How to use appIE.Document.Body.innerHTML - excel

Question

So I'm trying to retrieve the latitude and longitude of a given postal code, and am trying to use VBA to place this into an excel worksheet. My code is as follows:
Private appIE As Object
Function GeoCode(sLocationData As String) As String
'//Dont want to open and close all day long - make once use many
If appIE Is Nothing Then
CreateIEApp
'// Creates a new IE App
'// if = nothing now then there was an error
If appIE Is Nothing Then
GeoCode = "Sorry could not launch IE"
Exit Function
Else
'// do nothing
End If
Else
'// do nothing
End If
'//clearing up input data
'sLocationData = Replace(sLocationData, ",", " ")
sLocationData = Replace(sLocationData, " ", "+")
sLocationData = Trim(sLocationData)
'//Build URL for Query
sLocationData = "http://maps.google.com/maps/geo?q=%20_" & sLocationData
'// go to the google web service and get the raw CSV data
'// CAUSES PROBLEM AS SPECIFIED BELOW
appIE.Navigate sLocationData
Do While appIE.Busy
Application.StatusBar = "Contacting Google Maps API..."
Loop
Application.StatusBar = False
On Error Resume Next
'// Parsing
GeoCode = appIE.Document.Body.innerHTML
GeoCode = Mid(GeoCode, InStr(GeoCode, ",") + 1, InStr(GeoCode, "/") - InStr(GeoCode, ",") - 2)
appIE = Nothing
End Function
The Google Maps API then returns a JSON formatted value, as per this link:
http://maps.google.com/maps/geo?q=%20_400012
I then attempt to retrieve this value using
appIE.Document.Body.innerHTML,
and parsing that value for the data I want. However, the moment the code hits appIE.Navigate sLocationData,
I'm prompted to save a file called "geo". When saved and opened as a .txt file, I get the exact same JSON formatted value, but I need the values within my worksheet itself.
Is there a way to do this?
Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

That link didn't work for me in Firefox - response 610. If I remove the space and the underscore, it works. I don't know why IE wants to download, probably some setting that tells it to always download JSON rather than render it. In any case, consider using MSXML's http request rather than automating IE.
Set a reference to Microsoft XML, v6.0 or similar (VBE - Tools - References).
Function GeoCode(sLocData As String) As String
Dim xHttp As MSXML2.XMLHTTP
Dim sResponse As String
Dim lStart As Long, lEnd As Long
Const sURL As String = "http://maps.google.com/maps/geo?q="
Const sCOOR As String = "coordinates"": " 'substring that we'll look for later
'send the http request
Set xHttp = New MSXML2.XMLHTTP
xHttp.Open "GET", sURL & sLocData
xHttp.send
'wait until it's done
Do
DoEvents
Loop Until xHttp.readyState = 4
'get the returned data
sResponse = xHttp.responseText
'find the starting and ending points of the substring
lStart = InStr(1, sResponse, sCOOR)
lEnd = InStr(lStart, sResponse, "]")
GeoCode = Mid$(sResponse, lStart + Len(sCOOR), lEnd - lStart - Len(sCOOR) + 1)
End Function
Sub Test()
Dim sTest As String
sTest = GeoCode("400012")
Debug.Assert sTest = "[ 103.9041520, 1.3222160, 0 ]"
End Sub