VBA Web search button - GetElementsbyClassName - html

Question

I have a problem with the VBA code.
I would like to open this website: https://www.tnt.com/express/en_us/site/tracking.html and in Shipment numbers search box I would like to put active cells from Excel file. At the beginning I tried to put only a specific text for example: "777777".
I wrote the below code but unfortunately, the search button is empty and there is no error. I tried everything and I have no idea what should I change in my code.
Any clues? Thank you in advance.
HTML:
<input class="__c-form-field__text ng-touched ng-dirty ng-invalid" formcontrolname="query" pbconvertnewlinestocommasonpaste="" pbsearchhistorynavigation="" shamselectalltextonfocus="" type="search">
VBA:
Sub TNT2_tracker()
Dim objIE As InternetExplorer
Dim aEle As HTMLLinkElement
Dim y As Integer
Dim result As String
Set objIE = New InternetExplorer
objIE.Visible = True
objIE.navigate "https://www.tnt.com/express/en_us/site/tracking.html"
Do While objIE.Busy = True Or objIE.readyState <> 4: DoEvents: Loop
Dim webpageelement As Object
For Each webpageelement In objIE.document.getElementsByClassName("input")
If webpageelement.Class = "__c-form-field__text ng-pristine ng-invalid ng-touched" Then
webpageelement.Value = "777"
End If
Next webpageelement
End Sub

Answer 1

You could use the querySelector + class name to find an element.
something like
'Find the input box
objIE.document.querySelector("input.__c-form-field__text").value = "test"
'Find the search button and do a click
objIE.document.querySelector("button.__c-btn").Click
No need to loop through elements. Unless the site allows you to search multiple tracking numbers at the same time.

Answer 2

It seems automating this page is a litte tricky. If you change the value of the input field it doesn' t work. Nothing happen by clicking the submit button.
A look in the dom inspector shows several events for the input field. I checked them out and it seems we need to paste the value over the clipboard by trigger the paste event of the shipping field.
In order for this to work without Internet Explorer prompting, its security settings for the Internet zone must be set to allow pasting from the clipboard. I'm using a German version of IE, so I have problems explaining how to find the setting.
This macro works for me:
Sub TNT2_tracker()
Dim browser As Object
Dim url As String
Dim nodeDivWithInputField As Object
Dim nodeInputShipmentNumber As Object
Dim textToClipboard As Object
'Dataobject by late binding to use the clipboard
Set textToClipboard = CreateObject("New:{1C3B4210-F441-11CE-B9EA-00AA006B1A69}")
url = "https://www.tnt.com/express/en_us/site/tracking.html"
'Initialize Internet Explorer, set visibility,
'call URL and wait until page is fully loaded
Set browser = CreateObject("internetexplorer.application")
browser.Visible = True
browser.navigate url
Do Until browser.ReadyState = 4: DoEvents: Loop
'Manual break for loading the page complitly
'Application.Wait (Now + TimeSerial(pause_hours, pause_minutes, pause_seconds))
Application.Wait (Now + TimeSerial(0, 0, 3))
'Get div element with input field for shipment number
Set nodeDivWithInputField = browser.Document.getElementsByClassName("pb-search-form-input-group")(0)
If Not nodeDivWithInputField Is Nothing Then
'If we got the div element ...
'First child element is the input field
Set nodeInputShipmentNumber = nodeDivWithInputField.FirstChild
'Put shipment number to clipboard
textToClipboard.setText "7777777"
textToClipboard.PutInClipboard
'Insert value by trigger paste event of the input field
Call TriggerEvent(browser.Document, nodeInputShipmentNumber, "paste")
'Click button
browser.Document.getElementsByClassName("__c-btn")(0).Click
Else
MsgBox "No input field for shipment number found."
End If
End Sub
And this function to trigger a html event:
Private Sub TriggerEvent(htmlDocument As Object, htmlElementWithEvent As Object, eventType As String)
Dim theEvent As Object
htmlElementWithEvent.Focus
Set theEvent = htmlDocument.createEvent("HTMLEvents")
theEvent.initEvent eventType, True, False
htmlElementWithEvent.dispatchEvent theEvent
End Sub

Answer 3

As #Stavros Jon alludes to..... there is a browserless way using xhr GET request via API. It returns json and thus you ideally need to use a json parser to handle the response.
I use jsonconverter.bas as the json parser to handle the response. Download raw code from here 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.
Example request with dummy tracking number (deliberately passed as string):
Option Explicit
Public Sub TntTracking()
Dim json As Object, ws As Worksheet, trackingNumber As String
trackingNumber = "1234567" 'test input value. Currently this is not a valid input but is for demo.
Set ws = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Sheet1") 'for later use if writing something specific out
With CreateObject("MSXML2.XMLHTTP")
.Open "GET", "https://www.tnt.com/api/v3/shipment?con=" & trackingNumber & "&searchType=CON&locale=en_US&channel=OPENTRACK", False
.send
Set json = JsonConverter.ParseJson(.responseText)
End With
'do something with results
Debug.Print json("tracker.output")("notFound").Count > 0
Debug.Print JsonConverter.ConvertToJson(json("tracker.output")("notFound"))
End Sub