I need some serious help

[Mr.Sniper]

alrighty.. i'm a complete noob at this... i have a script that i got a while ago and i've jsut been trying to work off of that to see what each thing does... i can't seem to find out what a few things are... so if you can then please explain what each part of the script(below) does... and please use the simplest terms if you can:

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#include <IE.au3>

$oIE = _IECreate()
_IENavigate($oIE, "http://www.google.com")

$oForm = _IEFormGetObjByName($oIE, "f")
$oQuery = _IEFormElementGetObjByName($oForm, "q")

_IEFormElementSetValue($oQuery, "your ugly search string")
_IEFormSubmit($oForm)
_IELoadWait($oIE)

MyClickLinkByText($oIE, "Next"); There is no good "ugly" link on the first page, goto Next
MyClickLinkByText($oIE, "ugly"); click on the ugly link

Exit

Func MyClickLinkByText($o_object, $s_linkText, $i_index = 0, $f_wait = 1)
; _IE_clickLinkText( $o_object, $s_linkText [, $i_index][, $f_wait])
; $o_object - Object Valiable pointing to an InternetExplorer.Application object
; $s_linkText - linkText, the text displayed on the web page for the desired link to click
; [$i_index] - if the link text occurs more than once, specify which instance you want to click
;        note: instance numbering starts at 0
    $doc = $o_object.document
    $links = $doc.links
    $found = 0
    For $link In $links
        $linkText = $link.outerText & ""; Append empty string to prevent problem with no outerText (image) links
        If StringInStr($linkText, $s_linkText) Then;;; Look for SubString instead of exact match
            if ($found = $i_index) Then
                $result = $link.click
                If ($f_wait = 1) Then _IELoadWait($o_object)
                SetError(0)
                Return 1
            EndIf
            $found = $found + 1
        EndIf
    Next
    SetError(1)
    Return 0
EndFunc

I've read the post on what each thing does but it doens't make sense to me. For example the:

$oForm = _IEFormGetObjByName($oIE, "f")

$oQuery = _IEFormElementGetObjByName($oForm, "q")

I Don't get what that means.. I know it sets the vairable but whats a form and whats an element??

Edited November 9, 2005 by Mr.Sniper

[DaleHohm]

This is all based on IE.au3 A majority of your example is a modified version of the _IEClickLinkByText() function and if you are just trying to learn, you should walk away from it and revert to the original version (this one just allows a sub-string match vs. an exact match).

IE Automation UDF Library

Examples are inPost 3 in the IE Automation thread

Your questions about Forms and FormElements -- you need to understand the basics of HTML and HTML forms or you will not get very far with this. Please try to bring yourself up to speed by studying the IE.au3 post.

Dale

Edited November 9, 2005 by DaleHohm