Can't parse the username to make sure I'm logged in to a website

Question

I've written a script in python to log in to a website and parse the username to make sure I've really been able to log in. Using the way I've tried below seems to get me there. However, I've used hardcoded cookies taken from chrome dev tools within the script to get success.

I've tried with:

import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

url = 'https://secure.imdb.com/ap/signin?openid.pape.max_auth_age=0&openid.return_to=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.imdb.com%2Fap-signin-handler&openid.identity=http%3A%2F%2Fspecs.openid.net%2Fauth%2F2.0%2Fidentifier_select&openid.assoc_handle=imdb_pro_us&openid.mode=checkid_setup&siteState=eyJvcGVuaWQuYXNzb2NfaGFuZGxlIjoiaW1kYl9wcm9fdXMiLCJyZWRpcmVjdFRvIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9wcm8uaW1kYi5jb20vIn0&openid.claimed_id=http%3A%2F%2Fspecs.openid.net%2Fauth%2F2.0%2Fidentifier_select&openid.ns=http%3A%2F%2Fspecs.openid.net%2Fauth%2F2.0'
signin = 'https://secure.imdb.com/ap/signin'
mainurl = 'https://pro.imdb.com/'

with requests.Session() as s:
    res = s.get(url,headers={"User-agent":"Mozilla/5.0"})
    soup = BeautifulSoup(res.text,"lxml")
    payload = {i['name']: i.get('value', '') for i in soup.select('input[name]')}
    payload['email'] = 'some username'
    payload['password'] = 'some password'

    s.post(signin,data=payload,headers={
        "User-agent":"Mozilla/5.0",
        "Cookie": 'adblk=adblk_yes; ubid-main=130-2884709-6520735; _msuuid_518k2z41603=95C56F3B-E3C1-40E5-A47B-C4F7BAF2FF5D; _fbp=fb.1.1574621403438.97041399; pa=BCYm5GYAag-hj1CWg3cPXjfv2X6NGPUp6kLguepMku7Yf0W9-iSTjgmVNGmQLwUfJ5XJPHqlh84f%0D%0Agrd2voq0Q7TR_rdXU4T1BJw-1a-DdvCNSVuWSm50IXJDC_H4-wM_Qli_%0D%0A; uu=BCYnANeBBdnuTg3UKEVGDiO203C7KR0AQTdyE9Y_Y70vpd04N5QZ2bD3RwWdMBNMAJtdbRbPZMpG%0D%0AbPpC6vZvoMDzucwsE7pTQiKxY24Gr4_-0ONm7hGKPfPbMwvI1NYzy5ZhTIyIUqeVAQ7geCBiS5NS%0D%0A1A%0D%0A; session-id=137-0235974-9052660; session-id-time=2205351554; session-token=jsvzgJ4JY/TCgodelKegvXcqdLyAy4NTDO5/iEvk90VA8qWWEPJpiiRYAZe3V0EYVFlKq590mXU0OU9XMbAzwyKqXIzPLzKfLf3Cc3k0g/VQNTo6roAEa5IxmOGZjWrJuhkRZ1YgeF5uPZLcatWF1y5PFHqvjaDxQrf2LZbgRXF5N7vacTZ8maK0ciJmQEjh; csm-hit=tb:8HH0DWNBDVSWP881GYKG+s-8HH0DWNBDVSWP881GYKG|1574631571950&t:1574631571952&adb:adblk_yes'
        })

