Automating Internet Explorer: Filling Up Web Dialog Form

In codeforexcelandoutlook, Jimmy Peña demostrated internet explorer automation, sending to and retrieving information from the web using VBA. In some cases that you might require a code to fill up string/numbers values to a web dialog form, here I will demonstrate how to add another possibility in automating internet explorer.

Some web forms make use of dialog boxes for users to fill up with string and/or number values. Most dialog boxes created are modal in nature, waiting for user to click on the ‘Ok’ or ‘Cancel’ buttons. In internet explorer automation, calling the modal dialog box with the element click would not suffice. The function or procedure would stop and wait for user to close the dialog box so as to continue the next code/s.

Open a webpage, open a web dialog window

Sub WebFormAutomation()
Dim ie As Object 'SHDocVw.InternetExplorer
Dim addlINFO As Object 'MSHTML.IHTMLElement

  Set ie = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
  With ie
      .navigate "http://www.websitehere.com/webform.aspx"
      .Visible = True
  End With

  '...codes before dialog box fill up...

  'opens the dialog box
  Set addINFO = .getElementById("imgAdditional")
  addINFO.Click

  '...codes after user manually closes the dialog box...
End Sub

A work around for this is to take a look on the attributes of the hidden input element associated with the calling of the dialog box. Before filling up the dialog box, the hidden input element has three attributes, namely: type, name, id.

<td>
<img src=”./Online System_files/icon_addition.gif” id=”DetailsList_imgAdditional” onclick=”ShowDialog(‘Additional.aspx?’,’DetailList_hfAdditional’,270,650)”>
<input type=”hidden” name=”DetailList$hfAdditional” id=”DetailList_hfAdditional”>
</td>

After manually filling up the dialog box, notice the change in the hidden input element. An attribute named “value”, with its corresponding string value, is added.

<input type=”hidden” name=”DetailList$hfAdditional” id=”DetailList_hfAdditional” value=”<value><place>Manila%2c+Philippines</place><date>2011/04/15</date><starttime>8:00</starttime><endtime>17:00</endtime><remarks>no+comment</remarks></value>”;>

This gives the idea on what values the dialog box returns to the main form. To automate filling up the dialog box then, set up an attribute “value”, fill its value, then add to the main form’s hidden input element.

Open a webpage, fill in web dialog window fields

Option Explicit

Sub WebFormAutomation()
Dim ie As Object 'SHDocVw.InternetExplorer
Dim inputElem As Object 'MSHTML.HTMLInputElement
Dim addValue As Object 'MSHTML.IHTMLDOMAttribute

    Set ie = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
    With ie
        .navigate "http://www.websitehere.com/webform.aspx"
        .Visible = True
    End With

    '...code/s before dialog box fill up...

    'option 1: using createAttribute
    With ie.document
      Set inputElem = .getElementById("hfAdditional")
      Set addValue = .createAttribute("value")
      addValue.nodeValue addlDetails
      inputElem.setAttributeNode addValue
    End With

    'option 2: using setAttribute
    With ie.document
      Set inputElem = .getElementById("hfAdditional")
      inputElem.setAttribute "value", addlDetails
    End With

    '...code/s after dialog box fill up...

End Sub

Then, create your custom addlDetails function/s, making use of URLEncode function to change some strings to valid url characters.

Function addlDetails() As String
  addlDetails = _
        "<value><place>" & _
    URLEncode("Manila, Philippines") & _
        "</place><date>" & _
    URLEncode("2011/04/15") & _
        "</date><starttime>" & _
    URLEncode("8:00") & _
        "</starttime><endtime>" & _
    URLEncode("17:00") & _
        "</endtime><remarks>" & _
    URLEncode("no comment") & _
        "</remarks></value>"
End Function

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