Excel VBA - XML Not Consistently Scraping Data Into Excel - excel

I am trying to use VBA and XML Library to loop through a set webpages (targets) that utilize the same HTML structure and scrape off some data.
When I run my code for just a few targets, it pulls the data in successfully. But when I expand the number of targets to 10, 20, 50, etc. it begins to pull in the data inconsistently. Sometimes it will pull in half of the data from the targets, other times it will just pull in a few targets' data.
I am decent at Excel and VBA, but am by no means a professional. I am not sure if:
the macro is not pausing to let the web page data load (I put a do while loop in and also have the XMLPage.Open set to False to make it an asynchronous call), or,
an object needs to be destroyed at the end of each loop, or,
it is something entirely different.
VBA:
Sub GetData()
'Activate Microsoft Internet Controls Library
'Activate Microsoft XML, v6.0 Library
'Activate Microsoft HTML Object Library
Dim XMLPage As New MSXML2.XMLHTTP60
Dim HTMLDoc As New MSHTML.HTMLDocument
Dim Target As String
Dim URL As String
Dim Elems As MSHTML.IHTMLElementCollection
Dim Elem As MSHTML.IHTMLElement
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
'Determine Last Row
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Sheets("Home").Select
Cells(1, 1).Select
LR = Cells(Rows.Count, 1).End(xlUp).Row
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
'Start Loop Through Targets
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
For x = 2 To LR
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
'Setup Target Specifics
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Target = Cells(x, 1)
URL = "WEBSITE/" & Target
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
'Navigate to URL Via XML
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
XMLPage.Open "GET", URL, False
XMLPage.send
Do While XMLPage.ReadyState <> READYSTATE_COMPLETE
Loop
HTMLDoc.body.innerHTML = XMLPage.responseText
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
'Create a List of Elements based on Class Name - Should Only be One Element - Then Loop Through Elements & Return Value
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Set Elems = HTMLDoc.getElementsByClassName("Amount")
For Each Elem In Elems
Cells(x, 2) = Elem.innerText
Next Elem
Next x
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
'Messagebox of Completion
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
MsgBox ("Macro Complete")
End Sub
Thank you in advance for any assistance provided.
Chris

Related

Web scraping with excel VBA returns no values for certain sites

I'm trying to scrape data from Oslo Børs related to 3months NIBOR using excel VBA. However my code do not return any values back to excel. The same code is able to retrieve table data from other similar websites, but could it be related to the ui-view set-up of the html language? I'm not very skilled on html language, so I do come to short here. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks
Sub NIBOR3M_oslobors()
Dim ie As InternetExplorer
Dim InternetExplorer As Object
Dim strURL As String
Dim ws As Worksheet
Dim rng As Range
Dim tbl As Object
Dim rw As Object
Dim cl As Object
Dim nextrow As Long
Dim I As Long
strURL = "https://www.oslobors.no/markedsaktivitet/#/details/NIBOR3M.NIBOR/overview"
Set ie = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
With ie
.navigate strURL
Do Until .READYSTATE = 4: DoEvents: Loop
Do While .Busy: DoEvents: Loop
Set doc = ie.Document
Set ws = Worksheets("Interest rates")
For Each tbl In doc.getElementsByTagName("table")
nextrow = nextrow + 1
Set rng = ws.Range("M8:M8" & nextrow)
For Each rw In tbl.Rows
For Each cl In rw.Cells
rng.Value = rw.innerText
Set rng = rng.Offset(, 1)
I = I + 1
Next cl
nextrow = nextrow + 1
Set rng = rng.Offset(1, -I)
I = 0
Next rw
Next tbl
.Quit
End With
ActiveSheet.Range("M8").Select
End Sub
The tables you are trying to scrape are generated by scripts, so you will not find them in the HTML document. To get your hands on the data you will need to send an XHR request.
To find out how this request should look like, you have to inspect the network traffic when the page is loaded. You can do that through your browser's developer tools (Ctrl+Shift+E if you're using Firefox).
