I'm working on a system that uses a ZIP file found on a government-owned public website. By law, the data is free to the public and can be used for commercial purposes, but the state is more or less trying to discreetly discourage that by making the data hard to access.

On their website, the link to download the file is:

<form name="_ctl0" method="post" action="stats.aspx" id="_ctl0">
<input type="hidden" name="__EVENTTARGET" id="__EVENTTARGET" value="" />
<input type="hidden" name="__EVENTARGUMENT" id="__EVENTARGUMENT" value="" />
<input type="hidden" name="__VIEWSTATE" id="__VIEWSTATE" value="[random 3,169 digit code ending with ==, probably a key]" />

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
var theForm = document.forms['_ctl0'];
if (!theForm) {
  theForm = document._ctl0;
}
function __doPostBack(eventTarget, eventArgument) {
  if (!theForm.onsubmit || (theForm.onsubmit() != false)) {
    theForm.__EVENTTARGET.value = eventTarget;
    theForm.__EVENTARGUMENT.value = eventArgument;
    theForm.submit();
  }
}
// -->
</script>

<input type="hidden" name="__VIEWSTATEGENERATOR" id="__VIEWSTATEGENERATOR" value="AEA4A7A6" />

<a id="datadownloadbutton" href="javascript:__doPostBack('datadownloadbutton','')">here</a>
</form>

Once you click the "here" link, the script loads a ZIP file to be downloaded to your PC. But what I need is to copy this file from their server to mine each day using a CRON.

I emailed the state webmaster and asked for a direct link. He replied that, while the information is public record, the only way they can give to download it is through the website. His recommendation was to manually download it each day then upload it to my server, which is obviously a pain.

I tried to create the form using GET parameters, like so:

http://www.example.com/stats.aspx?__VIEWSTATEGENERATOR=AEA4A7A6&__VIEWSTATE=[url encoded code]

but it just gave me an error page. So I'm assuming the ASPX file is specifically looking for POST parameters, not GET. But it could also be that the 3,169 digit code is just too long to be sent through a browser.

So, can you guys think of a way that I can work around this and find the path to the zip file on their server?

TIA!