VBA Automation isn't working on new IE tab - excel

Question

It's my first question and I'm new on VBA.
I was trying to run a macro to automatize some procedures on IE. My macro worked very well when opened on diferent windows, but when I tried to run the same macro on tabs it didn't work. It seems (maybe) the macro isn't recognizing the actual tab. Could anyone help me, please?
Sub Test1()
Dim IE As Object
Dim doc As HTMLDocument
Set IE = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
For intRow = 1 To 3
If intRow = 1 Then
With IE
.Visible = True
.navigate "https://gru.inpi.gov.br/pePI/jsp/patentes/PatenteSearchBasico.jsp"
Do While IE.Busy Or IE.readyState <> 4
Application.Wait DateAdd("s", 1, Now)
Loop
Set doc = IE.document
IE.document.getElementById("principal").Children(4). _
getElementsByTagName("tbody")(0).getElementsByTagName("tr")(5). _
getElementsByTagName("td")(1).getElementsByTagName("font")(0). _
getElementsByTagName("input")(0).Value = "intRow"
Application.Wait DateAdd("s", 2, Now)
End With
Else
With IE
.Visible = True
.navigate "https://gru.inpi.gov.br/pePI/jsp/patentes/PatenteSearchBasico.jsp", 2048&
Do While IE.Busy Or IE.readyState <> 4
Application.Wait DateAdd("s", 1, Now)
Loop
.document.getElementById("principal").Children(4). _
getElementsByTagName("tbody")(0).getElementsByTagName("tr")(5). _
getElementsByTagName("td")(1).getElementsByTagName("font")(0). _
getElementsByTagName("input")(0).Value = "intRow"
Application.Wait DateAdd("s", 2, Now)
End With
End If
Next
End Sub

Answer 1

According to your code and the website, it seems that you want to open multiple tab (with the same URL), and then fill a value in the text box. We should pay attention to the following point:
How to access the web page elements.
How to switch tabs and focus to the new tab.
To access the web page elements, from your web page resource (use F12 developer tools to check it), I notice that the table contains 6 rows, but the last row doesn't contain the input element. So, using your code, I can't find the input element. I found that the input elements contain the class property. So, I suggest you could use the getElementsByClassName method to find the element.
To switch the IE browser tab, we could loop through the opened tabs and compare the URL, and then set focus on the related tab.
More detail steps, please check the following sample code:
Sub Test1()
Dim IE As Object
Set IE = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
Dim intRow As Integer
For intRow = 1 To 3
If intRow = 1 Then
With IE
.Visible = True
.navigate "https://gru.inpi.gov.br/pePI/jsp/patentes/PatenteSearchBasico.jsp"
Do While IE.Busy Or IE.readyState <> 4
Application.Wait DateAdd("s", 1, Now)
Loop
Set doc = IE.document
IE.document.getElementsByClassName("basic")(0).Value = "intRow" & intRow
Application.Wait DateAdd("s", 3, Now)
End With
Else
With IE
.Visible = True
.navigate "https://gru.inpi.gov.br/pePI/jsp/patentes/PatenteSearchBasico.jsp", 2048&
Do While IE.Busy Or IE.readyState <> 4
Application.Wait DateAdd("s", 1, Now)
Loop
Application.Wait DateAdd("s", 3, Now)
Set IE = GetIE("https://gru.inpi.gov.br/pePI/jsp/patentes/PatenteSearchBasico.jsp")
Application.Wait DateAdd("s", 3, Now)
IE.document.getElementsByClassName("basic")(0).Value = "intRow" & intRow
End With
End If
Next
End Sub
Function GetIE(sLocation As String) As Object
Dim retVal As Object
Dim my_url As String, my_title As String
Set objShell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
IE_count = objShell.Windows.Count
'loop through the window and find the tab
For x = 0 To (IE_count - 1)
On Error Resume Next
'get the location and title
my_url = objShell.Windows(x).document.Location
my_title = objShell.Windows(x).document.Title
'debug to check the value
Debug.Print x
Debug.Print my_url
'find the special tab based on the title.
If my_url Like sLocation Then
Set retVal = objShell.Windows(x)
'IE.Quit 'call the Quit method to close the tab.
'Exit For 'exit the for loop
Else
End If
Next
Set GetIE = retVal
End Function
After running the above script, it will open three tabs and fill a value in the Login input text. Please see the following screenshot:
Reference:
Common VBA Methods & Properties used in web automation