VBA Web-scraping: clicking a button with dynamically generated name and ID

Question

I am working on a web-scraping project and have most of it working but have run into a problem clicking a single button. The problem is that the name and ID of the button in HTML are dynamically created:

<td colspan="1" rowspan="3" valign="middle"><input type="submit" name="11|2328342|429156$Link" value="Select" id="11|2328342|429156_Link" /></td>

and so, I can't use getElementById or getElementByClassName as the Id and name change with each iteration.

Is there any other way to reference and then click this button?

Have you tries using XPath? What do you use (selenium or IE or any other approach? — YasserKhalil
– YasserKhalil, Commented Jun 15, 2020 at 14:31

YasserKhalil · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-15 16:55:57Z

1

I am using selenium VBA. Have a look at this code (I have used CSS selector)

Private bot As New Selenium.ChromeDriver

Sub Test()
    With bot
        .Get "file:///C:\Sample.html"
        .FindElementByCss("input[value='Select']").Click
    End With
End Sub

As for the IE, you can use it like that

Sub Test()
    Dim ie As New InternetExplorer
    With ie
        .Visible = True
        .Navigate2 "file:///C:/Sample.html"
        While .Busy Or .readyState <> READYSTATE_COMPLETE: DoEvents: Wend
        .document.querySelector("input[value='Select']").Click
    End With
End Sub

edited Jun 15, 2020 at 16:55

answered Jun 15, 2020 at 14:47

YasserKhalil

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5 Comments

Keno Over a year ago

Thanks for the responses. This is on a work PC so I am restricted to IE and can't use Selenium

Keno Over a year ago

Thanks Yasser but that code doesn't seem to work. I get an "Object doesn't support…" error on the .document.querySelector line

YasserKhalil Over a year ago

I don't know why it doesn't work for you. Can you provide a URL to have a look?

Keno Over a year ago

Hi Yasser. Sorry, the work URL on accessible from work PCs. I've been reading about querySelector and querySelectorAll. Apparently they return static and not 'live' object lists. I'm wondering whether that's why the .click method doesn't work?

YasserKhalil Over a year ago

I am not sure. Maybe it is related to javascript so it is dynamic.

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