There you will see several requests of different types being sent. In your case, you should look for XHR requests of type json. There's a few of them. If you go through the responses of these requests, you will eventually find the one you need, as it will contain the data you want.
Here's how it looks like:
If you go through the Headers and the Params of the request you will see how the url, the body and the headers should look like. In this particular case, all the parameters are encoded into the url and the headers are not essential to the success of the request, so all you need is the url.
The response's payload is in json format. You can inspect its structure using a tool like this. Here's how it looks like:
To parse a response like that you need a parser (look at the end of this post).
TL;DR :
Here's how to get the data from the "Nibor 3 month" table:
Option Explicit
Sub oslobors()
Dim req As New WinHttpRequest
Dim respJSON As Object
Dim key As Variant
Dim url As String
Dim results()
Dim i As Integer
Dim sht As Worksheet
Set sht = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Name of your worksheet")
url = "https://www.oslobors.no/ob/servlets/components?type=nibor&source=feed.index.nibor.INDICES_FIXING&view=DELAYED&columns=ITEM%2C+CLOSENZ%2C+TRADE_TIME%2C+CLOSE_DATE%2C+CHANGENZ%2C+CHANGENZ_PCT&filter=ITEM_SECTOR%3D%3DsNIBOR3M.NIBOR&channel=e6da3e88c3464b7ad9620824b8d39c95"
With req
.Open "GET", url, False
.send
Set respJSON = JsonConverter.ParseJson(.responseText)
End With
ReDim results(1 To respJSON("rows")(1)("values").Count, 1 To 2)
i = 1
For Each key In respJSON("rows")(1)("values").Keys
results(i, 1) = key
results(i, 2) = respJSON("rows")(1)("values")(key) 'write the results in an array
i = i + 1
Next key
sht.Cells(1, "A").Resize(UBound(results, 1), UBound(results, 2)) = results 'Print the results array in one go. The results will be printed to an area/range starting with cell A1 and expanding as much as it is needed
End Sub
For demonstration purposes, the data is printed in your immediate window:
You will need to add the following references to your project (VBE>Tools>References):
Microsoft WinHTTP Services version 5.1
Microsoft HTML Objects Library
Microsoft Scripting Runtime
You will also need to add this JSON parser to your project. Follow the installation instructions in the link and you should be set to go.
To get the data from the "Historical Prices" table you just have to change the url to this:
url = "https://www.oslobors.no/ob/servlets/components?type=table&source=feed.index.nibor.INDICES_FIXING&view=DELAYED&columns=CHANGE_1WEEK_PCT%2C+HIGH_1WEEK%2C+LOW_1WEEK%2C+CHANGE_1MONTH_PCT%2C+HIGH_1MONTH%2C+LOW_1MONTH%2C+CHANGE_YEAR_PCT%2C+HIGH_YEAR%2C+LOW_YEAR%2C+CHANGE_1YEAR_PCT%2C+HIGH_1YEAR%2C+LOW_1YEAR&filter=ITEM_SECTOR%3D%3DsNIBOR3M.NIBOR&channel=283044a7d182ca196a16337ba79f089c"
EDIT
Modified the code to print the results in a worksheet named "Name of your worksheet".

When the search button is clicked using vba the text entered in search box is not seen by web page

I have written vba code for entering manufacturer part number in search box of below website and clicking on search icon. It is able enter manufacturer part number in search box and click on search icon, but when "search icon is clicked the text entered in the text box is not picked up". It searches empty data.
'HTML Part for search icon
<em class="fa fa-search" aria-hidden="true" style="color: gray;"></em>
It being almost a month I have tried various different way which was also mentioned on stack overflow, like using "createEvent("keyboardevent")" but nothing worked.
