Access to a webpage's frame document without navigating to this webpage

Question

The title might be confusing, but it's not just an impression. I had a previous post about this but the core problem is actually deeper than this.

Basically I have a big code in which I navigate to an intranet webpage from my company ( let's call this webpage the Start webpage).

I then provide username and password information and click on the "login" button. Clicking on the login button will create a new webpage in a NEW window. We will call this new webpage the Main webpage.

The Main webpage contains all the important information I want to get while the Start webpage is now useless to me.

First challenge here was then to "activate" or "select" the Main webpage since the Start webpage was still activated. The Main webpage has obviously a URL but it's impossible to directly navigate to it, so that's why I talk about "activation" or "selection" of the webpage. I managed to do this with the help of that forum's post

If you have any questions about it let me know, but it's not the problem of this post.

So with the Main webpage activated, I want to click on an element to display more information. This element is embedded in the frame postfachcontent. See Main Page HTML document Overview and Zoom on part to click on.

In my previous post mentioned above, I tried to do this but got familiar with "embedded" elements who made the task harder.

With the help of other members, I figured out there could be 2 ways to get in the postfachcontent frame :

1. By selecting child by child the frames :

      Set w = IEWindowFromLocation(path)
   
       Dim IEDoc As HTMLDocument
       Set IEDoc = w.document ' w is the so called Main webpage that I selected peviously in the code
   
     Dim SubFramesCollection As HTMLWindow2
     Dim GoodFrame As HTMLWindow2
     Dim Postfachcontent_Frame As HTMLWindow2
   
   
        Set SubFramesCollection = IEDoc.frames ' the length of this is 3 since it contains the 3 main frames
        Set GoodFrame = SubFramesCollection(1).frames ' this  contains the 2 frames of the "contentframe" frame so length = 2
        Set Postfachcontent_Frame = GoodFrame(1)
   
        Doc2 = Postfachcontent_Frame.document
   

But the problem here is that once I accessed to the frame I got confused on how to actually select the element of the table and click on it

2. By "navigating" to a new webpage which would be a reduced version of the Main webpage only focusing on the frame I am interested in so navigating to Main Webpage URL & contentframe.src (or postfachcontent.src).

But the problem here, as I said above, is that I can't navigate to the Main webpage directly so I thought I could try to declare a New InternetExplorer window and give it a location without actually navigating to the page ( but it doesn't work unfortunately). Attempt below :

 Set w = IEWindowFromLocation(path)

    Dim IEDoc As HTMLDocument
    Dim IEDok As HTMLDocument
    Set IEDoc = w.document


 Dim ContentFramesCollection As IHTMLElementCollection
 Dim ContentFrame As HTMLFrameElement
 Dim PostFachContentFramesCollection As IHTMLElementCollection

  Set ContentFramesCollection = IEDoc.getElementsByName("contentframe") ' this works and returns 1 item which is the frame called contentframe, so it s a collection of element containing 1 element only
    ' MsgBox ContentFramesCollection.Length ' returns 1


  If Not ContentFramesCollection Is Nothing Then

       Set ContentFrame = ContentFramesCollection(0) ' Here we isolate the unique item contained in MainFramesCollection and store it in a single element called ContentFrame
       MsgBox w.document.Location & ContentFrame.src
      'On Error Resume Next
       Set w2.document.Location = w.document.Location & ContentFrame.src
      'MsgBox Err.Description ' returns automation error unspecified error

       Set IEDok = w2.document
       Set PostFachContentFramesCollection = IEDok.getElementsByName("postfachcontent")
       MsgBox PostFachContentFramesCollection.Length ' returns 0...oops

  End If

Thanks for reaching that line and any help is welcome !

Answer 1

SOLUTION : For those it might interest, I found with the help of dee and the asnwer of Tim Williams on here a way to click on one of the multiple possible elements containing a "onclick" property.

For the greedy ones, here's the straight in-one-line solution which lists the clickable elements :

IEDoc.frames(1).frames(1).document.getElementById("notPrintable").document.getElementsByName("result")(0).document.getElementsByTagName("td")

where IEDoc is the HTML document of the Main webpage.

