CODEWITHSUNDEEP
htmlvbaweb-scrapinghtml-parsinggetelementsbyclassname
Abagnale
Abagnale

Reputation: 95

VBA webpage scrape cannot fill search box, potential security issue..?

I have the following abridged code to navigate to a webpage and fill a search box. However, I cannot understand how to fill the search box, given the classname is embedded in an input element. Please let me know if you have any insight. Thanks.

Dim ie, results As Object
Dim pagenumber, pagetotal, r, s As Long
Dim finrawebpage As HTMLDocument
Dim searchterm As HTMLElementCollection
Dim i As Integer

Set ie = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.application")
brokersearch = InputBox("ENTER BROKER NAME OR CRD#")
'firmsearch = InputBox("ENTER FIRM NAME OR CRD#")
'geosearch = InputBox("ENTER CITY, STATE, OR ZIP")

Application.StatusBar = "LOADING FINRA SEARCH"

With ie
.Visible = True
.navigate "https://brokercheck.finra.org/"

Do While .busy Or _
.readystate <> 4
DoEvents
Loop

Set finrawebpage = ie.document

'Set searchterm = finrawebpage.getElementsByTagName("input")
'i = 0
'While i < searchterm.Length
'If searchterm(i).Type = "text" Then
'searchterm(i).Value = brokersearch

'Set searchterm = finrawebpage.getElementsByClassName("ng-pristine ng-scope ng-empty ng-valid ng-valid-required ng-touched")
'If searchterm.Length > 0 Then
'searchterm(0).Value = brokersearch
'End If

finrawebpage.getElementsByClassName("ng-pristine ng-scope ng-empty ng-valid ng-valid-required ng-touched").Item.Value = brokersearch
'finrawebpage.getElementsByClassName("searchAutoContainer flex-auto").Item.innertext = brokersearch
'finrawebpage.getElementsByClassName("md-raised md-primary md-hue-2 md-button md-ink-ripple").Item.Click

'Wend

End With

End Sub

Upvotes: 0

Views: 149

Answers (1)

Matthew Padula
Matthew Padula

Reputation: 1

It looks like you were on the right track based on the commented lines in your code. Try:

Do While i < ie.document.getElementsByTagName("input").length
  If ie.document.getElementsByTagName("input")(i).getAttribute("placeholder") = "Name or CRD#" Then
    ie.document.getElementsByTagName("input")(i).value = brokersearch
  End If
Loop

This will eliminate the need to hard code the position of the element which has a good chance of breaking if they update the page frequently. That isn't to say keying off the placeholder is perfect, but your options are limited based on what I saw on the page.

Upvotes: 0

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