' VBA code
Sub AptivScrapping()
Dim IE As SHDocVw.InternetExplorer
Set IE = New InternetExplorer
IE.Visible = True
IE.navigate "https://ecat.aptiv.com"
Do While IE.readyState < READYSTATE_COMPLETE
Loop
Dim idoc As MSHTML.HTMLDocument
Set idoc = IE.document
idoc.getElementById("searchUserInput").Value = "33188785"
Dim doc_ele As MSHTML.IHTMLElement
Dim doc_eles As MSHTML.IHTMLElementCollection
Set doc_eles = idoc.getElementsByTagName("a")
For Each doc_ele In doc_eles
If doc_ele.getAttribute("ng-click") = "SearchButtonClick(1)" Then
doc_ele.Click
Exit Sub
Else
End If
Next doc_ele
End Sub
The page does an xhr request to retrieve the search results. You can find it in the network tab after clicking submit. This means you can avoid, in this case, the expense of a browser and issue an xhr request. The response is json so you do need a json parser to handle the results.
I would use jsonconverter.bas to parse the json. After installing the code from that link in a standard module called JsonConverter, go to VBE > Tools > References > Add a reference to Microsoft Scripting Runtime
I dimension an array to hold the results. I determine rows from the number of items in the json collection returned and the number of columns from the size of the first item dictionary. I loop the json object, and inner loop the dictionary keys of each dictionary in collection, and populate the array. I write the array out in one go at end which is less i/o expensive.
Option Explicit
Public Sub GetInfo()
Dim json As Object, ws As Worksheet, headers()
Dim item As Object, key As Variant, results(), r As Long, c As Long
Set ws = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Sheet1")
With CreateObject("MSXML2.XMLHTTP")
.Open "GET", "https://ecat.aptiv.com/json/eCatalogSearch/SearchProducts?filter=All&options=&pageSize=10&search=33188785", False
.send
Set json = JsonConverter.ParseJson(.responseText)("Products")
End With
headers = json.item(1).keys
ReDim results(1 To json.Count, 1 To UBound(headers) + 1)
For Each item In json
r = r + 1: c = 1
For Each key In item.keys
results(r, c) = item(key)
c = c + 1
Next
Next
With ws
.Cells(1, 1).Resize(1, UBound(headers) + 1) = headers
.Cells(2, 1).Resize(UBound(results, 1), UBound(results, 2)) = results
End With
You can do this instead:
txt = "33188785"
IE.navigate "https://ecat.aptiv.com/feature?search=" & txt
This will take you straight to the Search Result.
Code:
Sub AptivScrapping()
Dim IE As SHDocVw.InternetExplorer
Dim txt As String
Set IE = New InternetExplorer
txt = "33188785"
IE.Visible = True
IE.navigate "https://ecat.aptiv.com/feature?search=" & txt
Do While IE.Busy
Application.Wait DateAdd("s", 1, Now)
Loop
End Sub
This will be faster as You will only have to load one page.
Why that's happening, i am not sure, but seems like the TextBox that is used to input text is not being Activated when adding text automatically to it. It is being activated when we click inside it.
I got the solution for above problem from Mrxel.com below is the link for that post.
https://www.mrexcel.com/forum/excel-questions/1105434-vba-ie-automation-issue-angularjs-input-text-post5317832.html#post5317832
In this case I need to enter the search string character by character and sendKeys and input events inside the loop. Below is the working vba code.
Sub AptivScrapping()
Dim IE As SHDocVw.InternetExplorer
Set IE = New InternetExplorer
IE.Visible = True
IE.navigate "https://ecat.aptiv.com"
Do While IE.readyState < READYSTATE_COMPLETE
Loop
Dim idoc As MSHTML.HTMLDocument
Set idoc = IE.document
IE.document.getElementById("searchUserInput").Focus = True
IE.document.getElementById("searchUserInput").Select
sFieldInput = "33188785"
For s = 1 To Len(sFieldInput)
Application.SendKeys Mid(sFieldInput, s, 1)
While IE.readyState < 4 Or IE.Busy
Application.Wait DateAdd("s", LoopSeconds, Now)
Wend
Next s
IE.document.getElementById("searchUserInput").Focus = False
Dim doc_ele As MSHTML.IHTMLElement
Dim doc_eles As MSHTML.IHTMLElementCollection
Set doc_eles = idoc.getElementsByTagName("a")
For Each doc_ele In doc_eles
If doc_ele.getAttribute("ng-click") = "SearchButtonClick(1)" Then
doc_ele.Click
Exit Sub
Else
End If
Next doc_ele
End Sub

How to scrape data from Bloomberg's website with VBA

Background
Disclaimer: I am a beginner, please bare with my - most plausibly wrong - code.
