Feature Request: Support for Password-Protected Sites

[sakher]

Problem Description

Many valuable web resources require authentication, limiting the ability of "Papeer" to access and scrape these sites. Users frequently encounter password-protected pages, making it challenging to include these resources in their e-reader compatible formats. Current functionality does not support a way to authenticate against these sites directly through "Papeer."

Proposed Solution

Introduce functionality within "Papeer" to allow users to provide authentication details (e.g., username and password, API keys, session cookies) that can be used to log in to password-protected sites before scraping. This could be implemented in several ways:

• Command Line Arguments: Allow users to pass authentication credentials as arguments when invoking "Papeer."
• Configuration File: Enable users to store authentication details securely in a configuration file "Papeer" reads from.
• Interactive Prompt: When encountering a password-protected site, "Papeer" could prompt the user to enter their credentials interactively, with an option to save these for future sessions.

Additional Context

• Ensuring security and privacy of the stored credentials is paramount. Consideration should be given to encrypting the stored credentials if they are saved on disk.
• This feature would significantly enhance "Papeer's" utility by expanding the range of accessible content for users, making it a more versatile tool for e-reader content preparation.

Potential Challenges

• Handling different authentication mechanisms (basic auth, OAuth, form-based login, etc.) might require a flexible implementation.
• Security concerns around storing and handling user credentials.

I believe this feature would be a valuable addition to "Papeer" and would greatly appreciate the team's consideration in implementing it. Thank you for your work on making "Papeer" such a useful tool for the community!

[sakher]

Created a branch to add cookies support - can't push a PR it seems.