Re: Humble question - sample VB6 code that interacts with web page? (see inside)

From: Larry Serflaten (serflaten_at_usinternet.com)
Date: 03/22/04 

Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2004 05:33:03 -0600

"Tammi" <Out@West.com> wrote
> Hi-
>
> I need to write a simple app (delivered as an EXE) that interacts with
> a web page (MS Exchange Server, to be exact) by "mimicking" a user-
> clicking on certain buttons, posting a text message inside a box, etc.
> In other words, a client-side automation task.

First things first, are you tring to show them the page, or are you trying
to submit a filled out form? If the latter, perhaps you can mimick the
filled out form through the URL.

For a simple eample: www.dictionary.com has one textbox and a button.
You can go there and fill in the text and hit the button. But if you already
know the word you want to look up, you can supply that in the URL:
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=example

Doing so bypasses the filling of the first form, and goes directly to the
the results page, (as if the user filled the form and hit the button).

For another example:
This:
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_q=Explorer+submit+form+&num=50&as_scoring=r&hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&c2coff=1&btnG=Google+Search&as_
ugroup=microsoft.public.vb.*&safe=off

Is the url when this page is filled and submitted:
http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search?q=group:microsoft.public.vb.*&as_q=Explorer+submit+form+&hl=en&safe=off&num=50

Note that in the above link, you are able to put text in the boxes, by
using the appropreate URL. Also, view the results pages for more
information (IE run the search and look at the results for more info)
Make sure to post all of the link into your browser, the links may be
broken up in the newsreader.

HTH
LFS