I want to update currency pairs' value (PREV CLOSE) with a button-enabled-VBA macro. My Excel worksheet contains FX pairs (e.g. USDGBP) on column G:G which are then used to run a FOR loop for every pair in the column.
The value would then be stored in column I:I
Right now, the problem according to the Debugger lies in one line of code that I will highlight below
Sources
I got some inspiration from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxmRjh-S2Ms&t=1050s - notably 17:34 onwards - but I want my code to work for multiple websites at the press of a button.
I have tried the following code
Public Sub Auto_FX_update_BMG()
Application.ScreenUpdating = False 'My computer is not very fast, thus I use this line of
'code to save some computing power and time
Dim internet_object As InternetExplorer
Dim i As Integer
For i = 3 To Sheets(1).Cells(3, 7).End(xlDown).Row
FX_Pair = Sheets(1).Cells(i, 7)
Set internet_object = New InternetExplorer
internet_object.Visible = True
internet_object.navigate "https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/" & FX_Pair & ":CUR"
Application.Wait Now + TimeValue("00:00:05")
internet_object.document.getElementsByClassName("class")(0).getElementsByTagName ("value__b93f12ea") '--> DEBUGGER PROBLEM
'My goal here is to "grab" the PREV CLOSE
'value from the website
With ActiveSheet
.Range(Cells(i, 9)).Value = HTML_element.Children(0).textContent
End With
Sheets(1).Range(Cells(i, 9)).Copy 'Not sure if these 2 lines are unnecesary
ActiveSheet.Paste
Next i
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub
Expected Result
WHEN I enter "USDGBP" on a cell on column G:G, the macro would go to https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/EURGBP:CUR and "grab" the PREV CLOSE value of 0.8732 (using today's value) and insert it in the respective row of column I:I
As of now, I am just facing the debugger without much idea on how to solve the problem.
You can use class selectors in a loop. The pattern
.previousclosingpriceonetradingdayago .value__b93f12ea
specifies to get child elements with class value__b93f12ea having parent with class previousclosingpriceonetradingdayago. The "." in front is a css class selector and is a faster way of selecting as modern browsers are optimized for css. The space between the two classes is a descendant combinator. querySelector returns the first match for this pattern from the webpage html document.
This matches on the page:
You can see the parent child relationship and classes again here:
<section class="dataBox previousclosingpriceonetradingdayago numeric">
<header class="title__49417cb9"><span>Prev Close</span></header>
<div class="value__b93f12ea">0.8732</div>
</section>
N.B. If you are a Bloomberg customer look into their APIs. Additionally, it is very likely you can get this same info from other dedicated APIs which will allow for much faster and more reliable xhr requests.
VBA (Internet Explorer):
Option Explicit
Public Sub test()
Dim pairs(), ws As Worksheet, i As Long, ie As Object
Set ws = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Sheet1")
Set ie = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
With ws
pairs = Application.Transpose(.Range("G2:G" & .Cells(.rows.Count, "G").End(xlUp).Row).Value) ' assumes pairs start in row 2
End With
Dim results()
ReDim results(1 To UBound(pairs))
With ie
.Visible = True
For i = LBound(pairs) To UBound(pairs)
.Navigate2 "https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/" & pairs(i) & ":CUR", False
While .Busy Or .readyState < 4: DoEvents: Wend
results(i) = .document.querySelector(".previousclosingpriceonetradingdayago .value__b93f12ea").innerText
Next
.Quit
End With
ws.Cells(2, "I").Resize(UBound(results), 1) = Application.Transpose(results)
End Sub
For very limited numbers of requests (as leads to blocking) you could use xhr request and regex out the value. I assume pairs are in sheet one and start from G2. I also assume there are no empty cells or invalid pairs in column G up to an including last pair to search for. Otherwise, you will need to develop the code to handle this.
