Control of WWW site by MS ACCESS

[Pavel71]

HI, I created quite nice Access DB that is managing insurance claims process. It works with simple workflow and for the interaction with insurances is using MS Outlook. Now I have task to use interface of WWW to :
1. log on the site
2. exchange some information and photos
Does anybody have experience with this issue: program an application where Access is controlling content in eg. IE?
Thank you for any help

 

[georgedwilkinson]

You'll need to use an IE object in your VBA project. You can modify the InnerHTML to control the flow of the browser object. I haven't done this for a long time in VBA but the concept is the same in Javascript/HTML.

 

[Pavel71]

Hi George, do you have any sample code in eg. Java? Thank you Pavel

 

[spikepl]

This will get you started: http://www.access-programmers.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=176968

the term to google for is "screen scraping VBA". You will have to learn DOM.

Interacting with web pages like this is not reliable because the web page can change without notice. For permanent operations, it would be much better to interface with the site. Many sites provide web services, or means to submit data using eg XML. Have you checked that that is not the case here?

 

[georgedwilkinson]

Hi George, do you have any sample code in eg. Java? Thank you Pavel

Not in Java, I had said Javascript. You would only use Javascript for client side changes to the html (i.e. only if you control the page source). You can see the basic concept in Javascript here: http://www.tizag.com/javascriptT/javascript-innerHTML.php

You can use a DOM object as spikepl mentioned and modify the HTML of the page (more specifically, the form data) before sending a response to the server. Further, as spikepl mentioned, the web page or entire web site could change, thus causing your code to give unpredictable results.

If you're interested in some VBA to do this, let me know. I've used this technique to keep track of MMORPG video game statistics and to create a city wide database of all residents and their addresses (for Tampa, FL). It might take me a while to dig it out since that was 4 or 5 computers ago. Since the server may change without notice, you may have to maintain your code more than you had planned.

 

[Pavel71]

Thank you Guys, for your help and great support. I will program some tests base on your suggestions and comming back with result. Kind regards Pavel