage
Status: success
Who is your favorite Stooge (poll 9424638) | Polldaddy.com
Who is your favorite Stooge (poll 9424638) | Polldaddy.com

My useless poll is here: https://polldaddy.com/poll/9424638/, and you'll see from my script that I'm trying to stack the results for Curly.

Marc
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  • Any reason you're using v1.9.0? It's ancient. You should try 2.1.1, 1.9.8, 1.9.7 in that order. – Artjom B. May 22 '16 at 10:40
  • Thanks, @ArtjomB. I was using the one from the Synaptic package manager in Mint. However, I just manually upgraded to 2.1.1 (the latest on the download site), but the issue remains. Any other ideas? – Marc May 22 '16 at 17:51
  • Please register to the `onConsoleMessage`, `onError`, `onResourceTimeout` events ([Example](https://gist.github.com/artjomb/4cf43d16ce50d8674fdf#file-1_phantomerrors-js)). Maybe there are errors. – Artjom B. May 22 '16 at 19:26
  • @ArtjomB.: Done. And added to the question. I'm not sure it helps though :( – Marc May 22 '16 at 19:58
  • You may try other types of clicks, particularly: http://stackoverflow.com/a/24026636/1816580. If it has a form around it (I haven't looked at the page), you may also try to submit that form. – Artjom B. May 22 '16 at 20:03

1 Answers1

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If you look at the javascript that is being included with the polldaddy page, you'll find a vote function with the following check:

if (event.pageX) {
  eventX = event.pageX;
  eventY = event.pageY;
} else {
  eventX = event.clientX;
  eventY = event.clientY;
}

...

if (eventX == 0 && eventY == 0) {
  return false
}

Basically they are looking at the event location and short-circuiting if the x and y location are both equal to 0.

If you change the mouse event that you create so that the clientX or clientY value is not 0, then your script should work.

Justin Sonntag
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