Send data to a webform using MS Access VBA - html

Question

I am trying to send data from an Access DB to a website http://www.lee.vote/voters/check-your-registration-status/. I'm able to use similar code (below) to send data to a different website, but I can't figure out why it doesn't work for this website.
The HTML from what I'm trying to fill in:
<div id="FindVoterForm">
<div id="IntroText">
<h1 style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 3px;">Voter Information in <span id="MainCounty">Lee</span> County</h1>
<h2 style="text-align: center; margin-top: 3px; margin-bottom: 3px;">Sample Ballots and Voting Locations</h2>
<span class="style1" style="margin-bottom: 0px;">Complete the form to see:</span><ul style="margin-top: 0px;">
<li class="style1"><b>Where to vote on election day</b></li>
<li class="style1"><b>Sample ballots</b></li>
<li class="style1"><b>Upcoming elections</b></li>
</ul>
<p class="style2" style="margin-bottom: 0px;">
You'll also be able to:</p>
<ul style="margin-top: 0px;">
<li class="style2">Request a mail ballot</li>
<li class="style2">Review/update your voter registration information</li>
<li class="style2">Check the status of your mail ballot</li>
<li class="style2">Review your voting activity for the past 12 months</li>
</ul>
<div id="NotRegistered" style="font-size: small;">If you are not registered to vote please fill out our voter registration form</div><br>
<i><b style="text-decoration: underline;">All items are required</b></i>.
</div>
<div class="voterForm">
<div class="voterFormLine"><div>1.</div><div>Voter's Last Name</div><div><input title="Please enter your last name." id="NameID" type="text" size="10" maxlength="35" value=""></div>
</div><div class="voterFormLine"><div>2.</div><div>Voter's Birth Date</div><div><input title="Please enter your birth date (MM/DD/YYYY)." id="BirthDate" type="text" size="10" maxlength="10" value="">
<br>MM/DD/YYYY</div></div><div class="voterFormLine"><div>3.</div>
<div><a title="House Number" href="https://www.voterfocus.com/VFVoterGlossery.php?term=House Number" target="_blank">House Number</a> of Voter's Residence Address</div>
<div><input title="Please enter your house street number." id="StNumber" type="text" size="10" maxlength="10" value=""></div>
</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div><div style="text-align: center;"><h2 id="MoreVoter" style="display: none;"><b></b></h2>
<button id="ButtonForm" onclick="ButtonForm_onclick()" type="button" value="Submit">Submit</button></div>
</div>
</div>
The VBA code:
'creates a new internet explorer window
Dim IE As Object
Set IE = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
'opens Lee County registration check
With IE
.Visible = True
.navigate "http://www.lee.vote/voters/check-your-registration-status/"
End With
'waits until IE is loaded
Do Until IE.ReadyState = 4 And Not IE.busy
DoEvents
Loop
'sends data to the webpage
Call IE.Document.getelementbyid("NameID").setattribute("value", Last_Name)
Call IE.Document.getelementbyid("BirthDate").setattribute("value", Date_of_Birth.Value)
Call IE.Document.getelementbyid("StNumber").setattribute("value", Street_Number.Value)
'"clicks" the button to display the results
IE.Document.getelementbyid("ButtonForm").Click
Any help?

Answer 1

The HTML snippet you provided belongs to iframe <iframe id="dnn_ctr1579_View_VoterLookupFrame" src="https://www.electionsfl.org/VoterInfo/vflookup.html?county=lee" width="100%" height="2000" frameborder="0"></iframe>, so you should navigate to URL https://www.electionsfl.org/VoterInfo/vflookup.html?county=lee instead of http://www.lee.vote/voters/check-your-registration-status/.
I navigated https://www.electionsfl.org/VoterInfo/vflookup.html?county=lee in Chrome and checked XHR logged after I submit the data via Developer Tools (F12), Network tab:
Seems that is simple POST XML HTTP request with payload in JSON format, like:
{'LastName':'Doe', 'BirthDate':'01/01/1980', 'StNumber':'10025', 'County':'lee', 'FirstName':'', 'challengeValue':'', 'responseValue':''}
That XHR uses no cookies or any other authorization data neither in headers nor payload, so I tried to reproduce the same request using the following code:
Option Explicit
Sub Test_Submit_VoterInfo()
Dim sLastName As String
Dim sBirthDate As String
Dim sStNumber As String
Dim sFormData As String
Dim bytFormData
Dim sContent As String
' Put the necessary data here
sLastName = "Doe"
sBirthDate = "01/01/1980"
sStNumber = "10025"
' Combine form payload
sFormData = "{" & _
"'LastName':'" & sLastName & "', " & _
"'BirthDate':'" & sBirthDate & "', " & _
"'StNumber':'" & sStNumber & "', " & _
"'County':'lee', " & _
"'FirstName':'', " & _
"'challengeValue':'', " & _
"'responseValue':''" & _
"}"
' Convert string to UTF-8 binary
With CreateObject("ADODB.Stream")
.Open
.Type = 2 ' adTypeText
.Charset = "UTF-8"
.WriteText sFormData
.Position = 0
.Type = 1 ' adTypeBinary
.Position = 3 ' skip BOM
bytFormData = .Read
.Close
End With
' Make POST XHR
With CreateObject("MSXML2.XMLHTTP")
.Open "POST", "https://www.electionsfl.org/VoterInfo/asmx/service1.asmx/FindVoter", False, "u051772", "mar4fy16"
.SetRequestHeader "Content-Length", LenB(bytFormData)
.SetRequestHeader "Content-Type", "application/json; charset=UTF-8"
.Send bytFormData
sContent = .ResponseText
End With
' Show response
Debug.Print sContent
End Sub
The response for me is {"d":"[]"}, the same as in browser, but unfortunately I can't check if it processed on the server correctly, since I have no valid voter record data.

Answer 2

This is the answer that I came up with after the (much needed) help determining that I was not really navigating to the right webpage for the form:
'creates a new internet explorer window
Dim IE As Object
Set IE = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
'opens Lee County registration check
With IE
.Visible = True
.navigate "https://www.electionsfl.org/VoterInfo/vflookup.html?county=lee"
End With
'waits until IE is loaded
Do Until IE.ReadyState = 4 And Not IE.busy
DoEvents
Loop
x = Timer + 2
Do While Timer < x
DoEvents
Loop
'sends data to the webpage
Call IE.Document.getelementbyid("NameID").setattribute("value", Last_Name.Value)
'formats DOB to correct output
Dim DOBMonth As Integer
Dim DOBDay As Integer
Dim DOBYear As Integer
DOBMonth = Month(Date_of_Birth.Value)
DOBDay = Day(Date_of_Birth.Value)
DOBYear = Year(Date_of_Birth.Value)
If DOBMonth < 10 Then
Call IE.Document.getelementbyid("BirthDate").setattribute("value", "0" & DOBMonth & "/" & DOBDay & "/" & DOBYear)
Else
Call IE.Document.getelementbyid("BirthDate").setattribute("value", DOBMonth & "/" & DOBDay & "/" & DOBYear)
End If
Call IE.Document.getelementbyid("StNumber").setattribute("value", Street_Number.Value)
'"clicks" the button to display the results
IE.Document.getelementbyid("ButtonForm").Click