I'm getting stuck at vba runtime error 424 - html

Question

I'm getting
run-time error 424
in 68th row (line)
request.Open "GET", Url, False
and I don't know how to fix it.
My previous question I posted ;
How to scrape specific part of online english dictionary?
My final goal is to get result like this;
A B
beginning bɪˈɡɪnɪŋ
behalf bɪˈhæf
behave bɪˈheɪv
behaviour bɪˈheɪvjər
belong bɪˈlɔːŋ
below bɪˈloʊ
bird bɜːrd
biscuit ˈbɪskɪt
Here's code I wrote, and it's mostly based on someone else's code I found on internet.
' Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects x.x Library
' Microsoft XML, v3.0
' Microsoft VBScript Regular Expressions
Sub ParseHelp()
' Word reference from
Dim Url As String
Url = "https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/" & Cells(ActiveCell.Row, "B").Value
' Get dictionary's html
Dim Html As String
Html = GetHtml(Url)
' Check error
If InStr(Html, "<TITLE>Not Found</Title>") > 0 Then
MsgBox "404"
Exit Sub
End If
' Extract phonetic alphabet from HTML
Dim wrapPattern As String
wrapPattern = "<span class='name' (.*?)</span>"
Set wrapCollection = FindRegexpMatch(Html, wrapPattern)
' MsgBox StripHtml(CStr(wrapCollection(1)))
' Fill phonetic alphabet into cell
If Not wrapCollection Is Nothing Then
Dim wrap As String
On Error Resume Next
wrap = StripHtml(CStr(wrapCollection(1)))
If Err.Number <> 0 Then
wrap = ""
End If
Cells(ActiveCell.Row, "C").Value = wrap
Else
MsgBox "not found"
End If
End Sub
Public Function StripHtml(Html As String) As String
Dim RegEx As New RegExp
Dim sOut As String
Html = Replace(Html, "</li>", vbNewLine)
Html = Replace(Html, " ", " ")
With RegEx
.Global = True
.IgnoreCase = True
.MultiLine = True
.Pattern = "<[^>]+>"
End With
sOut = RegEx.Replace(Html, "")
StripHtml = sOut
Set RegEx = Nothing
End Function
Public Function GetHtml(Url As String) As String
Dim xmlhttp As Object
Set xmlhttp = CreateObject("MSXML2.serverXMLHTTP")
Dim converter As New ADODB.stream
' Get
request.Open "GET", Url, False
request.send
' raw bytes
converter.Open
converter.Type = adTypeBinary
converter.Write request.responseBody
' read
converter.Position = 0
converter.Type = adTypeText
converter.Charset = "utf-8"
' close
GetHtml = converter.ReadText
converter.Close
End Function
Public Function FindRegexpMatch(txt As String, pat As String) As Collection
Set FindRegexpMatch = New Collection
Dim rx As New RegExp
Dim matcol As MatchCollection
Dim mat As Match
Dim ret As String
Dim delimiter As String
txt = Replace(txt, Chr(10), "")
txt = Replace(txt, Chr(13), "")
rx.Global = True
rx.IgnoreCase = True
rx.MultiLine = True
rx.Pattern = pat
Set matcol = rx.Execute(txt)
'MsgBox "Match:" & matcol.Count
On Error GoTo ErrorHandler
For Each mat In matcol
'FindRegexpMatch.Add mat.SubMatches(0)
FindRegexpMatch.Add mat.Value
Next mat
Set rx = Nothing
' Insert code that might generate an error here
Exit Function
ErrorHandler:
' Insert code to handle the error here
MsgBox "FindRegexpMatch. " & Err.GetException()
Resume Next
End Function
Any kind of help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

The following is an example of how to read in values from column A and write out pronounciations to column B. It uses css selectors to match a child node then steps up to parentNode in order to ensure entire pronounciation is grabbed. There are a number of ways you could have matched on the parent node to get the second pronounciation. Note that I use a parent node and Replace as the pronounciation may span multiple childNodes.
If doing this for lots of lookups please be a good netizen and put some waits in the code so as to not bombard the site with requests.
Option Explicit
Public Sub WriteOutPronounciations()
Dim html As MSHTML.HTMLDocument, i As Long, ws As Worksheet
Dim data As String, lastRow As Long, urls()
Set ws = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Sheet1")
lastRow = ws.Cells(ws.rows.Count, "A").End(xlUp).row 'you need at least two words in column A or change the redim.
urls = Application.Transpose(ws.Range("A1:A" & lastRow).Value)
ReDim results(1 To UBound(urls))
Set html = New MSHTML.HTMLDocument
With CreateObject("MSXML2.ServerXMLHTTP")
For i = LBound(urls) To UBound(urls)
.Open "GET", "https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/" & urls(i), False
.send
html.body.innerHTML = .responseText
data = Replace$(Replace$(html.querySelector(".name ~ .wrap").ParentNode.innerText, "/", vbNullString), Chr$(10), Chr$(32))
results(i) = Right$(data, Len(data) - 4)
Next
End With
With ThisWorkbook.Worksheets(1)
.Cells(1, 2).Resize(UBound(results, 1), 1) = Application.Transpose(results)
End With
End Sub
Required references (VBE>Tools>References):
Microsoft HTML Object Library
Should you go down the API route then here is a small example. You can make 1000 free calls in a month with Prototype account. The next best, depending on how many calls you wish to make looks like the 10,001 calls (that one extra PAYG call halves the price). # calls will be affected by whether word is head word or needs lemmas lookup call first. The endpoint construction you need is GET /entries/{source_lang}/{word_id}?fields=pronunciations though that doesn't seem to filter massively. You will need a json parser to handle the json returned e.g. github.com/VBA-tools/VBA-JSON/blob/master/JsonConverter.bas. Download raw code from there and add to standard module called JsonConverter. You then need to go VBE > Tools > References > Add reference to Microsoft Scripting Runtime. Remove the top Attribute line from the copied code.
Option Explicit
Public Sub WriteOutPronounciations()
Dim html As MSHTML.HTMLDocument, i As Long, ws As Worksheet
Dim data As String, lastRow As Long, words()
'If not performing lemmas lookup then must be head word e.g. behave, behalf
Const appId As String = "yourAppId"
Const appKey As String = "yourAppKey"
Set ws = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Sheet1")
lastRow = ws.Cells(ws.rows.Count, "A").End(xlUp).row
words = Application.Transpose(ws.Range("A1:A" & lastRow).Value)
ReDim results(1 To UBound(words))
Set html = New MSHTML.HTMLDocument
Dim json As Object
With CreateObject("MSXML2.ServerXMLHTTP")
For i = LBound(words) To UBound(words)
.Open "GET", "https://od-api.oxforddictionaries.com/api/v2/entries/en-us/" & LCase$(words(i)) & "?fields=pronunciations", False
.setRequestHeader "app_id", appId
.setRequestHeader "app_key", appKey
.setRequestHeader "ContentType", "application/json"
.send
Set json = JsonConverter.ParseJson(.responseText)
results(i) = IIf(json("results")(1)("type") = "headword", json("results")(1)("lexicalEntries")(1)("pronunciations")(2)("phoneticSpelling"), "lemmas lookup required")
Set json = Nothing
Next
End With
With ThisWorkbook.Worksheets(1)
.Cells(1, 2).Resize(UBound(results, 1), 1) = Application.Transpose(results)
End With
End Sub