Try regex here
Option Explicit
Public Sub test()
Dim re As Object, pairs(), ws As Worksheet, i As Long, s As String
Set ws = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Sheet1")
Set re = CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp")
With ws
pairs = Application.Transpose(.Range("G2:G" & .Cells(.rows.Count, "G").End(xlUp).Row).Value) ' assumes pairs start in row 2
End With
Dim results()
ReDim results(1 To UBound(pairs))
With CreateObject("MSXML2.XMLHTTP")
For i = LBound(pairs) To UBound(pairs)
.Open "GET", "https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/" & pairs(i) & ":CUR", False
.send
s = .responseText
results(i) = GetCloseValue(re, s, "previousClosingPriceOneTradingDayAgo%22%3A(.*?)%2")
Next
End With
ws.Cells(2, "I").Resize(UBound(results), 1) = Application.Transpose(results)
End Sub
Public Function GetCloseValue(ByVal re As Object, inputString As String, ByVal pattern As String) As String 'https://regex101.com/r/OAyq30/1
With re
.Global = True
.MultiLine = True
.IgnoreCase = False
.pattern = pattern
If .test(inputString) Then
GetCloseValue = .Execute(inputString)(0).SubMatches(0)
Else
GetCloseValue = "Not found"
End If
End With
End Function
Try below code:
But before make sure to add 2 reference by going to Tools> References > then look for Microsoft HTML Object Library and Microsoft Internet Controls
This code works upon using your example.
Sub getPrevCloseValue()
Dim ie As Object
Dim mySh As Worksheet
Set mySh = ThisWorkbook.Sheets("Sheet1")
Dim colG_Value As String
Dim prev_value As String
For a = 3 To mySh.Range("G" & Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row
colG_Value = mySh.Range("G" & a).Value
Set ie = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
ie.Visible = True
ie.navigate "https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/" & colG_Value & ":CUR"
Do While ie.Busy: DoEvents: Loop
Do Until ie.readyState = 4: DoEvents: Loop
'Application.Wait (Now + TimeValue("00:00:03")) 'activate if having problem with delay
For Each sect In ie.document.getElementsByTagName("section")
If sect.className = "dataBox previousclosingpriceonetradingdayago numeric" Then
prev_value = sect.getElementsByTagName("div")(0).innerText
mySh.Range("I" & a).Value = prev_value
Exit For
End If
Next sect
Next a
I have a video tutorial for basic web automation using vba which include web data scraping and other commands, please check the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jejwXID4OH4&t=700s

Excel Pulling multiple Tables From a Website

I am working on a project to run some analytical models on NFL player stats. I have some code below that another user passed along to me. This code takes a list of links that I have on Sheet1, which is named "PlayerList", and creates a new tab for each player and pulls in their passing stats. All of the links are to Pro Football Reference. I am able to change this code to pull all necessary data for all positions other than quarterback. For the QBs I want to pull the passing stats table as well as the rushing and receiving stats table. Any help would be greatly appreciated. For reference here a few sample links:
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/R/RodgAa00.htm
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/B/BreeDr00.htm
Below is the code:
Option Explicit
Public Sub GetInfo()
Di If InStr(links(link, 1), "https://") > 0 Then
Set html = GetHTMLDoc(links(link, 1))
Set hTable = html.getElementById("passing")
If Not hTable Is Nothing Then
playerName = GetNameAbbr(links(link, 1))
Set ws = AddPlayerSheet(playerName)
WriteTableToSheet hTable, ws
FixTable ws
End If
End If
Next
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub
Public Function GetHTMLDoc(ByVal url As String) As HTMLDocument
Dim sResponse As String, html As New HTMLDocument
With CreateObject("MSXML2.XMLHTTP")
.Open "GET", url, False
.send
sResponse = StrConv(.responseBody, vbUnicode)
End With