    r = s.get(mainurl,headers={
        "Cookie": 'adblk=adblk_yes; ubid-main=130-2884709-6520735; _msuuid_518k2z41603=95C56F3B-E3C1-40E5-A47B-C4F7BAF2FF5D; _fbp=fb.1.1574621403438.97041399; pa=BCYm5GYAag-hj1CWg3cPXjfv2X6NGPUp6kLguepMku7Yf0W9-iSTjgmVNGmQLwUfJ5XJPHqlh84f%0D%0Agrd2voq0Q7TR_rdXU4T1BJw-1a-DdvCNSVuWSm50IXJDC_H4-wM_Qli_%0D%0A; csm-hit=tb:KV47B1QVKP4DNB3QGY95+b-NM69W1Y35R7ARV0639V5|1574631544432&t:1574631544432&adb:adblk_yes; session-id=137-0235974-9052660; session-id-time=2205351554; session-token="EsIzROiSTmFDfXd5jnBPIBOpYG9jAu7tiWXDF8R52sUw5jS6OjddfOOQB+ytCmq0K3UnXs9wKBvQtkB4aVNsXieVbRcIUrKf3iPnYeJchbOlShMjg+MR+O7IQgPKkw0BKihdYQ1YIl7KQS8VeLxZjtzJ5sj5ocnY72fCKdwq/fGOjfieFYbe9Km3a8h++1GpC738JbwcVdpTG08v1pjhQKifqPQXnqhcyVKhi8CD1qk="; x-main="C1KbtQgFFBAYfwttdRSrU5CpCe@Fn6SPHnBTY6dO2ppimt@u1P1L7G0PueQMn6X3"; at-main=Atza|IwEBICfS3UKNp2mwmbyUPY1QzjXRHMcL6fjv2ND7BDXsZ1G-qDPJKsLJXeU9gJOvRpWsofSpOJCyhnap-bIOWCutU6VMIS9bn3UkNVRP8WFVqrs-CLB5opLbrEx6YxVGQlfaxx54gzuuGO4D30z-AgBpGe64_bn0K1iLOT3P3i7S3nBzvP_0AopwKlbU7SRnE5m21cVfVK7bwbtfZO4cf7DrpGcaHK4dlY5jKHPzNx_AR4ypqsEBFbHon36N1j8foty6wLJhFP1gNCvs24mVCec24TRho5ZXFDYqhLB-dw9V3XY1eq7q1QNgtAdYkDSJ6Mq1nllFu59WqIVs1Y3lLEaxDUExLtCt-VQArpS_hZtZR8C_kevhV01jEhWg8RUQaCdYTMwZHwa778MiEOrrrdGqFnR5; sess-at-main="tWwUfkZLx+mDAPqZo+J6yJlnjqBJvYJ0oVMS6/NcIKQ="; id=BCYhnxuM-3g3WFo4uvCv6C5LdGLJKaIcZj8E-rQwU_YsF991I3Tqe94W6IlU27FvaNcnuCyv5Te3%0D%0A0c3O1mMYhEE14wMdByo2SvGXkBS0A4oFMJMEIe0aC1X4fyNRwWYNZ72a6NDzAOqeDQi3_7sZZGH8%0D%0AxQ%0D%0A; uu=BCYsGSOaee6VbhMOMXpG3F_6i7cTIkPCN0S0_Jv7c3bVkUQ5gp9vqtfvVlOMOIOqXv-uHSTSibBp%0D%0ATO1e4tRpT1DolY2qkoOW8yICF7ZrXqAgont_ShTy8zVEg1wxWCxg3_XQX8r8_dGFCO4NWZiyLH-f%0D%0A2RpBF2IJLUSd8R4UCbbbtgo%0D%0A; sid=BCYp9inRAYR9sJgmF1FcA9Vgto81vmiCYHP_gEVv6r2ZdBtz1bKtOQg4_0iSwREudsZrPM8SHMUk%0D%0A5jFMp74veGrdwNTf8DONXPUCExLgkHzfeoZr-KHf4VbI7aI5TrJhqSioYbEhHYqm6q5RGrXfCVPr%0D%0AqA%0D%0A'
        })

    sauce = BeautifulSoup(r.text,"lxml")
    name = sauce.select_one("span.display-name").text
    print(name)

I've tried with the following to see if it works to avoid using hardcoded cookies but unfortunately it failed:

cookie_string = "; ".join([str(x)+"="+str(y) for x,y in s.cookies.items()])

This is how I tried automatically:

cookie_string = "; ".join([str(x)+"="+str(y) for x,y in s.cookies.items()])
s.post(signin,data=payload,headers={
    "User-agent":"Mozilla/5.0",
    "Cookie": cookie_string
    })
cookie_string_ano = "; ".join([str(x)+"="+str(y) for x,y in s.cookies.items()])
r = s.get(mainurl,headers={
    "Cookie": cookie_string_ano
    })

When I tried using above I can see that cookie_string,cookie_string_ano are producing session-id=130-0171771-5726549; session-id-time=2205475101l and session-id=130-0171771-5726549; session-id-time=2205475101l; ubid-main=135-8050026-6353151.

