Concatenate referenced URL into XML HTTP Request - excel

Question

The following snippet of code sends a XML request to the following site
Sub GetContents()
Dim XMLReq As New MSXML2.XMLHTTP60
XMLReq.Open "Get", "https://echa.europa.eu/brief-profile/-/briefprofile/100.028.723", False
XMLReq.send
End Sub
I have another Sub routine GetURL() which prints out the desired URL in this case: https://echa.europa.eu/brief-profile/-/briefprofile/100.028.723
How can I essentially concatenate the output of GetURL() into the BstrUrl? i.e.
XMLReq.Open "Get", "x", False where x is the output of GetURL()
Despite various attempts the syntax is not accepted as a URL.

Answer 1

Assuming you are combining from your earlier question then you need to ensure you write a function which returns the url (as Tim Williams has pointed out). I would expand upon this, in that I think you would need to consider adding a test to ensure both the request succeeded, there were results, and to pass the searchKeyWord as an argument to make your function more reusable. Along the same lines, you could pass the xmlhttp object into the function, so as to avoid continually creating and destroying them.
Avoid auto-instantiation, as you can get unexpected results, and Hungarian style notation. Personally, I also avoid those type characters, as they are harder to read.
vbNullString will offer faster assignment than = "".
I would also use a shorter, faster, and more reliable css pattern to retrieve the url, based on classes and a parent child relationship of two elements.
Public Sub GetContents()
Dim searchKeyWord As String, xmlReq As MSXML2.XMLHTTP60, html As MSHTML.HTMLDocument, url As String
searchKeyWord = "Acetone"
Set xmlReq = New MSXML2.XMLHTTP60
url = GetUrl(searchKeyWord, xmlReq)
Set html = New MSHTML.HTMLDocument
If url <> "N/A" Then
With xmlReq
.Open "GET", url, False
.send
If .Status = 200 Then
html.body.innerHTML = .responseText
Debug.Print html.querySelector("title").innerText
End If
End With
End If
End Sub
Public Function GetUrl(ByVal searchKeyWord As String, ByVal http As MSXML2.XMLHTTP60) As String
Const url = "https://echa.europa.eu/search-for-chemicals?p_auth=5ayUnMyz&p_p_id=disssimplesearch_WAR_disssearchportlet&p_p_lifecycle=1&p_p_state=normal&p_p_col_id=_118_INSTANCE_UFgbrDo05Elj__column-1&p_p_col_count=1&_disssimplesearch_WAR_disssearchportlet_javax.portlet.action=doSearchAction&_disssimplesearch_WAR_disssearchportlet_backURL=https%3A%2F%2Fecha.europa.eu%2Finformation-on-chemicals%3Fp_p_id%3Ddisssimplesearchhomepage_WAR_disssearchportlet%26p_p_lifecycle%3D0%26p_p_state%3Dnormal%26p_p_mode%3Dview%26p_p_col_id%3D_118_INSTANCE_UFgbrDo05Elj__column-1%26p_p_col_count%3D1%26_disssimplesearchhomepage_WAR_disssearchportlet_sessionCriteriaId%3D"
Dim html As MSHTML.HTMLDocument, dict As Object, i As Long, r As Long
Dim dictKey As Variant, payload$, ws As Worksheet
Set html = New MSHTML.HTMLDocument
Set dict = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")
Set ws = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Sheet1")
dict("_disssimplesearchhomepage_WAR_disssearchportlet_formDate") = "1621017052777" 'timestamp
dict("_disssimplesearch_WAR_disssearchportlet_searchOccurred") = "true"
dict("_disssimplesearch_WAR_disssearchportlet_sskeywordKey") = searchKeyWord
dict("_disssimplesearchhomepage_WAR_disssearchportlet_disclaimer") = "true"
dict("_disssimplesearchhomepage_WAR_disssearchportlet_disclaimerCheckbox") = "on"
payload = vbNullString
For Each dictKey In dict
payload = IIf(Len(dictKey) = 0, WorksheetFunction.EncodeURL(dictKey) & "=" & WorksheetFunction.EncodeURL(dict(dictKey)), _
payload & "&" & WorksheetFunction.EncodeURL(dictKey) & "=" & WorksheetFunction.EncodeURL(dict(dictKey)))
Next dictKey
With http
.Open "POST", url, False
.setRequestHeader "User-Agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/84.0.4147.135 Safari/537.36"
.setRequestHeader "Content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
.send (payload)
If .Status = 200 Then
html.body.innerHTML = .responseText
Else
GetUrl = "N/A"
Exit Function
End If
End With
Dim result As Boolean
result = html.querySelectorAll(".lfr-search-container .substanceNameLink").Length > 0
GetUrl = IIf(result, html.querySelector(".lfr-search-container .substanceNameLink").href, "N/A")
End Function

Answer 2

If GetURL is a function returning a string then this should work:
Sub GetContents()
Dim XMLReq As New MSXML2.XMLHTTP60
Dim url
url = GetURL()
XMLReq.Open "Get", url, False
XMLReq.send
End Sub