Automating IE using VB6

Agenda

• Automating IE

• HTML DOM

• Automating Web Pages

• Question and Answers

Automating IE

COM

• COM is Component Object Model.

• Application developed using COM provides interfaces to third party application for using certain features of the application.

• Nearly all Microsoft applications are built using COM. Eg. – Internet Explorer, All Office applications like Outlook, Excel, Word etc…

• COM makes it possible to create automation solution for the AUT.

Using COM object in VB

• There are 2 ways to create a COM object in VB

– By referring the ActiveX library in the project

– By creating an object using the ProgID of COM application.

• By referring the ActiveX library in the project

Dim IE as InternetExplorer.Application

Set IE = New InternetExplorer.Application

IE.Visible = True

IE.Quit

Set IE=Nothing

• By creating an object using the ProgID of COM application.

Dim IE as Object

Set IE = CreateObject(“InternetExplorer.Application”)

IE.Visible = True

IE.Quit

Set IE=Nothing

Adding reference to IE in VB

• Go to Project->References… and check the checkbox for “Microsoft Internet Controls” and Click OK.

Now all the libraries of IE would be available in the project.

Viewing object methods/properties using Object Browser

Various Method available with IE

Method Name Description

Navigate2 Navigates to a specified URL. URL could be any http, https, ftp link or a local/network folder location.

Stop Aborts the navigation.

Refresh Refresh the present URL

Quit Closes the browser. Closing a browser while its navigating to some URL is not recommended.

GoBack Navigates one page back

GoHome Navigates to home page

GoForward Navigates one page forward

GoSearch Open the search page

Various properties available with IE

Property Name Type Description

AddressBar Boolean Controls whether address bar is shown

FullScreen Boolean Maximizes window and turns off statusbar, toolbar, menubar, and titlebar.

LocationName String Gets the short (UI-friendly) name of the URL/file currently viewed.

LocationURL String Gets the full URL/path currently viewed.

Path String Returns the path to the application.

Resizable Boolean Controls whether the window is resizable

Silent Boolean Controls if any dialog boxes can be shown

Type String Returns the type of the contained document object.

Various properties available with IE contd…

Property Name Type Description

Visible Boolean Determines whether the application is visible or hidden.

Busy Boolean Query to see if something is still in progress.

ReadyState Long Can have any of the following values

•READYSTATE_UNINITIALIZED: The default initialization state.

•READYSTATE_LOADING: The object is currently loading its properties.

•READYSTATE_LOADED: The object has been initialized.

•READYSTATE_INTERACTIVE: The object is interactive, but not all of its data is available.

•READYSTATE_COMPLETE: The object has received all of its data.

Browsing to Website and Waiting for Page to Load

Dim IE

Set IE = CreateObject(“InternetExplorer.Application”)

IE.Visible = True

IE.Navigate2 “http://www.yahoo.com”

Do

DoEvents

Loop while IE.Busy = TRUE

Msgbox “Page Loaded. Press OK to close the opened IE”

IE.Quit

Set IE=Nothing

Enumerating all open IE – Method 1

Dim IEWindows As SHDocVw.ShellWindows

Set IEWindows = New SHDocVw.ShellWindows

Dim IEWindow

For Each IEWindow In IEWindows

Debug.Print "Name: " & IEWindow.Name

Debug.Print "Visible: " & IEWindow.Visible

Debug.Print "FileName: " & IEWindow.FullName

Debug.Print "LocationURL: " & IEWindow.LocationURL

Debug.Print "LocationName: " & IEWindow.LocationName

Next

For i = 0 To IEWindows.Count - 1

Set IEWindow = IEWindows.Item(i)

Next

Enumerating all open IE – Method 2

Dim objShell

Dim objShellWindows

Set objShell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")

Set objShellWindows = objShell.Windows

If (Not objShellWindows Is Nothing) Then

Dim objEnumItems

For Each objEnumItems In objShellWindows

MsgBox objEnumItems.LocationURL

Next

End If

Set objShellWindows = Nothing

Set objShell = Nothing

Closing all open IE

Dim IEWindows As SHDocVw.ShellWindows

Set IEWindows = New SHDocVw.ShellWindows

Dim IEWindow()

ReDim IEWindow(1 To IEWindows.Count)

Dim i

For i = 1 To IEWindows.Count

Set IEWindow(i) = IEWindows.Item(i - 1)

Next

For i = LBound(IEWindow) To UBound(IEWindow)

If InStr(1, IEWindow(i).FullName, "iexplore.exe", vbTextCompare) Then

IEWindow(i).Quit

End If

Set IEWindow(i) = Nothing

Next

Getting reference to already open IE

Public Function GetOpenIE(ByVal strUrl As String) As InternetExplorer

Dim shie As InternetExplorer

Dim sh As New ShellWindows

For Each shie In sh

If shie.LocationURL Like strUrl Then

Set GetOpenIE = shie

Exit Function

End If

Next

Set GetOpenIE = Nothing

End Function

Events in IE

• Event is nothing but a change in system state

• We can capture Events in IE using the below code

Private WithEvents IE As InternetExplorer

• After adding the above line the IE variable will appear in the controls combo box and all its events appear in the Events combo box