How can I fetch the username without using hardcoded cookies within the script?

Answer 1

To fetch cookies from Chrome dev tools, there is a need to interact with Google Chrome using Chrome DevTools Protocol within a Python script.

Here is a python plugin that gives you the privilege to get cookies. This will help you to overcome the issue related to hard-coded cookies. Visit Reference : PyChromeDevTools.

---

Remember: Screen scraping is explicitly forbidden by the IMDb. Visit Reference IMDb Conditions of Use as given here that;

Robots and Screen Scraping: You may not use data mining, robots, screen scraping, or similar data gathering and extraction tools on this site, except with our express wrote consent as noted below.

---

Prerequisites:

• For this, you first have to set chrome path in system environment variables.

• After this, you must run an instance of Google Chrome with the remote-debugging option - visit-reference: Remote debugging with Chrome Developer Tools.

• Use the following command in command-prompt or terminal to run the instance as given;

  chrome.exe --remote-debugging-port=9222 --user-data-dir=remote-profile

---

Workaround:

After running Google instance then you can run this program like in the following example.

import time
import requests
import PyChromeDevTools
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

url = 'https://secure.imdb.com/ap/signin?openid.pape.max_auth_age=0&openid.return_to=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.imdb.com%2Fap-signin-handler&openid.identity=http%3A%2F%2Fspecs.openid.net%2Fauth%2F2.0%2Fidentifier_select&openid.assoc_handle=imdb_pro_us&openid.mode=checkid_setup&siteState=eyJvcGVuaWQuYXNzb2NfaGFuZGxlIjoiaW1kYl9wcm9fdXMiLCJyZWRpcmVjdFRvIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9wcm8uaW1kYi5jb20vIn0&openid.claimed_id=http%3A%2F%2Fspecs.openid.net%2Fauth%2F2.0%2Fidentifier_select&openid.ns=http%3A%2F%2Fspecs.openid.net%2Fauth%2F2.0'
signin = 'https://secure.imdb.com/ap/signin'
mainurl = 'https://pro.imdb.com/'


def parse_cookies(input_url):
    chrome = PyChromeDevTools.ChromeInterface()
    chrome.Network.enable()
    chrome.Page.enable()
    chrome.Page.navigate(url=input_url)
    time.sleep(2)

    cookies = chrome.Network.getCookies()

    return cookies["result"]["cookies"]


def get_cookies(parsed_cookie_string):
    cookie_names = [sub_cookie['name'] for sub_cookie in parsed_cookie_string]
    cookie_values = [sub_cookie['value'] for sub_cookie in parsed_cookie_string]

    cookie_string = "; ".join([str(x) + "=" + str(y) for x, y in zip(cookie_names, cookie_values)])

    return cookie_string


with requests.Session() as s:
    res = s.get(url, headers={"User-agent": "Mozilla/5.0"})
    soup = BeautifulSoup(res.text, "lxml")
    payload = {i['name']: i.get('value', '') for i in soup.select('input[name]')}
    payload['email'] = 'some username'
    payload['password'] = 'some password'

    cookie_string_for_post = parse_cookies(signin)
    print("Cookies for Post Request:\n ", cookie_string_for_post)

    cookie_string_for_get = parse_cookies(mainurl)
    print("Cookies for Get Request:\n ", cookie_string_for_get)

    post_req_cookies = get_cookies(cookie_string_for_post)
    print("Post Cookie_String:\n ", post_req_cookies)

    get_req_cookies = get_cookies(cookie_string_for_get)
    print("Get Cookie_String:\n ", get_req_cookies)

    s.post(signin, data=payload, headers={
        "User-agent": "Mozilla/5.0",
        "Cookie": post_req_cookies
    })

    r = s.get(mainurl, headers={
        "Cookie": get_req_cookies
    })

    sauce = BeautifulSoup(r.text, "lxml")
    name = sauce.select_one("span.display-name").text
    print("User-Name:", name)

In the above script, I have maintained two methods:

• parse_cookies(input_url) # To Parse Cookies from IMDB before and after sign-in
• get_cookies(parsed_cookie_string) # To do slicing for { name=values; } pattern

Here are results from above script;

