I am using excel vba to create an API of sorts for a third party .aspx site.
For testing I have set it up to search for a person by their ID and the print their name as displayed on the webpage.
The problem is that the function will print the name of the last person searched not the current one, even though the page displays the correct name.
So,
search John Cleese's ID
Print "Cleese, John"
search Michael Palin's ID
Print "Cleese, John"
search Eric Idle's ID
Print "Palin, Michael"
search Terry Jones' ID
Print "Idle, Eric"
I believe the cause is that the function is getting the name before the specific html element with the persons name on it has updated. .Busy or .ReadyState seem ineffective because the site is ASP.NET
Code
Public Function search(ID as string)
With IE
.Navigate idSearch_URL
Do While .ReadyState <> 4 Or .Busy: DoEvents: Loop ' wait
With .Document
.getElementByID(idSearchTxt_ID).Vlaue = ID ' enter id
.getEleentById(idFindBtn_ID).Click ' search it
End With
Do While .ReadyState <> 4 Or .Busy: DoEvents: Loop ' wait
Debug.Print .Document.getElementByID(nameLabelID).innerText ' Prints prev. name
End With
End Function
I know the issue is that the wait loops aren't waiting for existing elements to update because, if I set through with the debugger or just insert a Sleep call before the Debug.Print, then the correct name is printed. What methods can I use to wait until the nameLabelID has updated or all of the webpage has updated.
I don't want to use a Sleep call because it's a waste of time and I can't shorten it to like 10 ms because I don't know if that would be long enough.
I don't think I should share much of the source code for the website. However, I could drop some of the javascript functions, if a solution involves them.
PS. I know nothing about ASP.NET. The behavior of the site indicates like there are some local variables set when navigating the site. Are they client side? Is there a way to grab those directly and bypass reading the webpage?
PPS, This may be just for comments, but would another language like perl or ruby be more appropriate for this than VBA?
Related
I'm attempting to write a script to automatically fill a web-field with the current date using an AutoHotkey script. However, I'm not sure how to focus a specific field by its name or id.
My current hacky workaround is to use Send, {Tab 84} to scroll to the specific field, type the date with Send, 6/28/2017, and submit the field manually. While the script works most of the time, it's blatantly apparent there are better methods.
How can I focus autofill specific text-field on a webpage using an AutoHotkey script?
An IE COM object should do the trick, as long as you're comfortable navigating the DOM with some JS of your own.
Here's an example:
F3::
wb := ComObjCreate("InternetExplorer.Application") ; Create a IE instance
wb.Visible := True
wb.Navigate("http://google.com")
Sleep, 5000
SendInput, This is test.{Enter}
Sleep, 5000
wb.document.getElementById("lst-ib").value := "This is another test."
wb.document.getElementById("_fZl").click()
return
I'm trying to solve an issue where a database column is getting set when navigating to a page in an ASP.NET site. This is a quote management web application, and when opening a quote and navigating to a certain page, the "Expiration Date" is automatically updated to the current date. I have verified that this is occurring prior to triggering the Page_Load function in the ascx.cs file. I have tried to trace what is being run prior to this, but I'm afraid my knowledge of ASP.NET is insufficient, and I don't know exactly where to look. From the pieces I can tell are run prior (for example, the aspx.cs file), I see nothing to indicate any alterations to the record.
When I dig deeper, it seems almost as if the change is taking pace upon leaving the main landing page when editing a quote. If I update the value and travel to any page for the quote except for the main page, it stays the same. And I can travel to the main page, check the record in the database, it stays the same. But it seems like as soon as I navigate from that main page, the Expiration Date will change to the current date. Is there somewhere I can check to see if that's what's happening?
-- EDIT --
Maybe a detail list of actions might help...
View list of quotes in system
Click "Edit" link for quote
View "Quote Details" page, which is first page upon edit access
Look at database query for quote to see exp date is still proper
value
Click "Quote Options" navigation link
See expiration date in "Quote Options" has now changed to current
date
Check database query to see that without performing a known save to
the database the exp date value has updated in the database
Perform update to quote to reset exp date
View any other page in quote edit, return to "Options", see exp
date has not changed again from reset value
Verify proper date with database query
Revisit "Details" page
Again verify correct date with database query
Travel to any other page and then to "Options", or go straight
to "Options", see that exp date has changed to current date
This is the HTML on the link used, which appears to be identical on the other pages...
