[SOLVED] How to do an automated click on a javascript link in IE?

[Automania]

Hello,

First of all, just wanted to say this is a great forum. Thanks to the online documentation and search function I solved many, many problems without having to post each time here.

However, this time I'm stuck.

I want my program to click on a javascript link in IE and read this can be done by including the IE.au3 in my script. I can't work with pixelsearch in this case and mouse coordinates won't work in this case either. However, the help file confuses me when it comes to functions such as _IEAction and the general handling of IE objects (completely new to this).

Here's the part of the website I want to click on (actually on the "add comment" link):

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="1" width="540">
<form method="post">
<tr>
<td colspan="5" align="right"><a href="java script:openModalPopup('addnotes.do?accId=12345&deptId=1','',500,400)">Add Comment</a></td>

All the script has to do is to click on the "add comment" link. Once that happens a popup shows up and then I can use controlsend to paste text into it. Sadly, I lack the knowledge of this object stuff to do it myself.

Can anyone enlighten me?

Edited September 29, 2008 by Automania

[dbzfanatic]

Not to sound rude but did you really search that hard? <a href="java script:..." topic This should give you a good place to start if nothing else.

[Automania]

Thanks, that's a start. Sadly, the forum does not allow to search for "IE" and the results I found were either even more confusing or not close to my problem (unlike the link you provided).

I took a look at the help file regarding the _IELinkClickByText function. The way the example code worked it may or may not work with the website I have in mind. However, there's the next problem:

$oIE = _IECreate("http://www.autoitscript.com")

$sMyString = "wallpaper"
$oLinks = _IELinkGetCollection($oIE)
For $oLink in $oLinks
    $sLinkText = _IEPropertyGet($oLink, "innerText")
    If StringInStr($sLinkText, $sMyString) Then
        _IEAction($oLink, "click")
        ExitLoop
    EndIf
Next

So due to the first line of code this script opens the autoit homepage first in IE and then searches for the link.

However, my website cannot be opened by autoit, it needs to be opened by the user in advance. That's because the first site of that website shows a search mask and the user has to type in a database entry (differs each time) to get to the window with the link that should be clicked by the script.

Is there a way to just search for the link and click it without opening the website by autoit and leave that to the user? I left out the $oIE = ... line but then it says the variable is not declared, what's the mistake here?

Edited September 28, 2008 by Automania

[dbzfanatic]

You must have an IE window object as your reference. If you already have it open just use _IEAttach().

[DaleHohm]

_IELinkClickByText($oIE, "Add Comment")

[Automania]

Hey guys,

Thank you very much for your help, finally I knew where to start and look. It took a bit more searches and trial&error since the link I wanted to click was in an extra frame apparently.

Anyways, in case someone ever searches for a similar problem/solution I want to post the solution to my problem:

$oIE = _IEAttach("WebsiteTitle")
$oFrame = _IEframegetobjbyname($oIE,"noteframe")
_IELinkClickByText ( $oFrame, "Add Comment")

WebsiteTitle = the name of the title shown in IE (here: AutoIt Forums), will differ depending on the website, of course.

noteframe = apparently the name of the frame which included the link (found this out by looking at the the source code of the website), this might differ for other websites?

Again, thank you. Besides having found a nice, working solution I also learned something valuable about this DOM stuff. It appears quite abstract but I'm glad it's working now.

Next goal: getting the same thing to work in Firefox. >_< As far as I read I need a special script + a Firefox plugin. Wish me luck.

[dbzfanatic]

You should also post [sOLVED] to your thread title so people know that a solution was found.