Cookies for Post Request:
  [{'name': 'csm-hit', 'value': 'adb:adblk_no&t:1575551929829', 'domain': 'secure.imdb.com', 'path': '/', 'expires': 1636031929, 'size': 35, 'httpOnly': False, 'secure': False, 'session': False}, {'name': 'session-token', 'value': 'ojv7WWBxadoA7dlcquiw9uErP2rhrTH7rHbpVhoRy4T+qTDfhwZKdDt5jOeGfZp1TKvwtzTGuJ6pOltjNFPiIuP5Rd5Vw8/e1J3RY/iye5tEh7qoRC2NHF9wc003xKG3PPAAdmgf8/mv8GeLAOOKNgWKBTUeMre9xbj5GzXxZBPdXMZttHrMYqKKSuwWLpa0', 'domain': '.imdb.com', 'path': '/', 'expires': 3723035367.931534, 'size': 205, 'httpOnly': True, 'secure': True, 'session': False}, {'name': '_msuuid_518k2z41603', 'value': '7EFA48D9-B808-4A94-AF25-DF946D700AE7', 'domain': '.imdb.com', 'path': '/', 'expires': 1607087673, 'size': 55, 'httpOnly': False, 'secure': False, 'session': False}, {'name': 'uu', 'value': 'BCYrG0JCGIzGSiHxLJnhMiZmYPKjX1M_R2SYqoaFp8H_0KTtNvuGu-u_h_WO9yjlPz2CTdiUs86i%0D%0Az7kP7F-mJu5OZVpOKhquJmQf7Ks8_flkk2XlZzTPnz7R4WTBpqeRfxQqr0M9q54Gvnd0f5s1lajr%0D%0AVA%0D%0A', 'domain': '.imdb.com', 'path': '/', 'expires': 3723035262.37521, 'size': 174, 'httpOnly': False, 'secure': True, 'session': False}, {'name': 'ubid-main', 'value': '130-4270133-5864707', 'domain': '.imdb.com', 'path': '/', 'expires': 3723035317.315112, 'size': 28, 'httpOnly': False, 'secure': True, 'session': False}, {'name': 'adblk', 'value': 'adblk_no', 'domain': '.imdb.com', 'path': '/', 'expires': 1607087639, 'size': 13, 'httpOnly': False, 'secure': False, 'session': False}, {'name': '_fbp', 'value': 'fb.1.1575551679007.40322953', 'domain': '.imdb.com', 'path': '/', 'expires': 1583327724, 'size': 31, 'httpOnly': False, 'secure': False, 'session': False}, {'name': 'session-id', 'value': '130-3480383-2108806', 'domain': '.imdb.com', 'path': '/', 'expires': 3723035262.375339, 'size': 29, 'httpOnly': False, 'secure': True, 'session': False}, {'name': 'session-id-time', 'value': '2206271615', 'domain': '.imdb.com', 'path': '/', 'expires': 3723035262.375396, 'size': 25, 'httpOnly': False, 'secure': True, 'session': False}]
Cookies for Get Request:
  [{'name': 'vuid', 'value': 'pl1203459194.1031556308', 'domain': '.vimeo.com', 'path': '/', 'expires': 1638623938, 'size': 27, 'httpOnly': False, 'secure': False, 'session': False}, {'name': 'session-token', 'value': 'ojv7WWBxadoA7dlcquiw9uErP2rhrTH7rHbpVhoRy4T+qTDfhwZKdDt5jOeGfZp1TKvwtzTGuJ6pOltjNFPiIuP5Rd5Vw8/e1J3RY/iye5tEh7qoRC2NHF9wc003xKG3PPAAdmgf8/mv8GeLAOOKNgWKBTUeMre9xbj5GzXxZBPdXMZttHrMYqKKSuwWLpa0', 'domain': '.imdb.com', 'path': '/', 'expires': 3723035367.931534, 'size': 205, 'httpOnly': True, 'secure': True, 'session': False}, {'name': '_msuuid_518k2z41603', 'value': '7EFA48D9-B808-4A94-AF25-DF946D700AE7', 