using automator/applescript to upload files to a web form?

Question

I have a bunch of files I want to upload to web page. Unfortunately the web form for uploading only allows me to specify one at a time (it spawns and 'open file' dialog). Is there an easy way to do this with some combination of automator/applescirpt?

Answer 1

I followed @drevickos very good instructions. Didn't manage it with Safari, but Firefox works perfectly. Below the downloads for the Service file UploadFilesWebForm and the Automator file UploadFirefox3.

With these files, I managed to upload multiple files to SAS on AWS. For any other website, you should adjust:

• Watch me do procedure to fit your web form in the UploadFirefox3 file
• The delay needed for upload specified in the UploadFirefox3 file

UploadFilesWebForm.workflow.zip http://www45.zippyshare.com/v/QQm0SKJ5/file.html UploadFirefox3.workflow.zip http://www45.zippyshare.com/v/bHyKGi2g/file.html

Answer 2

Ok, I managed to get automator to do what I wanted, with a little help from grep ;)

I did it with a 'workflow' and a "files and folders" in "finder" service. The service calls the workflow with each of the selected file names.

Here's what the service does:

• Run Shell Script with Pass input to stdin and the script grep -o '[^/]*$' -- the service receives the full paths of the files selected in the finder, I only want the file names, so this removes the path bit.
• Launch Application with firefox -- this seems to be the best way to switch applications (even if they're already open..)
• Run Workflow - in batches of 1 at a time using 1 workflow, with "wait for workflow to finish" ticked.

The in batches mode appears to process text input line by line. Each line output by grep contains a file name, so the second workflow is called once with each file name. Note that the list of file names is passed through Launch Application.

Here's what the workflow does:

• Copy to Clipboard
• a recorded Watch Me Do:
  • a series of clicks to get the 'upload file' dialog up
  • a click to focus it's search box,\
  • paste (the file name)
  • select the top found file
  • click 'open'
  • a series of clicks to upload the file and return the page to the same state in which we started

There were a few hiccups along the way.

• First I used command-V to paste, but for some reason that was unreliable, so I ended up using paste from the edit menu instead.
• I had to be careful to leave enough time between clicks for worst-case rendering of html pages and opening dialogs etc..
• When the flow crashed (usually by getting out of sync with the browser), I often ended up with the browser stuck with the 'upload file' dialog open and unresponsive. To get it responsive again, I found that moving it sufficed (ie: dragging it's title bar a bit).