<a class="tabOff" id="ContentPlaceHolder1_linkButtonAddEditShipping" href='javascript:WebForm_DoPostBackWithOptions(new WebForm_PostBackOptions("ctl00$ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$linkButtonAddEditShipping", "", true, "", "", false, true))'>Quote Options</a>
I solved the problem. Sort of. I did discover that the save function was being triggered when leaving the "Details" page, even though no save action was being explicitly activated. The problem was resolved by getting the expiration date from the database at the beginning of the function, and if one was set, pushing that value back in at the very end of the function. While this has in effect prevented the value from being "overwritten", I am still unable to determine why the save function was being triggered, and unable to determine what actions within that function are setting the value to be the current date
Take a standard web page with lots of text fields, drop downs etc.
What is the most efficient way in webdriver to fill out the values and then verify if the values have been entered correctly.
You only have to test that the values are entered correctly if you have some javascript validation or other magic happening at your input fields. You don't want to test that webdriver/selenium works correctly.
There are various ways, depending if you want to use webdriver or selenium. Here is a potpourri of the stuff I'm using.
Assert.assertEquals("input field must be empty", "", selenium.getValue("name=model.query"));
driver.findElement(By.name("model.query")).sendKeys("Testinput");
//here you have to wait for javascript to finish. E.g wait for a css Class or id to appear
Assert.assertEquals("Testinput", selenium.getValue("name=model.query"));
With webdriver only:
WebElement inputElement = driver.findElement(By.id("input_field_1"));
inputElement.clear();
inputElement.sendKeys("12");
//here you have to wait for javascript to finish. E.g wait for a css Class or id to appear
Assert.assertEquals("12", inputElement.getAttribute("value"));
Hopefully, the results of filling out your form are visible to the user in some manner. So you could think along these BDD-esque lines:
When I create a new movie
Then I should see my movie page
That is, your "new movie" steps would do the field entry & submit. And your "Then" would assert that the movie shows up with your entered data.
element = driver.find_element(:id, "movie_title")
element.send_keys 'The Good, the Bad, the Ugly'
# etc.
driver.find_element(:id, "submit").click
I'm just dabbling in this now, but this is what I came up with so far. It certainly seems more verbose than something like Capybara:
fill_in 'movie_title', :with => 'The Good, the Bad, the Ugly'
Hope this helps.
I'm working on a content dripper custom plugin in WordPress that my client asked me to build. He says he wants it to catch a page view event, and if it's the right time of day (24 hours since last post), to pull from a resource file and output another post. He needed it to also raise a flag and prevent other sessions from firing that same snippet of code. So, raise some kind of flag saying, "I'm posting that post, go away other process," and then it makes that post and releases the flag again.
However, the strangest thing is occurring when placed under load with multiple sessions hitting the site with page views. It's firing instead of one post -- it's randomly doing like 1, 2, or 3 extra posts, with each one thinking that it was the right time to post because it was 24 hours past the time of the last post. Because it's somewhat random, I'm guessing that the problem is some kind of write caching where the other sessions don't see the raised flag just yet until a couple microseconds pass.
The plugin was raising the "flag" by simply writing to the wp_options table with the update_option() API in WordPress. The other user sessions were supposed to read that value with get_option() and see the flag, and then not run that piece of code that creates the post because a given session was already doing it. Then, when done, I lower the flag and the other sessions continue as normal.
But what it's doing is letting those other sessions in.
To make this work, I was using add_action('loop_start','checkToAddContent'). The odd thing about that function though is that it's called more than once on a page, and in fact some plugins may call it. I don't know if there's a better event to hook. Even still, even if I find an event to hook that only runs once on a page view, I still have multiple sessions to contend with (different users who may view the page at the same time) and I want only one given session to trigger the content post when the post is due on the schedule.
