reading drop down from web page

[ihousden]

Another noob question re IE.au3

Im having limited success in scraping data from a report page. Some fields work fine, others dont. The ones im having a problem with are the dropdown boxes. Im not interested selecting any text from these boxes, just determing what is curerntly selected. Here is my code so far:

; Includes:
#include <IE.au3>
#include <Array.au3>

DIM $resname 
DIM $smode 
DIM $desc 
DIM $sdate 
DIM $edate 

$oIE = _IECreate("http://you_cant_get_here_without_authentication")
_IELoadWait ($oIE)
    Sleep(300)
    
$oForm = _IEFormGetObjByName ($oIE, "frmDtl")
$resname = _IEFormElementGetObjByName ($oForm, "Desc")
$smode = _IEGetObjByName ($oForm, "schedColor")
$desc = _IEFormElementGetObjByName ($oForm, "ExtDesc")
$sdate = _IEFormElementGetObjByName ($oForm, "schedDate")
$edate = _IEFormElementGetObjByName ($oForm, "schedEndDate")

MsgBox(0, "Form Element Value", _IEFormElementGetValue ($resname))
MsgBox(0, "Form Element Value", _IEFormElementGetValue ($smode))
MsgBox(0, "Form Element Value", _IEFormElementGetValue ($desc))
MsgBox(0, "Form Element Value", _IEFormElementGetValue ($sdate))
MsgBox(0, "Form Element Value", _IEFormElementGetValue ($edate))

$smode is throwing error 7.

I have tried _IEFormElementGetObjByName and _IEGetObjByName with no success.

See the atached image. This is IE developter tools with the field in question highlighted. The table is within the same form as the other elements (not enough real estate to show entire tree).

Im admittedly not that familiar yet with the IE.au3 syntax yet.

I know when the answer comes it will be a DOH!! moment.

Cheers

[PsaltyDS]

The parent Select object won't tell you what's selected. You have to walk through the child Option objects and check each one to see if it's .selected property is true. For some types of selections, there might be more than one.

#include <IE.au3>

$oIE = _IE_Example("Form")
MsgBox(32, "Continue", "Change selection, then click OK to continue...")
$oSelect = _IEGetObjByName($oIE, "selectExample")
$colChildren = _IETagNameGetCollection($oSelect, "Option")
For $oChild In $colChildren
    $sValue = $oChild.value
    $sText = $oChild.innerText
    $vSelected = $oChild.selected
    ConsoleWrite("Debug:  Value = " & $sValue & "; Text = " & $sText & "; Selected = " & $vSelected & @LF)
Next

[Tvern]

Try this:

While 1
        $smode = _IEGetObjByName ($oForm, "schedColor")
        If IsObj($oTable) Then ExitLoop
    Sleep(100)
WEnd

You should add a timeout mechanism if it works.

I had to use this yesterday when a <Select> control would only load shortly after the page reported it was ready. Might be the same for you.

[ihousden]

Thanks guys. I was off last week. Ill give that a try today and report results.

Cheers.

[ihousden]

Tvern. Tried yours first because it was simpler but got an error of an undeclared variable with "oTable". not sure if I was missing an include or what...

PsaltyDS. Thanks for your code. worked great.

[Console output]

Debug: Value = 2; Text = VC Special Support; Selected = False

Debug: Value = 3; Text = No Support; Selected = False

Debug: Value = 4; Text = VC Connect Only; Selected = False

Debug: Value = 6; Text = External Support; Selected = False

Debug: Value = 7; Text = VC Self Support; Selected = True

Debug: Value = 8; Text = AV Self Support; Selected = False

Debug: Value = 0; Text = AV Support; Selected = False

Debug: Value = 9; Text = VC Full Support; Selected = False

I had to add the if statement to insert the innertext of the selected option to my $smode variable.

$oSelect = _IEGetObjByName($oIE, "schedColor")
$colChildren = _IETagNameGetCollection($oSelect, "Option")
For $oChild In $colChildren
    $sValue = $oChild.value
    $sText = $oChild.innerText
    $vSelected = $oChild.selected
    if $oChild.selected = "True" Then
        $smode = $oChild.innerText 
    EndIf
    ConsoleWrite("Debug:  Value = " & $sValue & "; Text = " & $sText & "; Selected = " & $vSelected & @LF)
Next

I realize that this will only work if one option is selected, which is the case for my use.

finally, I changed:

MsgBox(0, "Form Element Value", _IEFormElementGetValue ($smode))

to

MsgBox(0, "Form Element Value", $smode)

to properly report the scraped info back to me. Now to build a function out of this...

Thanks much guys.

[ihousden]

For posterity, im posting the function. I hope someone will find it useful.

I know the code could be tighter but hey, im a noob, quit complaining.

expandcollapse popup

#include <IE.au3>
#include <Array.au3>

DIM $resname 
DIM $smode 
DIM $desc 
DIM $sdate 
DIM $edate 
DIM $DDLName
DIM $DDLSelect


$oIE = _IECreate("http://you_cant_get_here_from_there")
_IELoadWait ($oIE)
    Sleep(300)
    
$oForm = _IEFormGetObjByName ($oIE, "frmDtl")
$resname = _IEFormElementGetObjByName ($oForm, "Desc")
; Query Drop Down List
$DDLName = "schedColor" ; name of DDL
DDLQuery()
$smode = $DDLSelect  ; currently selected innertext of DDL
; End Query Drop Down List
$desc = _IEFormElementGetObjByName ($oForm, "ExtDesc")
$sdate = _IEFormElementGetObjByName ($oForm, "schedDate")
$edate = _IEFormElementGetObjByName ($oForm, "schedEndDate")

MsgBox(0, "Form Element Value", _IEFormElementGetValue ($resname))
MsgBox(0, "Form Element Value", $smode)
MsgBox(0, "Form Element Value", _IEFormElementGetValue ($desc))
MsgBox(0, "Form Element Value", _IEFormElementGetValue ($sdate))
MsgBox(0, "Form Element Value", _IEFormElementGetValue ($edate))

Func DDLQuery()
    $oSelect = _IEGetObjByName($oIE, $DDLName)
$colChildren = _IETagNameGetCollection($oSelect, "Option")
For $oChild In $colChildren
    $sValue = $oChild.value
    $sText = $oChild.innerText
    $vSelected = $oChild.selected
    if $oChild.selected = "True" Then
        $DDLSelect = $oChild.innerText 
    EndIf
    ConsoleWrite("Debug:  Value = " & $sValue & "; Text = " & $sText & "; Selected = " & $vSelected & @LF)
Next
EndFunc

Thanks again for the help PsaltyDS

[Tvern]

Tvern. Tried yours first because it was simpler but got an error of an undeclared variable with "oTable". not sure if I was missing an include or what...

I just copied that snippet from my script and renamed $oTable from my script to $smode from your script in the post. I forgot to rename the second $oTable though.

Glad you got it working.