HTML DOM

DOM

• The HTML DOM is the Document Object Model for HTML

• The HTML DOM defines a standard set of objects for HTML, and a standard way to access and manipulate HTML documents

• The HTML DOM is platform and language independent

• The HTML DOM views HTML documents as a tree structure of elements. All elements, along with their text and attributes, can be accessed and manipulated through the DOM tree

DOM Tree

• Every TAG in the HTML source represent a node in the DOM tree

• Once a TAG is opened, all the tags following it become child nodes of the starting node

• Each TAG can have various attributes. Some are predefined and some are user-defined attributes

Eg - <INPUT type=“textbox” value=“Name” name=“txt_Name” myval=“Test”

• Here pre-defined attributes are type, value and name

• myval is a User defined attribute for the INPUT tag

DOM Tree Contd…

<html>

<head>

<script type="text/javascript">

function ChangeColor()

{

document.body.bgColor="yellow"

}

</script>

</head>

<body onclick="ChangeColor()">Click on this document!</body>

</html>

Document

• Document object represents the whole document

• It is the top node in the DOM Tree

• Document node doesn’t have any sibling nodes

• It provides various collections for Links, Anchors, Scripts, Images etc... in the Document

• It also provides various functions using which we can access an element using the name of the element

Element & Element Collection

• Element is an object referring to any particular node in the DOM

• Depending on the type of node the element refers to, it would give access to methods and properties related to those type of elements

• Every element has the properties outerText, outerHtml, innerText, innerHtml, tagName etc…

• Element Collection is a collection of one or more elements. For Eg-<INPUT name=“txt_Name” type=“text”><INPUT name=“txt_Name” type=“text”>

Now see the following VBScript codeset txt_Boxes=document.getElementsByName(“txt_Name”)

for i=0 to txt_Boxes.Length - 1txt_Boxes.item(i).value=“Tarun”txt_Boxes(i).value=“Tarun”

next

Collections available in a Document

Collection Name Description

Links Gives collections of all link elements present in the document

Anchor Gives collections of all link elements present in the document which have a non blank id or name.

Applets Gives collections of all applet elements present in the document.

All Gives collections of all the elements present in the document

Scripts Gives collections of all the script elements present in the document

styleSheets Gives collections of all the stylesheet elements present in the document

images Gives collections of all the image elements present in the document

How to get an element from the web page

<INPUT name=“txt_Name” id=“firstname” type=“text” value=“Tarun”>

Various ways to get this element are

‘Mainly used at time of IE4. Are compatible with higher versions but not recommended

Set txt_Elem=Document.All(“firstname”)

Set txt_Elem=Document.All(“txt_Name”)

‘Used with IE 5.0

Set txt_Elem=Document.getElementsById(“firstname”)

‘How to check if the elements is present or not

If txt_Elem is Nothing then Msgbox “Element Is not present”

How to get an element from the web page contd…

Set txt_Elem=Document.getElementsByTagName(“INPUT”).item(0)

Set txt_Elem=Document.getElementsByTagName(“INPUT”).item(“txt_Name”)

Set txt_Elem=Document.getElementsByTagName(“INPUT”).item(“firstname”)

Set txt_Elem=Document.getElementsByName(“txt_Name”).item(0)

The above 2 line would throw error if there is no element having INPUT tag or having

name as “txt_Name”. To avoid this we can first check the length of the collection -

If Document.getElementsByName(“txt_Name”).length<>0 then

Set txt_Elem=Document.getElementsByName(“txt_Name”).item(0)

End if

Various HTML Elements

LINK or BUTTON

<A href=http://www.microsoft.com id=mslinkid name=mssoft>Microsoft</A>

<INPUT type="button" id=mslinkid name=mssoft value="Click">

Various ways to click on this link or button:

document.Links(“mslinkid”).click

document.Links(“mssoft”).click

document.getElementById(“mslinkid”).click

document.getElementsByName(“mssoft”)(0).click

document.all(“mslinkid”).click

document.all(“mssoft”).click

Text Box

<INPUT myprop=test name="name" id="firstname" type="text" value="initial">

Various ways of changing the value of the text box:

document.getElementById(“firstname”).value=“Tarun”

document.getElementsByName(“name”)(0).value=“Tarun”

(If name and id is not available then use the below example code to change value)

Set allElems= document.getElementsByTagName(“INPUT”)

For each elem in allElems

if elem.myprop=“test” then

elem.value=“Tarun”

Exit For

end if

Next

Combo box or List Box

Combo box and list box have an array of options that a user can select.