Remarks :

1. In order to get this final solution, I had to do some tests to see which type I was dealing with to make sure I knew what I was doing. You can see these tests steps in the following code sample as well as their displayed result in the MsgBox in comment :

   MsgBox TypeName(IEDoc.getElementsByName("contentframe")(0)) ' returns HTMLFrameElement
       MsgBox IEDoc.getElementsByName("contentframe")(0).document.getElementsByName("postfachcontent").Length ' 0
       MsgBox IEDoc.frames(1).frames.Length ' returns 2
       MsgBox TypeName(IEDoc.frames(1).frames(1)) ' HTMLWindow2
       MsgBox TypeName(IEDoc.frames(1).frames(1).document.getElementById("notPrintable")) ' HTMLDivElement
       MsgBox TypeName(IEDoc.frames(1).frames(1).document.getElementById("notPrintable").getElementsByName("result")) ' error
       MsgBox TypeName(IEDoc.frames(1).frames(1).document.getElementById("notPrintable").document.getElementsByName("result")) 'DispElementcollection
        MsgBox TypeName(IEDoc.frames(1).frames(1).document.getElementById
   
   ("notPrintable").document.getElementsByName("result")(0)) ' HTMLFormElement
    MsgBox TypeName(IEDoc.frames(1).frames(1).document.getElementById("notPrintable").document.getElementsByName("result")(0).getElementsByClassName("resultRow")) ' error
     MsgBox TypeName(IEDoc.frames(1).frames(1).document.getElementById("notPrintable").document.getElementsByName("result")(0).document.getElementsByClassName("resultRow")) ' error
   MsgBox TypeName(IEDoc.frames(1).frames(1).document.getElementById("notPrintable").document.getElementsByName("result")(0).document) ' HTMLDocument
   Result_Form_Doc = IEDoc.frames(1).frames(1).document.getElementById("notPrintable").document.getElementsByName("result")(0).document ' error
   IEDoc.frames(1).frames(1).document.getElementById("notPrintable").document.getElementsByName("result")(0).Click ' works...but no click
   MsgBox TypeName(IEDoc.frames(1).frames(1).document.getElementById("notPrintable").document.getElementsByName("result")(0).document.getElementsByTagName("tr")) ' DispHTMLElementCollection
   MsgBox IEDoc.frames(1).frames(1).document.getElementById("notPrintable").document.getElementsByName("result")(0).document.getElementsByTagName("tr").Length ' 12...weird...I counted 2
   IEDoc.frames(1).frames(1).document.getElementById("notPrintable").document.getElementsByName("result")(0).document.querySelector("td[onclick='cView(62972172,'0', viewButton, '' );']").Click ' error
   MsgBox TypeName(IEDoc.frames(1).frames(1).document.getElementById("notPrintable").document.getElementsByName("result")(0).document.querySelector("td[onclick='cView(62972172,'0', viewButton, '' );']")) 'error
    MsgBox IEDoc.frames(1).frames(1).document.getElementById("notPrintable").document.getElementsByName("result")(0).document.getElementsByTagName("td").Length '42...counted 34
   MsgBox IEDoc.frames(1).frames(1).document.getElementById("notPrintable").document.getElementsByName("result")(0).document.getElementsByTagName("table").Length ' 4...counted 1
   IEDoc.frames(1).frames(1).document.getElementById("notPrintable").document.getElementsByName("result")(0).document.getElementsByTagName("td")(30).Click ' WORKSSSSS
   MsgBox IEDoc.frames(1).frames(1).document.getElementById("notPrintable").document.getElementsByName("result")(0).document.getElementsByTagName("td").querySelectorAll("td[onclick='cView(62972172,'0', viewButton, '' );']").Length ' error
   MsgBox IEDoc.frames(1).frames(1).document.getElementById("notPrintable").document.getElementsByName("result")(0).document.getElementsByTagName("td").querySelectorAll("td[rowSpan='1']").Length ' error
   MsgBox TypeName(IEDoc.frames(1).frames(1).document.getElementById("notPrintable").document.getElementsByName("result")(0).document.getElementsByTagName("td")) ' DispHTMLElementCollection
   Dim Elem_td As IHTMLElement
   Dim el As Integer, ind As Integer
   Dim align_center_collection()
   el = 0
   ind = 0
   For Each Elem_td In IEDoc.frames(1).frames(1).document.getElementById("notPrintable").document.getElementsByName("result")(0).document.getElementsByTagName("td")
   el = el + 1
       If Elem_td.Align = "center" Then
           ind = ind + 1
   
