Page-Level Web Functions Overview

The page-level web functions focus on Web pages rather than on single documents. A high-speed HTML parser enables the Web replay engine to access hyperlinks, forms and other load-relevant elements while downloading HTML documents. The functions also download embedded documents like images, applets and frames automatically.

One of the most important benefits of parsing HTML is direct access to session IDs that may reside in query strings of URLs or in hidden fields of forms. However, for sake of speed and memory overhead, HTML elements that are not relevant for navigation or data entry are ignored by the parser. This means that you can query the HTML document for hyperlinks, but in order to access HTML tables you still need to use the WebParseResponseData function.

When to use the page-level web functions :

When to use the low-level web functions instead:

Page context

The Web page context is the link used to navigate from one page to another. The context can be maintained if there is enough HTML hyperlink information in page A to navigate to page B. Thus the context-less page-level web functions use an absolute URL to request a Web document, whereas the contextual functions try to retrieve the URL from the prior Web page. If a contextual function fails to find the necessary hyperlink information, the context is lost and all subsequent page download requests may also fail.

Context-less functions

WebPageUrl
Requests a document.
WebPageForm
Submits the form data.
WebPagePost
Posts the content of a Web form in binary format to the Web server by means of the HTTP POST method.
WebPagePostFile
Posts the content of a Web form in binary format to the Web server by means of the HTTP POST method.
WebPageCustomRequest
Requests and reads a complete Web page specified by a URL using HTTP. If the retrieved document is of content type HTML, it is parsed, and embedded documents are requested.
WebPageCustomRequestBin
Requests and reads a complete Web page specified by a URL using HTTP. If the retrieved document is of content type HTML, it is parsed, and embedded documents are requested.
WebPageCustomRequestFile
Requests and reads a complete document specified by a URL using the specified HTTP method.

Context-full functions

WebPageLink
Queries the link information and requests a document
WebPageBack
Goes back one page.
WebPageSubmit
Queries form information and submits a form.
WebPageSubmitBin
Queries form information and submits binary data.

Context query functions

WebPageQueryLink
Queries context information for available hyperlinks.