An easy guide to automating the clicking of a javascript 'a href' link in Internet Explorer using Excel

One project I'm currently working on involves using a VBA macro in Excel to automate the process of navigating to specific web pages. Through this automation, I can select elements based on their ID and manipulate them accordingly on the site.

However, I've encountered a roadblock when attempting to 'click' a link or button that does not have an assigned ID. This particular link/button in question is a JavaScript element embedded within the HTML code:


<div>
<table class="table" id="ctl00_cphMaster_Results" style="width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse;" cellspacing="0">
    <tbody><tr>
        <th style="width: 70px; white-space: nowrap;" scope="col"><a href="javascript:__doPostBack('ctl00$cphMaster$Results','Sort$Indicator')">True?</a></th><th class="hidden" style="width: 100px;" scope="col"><a href="javascript:__doPostBack('ctl00$cphMaster$Results','Sort$Reference')">Reference</a></th><th scope="col"><a href="javascript:__doPostBack('ctl00$cphMaster$Results','Sort$Results')">Result Number</a></th><th class="hidden" scope="col">&nbsp;</th><th scope="col"><a href="javascript:__doPostBack('ctl00$cphMaster$Results','Sort$Type')">Type</a></th><th class="hidden" scope="col"></th><th class="hidden" scope="col">&nbsp;</th><th class="hidden" scope="col">&nbsp;</th>
    &...

I've made several attempts to interact with the unassigned link/button labeled as 'ResultNumber$0', but all my efforts so far have been in vain. Is there a way for me to automate Internet Explorer to click this JavaScript link/button successfully?


Sub ClickJavaLink()
Const URL = "https://myurl"
Dim ie As Object
Set ie = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")

With ie
    .navigate URL
    ieBusy ie
    .Visible = True

    For Each Item In ie.document.all
        If Item.ID = "QuickSearchField" Then
            Item.Value = 1
        End If
        If Item.ID = "QuickSearch" Then
            Item.Value = "MyValue"
        End If
        If Item.ID = "btnSearch" Then
            Item.Click
            Exit For
        End If
    Next
    ieBusy ie

    For Each Item In ie.document.all
        If Item.ID = "ResultNumber$0" Then
            Item.Click
            Exit For
        End If
    Next
    ieBusy ie
End With

End Sub

Sub ieBusy(ie As Object) Do While ie.Busy Or ie.ReadyState < 4 DoEvents Loop End Sub

javascriptexcelvbaweb-scraping

Answer №1

Discover a more efficient solution. Implementing an attribute = value css selector with the contains operator can streamline your code.

ie.document.querySelector("[href*='ResultNumber$0']").click

This method offers a single line of code without the need for loops, ultimately simplifying the overall complexity of your codebase.

Answer №2

If you want to access the anchor elements, start by locating the table that has a unique identifier.

Here is a way to iterate through all anchor elements within that table:

Dim anch As HTMLAnchorElement
For Each anch In ie.Document.getElementById("ctl00_cphMaster_Results").getElementsByTagName("a")
    Debug.Print anch.innerText
    'anch.click 'uncomment this to click on all links
Next anch

In the example above, the code will display the text of these elements in the immediate window for demonstration purposes.

To access a specific element, you can use the index of the element. For instance, to access the first element in the table, you would do it like this:

ie.Document.getElementById("ctl00_cphMaster_Results").getElementsByTagName("a")(0).click

To access the second one, simply replace 0 with 1, and so forth.

Another method of accessing a specific element is by utilizing its href attribute:

Dim anch As HTMLAnchorElement
For Each anch In ie.document.getElementById("ctl00_cphMaster_Results").getElementsByTagName("a")
    If anch.href = "javascript:__doPostBack('ctl00$cphMaster$Results','ResultNumber$0')" Then
        Debug.Print anch.innerText
        'anc.click
    End If
Next anch

Remember to include a reference (VBE>Tools>References) to Microsoft HTML Object Library.

Answer №3

To find the href element on the page, you can follow this code snippet:

For Each link In Ie.Document.getElementsByTagName("a")

   If link.href = "javascript:__doPostBack('ctl00$cphMaster$Results','ResultNumber$0')" Then

      link.Click

         Exit For

   End If

Next link

Please let me know if this solution works for you.

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