ASPTear Component

Component Properties

The following table describes which properties are supported by the AspTear component. Property names are in Italic. Get means that the property value can be read, set means that it can be changed. Default values are also described.

 

Property

Description

Accept

get/set - default: "text/*"

Defines the HTTP_ACCEPT header. By default, only text documents are handled by this component. (*)

ConnectionTimeout

get/set - default: 2000

You can set a connection timeout for connecting to remote web servers. This property is defined in milliseconds.

ContentType

get/set - default: "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"

Best to leave to the default - this default content type is needed to successfully GET and POST to ASP pages.

FollowRedirects

get/set - default: True

Specify whether the component should automatically follow redirects (302's)

ForceReload

get/set - default: False

Use to prevent local caching from WinInet (component will always roundtrip to server)

Headers

get only - returns headers after retrieve operation

Retrieve the headers after the retrieval of the document.

HttpVersion

get/set - default: "HTTP/1.0"

Determine the version of HTTP that should be used to connect to the remote Web server.

IgnoreInvalidCertDate

get/set - default: False

Allows you to ignore invalid certificate expiration dates - for example, certificates that have already expired would cause the page not to download.

IgnoreInvalidCN

get/set - default: False

Allows you to ignore invalid common names in certificates. For example, the certificate was issued for www.domain1.com, but is used for www.domain2.com - then the CN is invalid.

Port

get/set - default: not set, autodetermine

Set port number manually. Preferred way is by appending to URL, like http://www.alphasierrapapa.com:8181

Proxy

get/set - default: "" (no proxy)

Enter the proxy server you want to use for accessing the Internet. The full URL including protocol and port must be supplied, eg: http://proxy.alphasierrapapa.com:8081

ProxyUsername

get/set - default: "" (no username)

Use for proxies that require authentication other than Windows integrated (MS Proxy or ISA).

ProxyPassword

get/set - default: "" (no password)

Use for proxies that require authentication other than Windows integrated (MS Proxy or ISA).

RedirectTarget

get

When using FollowRedirects=False, you can determine the redirect target using this property.

Referrer

get/set - default: none

You can set the referrer if the page you are calling needs one.

SendClientCertificate

get/set - default: False

Set to True when you want to send a client certificate when connecting to an SSL secured Web site. Please see the section entitled Client Certificates for more information.

TrustUnknownCA

get/set - default: False

If you don't have control over the machine where IIS is running on, the IIS certificate authority store cannot be updated using the iisca utility. In that case, you can tell the component to simply trust any CA it comes across. (**)

UserAgent

get/set

Default: "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows NT 5.0; AspTear 1.5)"

If you need to set a specific user agent (eg, you want to retrieve a page that does a browser check and acts accordingly), simply change the personality of the component.

 

(*) In the current release, you can set only one Accept type. If you want to receive any content, simply use "*/*" as Accept type.

(**) The iisca utility can be found in the WINNT\system32\inetsrv directory. It allows you to copy root certificates from the user's root store to IIS's root store. This must be done for every new CA you want to trust.

 

Component Methods

The following methods are supported by the AspTear component:

 

Method

Description

AddCookie(CookieName, CookieValue)

Add a cookie to the page request. Cookies must be added before either calling Retrieve or Save.

AddHeader(Headername, Headervalue)

Add an additional header to the request. Headers must be added before either calling Retrieve or Save. Note that the COOKIE header can be modified only via the AddCookie method.

Reset()

Resets all component properties to their default values. Use it when retrieving multiple files in a row with different parameters.

Retrieve(URL, Method, Payload, Username, Password)

Payload is the Querystring or POST data. It is formatted as follows: variable=Server.UrlEncode(data)&…

If Username and Password are not needed, supply an empty string.

Method is an integer, with POST being represented by 1, GET with 2, and HEAD with 3.

Save(URL, Method, Payload, Filename, Username, Password)

Parameters are the same as for Retrieve. Filename, however, must be supplied with Server.MapPath already applied (component does not rely on OnStartPage event from IIS, thus being usable from all Automation environments)