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

Question

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

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

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