You’ll see that your
scripts can control just about everything associated with Internet
Explorer:
The position and dimensions of the window
Whether the menu bar, toolbar, and status bar are displayed
The current URL
Sending the browser backward and forward between navigated URLs
Displaying a Web Page
To get started, I’ll show you how to use the InternetExplorer object to display a specified URL. You use the Navigate method to do this, and this method uses the following syntax:
InternetExplorer.Navigate URL [, Flags,] [ TargetFramename] [, PostData]
[ ,Headers]
| InternetExplorer | A reference to the InternetExplorer object with which you’re working. |
| URL | The address of the web page you want to display. |
| Flags | One of (or the sum of two or more of) the following integers that control various aspects of the navigation: |
| 1 | Opens the URL in a new window |
| 2 | Prevents the URL from being added to the history list |
| 4 | Prevents the browser from reading the page from the disk cache |
| 8 | Prevents the URL from being added to the disk cache |
| TargetFrameName | The name of the frame in which to display the URL. |
| PostData | Specifies additional POST
information that HTTP requires to resolve the hyperlink. The most
common uses for this argument are to send a web server the contents of a
form, the coordinates of an imagemap, or a search parameter for an ASP
file. If you leave this argument blank, this method issues a GET call. |
| Headers | Specifies header data for the HTTP header. |
Here’s an example:
Set objIE = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
objIE.Navigate "http://www.microsoft.com/"
Navigating Pages
Displaying a specified web page isn’t the only thing the InternetExplorer
object can do. It also has quite a few methods that give you the
ability to navigate backward and forward through visited web pages,
refresh the current page, stop the current download, and more. Here’s a
summary of these methods:
| GoBack | Navigates backward to a previously visited page |
| GoForward | Navigates forward to a previously visited page |
| GoHome | Navigates to Internet Explorer’s default Home page |
| GoSearch | Navigates to Internet Explorer’s default Search page |
| Refresh | Refreshes the current page |
| Refresh2 | Refreshes the current page using the following syntax: |
| Refresh2 (Level) |
| Level | A constant that determines how the page is refreshed: |
| 0 | Refreshes the page with a cached copy |
| 1 | Refreshes the page with a cached copy only if the page has expired |
| 3 | Performs a full refresh (doesn’t use a cached copy) |
| Stop | Cancels the current download or shuts down dynamic page objects, such as background sounds and animations. |
Using the InternetExplorer Object’s Properties
Here’s a summary of many of the properties associated with the InternetExplorer object:
| Busy | Returns True if the InternetExplorer object is in the process of downloading text or graphics. This property returns False when a download of the complete document has finished. |
| FullScreen | A
Boolean value that toggles Internet Explorer between the normal window
and a full-screen window in which the title bar, menu bar, toolbar, and
status bar are hidden. |
| Height | Returns or sets the window height. |
| Left | Returns or sets the position of the left edge of the window. |
| LocationName | Returns the title of the current document. |
| LocationURL | Returns the URL of the current document. |
| MenuBar | A Boolean value that toggles the menu bar on and off. |
| StatusBar | A Boolean value that toggles the status bar on and off. |
| StatusText | Returns or sets the status bar text. |
| ToolBar | A Boolean value that toggles the toolbar on and off. |
| Top | Returns or sets the position of the top edge of the window. |
| Type | Returns the type of document currently loaded in the browser. |
| Visible | A Boolean value that toggles the object between hidden and visible. |
| Width | Returns or sets the window width. |
Running Through a Sample Script
To put some of the properties and methods into practice, Listing 1 shows a sample script.
Listing 1. A Script That Puts the InternetExplorer Object Through Its Paces
Option Explicit
Dim objIE, objWshShell, strMessage, intResult
' Set up the Automation objects
Set objIE = WScript.CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
Set objWshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
' Navigate to a page and customize the browser window
objIE.Navigate "http://www.wordspy.com/"
objIE.Toolbar = False
objIE.StatusBar = False
objIE.MenuBar = False
' Twiddle thumbs while the page loads
Do While objIE.Busy
Loop
' Get the page info
strMessage = "Current URL: " & objIE.LocationURL & vbCrLf & _
"Current Title: " & objIE.LocationName & vbCrLf & _
"Document Type: " & objIE.Type & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & _
"Would you like to view this document?"
' Display the info
intResult = objWshShell.Popup(strMessage, , "Scripting IE", vbYesNo + vbQuestion)
' Check the result
If intResult = vbYes Then
' If Yes, make browser visible
objIE.Visible = True
Else
' If no, bail out
objIE.Quit
End If
Set objIE = Nothing
Set objWshShell = Nothing
|
The script begins by creating instances of the InternetExplorer and WScript Shell objects. The Navigate method displays a page, and then turns off the toolbar, status bar, and menu bar. A Do...Loop checks the Busy property and loops while it’s True.
In other words, this loop won’t exit until the page is fully loaded. A
string variable is used to store the URL, the title, and type of the
page, and this string is then displayed in a Popup box, which
also asks whether the user wants to see the page. If the user clicks the
Yes button, the browser is made visible; if the user clicks the No
button, the Quit method shuts down the browser.