'domain': '.imdb.com', 'path': '/', 'expires': 1607087673, 'size': 55, 'httpOnly': False, 'secure': False, 'session': False}, {'name': 'uu', 'value': 'BCYrG0JCGIzGSiHxLJnhMiZmYPKjX1M_R2SYqoaFp8H_0KTtNvuGu-u_h_WO9yjlPz2CTdiUs86i%0D%0Az7kP7F-mJu5OZVpOKhquJmQf7Ks8_flkk2XlZzTPnz7R4WTBpqeRfxQqr0M9q54Gvnd0f5s1lajr%0D%0AVA%0D%0A', 'domain': '.imdb.com', 'path': '/', 'expires': 3723035262.37521, 'size': 174, 'httpOnly': False, 'secure': True, 'session': False}, {'name': 'ubid-main', 'value': '130-4270133-5864707', 'domain': '.imdb.com', 'path': '/', 'expires': 3723035317.315112, 'size': 28, 'httpOnly': False, 'secure': True, 'session': False}, {'name': 'adblk', 'value': 'adblk_no', 'domain': '.imdb.com', 'path': '/', 'expires': 1607087639, 'size': 13, 'httpOnly': False, 'secure': False, 'session': False}, {'name': '_fbp', 'value': 'fb.1.1575551679007.40322953', 'domain': '.imdb.com', 'path': '/', 'expires': 1583327724, 'size': 31, 'httpOnly': False, 'secure': False, 'session': False}, {'name': 'session-id', 'value': '130-3480383-2108806', 'domain': '.imdb.com', 'path': '/', 'expires': 3723035262.375339, 'size': 29, 'httpOnly': False, 'secure': True, 'session': False}, {'name': 'session-id-time', 'value': '2206271615', 'domain': '.imdb.com', 'path': '/', 'expires': 3723035262.375396, 'size': 25, 'httpOnly': False, 'secure': True, 'session': False}]
Post Cookie_String:
  csm-hit=adb:adblk_no&t:1575551929829; session-token=ojv7WWBxadoA7dlcquiw9uErP2rhrTH7rHbpVhoRy4T+qTDfhwZKdDt5jOeGfZp1TKvwtzTGuJ6pOltjNFPiIuP5Rd5Vw8/e1J3RY/iye5tEh7qoRC2NHF9wc003xKG3PPAAdmgf8/mv8GeLAOOKNgWKBTUeMre9xbj5GzXxZBPdXMZttHrMYqKKSuwWLpa0; _msuuid_518k2z41603=7EFA48D9-B808-4A94-AF25-DF946D700AE7; uu=BCYrG0JCGIzGSiHxLJnhMiZmYPKjX1M_R2SYqoaFp8H_0KTtNvuGu-u_h_WO9yjlPz2CTdiUs86i%0D%0Az7kP7F-mJu5OZVpOKhquJmQf7Ks8_flkk2XlZzTPnz7R4WTBpqeRfxQqr0M9q54Gvnd0f5s1lajr%0D%0AVA%0D%0A; ubid-main=130-4270133-5864707; adblk=adblk_no; _fbp=fb.1.1575551679007.40322953; session-id=130-3480383-2108806; session-id-time=2206271615
Get Cookie_String:
  vuid=pl1203459194.1031556308; session-token=ojv7WWBxadoA7dlcquiw9uErP2rhrTH7rHbpVhoRy4T+qTDfhwZKdDt5jOeGfZp1TKvwtzTGuJ6pOltjNFPiIuP5Rd5Vw8/e1J3RY/iye5tEh7qoRC2NHF9wc003xKG3PPAAdmgf8/mv8GeLAOOKNgWKBTUeMre9xbj5GzXxZBPdXMZttHrMYqKKSuwWLpa0; _msuuid_518k2z41603=7EFA48D9-B808-4A94-AF25-DF946D700AE7; uu=BCYrG0JCGIzGSiHxLJnhMiZmYPKjX1M_R2SYqoaFp8H_0KTtNvuGu-u_h_WO9yjlPz2CTdiUs86i%0D%0Az7kP7F-mJu5OZVpOKhquJmQf7Ks8_flkk2XlZzTPnz7R4WTBpqeRfxQqr0M9q54Gvnd0f5s1lajr%0D%0AVA%0D%0A; ubid-main=130-4270133-5864707; adblk=adblk_no; _fbp=fb.1.1575551679007.40322953; session-id=130-3480383-2108806; session-id-time=2206271615
User-Name: **Logged in user-name**