How-to: Create a shortcut that automatically logs in to any website

Would you like to discover how you can make desktop shortcuts

That will automatically open and

Fill in your username and password

Then log you into any website fully automated?

Ever since I learned how to use a script to automate a browser

I have been using scripts to automate and log in to websites.

If you also see the benefit in that

Then in this tutorial:

I will show you step by step how you can easily make shortcuts that automatically login.

At the end of this post, you can get the script as a free download

 

Degree of difficulty:

In this tutorial we will make a script using the free scripting language AutoHotkey, it will open and log you in using the Internet Explorer browser.

Before we start, all you need are 2 things:

• AutoHotkey ( Download | Website)
• A text editor like Notepad or something like SciTE4AutoHotkey

And 14 lines of plain text from this step by step tutorial.

 

Novices are recommended to have a look at this Tutorial

 

Example video: (0:21)

 

Now let’s get on with the step by step on how to make a script that will automate your login to any website using Internet Explorer.

Frist I’ll just pick a site that most of us know “Facebook” but remember that you can use this how-to for almost any website.

 

The File to shortcut:

We start by making a new script

Now if you have AutoHotkey installed you can skip step one in this list.

How to create a new script:

1. Download and install AutoHotkey.
2. Right-click an empty spot on your desktop or in a folder of your choice.
3. In the menu that appears, select New -> AutoHotkey Script.                 (Alternatively, select New -> Text Document.)
4. Type a name for the file, ensuring that it ends in .ahk. For example: Testing.ahk
5. Right-click the file and choose Edit Script.

Each script is just a plain text file containing commands that will be executed by AutoHotkey.exe

 

The 14 lines of text:

On the two first lines you will store your login info in two variables. ( Remember that this is a plain text file so if anyone has access to this file your password will be readable )

My_User_Name := "jackiesztuk@Somemail.com"

My_Pass_Word := "funny541"

 

Browser object:

Then we will make a webbrowser object

For this we will use the function ComObjCreate

And then we use the browser object returned from that function

This object is then stored in the variable “web_browser”

web_browser := ComObjCreate("InternetExplorer.Application")

 

A thing to note is that the web browser window starts out invisible by default

So we will set the browsers visible property to true

This way it will be visible so we can see it.

web_browser.Visible := true

 

Now we have a visible web browser object in a variable aka “web_browser”

 

Next we will use this object to navigate the IE web browser

For this we will use the browsers navigate method

Lets navigate to Facebook

web_browser.Navigate("www.facebook.com")

 

Now the browser will navigate to the URL “www.facebook.com”

 

Waiting for a web page to load:

But for us to know how long this navigation will take

We will use another property of the browser object

The busy property, this property will be true as long as the browser is busy

So we will test for this with a while loop

while web_browser.busy ; a while loop is a way to keep the script testing an IF like expression

sleep 100 ; IF web_browser.busy is true then sleep 100 milliseconds

This while loop will test the busy property every 100 milliseconds aka 10 times a seconds

 

After the while loop breaks we will put in a little extra sleep (wait time) to make sure any JavaScript is also done before we start

sleep 1000

 

 

So as soon as the web browser stops being busy the while loop will break

And the script will go onto the next lines

 

So now we or the browser is done navigating to “www.facebook.com”

 

Automatically interacting with a website:

Facebook is an html document that’s now loaded in the web browser object

So for us to automate this site we will need to go through the document object

Like this “web_browser.document”

Now it’s time to automatically input our username and password

For this we will need to know what input fields to use

 

This we can do with other script tools or the browser’s build in tools

This time we will use the IE browser’s “DOM Explorer” tool

 

You do this by manually opening an Internet Explorer browser and navigate to Facebook

Now press your right mouse button over the “Email or phone” field and pick

the “Inspect element” item from the drop down menu that appears

 

This will open Explores “DOM explorer” sub window

In this window you will see a line that is selected

looking something like this

<input name=”email” tabindex=”1″ id=”email” type=”text” value=””>

 

From this line we will need the value of the “id” Attribute

So looking at this line will tell us that here the “id” is “email” so let’s use that

 

Now to use this element we will store it in a variable let’s call it “username_input”

To do this we will use the document objects getElementById function

It looks like this

username_input := web_browser.document.getElementById("email")

That line gets the element with the id = “email” and puts it in our variable “username_input”

 

Now we can use this webpage element via our variable “username_input”

 

 

Automated filling of web fields:

So to automatically fill in the value of the input field with our username

We will set the “value” property of the element to the data in our “My_User_Name” variable

username_input.value := My_User_Name

So now the “email or phone” input field will hold our username

 

Next we will do the same thing for the password.

Go to www.facebook.com and move your mouse over the password input field

Now right-click it then select the “Inspect element” item from the drop down menu

This will open the DOM tool with a selected line looking something like this:

<input name=”pass” tabindex=”2″ id=”pass” type=”password”>

 

From this line we will again need the value of the “id” Attribute

so looking at this line we can tell that here the “id” is “pass” so we will use that

 

Again we take the element and store it in a variable we call “password_input”

To do this we will again use the document objects getElementById function

So it looks like this for the password

password_input := web_browser.document.getElementById("pass")

That line gets the element with the id = “pass” and puts it in our variable “password_input”

 

Ones again we can use this webpage element via our variable “password_input”

 

Okay to automate the filling in of the value of the password input field with our password

Set the “value” property of the webpage element to the data in your “My_Pass_Word” variable

password_input.value := My_Pass_Word

So now the “password” input field will hold our password

 

Clicking an html Element:

The last thing we need to do is click the Login Button

How to do that? You say!

 

Frist we go to www.facebook.com and move our mouse over the login button

When over the login button you press the right mouse button and

select the “Inspect element” item from the drop down menu

 

This will show the login button element selected in the DOM tool

The line will look something like this:

<input tabindex=”4″ id=”u_0_n” type=”submit” value=”Log In”>

 

 

This time we just need to click the button element

So we will only use the element by its “id”, but not store it in a variable

For this we will use almost the same method as with the other elements

So we will use the document objects getElementById function again

And also the elements “click” method

It will look something like this for the login button.

web_browser.document.getElementById("u_0_n").click()

That line gets the element with the id = “u_0_n” and clicks it with the “click()” method

 

Ending a script:

Now saving and running this script will open an IE browser

And navigate to www.facebook.com and then automatically login

Return

 

 

Conclusion:

That is one way to do an automated login to a website like Facebook, now you can use this method to do the same for almost any website you need, this can also be made to open by hotkey and also to automatically login to open websites and more.

 

Keep telling me if  you need more guides to make things like this or anything I missed or does this kind of post even help you out?

If you have any Questions you can always use the comments or contact page

Try it:

To use your new script, continue as follows:

1. Save and close the file.
2. Double-click the file to launch it.

To find, exit or edit the script, right-click the green “H” icon in the taskbar notification area.

Notes:

• Scripts like this can also use exitapp as the ending line to not have to many scripts running simultaneously, as each will have its own icon in the taskbar notification area.
• Username and password can also be input by the user at startup as seen in the compiled exe below.
• To have a website launch and login automatically when you start your computer, create a shortcut to the script file in the Start Menu’s Startup folder.

 

Free downloads:

Script (.ahk)

Free – Get Checkout Added to cart

Application (.exe)

Free – Get Checkout Added to cart