sResponse = Mid$(sResponse, InStr(1, sResponse, "<!DOCTYPE "))
html.body.innerHTML = sResponse
Set GetHTMLDoc = html
End Function
Public Sub WriteTableToSheet(ByVal hTable As HTMLTable, ByVal ws As Worksheet)
Dim x As Long, y As Long
With hTable
For x = 0 To .Rows.Length - 1
For y = 0 To .Rows(x).Cells.Length - 1
If y = 6 Or y = 7 Then
ws.Cells(x + 4, y + 1).Value = Chr$(39) & .Rows(x).Cells(y).innerText
Else
ws.Cells(x + 4, y + 1).Value = .Rows(x).Cells(y).innerText
End If
Next y
Next x
End With
End Sub
Public Function GetNameAbbr(ByVal url As String)
Dim tempArr() As String
tempArr = Split(url, "/")
GetNameAbbr = Left$(tempArr(UBound(tempArr)), 6)
End Function
Public Function AddPlayerSheet(ByVal playerName As String) As Worksheet
Dim ws As Worksheet
If SheetExists(playerName) Then
Application.DisplayAlerts = False
ThisWorkbook.Worksheets(playerName).Delete
Application.DisplayAlerts = True
End If
Set ws = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets.Add
ws.Name = playerName
Set AddPlayerSheet = ws
End Function
Public Function SheetExists(ByVal playerName As String) As Boolean
SheetExists = Evaluate("ISREF('" & playerName & "'!A1)")
End Function
Public Sub FixTable(ByVal ws As Worksheet)
Dim found As Range, numSummaryRows As Long
With ws
Set found = .Columns("A").Find("Career")
If found Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
numSummaryRows = .Cells(.Rows.Count, "A").End(xlUp).Row - found.Row
numSummaryRows = IIf(numSummaryRows = 0, 1, numSummaryRows + 1)
Debug.Print found.Offset(, 1).Resize(numSummaryRows, 30).Address, ws.Name
found.Offset(, 1).Resize(numSummaryRows, 30).Copy found.Offset(, 2)
found.Offset(, 1).Resize(numSummaryRows, 1).ClearContents
End With
End Subm html As New HTMLDocument, links(), link As Long, wsSourceSheet As Worksheet
Dim hTable As HTMLTable, ws As Worksheet, playerName As String
Set wsSourceSheet = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("PlayerList")
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
With wsSourceSheet
links = .Range("C2:C" & .Cells(.Rows.Count, "C").End(xlUp).Row).Value
End With
For link = LBound(links, 1) To UBound(links, 1)
Is there a reason you need to do this with VBA? Excel is quite capable of importing well-organized data such as the [several] tables on that page.
Under the Data tab, click From Web and then enter the Website URL.
Click images to enlarge
Next you will choose the table(s) that you want. Don't go nuts - only get what you need, but you can choose more than one tables by enabling the checkbox.
It can take a few long minutes to parse and organize all the data on the page...
Once you're back at the worksheet you'll see the queries on the right side. Right-click a query and choose Load To..., then choose Table and a location for the table data. There are a ton of other properties that you can customize; there are tutorials describing what you can do.
More things to customize are hidden in two ribbon tabs that only appear when you click on a table, Design and Query.
I think there's also a way to just create a list of players and then to use the Advanced option when entering the URL to allow you to dynamically choose any player you want, while only adding the tables once... but I've never quite figured that part out yet.
I'm not a sports fan, but I assume the data will be changing throughout the season, and an advantage of using tables like this is that once you set up your worksheet how you want it, there are settings you can choose to auto-update every time you open the workbook, or on schedule, or manually, or never; whatever is appropriate.
Google "Excel web query" to find out more about the plethora of options available to you when using queries (aka: "Get & Transform") to extract and organize your data.
Perhaps this could be an alternative to consider instead of coding functionality that's already built-in to Excel.
Good luck, and "Go Sports!"
Yes there is a reason for doing this with VBA. In fact at least five.....
