cookiejar file

[mghadam]

Is it possible to set a cookiejar file so that the sessions could be saved and used several times?

[andpozo]

@mghadam:

MechanicalSoup is a wrapper for python requests and uses a Session class for browser session.

from http://docs.python-requests.org/en/master/api/#requests.Session.cookies:

A CookieJar containing all currently outstanding cookies set on this session. By default it is a RequestsCookieJar, but may be any other cookielib.CookieJar compatible object.

and from http://docs.python-requests.org/en/master/api/#requests.cookies.RequestsCookieJar

Compatibility class; is a cookielib.CookieJar, but exposes a dict interface.

so... I assume that the MechanicalSoup uses a CookieJar if not you can initialize your Browser with a custom session:

import requests
import mechanicalsoup
from http import cookiejar

c = cookiejar.CookieJar() #you can chooise another cookie store like a LWPCookieJar
s = requests.Session()
s.cookies = c
browser = mechanicalsoup.Browser(session=s)

[hickford]

Right. mechanicalsoup.Browser wraps requests.Session, so it automatically stores cookies for the lifetime of the Browser object.

If you wish to save cookies between executions of your app, you can pickle the Browser object (or the session, or the cookie jar). See https://docs.python.org/3/library/pickle.html

import pickle
pickle.dump(browser, open("browser.obj", 'wb'))

pickle.load(open("browser.obj", 'rb'))

Perhaps this deserves to go in the documentation

[amitpdev]

Dumping StatefulBrowser with pickle may produce error "RecursionError: maximum recursion depth exceeded".

I found this more appropriate:

# Save cookieJar from active session
pickle.dump(browser.get_cookiejar(), open("cookiejar.dump", 'wb'))

# Load cookiejar into fresh browser
cookiejar = pickle.load(open("cookiejar.dump", 'rb'))
browser.set_cookiejar(cookiejar)

[hemberger]

Alternatively, you can use a FileCookieJar, like LWPCookieJar:

# Load cookies from file or create new cookie file
cookiejar = cookielib.LWPCookieJar(cookie_file)
if os.path.exists(cookie_file):
    cookiejar.load()
browser.set_cookiejar(cookiejar)

# Do something that sets cookies here

# Save cookies to file
cookiejar.save()