Automate html form completion in VBA problems

Question

I am trying to automate the completion and submission of a series of html forms in VBA. I am able to open the login form, automate the completion of the userID and Password fields as well as check a "disclosure" type checkbox, and clicking the submit button, which brings me to form 2. form 2 has no data to complete, All I need to do is click a button on form 2. I can't get that button to fire for anything. Consistent error 424 or error 91 and I have commented those problems in the code below.

So I am new to this, and really don't know what I am doing, but I am thinking its because I am not actually on form 2 when I reach the code trying to click . Though when the code reaches ieapp.visable = true I do get form1, then form 2 visable, I feel like ieapp may still be pointing to form 1, because when I add iapp.refresh, I am back to form 1, with no info in the userid and password fields of form 1. It seems to me that form 1 has been refreshed. 

Here's the form 2 button I want to click: <input name="enterERE" class="uef-btn" id="enterere" type="submit" value="Enter ERE">

Here's my VBA code :

Private Sub ERE_Reports_Click()
Dim ieApp As InternetExplorer
Dim iePage As HTMLDocument
Dim Btn As HTMLFormElement

Set ieApp = New InternetExplorer
ieApp.Navigate "https://secure.ssa.gov/acu/LoginWeb/loginHandler.d..."

'wait for page to load
Do Until ieApp.ReadyState = READYSTATE_COMPLETE
Loop

iePage.Forms(0).Item("userid").Value = "UserID"
iePage.Forms(0).Item("password").Value = "Password"
iePage.Forms(0).Item("accept").Click
iePage.Forms(0).submit

Do Until ieApp.ReadyState = READYSTATE_COMPLETE
Loop
ieApp.Visible = True

'this takes me back to form 1 with no info in the userid and password fields, the same result as being on form1 and refreshing
ieApp.Refresh2

'render error 13
Set Btn = iePage.getElementsByName("enterERE")
Btn.Click
'renders error 91
iePage.getElementsByName("EnterERE").Item.Click
'renders error 91
iePage.getElementById("enterere").Click
'iePage.getElementsByClassName("uef-btn").Item.Click
'renders error 424
iePage.Forms(0).Item("enter ere").Click
'render error 438
iePage.getElementsByTagName("enterERE").Click


End Sub

Answer 1

I've had a lot of problems with IE 11.  I would recommend using Selenium Basic rather than Microsoft Internet Controls.  It comes with a lot of Excel examples.  It supports selecting elements with Xpath which is extremely powerful.  It supports Firefox, Chrome, IE and Edge.  I just finished a project with it and was really impressed.  It seems to be well supported with new updates every few months.  The latest release is 2.0.9.0.

Selenium is used to test websites and is used by almost everyone.  You can use it with C#, Java, Ruby and other languages.  Someone developed Selenium Basic which supports VB.NET and VBA.

Answer 2

Just for fun I used Selenium to login to my SS account.  I used Firefox.  I use Firefox's Firebug and Firepath to get all the element names. I put what I think are the Xpaths for your form in comments.

Dim drv As Selenium.FirefoxDriver
Dim text As String
Dim ele As Selenium.WebElement


Sub Login()
   '' Add reference to selenium type library
  Set drv = New Selenium.FirefoxDriver
  Dim xPath As String
  Dim browser As String

  drv.Get "https://secure.ssa.gov/RIL/SiView.do"
  xPath = "//input[@id='username']"  ''//input[@name='userId']
  If GetElement(xPath) Then
    ele.SendKeys "myUserId"
    xPath = "//input[@id='password']"  ''//input[@name='password']
    If GetElement(xPath) Then
      ele.SendKeys "myPassword"
      xPath = "//input[@id='signin']"  //input[@type='submit']
      If GetElementClick(xPath) Then
        drv.Wait (3000)
        drv.Window.SetSize 1200, 1000
        drv.Window.SetPosition 0, 0
        browser = drv.Manage.Capabilities.Get("browserName", 0)
      End If
    End If
  End If
End Sub

Function GetElement(xPath As String) As Boolean
  On Error GoTo Handler
  
  text = ""
  Set ele = drv.FindElementByXPath(xPath)
  text = ele.text
  GetElement = True
  Exit Function
Handler:
  Err.Clear
  GetElement = False
End Function

Function GetElementClick(xPath As String) As Boolean
  On Error GoTo Handler
  
  text = ""
  Set ele = drv.FindElementByXPath(xPath)
  ele.Click
  drv.Wait (1000)
  GetElementClick = True
  Exit Function
Handler:
  Err.Clear
  GetElementClick = False
End Function

Answer 3

Hmm, OK.  I thought Selenium was a program for testing webforms in development.

Answer 4

You can use it to control/scrape any website.  It is generally used for web development/testing but you can use whenever you want.  I use it to monitor and control a website.