[R] Getting R to complete a web form

[Jason Turner]

Corey Moffet wrote:

> Dear R-Help,
> 
> I am testing a web based erosion model and I would like to get R to submit
> the http requests.  Now I make the requests manually and use R to extract
> the results by scan()ing a url() connection.  It would be nice if I could
> fully automate the process.  Any ideas/examples?  The model uses perl
> through CGI if that makes a difference.  The web form uses the post request
> method.

I usually "cheat" by pre-builing the form parameters into the URL, such as:

http://www.google.co.nz/search?q=R+statistics&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

And just stick the parameters I need after the "?".

?connections  or ?url  (same page)

Cheers

Jason