VBA post request with formdata (URL doesnt change) - excel

Question

Ive been going through many similar questions, like this and this but mine is much simpler.I want to change the date on a webform and get the data using POST request
I have this code which makes a POST request:
Sub winpost()
Dim WebClient As WinHttp.WinHttpRequest
Set WebClient = New WinHttp.WinHttpRequest
Dim searchResult As HTMLTextElement: Dim searchTxt As String
Dim html As New HTMLDocument
Dim Payload As String
Payload = "ContentPlaceHolder1_ddlday=6"
With WebClient
.Open "POST", "http://pib.nic.in/AllRelease.aspx", False
.setRequestHeader "Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
.send (Payload)
.waitForResponse
End With
html.body.innerHTML = WebClient.responseText
Set searchResult = html.querySelector(".search_box_result"): searchTxt = searchResult.innerText
Debug.Print searchTxt
End Sub
The website is this.The page sends a post request onchange of any fields.
On looking at ChromeDevTools under network > Formdata section i see this:
ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$ddlday: 8
I have tried various versions of this in the Payload string.But it always returns the same page (8th jan).

Answer 1

Internet Explorer
With IE slightly different syntax from selenium basic (shown at bottom) as no SelectByText option. You can use indices or attribute = value css selectors for example. Here months are indices upto 12 instead of month names
Option Explicit
Public Sub SetDates()
Dim ie As New InternetExplorer
With ie
.Visible = True
.Navigate2 "http://pib.nic.in/AllRelease.aspx"
While .Busy Or .readyState < 4: DoEvents: Wend
With .Document
.querySelector("#btnSave").Click
.querySelector("#ContentPlaceHolder1_ddlMonth [value='2']").Selected = True
.querySelector("#ContentPlaceHolder1_ddlYear [value='2018']").Selected = True
.querySelector("#ContentPlaceHolder1_ddlday [value='2']").Selected = True
End With
Stop '<==delete me later
.Quit
End With
End Sub
Selenium basic:
If you do go down the selenium basic vba route you can do something like as follows. Note: You would need to go VBE > Tools > References > Add reference to selenium type library after installing selenium. You would also need latest Chrome and ChromeDriver and ChromeDriver folder should be placed on environmental path or chromedriver placed in folder containing selenium executables.
Option Explicit
Public Sub SetDates()
Dim d As WebDriver
Set d = New ChromeDriver
Const Url = "http://pib.nic.in/AllRelease.aspx"
With d
.Start "Chrome"
.get Url
.FindElementById("btnSave").Click
'date values
.FindElementById("ContentPlaceHolder1_ddlMonth").AsSelect.SelectByText "February"
.FindElementById("ContentPlaceHolder1_ddlYear").AsSelect.SelectByText "2018"
.FindElementById("ContentPlaceHolder1_ddlday").AsSelect.SelectByText "2"
Stop 'delete me later
.Quit
End With
End Sub