IE_Navigate not work.

MGuyM · Post by **MGuyM** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 12:26 am

I've spent most the day working on a Script to mine various bits of data from a Web Page. I started with the Web Recorder to get most of my script together and then I had to create to different branches for my Script to follow based on what the Web Page looks like.

My initial Script was working just fine, but now that I've added a Branching Condition, the Branch that was working fine no longer works.

I'm totally lost on what to determine the problem might be. What I did notice is that based on a condition, I want to navigate to another web page in IE7, and the Navigation is not taking place. It was working, but short of starting with a Fresh Macro, it don't work any more.

Any Ideas why the IE_Navigate Function wouldn't be working.

Also, I occasionally run into a problem with IE_ExtractTag not working too. Even when using the TagExtractor Wizard in WR, it fails upon running in MS.

Thank you.

Bob Hansen · Post by **Bob Hansen** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 5:11 am

There are a number of things you can do.

1. Single step through the script and look at the variables.
2. Create a log file and analyze the log to understand what is happening. It helps to make all variables with surrounding % symbols to read the values in the log file.
3. Provide copy of the script here so that we can see how you are trying to do this. Without that info, we could only guess at scores of possibilities.

MGuyM · Post by **MGuyM** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 6:17 pm

Thanks for the Reply. I attempted to step through the Log file and trace the Variables, and while the beginning parts work as expected, when it branches to another web page, IE doesn't navigate away.

I don't feel comfortable with posting script samples because the web site that I am trying to mine data from may not take too kindly to my doing so. And if they see what I'm doing, they might just cancel my account all together. (While I'm not 100%, I suspect that it would violate their terms of service even though I'm not hacking anything, I'm just trying to automate the data retrieval process to get the information and store it in a file).

If you have any ideas why IE would not navigate to different pages, maybe I can try something like that. I've even tried re-recording my script using v2.04 of the WebRecorder and when I replay my script, it does the same thing. Very weird.

I'm going to try to set it up on a new system and see if I have any luck there.

Thanks!

Bob Hansen · Post by **Bob Hansen** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 6:28 pm

Perhaps you can find a similar page, or put in a dummy URL and/or provide a screen shot with ID info edited out.

I really think we need more info to help you out. At least provide the script with a dummy URL, dummy user name and dummy password. The rest of the script can still provide us a wealth of info to understand what you are trying to do.

You may also be able to use HTTPGet, and do off line parsing of data vs. being logged in while doing this. .

MGuyM · Post by **MGuyM** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 6:52 pm

Yeah. I know you need some script to be able to determine whats going on.

I'm going to try to replicate some of the code here and just replace some of the data where privacy is required.

Code: Select all

[/b]

After this section "//Determine Resulting Home Page" in the above code, IE quits navigating to the subsequent pages.

I am curious what the "r" means on the lines at the end.  I assume it is a Result value, but the Watch List always shows a numeric value?

Also, if I used the HTTPGET function, would that retrieve the entire web page and then I could parse the TAGs I need to get the Data I'm looking for?  Ultimately, when this is all perfected, I really don't want IE to be visible with it's actions, I just want it to run silently recording the data to a Log File each time it runs.

I'm too new to VBSCRIPT, so I'm not sure how to do alot of this using VBS, but I'm learning the MS way and once I work through some of these hiccups, I think it will do what I want.

Thank You so much for all your help.

Post by **Marcus Tettmar** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 9:20 am

I've just noticed there's a bug in the imports code which handles DLL imported functions such as IE_Navigate that stops them working if they are indented. Remove the spaces in front of the IE_xxx functions and it should work. i.e. they do not work indented. We'll get this fixed ASAP.

Post by **Marcus Tettmar** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 4:28 pm

mtettmar wrote:I've just noticed there's a bug in the imports code which handles DLL imported functions such as IE_Navigate that stops them working if they are indented. Remove the spaces in front of the IE_xxx functions and it should work. i.e. they do not work indented. We'll get this fixed ASAP.

This has now been fixed in 10.1.16 available now from the registered download page: http://www.mjtnet.com/dldregd.htm

MGuyM · Post by **MGuyM** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 4:52 pm

Marcus - Your Awesome! While waiting for a solution all day yesterday, I pulled out every book I've got and started reading everything I could on VBScript to see if I could duplicate the functions that IEAuto are doing and I have to say, my Head hurts.

I'm heading over to download the update right now and will test it ASAP or at least remove the indentations from my code. I put the indents in so I could see the groups of code more legibly.

Thank You So Much for your Response and quick Fix.

MGuyM · Post by **MGuyM** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 7:58 pm

Just an update that the latest version of MS v10.1.16 fixed the problem.

IE_Navigate is now working as expected.

Thank You!