<SELECT size="1" name=“demo_ComboBox">

<option value=“Actual Value 1">Displayed Value 1</option>

<option value=“Value 2" >Value 2</option>

<option value=“Value 3" >Value 4</option>

</SELECT>

Set objCombo=document.getElementsByName(“demo_ComboBox”).item(0)

numOptions=objCombo.Options.length ‘ Would give 3 in our case

firstOptionValue=objCombo.Options(0).value‘ “Actual Value 1” in our case

firstOptionText=objCombo.Options(0).text ‘ “Displayed Value 1” in our case

To select one of the options use the below code

objCombo.Options(0).Selected = true

objCombo.value=“Actual Value 1”

Checkbox

A checkbox can be either checked or unchecked

<input type="checkbox" name=“demo_CheckBox”>

Set objChkBox=document.getElementsByName(“demo_CheckBox”).item(0)

objChkBox.Checked=True

Radio button

Radio button is an array of options out of which only one of the option can be selected.

To group the radio buttons the elements are give the same name.

<input type="radio" name="Sex" value="male" checked="checked" />

<input type="radio" name="Sex" value="female" />

To select the radio button we need to assign the appropriate value to it’s object

Set objRadio=document.getElementsByName(“Sex”).item(0)

objRadio.checked=True ‘Will select male

objRadio.value=“female” ‘Will select female even if we point to the male object node

HTML Table

<table id="myTable" border="1">

<tr>

<td>Row1 cell1</td>

<td>Row1 cell2</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Row2 cell1</td>

<td>Row2 cell2</td>

</tr>

</table>

Table object provides two collections

• cells – gives access to all the cells present in the table

• rows – gives access to all the rows present in the table. Rows also provides cells collection to access particular cells present in the row.

HTML Table Contd.

To access 1st row and 1st column, use the below code

Set objTable=document.getElementById(“myTable”)

objTable.rows(0).cells(0).outerText

objTable.cells(0).outerText

To access 2nd row and 1st column, use the below code

objTable.rows(1).cells(0).outerText

objTable.cells(2).outerText ‘ Index 2 comes from 0,1 index going for 1st row and 2 for the first cell in 2nd row.

objTable.rows.length will give total # of rows in the table

objTable.cells.length will give total # of cells in the table

objTable.rows(0).cells.length will give total # of cells in the 1st row of the table

Automating Web pages

Automating web pages

• For automating web pages we only need to combine the techniques discussed in the previous 2 sections

• Not all pages can be automated due to limitations of DOM, discussed in later slides.

• The automation is applicable to normal HTML/DHTML web content. The technique does not work on Java based web sites.

• The important task in automating a web page is to identify the element that needs to be worked upon. This could be one of the most challenging task, as the developers usually do not develop considering the automation needs.

Determining the DOM path of an Element

• DOM path is nothing but the way we can access a particular element on the web page.

• There are two ways to determine the same

– Do a View Source on the web page and try to locate the code corresponding to that web element. This technique is sometimes tedious and needs experience to determine the possible access method.

– Use a DOM viewer tool to view the entire DOM structure and locate the DOM node for the same. “IE DOM Inspector” is one of the very good shareware softwares available to view the DOM of a web page in IE. It is available at www.inspectorsoft.com.

Demo

• www.yahoomail.com

• www.google.com

• www.gmail.com

• www.orkut.com (DOM limitation)

• www.rediffmail.com

• On the spot web pages.

Searching on google.com

Dim IE

Set IE = CreateObject(“InternetExplorer.Application”)

IE.Visible = True

IE.Navigate2 “http://www.google.com”

Do

DoEvents

Loop while IE.Busy = TRUE

IE.document.getElementsByName(“q”)(0).value=“Automation”

IE.document.getElementsByName(“btnG”)(0).click

Set IE=Nothing

Click on a link for a given href

Function ClickOnLink(ByVal objIE As InternetExplorer, ByVal strHref As String) As String

Dim Link

For Each Link In objIE.Document.links

If strHref Like link.href Then

ClickOnLink = Link.href

Link.Click

Exit Function

End If

Next

ClickOnLink = ""

End Function

Limitation of DOM

• When a web page has a frame having different domain then the web page, the access to the DOM of the frame is denied.

• For example a web page on www.gmail.com loads a frame which is present on www.google.com, then we can access the DOM of www.gmail.com but not the DOM of the frame.

• Microsoft calls this as Cross domain security, to prevent the author of one website to modify content of other’s web site while using frames.

• The limitation can be overcome only if both the web pages define the same domain in the web page i.e. they must have the below line in the web pagedocument.domain=“somedomain.com”

• For more details on cross domain security refer to the below URL:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/167796/EN-US/

References

• http://www.w3schools.com/htmldom/

• http://www.w3schools.com/vbscript/

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/author/dhtml/reference/objects/obj_document.asp

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vbcon98/html/vbconloopstructures.asp

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vbcon98/html/vbconcollectionsinvisualbasic.asp

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vbcon98/html/vbconhowobjectcreationworksinvbcomponents.asp

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vbcon98/html/vbconassigninganobjectreferencetoavariable.asp

Thank You!