Login, click through, and get the data you need from an HTTPS site

mechanic.rb

#!/usr/bin/env ruby
# Use Mechanize to automatically login, click through, and fetch the data you
# need from an HTTPS site. The following works for the McGill admission portal.
#   ruby mechanic.rb
#   # Ready for Review
#   # Ready for Review

require 'rubygems'
require 'mechanize'

site = 'https://mcgill.ca/minerva'
login_form_action = '/pban1/twbkwbis.P_ValLogin'
credentials = [ {:field => 'sid', :value => 'MY_STUDENTID'},
                {:field => 'PIN', :value => 'MY_PASSWORD'} ]
click_chain = [ 'Applicant', 'Admission Application and Documentation Status' ]
logout_link_text = 'EXIT'

mech = Mechanize.new { |agent|
  # set a proper user agent
  # agent.user_agent = 'Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:29.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/29.0'
  agent.user_agent_alias = 'Linux Firefox' # see Mechanize::AGENT_ALIASES
  agent.follow_meta_refresh = true
}

mech.get(site) do |page|
  # login
  page = page.form_with(:action => login_form_action) do |form|
    credentials.each {|c| form[c[:field]] = c[:value] }
  end.click_button

  # click through
  click_chain.each { |t| page = page.link_with(:text => t).click }

  # do your thing
  page.links_with(:text => 'Fall 2014').each do |link|
    puts link.click.body.match(/Status:<\/TD>\n<TD[^\/]*>[^\/]*<\/TD>/)[0].match(/>([^<]*)<\/TD>/).captures[0]
  end

  # logout
  page = page.link_with(:text => logout_link_text).click
end