           End If
   
   Next
   
   MsgBox el & " and " & ind   ' if onclick : 42 and 0 (expected 34 and 16)
                                  ' if rowspan : 42 and 42(expected 34 and 34)
                               ' if align = center : 42 and 2 (expected 34 and 2) - > good
                               ' if align = left : 42 and 14 (expected 34 and 14) - > good
                               ' if rowSpan : 42 and 42 (expected 34 and 34)
   

   2. I noticed that at some point the Intellisense of VBA won't help you anymore to know the available properties/methods so that's why I had to go through a few tests
   3. It seems impossible somehow to do all this step by step because even though the typename returns a valid type, I can't store this in a variable of that same type.
   4. I didn't select one exact element finally, but since (as you can see on the picture) there are a few clickable, I didn't do the "finition".

Answer 2

Here my idea in code (this code is untested). First navigate to start page to login. Then find the main page. From the main page navigate to first frame and then to second. After that the dom element should contain the target button which can be now clicked. HTH

Option Explicit

' Add reference to Microsoft Internet Controls (SHDocVw)
' Add reference to Microsoft HTML Object Library
' Add reference to Microsoft Shall Controls And Automation

' e.g. http://192.168.51.52:9999/SomeApp/Login
Private Const StartUrl As String = "Your start URL" 

' e.g. http://192.168.51.52:9999/SomeApp/Content
Private Const MainUrl As String = "Your main URL" 

Sub ClickInsideOfFrame()

    Dim ie As SHDocVw.InternetExplorer
    Dim doc As MSHTML.HTMLDocument

    On Error GoTo error_handler

    ' Navigate to start page
    Set ie = New SHDocVw.InternetExplorer
    ie.Visible = True
    ie.navigate StartUrl
    WaitWhileBusy ie

    ' Enter user name and password and login
    Login

    ' Switch to Main page
    Set ie = IEWindowFromTitle(MainUrl)
    Set doc = ie.document

    ' First find content frame and navige to url of this frame
    NavigateToFrame ie, "frame[name='contentframe']"

    ' Find postfachcontent frame and navige to url of this frame next
    NavigateToFrame ie, "frame[name='postfachcontent']"

    ' Dom document should now contain the button which is inside of the 
    ' postfachcontent frame
    doc.querySelector("input[type='button'][name='some-button']").Click

error_handler:
    If Err.Number <> 0 Then MsgBox Err.Description, vbCritical, "Error"
    ie.Quit
    Set ie = Nothing
End Sub

Private Sub WaitWhileBusy(ie As SHDocVw.InternetExplorer)
    While ie.Busy Or ie.readyState <> READYSTATE_COMPLETE
        DoEvents
    Wend
End Sub

Function IEWindowFromTitle(sTitle As String) As SHDocVw.InternetExplorer
    ' ...
End Function

Private Sub NavigateToFrame(ie As SHDocVw.InternetExplorer, selector As String)
    Dim frame As MSHTML.HTMLFrameElement
    Dim doc As MSHTML.HTMLDocument
    Set doc = ie.document
    Set frame = doc.querySelector(selector)
    If Not frame Is Nothing Then
        ie.navigate MainUrl & frame.src
        WaitWhileBusy ie
        Exit Sub
    End If
    Err.Raise vbObjectError + 513, "NavigateToFrame", "Frame not found for selector '" & selector & "'."
End Sub


Private Sub Login()
    ' ...
End Sub