VBA unable to get anchor element in table? - html

Question

I'm trying to click an anchor element on a web page. I'm using this code:
For each anchor in HTMLDoc.anchors
If anchor.onclick = "validateForm(frmSearchEntry)" Then
anchor.click
exit for
End if
Next anchor
And here is the snippet of html:
<tr>
<td height="35" align="right" nowrap>
<input type="hidden" name="aisposm01formReset" value="">
<img src="/Settlement/static/images/pbs/funcreset.gif" border="0">
<img src="/Settlement/static/images/pbs/funcsearch.gif" border="0" alt=""></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" nowrap>
<table>
<tr><td name="txtErrorMessage" class="error"></td></tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
However, for some reason when I try to execute the code it just flies right over the for next loop as if there are no anchor elements anywhere on the page. I'm not quite sure what I'm doing wrong here.

Answer 1

Updated to reflect the answer the question noted in the comments
The elements you are trying to find are not actually anchors. See this link for a description of how anchors are implemented in html. An anchor looks like this <a name="anchor"></a> and you would create a link to it like so click here.
Instead, I you could use HTMLDoc.GetElementsByTagName("A") to get all of the links and then iterate through those. Make sure you perform your check based on the .getAttribute function as noted below.
The .OnClick function returns a pointer to the event handling function per msdn. What you probably want instead is .getAttribute(strAttributeName As String, Optional lFlags As Long) (msdn).
Try (UNTESTED):
For each linkelement in HTMLDoc.GetElementsByTagName("a") 'As noted above
If linkelement.getAttribute("OnClick") = "validateForm(frmSearchEntry)" Then
linkelement.click
exit for
End if
Next anchor
If that doesn't work right away, put a breakpoint on the If statement and check the value of anchor.getAttribute("OnClick") in the Watch Window.