Script/bot to open a link inside an email - php

Question

I want download a report that I'm receiving every day on my inbox.
This email contains a link to a platform (where I have to be logged-in on the platform to open the link correctly, otherwise I will be redirected to login page) and finally there is another link that downloads the report to my computer.
My question is: It's possible to make a PHP script that can do this automatically?. All the process to read the email and identify the link it's easy, I want some guidelines to continue working.
Thanks!

Answer 1

This may be harder than you anticipate and PHP may not be the best language to achieve what you are after as it can not run on top of Outlook or any other desktop based email client. To do this you would have to run the PHP code from the command line, and have it set to regularly intercept all your emails and check to see if the email is from a specific user, and if it is parse the email for the two necessary links. Once you have the links you can have the code establish a cURL connection to the login form and pass the username and password, ensuring to pass any cookies defined from the authenticated session, and then establish a new cURL link to the download link to download the file to the local file system, after which you can send a new email to yourself attaching the file as a native attachment, dependant on file size.
Information on sending cookies with cURL can be found at How can I send cookies using PHP curl in addition to CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE?
The net result though is that this would have to run in the background continuously and would have to be set to regularly connect to your email server and check all emails for the existence of emails from the automated email sender.
An easier solution would be to find out if the automated tool can be setup to simply send the file as an email attachment so that you don't have to run the excess code. In addition any time the initial email structure changes or the download or login links change you would have to update the code to deal with the associated changes.
Main point is that PHP isn't the most ideal solution for what you are trying to do and what you are trying to do, in any language, is going to be a complex task to achieve.

Answer 2

When you already have the email link you could login to the platform using a curl request and afterwards make the same call again. the second time you'd be logged in and curl would download your report.

Answer 3

You could use the cURL library.
How does your platform identifies you ? If you can use cookies, look for
CURLOPT_COOKIE
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIE, session_name() . '=' . session_id());

Answer 4

i have the a similar issue, i want to open on googlesheets a series of reports from my email, managed to do it when its attached evenif is a zip, but when its only a link o cannot do it, heres the script i use, maybe someone could upgraded to open links and import the csv
function importCSV() {
// Change the report name Report
var threads = GmailApp.search("subject:XXXXXX has:attachment from:XXXXX#google.com newer_than:1d");
var message = threads[0].getMessages()[threads[0].getMessages().length-1];
var allAttachment = message.getAttachments();
var attachment = allAttachment[0];
var contentType = attachment.getContentType();
var name = attachment.getName();
if (attachment.getContentType() === "text/csv") {
// Change the sheet name, where you want the data to appear
var sheetActive = SpreadsheetApp.openById("1slVepI8s2Ekdiha0u4NpqFLZ4NnJrhyc8in9hYNzJA0");
var sheet = sheetActive.getSheetByName("Youtube");
var csvData = Utilities.parseCsv(attachment.getDataAsString(), ",");
// This clears the document from previous data
sheet.clearContents().clearFormats();
// Import the CSV file to the spreadsheet
sheet.getRange(1, 1, csvData.length, csvData[0].length).setValues(csvData);
}
else if (attachment.getContentType() === "application/zip") {
attachment.setContentTypeFromExtension();
// Unzip Attachment Change the sheet name, where you want the data to appear
var sheetActive = SpreadsheetApp.openById("1slVepI8s2Ekdiha0u4NpqFLZ4NnJrhyc8in9hYNzJA0");
var sheet = sheetActive.getSheetByName("Youtube");
try {
var unzip = Utilities.unzip(attachment)[0];
var csv = unzip.getDataAsString();
var csvData2 = Utilities.parseCsv(csv, ",");
// This clears the document from previous data
sheet.clearContents().clearFormats();
// Import the CSV file to the spreadsheet
sheet.getRange(1, 1, csvData2.length, csvData2[0].length).setValues(csvData2);
} catch (e) {
// Logs an ERROR message.
console.error('myFunction() yielded an error: ' + e);
}
}}