Send data from Access to IE

[Beetle]

First a little background. The company I work for has to
submit a return to our manufacturer once a month. For
reasons known only to their web gurus, they have provided
no way to interface with their website from our Dealer
Management System. Nor is there any way to upload a file,
do a mass copy/paste, etc. We have to manually enter
300 - 400 part numbers each month.

I can get the list of parts from our DMS into an Access table,
and I am going to try to use VBA to loop through the recordset
and send the data (PartNumber/Qty) to the web page. I've looked
a bit at SendKeys, but I have seen many developers say that
SendKeys is unreliable and should be avoided. What I need is
the programmatic equivalent of;

enter the Part Number, hit Tab, enter the Qty, hit Tab again

then Loop

I'm wondering if anyone knows of any kb articles, white papers,
etc. I've seen postings about placing a URL into the address bar
in IE and things like that, but haven't found anything so far about
entering data into fields on a web page, but I could be overlooking
something obvious.

Any input would be appreciated.

 

[Mike Painter]

First a little background. The company I work for has to
submit a return to our manufacturer once a month. For
reasons known only to their web gurus, they have provided
no way to interface with their website from our Dealer
Management System. Nor is there any way to upload a file,
do a mass copy/paste, etc. We have to manually enter
300 - 400 part numbers each month.

You might look at http://www.autoitscript.com/ (free) or some other script
package used for such a task.
I've used it to run some far more complex repetative tasks and it works
well.

I'd also point out to your management what this hand entry costs every
month. Doing by uploading a file is better than by hand.

 

[Tim Williams]

I would avoid using SendKeys if possible.
Check Google Groups for "automate IE" and vb/vba. You can use VB(A) to

- launch IE
- navigate to a specific page
- enter data in specific locations on the page
- submit the page

If you're unfamiliar with this type of thing though, it's going to take a
little studying.
Are you entering all of the part numbers on the same page ?

Tim

 

[Beetle]

Thanks for the reply Tim

I agree with you about SendKeys, I just haven't found
info on an alternative yet.

To answer your question, yes all of the part numbers are entered
on the same page. I don't mind that it's going to take some
research, I'm just having a bit of trouble finding the info
I need to study up on. I'll check google groups as you suggest.

--
_________

Sean Bailey

I would avoid using SendKeys if possible.
Check Google Groups for "automate IE" and vb/vba. You can use VB(A) to

- launch IE
- navigate to a specific page
- enter data in specific locations on the page
- submit the page

If you're unfamiliar with this type of thing though, it's going to take a
little studying.
Are you entering all of the part numbers on the same page ?

Tim

 

[Beetle]

Thanks for the reply Mike.

I'll look into autiitscript to see if that may work for us.

It's not the managemant at my company that
is the problem, it's the manufacturer we get parts
from.

 

[Tim Williams]

If you're having problems then I may be able to help you get started.
You can reach me by email at tim j williams at gmail dot com (no spaces in
my name)

Tim.

Thanks for the reply Tim

I agree with you about SendKeys, I just haven't found
info on an alternative yet.

To answer your question, yes all of the part numbers are entered
on the same page. I don't mind that it's going to take some
research, I'm just having a bit of trouble finding the info
I need to study up on. I'll check google groups as you suggest.