[TriLUG] Web Form Data

[Mark Freeze]

I am hoping someone can help me solve an issue we are having at work.

In the course of a day, we have literally hundreds of account numbers
we look up on one of our vendors websites.  We are usually just
looking for a particular status code.  This process takes a huge
amount of time as the account numbers have to be entered one by one.

What I am looking to do is to automate this process.  I'd like to
create a text file of account numbers on my local system, log into the
website, and then have a script or something march through the account
numbers automatically, entering them on the vendor's form, retrieve
the results, and place them into another text file on the local
system.

I have seen several companies on the internet that sell software to do
this, but I'd really like to write it myself.   Can someone kick me in
the right direction of how to get started on this project?

Thanks,
Mark.