You don't manually have to set up it up for all the links, which if you have a very long list means you would end up having to turn to automation anyway;
On a related theme, powerquery has limitations on how many connections it can support and with NFL player lists you can easily go way beyond what is supported and end up, even when at the max number of connections allowed, with a workbook that crashes or grinds to a halt (I have been there!);
Both tables are not always present so the below has error handling to deal with that;
You get your player named sheets as before, and again error handling for if sheet already present;
Not all versions of powerquery have the nice interface which will allow you to select all the tables individually for these pages. My version of Excel 2016 basically offers only to select the entire page. In that case you have more data than you need and a slowed down process.
Whilst there may be ways to handle this with inbuilt tools, I love me a bit of powerquery, it is no longer "out of the box", but requires knowing how to code in M to some extent and/or reverting to using some VBA anyway.
If you tie this to a button on a sheet you can easily press to refresh when you want, link it to a workbook_open event to refresh on opening, even have windows scheduler open the workbook and refresh at certain times (just so you know VBA still got your back! Though maybe with a little help from my friends ♫ aka Windows).
It seems XHR is just a little too fast for the lower tables on each page, but do not despair, you could use Internet Explorer, with a short delay to ensure the Rushing & Receiving table is populated, or, as I have, use Selenium to automate the browser (I have used Chrome but Internet Explorer is possible). Although this is slower than XHR, we can be a little more efficient by running a headless browser instance.
Here you go with VBA which will give you the different tabs as you go and select only those tables required. Based on links in at C2 on sheet1.
Option Explicit
Public Sub GetInfo()
Dim d As New ChromeDriver
Dim html As New HTMLDocument, links(), link As Long, wsSourceSheet As Worksheet, clipboard As Object
Dim hTablePass As HTMLTable, hTableRushReceive As HTMLTable, ws As Worksheet, playerName As String
Set wsSourceSheet = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Sheet1") '<change to sheet containing links
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
With wsSourceSheet
If .Cells(.Rows.Count, "C").End(xlUp).Row = 2 Then
ReDim links(1 To 1, 1 To 1): links(1, 1) = .Range("C2")
Else
links = .Range("C2:C" & .Cells(.Rows.Count, "C").End(xlUp).Row).Value
End If
End With
For link = LBound(links, 1) To UBound(links, 1)
If InStr(links(link, 1), "https://") > 0 Then
With d
.AddArgument "--headless"
.get links(link, 1)
html.body.innerHTML = .PageSource
Set hTablePass = html.querySelector("#all_passing #passing")
Set hTableRushReceive = html.querySelector("#all_rushing_and_receiving #rushing_and_receiving")
playerName = GetNameAbbr(links(link, 1))
Set ws = AddPlayerSheet(playerName)
Set clipboard = GetObject("New:{1C3B4210-F441-11CE-B9EA-00AA006B1A69}")
If Not hTablePass Is Nothing Then
clipboard.SetText Replace$(Replace$(hTablePass.outerHTML, "--></DIV>", vbNullString), "<!--", vbNullString)
clipboard.PutInClipboard
ws.Cells(GetLastRow(ws, 1), 1).PasteSpecial
End If
If Not hTableRushReceive Is Nothing Then
clipboard.SetText hTableRushReceive.outerHTML
clipboard.PutInClipboard
ws.Cells(GetLastRow(ws, 1) + 2, 1).PasteSpecial
End If
End With
End If
Next
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub
Public Function GetNameAbbr(ByVal url As String) As String
Dim tempArr() As String
tempArr = Split(url, "/")
GetNameAbbr = Left$(tempArr(UBound(tempArr)), 6)
End Function
Public Function AddPlayerSheet(ByVal playerName As String) As Worksheet
Dim ws As Worksheet
If SheetExists(playerName) Then
Application.DisplayAlerts = False
ThisWorkbook.Worksheets(playerName).Delete
Application.DisplayAlerts = True
End If
Set ws = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets.Add
