Sending POST request with username and password and save session cookie

Question

How can I save cookies with Jsoup after sending a POST request with username and password? Or must I first provide them to connection object and then save?

Solution

Assuming that the HTML form look like below:

<form action="http://example.com/login" method="post">
    <input type="text" name="username" />
    <input type="password" name="password" />
    <input type="submit" name="login" value="Login" />
</form>

You can POST it and obtain cookies as below:

Response response = Jsoup.connect("http://example.com/login")
    .method(Method.POST)
    .data("username", username)
    .data("password", password)
    .data("login", "Login")
    .execute();
Map<String, String> cookies = response.cookies();
Document document = response.parse(); // If necessary.
// ...

You can pass cookies back on subsequent requests as below:

Document document = Jsoup.connect("http://example.com/user")
    .cookies(cookies)
    .get();
// ...

Or if you know the individual cookie name:

Document document = Jsoup.connect("http://example.com/user")
    .cookie("SESSIONID", cookies.get("SESSIONID"))
    .get();
// ...

Comments

[Jonathan Hedley]

Good point on the .cookies(map) suggestion. There's one there for .data(). I'll look to add it soon.

[Jonathan Hedley]

OK I've that method; available now if you build from head, or in 1.6.2 soon. github.com/jhy/jsoup/commit/…