_IEAttach on a new webpage

[thomasgoldring]

I hope someone might be able to put me out of my coding misery.

My overall goal: To batch-download education-related PDF files relating to No Child Left Behind. The starting point is here: https://rptsvr1.tea.texas.gov/ayp/2005/campus.srch.html. But I need to navigate through several webpages to commence a download.

Work completed: I've been able to successfully automate the initial webpage by checking the radio button 'Campus by Region Number' and clicking the 'Continue' button:

$o_IE = _IECreate()
_IENavigate ($o_IE, "https://rptsvr1.tea.texas.gov/ayp/2005/campus.srch.html")
$o_Search = _IEFormGetObjByName ($o_IE, "camp")
$o_Next = _IEGetObjByName($o_IE, "submit")
_IEFormElementRadioSelect($o_Search, "regnum", "search", 1, "byValue")
_IEAction($o_Next, "click")

On the next webpage, I need to select a region from the option box and click continue. I plan to hard code the selection for now and worry about looping over all regions later.

My specific problem: I need to point AutoIt to the form on the new webpage (the form itself appears to be unnamed, but the option box is called 'regnback'). I think _IEAttach is the right way to point AutoIt to the new webpage. However, I cannot get the command to work. I tried this code:

$o_IEC = _IEAttach ("2005 Campus AYP Report", "windowtitle")

It returns an error: _IESTATUS_NoMatch. I tried the "title" option too, and some text from the body of the page with the "text" option, but no joy.

My apologies for what I'm sure is a very basic question; unfortunately several hours on Google failed to point me in the right direction. This thread seemed most similar to my problem. In any case, thanks for taking a look.

 

[ProgrammerKid]

Look, I've been trying to wrap my head around your problem, however, the source code of the webpage you're having the issue with is truly horrible.

The only thing that I could manage to do was find the 2nd <option> tag by searching for value, but I don't think clicking it is possible. You might want to try an alternative, for example, MouseClick() might do the trick. That requires for the browser window to be focused and but I doubt there's another way to do this. Don't take my word for it since I'm not really an expert, it's just my advice.

Here's the most I could do:

#include <IE.au3>

$o_IE = _IECreate()
_IENavigate ($o_IE, "https://rptsvr1.tea.texas.gov/ayp/2005/campus.srch.html")
$o_Search = _IEFormGetObjByName ($o_IE, "camp")
$o_Next = _IEGetObjByName($o_IE, "submit")
_IEFormElementRadioSelect($o_Search, "regnum", "search", 1, "byValue")
_IEAction($o_Next, "click")
_IELoadWait($o_IE)
$o_IEC = _IEAttach ("2005 Campus AYP Report", "windowtitle")
$oOptions = _IETagnameGetCollection($o_IE, "option")

For $Option in $oOptions
    If $Option.value = 02 Then
        MsgBox(0,0, "Found option!")
        _IEAction ($Option, "click") ; Doesn't click it anyway :(
        ExitLoop
    EndIf
 Next

 

[Danp2]

You should be able to just parse the HTML to get the required values and then use InetGet to download the file. For example:

The URL for one of the files is https://rptsvr1.tea.texas.gov/cgi/sas/broker?_service=marykay&_program=perfrept.perfmast.sas&prgopt=2005%2Fayp%2Fpdfcx.sas&year4=2005&year2=05&topic=ayp&gifname=t_05aypcamp&title=AYP%2BReport&level=Campus&search=campback&sublevel=SUBLEVEL&ptype=PTYPE&campback=108902001+

Instead of traversing the website with the IE functions, just use the desired campback value in the URL and download the file.

 

[thomasgoldring]

1 hour ago, ProgrammerKid said:

Look, I've been trying to wrap my head around your problem, however, the source code of the webpage you're having the issue with is truly horrible.

The only thing that I could manage to do was find the 2nd <option> tag by searching for value, but I don't think clicking it is possible. You might want to try an alternative, for example, MouseClick() might do the trick. That requires for the browser window to be focused and but I doubt there's another way to do this. Don't take my word for it since I'm not really an expert, it's just my advice.

Here's the most I could do:

#include <IE.au3>

$o_IE = _IECreate()
_IENavigate ($o_IE, "https://rptsvr1.tea.texas.gov/ayp/2005/campus.srch.html")
$o_Search = _IEFormGetObjByName ($o_IE, "camp")
$o_Next = _IEGetObjByName($o_IE, "submit")
_IEFormElementRadioSelect($o_Search, "regnum", "search", 1, "byValue")
_IEAction($o_Next, "click")
_IELoadWait($o_IE)
$o_IEC = _IEAttach ("2005 Campus AYP Report", "windowtitle")
$oOptions = _IETagnameGetCollection($o_IE, "option")

For $Option in $oOptions
    If $Option.value = 02 Then
        MsgBox(0,0, "Found option!")
        _IEAction ($Option, "click") ; Doesn't click it anyway :(
        ExitLoop
    EndIf
 Next

 

Many thanks, ProgrammerKid. I totally agree about the underlying code being terrible. I think it's auto-generated by the statistical software package SAS.

I'll have a think about the MouseClick command. Really appreciate your thoughts, thanks.

[thomasgoldring]

20 minutes ago, Danp2 said:

You should be able to just parse the HTML to get the required values and then use InetGet to download the file. For example:

The URL for one of the files is https://rptsvr1.tea.texas.gov/cgi/sas/broker?_service=marykay&_program=perfrept.perfmast.sas&prgopt=2005%2Fayp%2Fpdfcx.sas&year4=2005&year2=05&topic=ayp&gifname=t_05aypcamp&title=AYP%2BReport&level=Campus&search=campback&sublevel=SUBLEVEL&ptype=PTYPE&campback=108902001+

Instead of traversing the website with the IE functions, just use the desired campback value in the URL and download the file.

 

Wow! I can't believe I didn't closely examine the URL - this definitely appears to be a better approach. Thanks very much, Danp2!