BrowserAutomation

Browser Automation with stdVBA

On 15th June 2022, Internet explorer officially retires as an application. It is uncertain what will happen when this occurs, however many users of VBA rely heavily on Internet Explorer to automate web reports etc.

This is a stdVBA solution which uses accessibility APIs and Google Chrome to perform web automation.

Requirements

• stdVBA

  • stdAcc
  • stdEnumerator
  • stdLambda
  • stdProcess
  • stdWindow
  • stdICallable

• Currently only works on Windows OS

Usage

• Add a reference to stdChrome.xlsm (or import the necessary files; or open the supplied workbook)
• Call stdChrome.create() to create a new instance of the chrome object.
• Happy coding

Roadmap

• Can create new
• Can create from existing
• Can run Javascript (may not be possible with existing; will likely need chrome DevTools protocol).
• Can set the HTML of the browser. (2 options: run a http server with VBA, or navigate to a html file (may have CORS issues))
• Hide address bar for business apps
• Can Navigate() / Get/Let Address
• Can Quit.
• A better way to await loading would be nice.

Known issues

• stdWindow/stdAcc errors can be annoying. In most cases it boils down to an issue of approach, but sometimes it can be race conditions... This needs to be worked out better in stdVBA, see some of the examples for best practice approaches.

Similar projects

• Chrome DevProtocol - stdVBA wants to have a stdBrowser which interacts with browser devtool protocols; however this repo is already most of the way there! With this library you'll be able to control browsers on a deeper level and gain the ability to execute javascript for instance.

High Level Process

A typical high level process for an ArcGIS automation example.

flowchart TD
    A[Start] --> B[Build Command with GUID and Params]
    B --> C[Launch Edge Process via stdProcess]
    C --> D[Loop until Edge Window Found<br/>via stdWindow.CreateFromDesktop]
    D --> E[Initialize stdEdge with Window and accMain]
    E --> F[Find Address Bar via stdAcc + stdLambda]

    %% User actions
    F --> G[Set or Get Address Property]
    G --> H["Navigate to URL<br/>(Address = 'https://...')"]
    H --> I[AwaitForCondition<br/>Loop until callback returns True or Timeout]
    I --> J[AwaitForAccElement<br/>Loop until element found or Timeout]
    J --> K["Perform Automation Tasks<br/>(Fill forms, Click buttons, etc.)"]
    K --> L[Quit Edge Window if Temporary]

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Project Structure

flowchart LR
    subgraph BaseLibraries[stdVBA]
        SA[stdAcc]
        SE[stdEnumerator]
        SL[stdLambda]
        SP[stdProcess]
        SW[stdWindow]
        SI[stdICallable]
    end

    subgraph BrowserAutomation[Browser Automation]
        SB["stdBrowser<br/>(or stdChrome / stdEdge)"]
    end

    %% Dependencies
    SB --> SA
    SB --> SE
    SB --> SL
    SB --> SP
    SB --> SW
    SB --> SI

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