ws.Name = playerName
Set AddPlayerSheet = ws
End Function
Public Function SheetExists(ByVal playerName As String) As Boolean '<== *#Rory
SheetExists = Evaluate("ISREF('" & playerName & "'!A1)")
End Function
Public Function GetLastRow(ByVal ws As Worksheet, Optional ByVal columnNumber As Long = 1) As Long
With ws
GetLastRow = .Cells(.Rows.Count, columnNumber).End(xlUp).Row
End With
End Function
References:
Microsoft HTML Object Library
Selenium Type Library
Selenium basic download:
https://github.com/florentbr/SeleniumBasic
*Function adapted from #Rory

Scraping data from a website with a dynamic array function - Excel VBA

I want to eventually create a function where I can specify a web page element and URL and populate all instances of that element down a column. But am currently only experiencing limited success with this function:
Sub GrabAnchorTags() '(URL As String) As Variant'
Dim objIE As InternetExplorer
Dim elem As Object
Set objIE = New InternetExplorer
objIE.Visible = False
objIE.navigate "http://example.com/"
Do While objIE.Busy = True Or objIE.readyState <> 4: DoEvents: Loop
Dim aRange As Range
Debug.Print objIE.document.getElementsByTagName("a").Length
For Each elem In objIE.document.getElementsByTagName("a")
Debug.Print elem
ActiveCell.Offset(x, y).Value = elem
ActiveCell.Offset(x, y + 1).Value = elem.textContent
x = x + 1
Next
objIE.Quit
Set objIE = Nothing
End Sub
I would like to be able to turn this successfully from a macro to a function.
Currently, it uses a for loop to populate the cells and I wonder if it's possible to accomplish the same thing using evaluate or something similar because the for loop is inefficient.
This function would need to live in a cell, reference a URL in another cell, and populate the cells bellow it with all elements of a type found on the page. I am currently working on the anchor tag.
Many other solutions I referenced used macros:
Scraping data from website using excel vba
Getting links url from a webpage excel vba
VBA – Web scraping with getElementsByTagName()
Generally speaking, whenever you have many cells to write to, you should enter the data into an internal array, and then write the entire array to the worksheet in one hit. However you seem to not want a macro/sub in your case.
If you wish it to take the worksheet formula approach for usability reasons, then the best way is to use a very powerful, but underused technique in Excel development.
A NAMED RANGE
Named ranges are Excels closest thing to getting an in-memory block of data, and then other simpler formulas can use the named range to get info from the Named Range.
A Named Range doesn't have to actually be a simple block of cells on a sheet. You can write your VBA formula as a Public formula, and then reference it in the Named Range.
Function getElems(url As String, tagName As String) As String()
Dim browser As New MSXML2.XMLHTTP60
Dim doc As MSHTML.HTMLDocument
With browser
.Open "GET", url, False
.send
If .readyState = 4 And .Status = 200 Then
Set doc = New MSHTML.HTMLDocument
doc.body.innerHTML = .responseText
Else
MsgBox "Error" & vbNewLine & "Ready state: " & .readyState & _
vbNewLine & "HTTP request status: " & .Status
End If
End With
Dim tag As MSHTML.IHTMLElement
Dim tags As MSHTML.IHTMLElementCollection
Set tags = doc.getElementsByTagName(tagName)
Dim arr() As String
Dim arrCounter As Long: arrCounter = 1
ReDim arr(1 To tags.Length, 1 To 2)
For Each tag In tags
arr(arrCounter, 1) = tag.innerText
'Change the below if block to suit
If tagName = "a" Then
arr(arrCounter, 2) = tag.href
Else
arr(arrCounter, 2) = tag.innerText
End If
arrCounter = arrCounter + 1
Next tag
Set doc = Nothing
Set browser = Nothing
getElems = arr
End Function
Now set a Named Range in Excel such as:
elementData
=getElems(Sheet1!$A$1, Sheet1!$B$1)
In A1, put the URL, and in B1 put the tag Name such as "a"
Then in your cells you can say
=INDEX(elementData, ROW(1:1), 1) and in adjacent cell put =INDEX(elementData, ROW(1:1), 2) (or use ROWS formula technique)
and drag down.

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