I'm wondering if there are any WordPress plugin devs out there who could suggest another event hook to latch on to, and to figure out another way to raise a flag that all sessions would see. I mean, I could use the shared memory API in PHP, but many hosting plans have that disabled. Can't use a cookie or session var because that's only one single session. About the only thing that might work across hosting plans would be to drop a file as a flag, instead. If the file is present, then one session has the flag. If the file is not present, then other sessions can attempt to get the flag. Sure, I could use the file route, but it's kind of immature in my opinion and I was wondering if there's something in WordPress I could do.
The key may be to create a semaphore record in the database for the "drip" event.
Warning - consider the following pseudocode - I'm not looking up the functions.
When the post is queried, use a SQL statement like
$ts = get_time_now(); // or whatever the function is
$sid = session_id();
INSERT INTO table (postcategory, timestamp, sessionid)
VALUES ("$category", $ts, "$sid")
WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM table WHERE postcategory = "$category"
AND timestamp < $ts - 24 hours)
Database integrity will make this atomic so only one record can be inserted.
and the insertion will only take place if the timespan has been exceeded.
Then immediately check to see if the current session_id() and timestamp are yours. If they are, drip.
SELECT sessionid FROM table
WHERE postcategory = "$postcategory"
AND timestamp = $ts
AND sessionid = "$sid"
The problem goes like this with page requests even from the same session (same visitor), but also can occur with page requests from separate visitors. It works like this:
If you are doing content dripping, then a page request is probably what you intercept with add_action('wp','myPageRequest'). From there, if a scheduled post is due, then you create the new post.
The post takes a little bit of time to write to the database. In that time, a query on get_posts() may not see that new record yet. It may actually trigger your piece of code to create a new post when one has already been placed.
The fix is to force WordPress to flush the write cache appears to be this:
try {
$asPosts = array();
$asPosts = # wp_get_recent_posts(1);
foreach($asPosts as $asPost) {break;}
# delete_post_meta($asPost['ID'], '_thwart');
# add_post_meta($asPost['ID'], '_thwart', '' . date('Y-m-d H:i:s'));
} catch (Exception $e) {}
$asPosts = array();
$asPosts = # wp_get_recent_posts(1);
foreach($asPosts as $asPost) {break;}
$sLastPostDate = '';
# $sLastPostDate = $asPost['post_date'];
$sLastPostDate = substr($sLastPostDate, 0, strpos($sLastPostDate, ' '));
$sNow = date('Y-m-d H:i:s');
$sNow = substr($sNow, 0, strpos($sNow, ' '));
if ($sLastPostDate != $sNow) {
// No post today, so go ahead and post your new blog post.
// Place that code here.
}
The first thing we do is get the most recent post. But we don't really care if it's not the most recent post or not. All we're getting it for is to get a single Post ID, and then we add a hidden custom field (thus the underscore it begins with) called
_thwart
...as in, thwart the write cache by posting some data to the database that's not too CPU heavy.
Once that is in place, we then also use wp_get_recent_posts(1) yet again so that we can see if the most recent post is not today's date. If not, then we are clear to drip some content in. (Or, if you want to only drip in like every 72 hours, etc., you can change this a little here.)
When I call this function, everything works, as long as I don't try to recursively call the function again. In other words if I uncomment the line:
GetChilds rsData("AcctID"), intLevel + 1
Then the function breaks.
<%
Function GetChilds(ParentID, intLevel)
Set rsData= Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")
sSQL = "SELECT AcctID, ParentID FROM Accounts WHERE ParentID='" & ParentID &"'"
rsData.Open sSQL, conDB, adOpenKeyset, adLockOptimistic
If IsRSEmpty(rsData) Then
Response.Write("Empty")
Else
Do Until rsData.EOF
Response.Write rsData("AcctID") & "<br />"
'GetChilds rsData("AcctID"), intLevel + 1
rsData.MoveNext
Loop
End If
rsData.close: set rsData = nothing
End Function
Call GetChilds(1,0)
%>
*Edited after feedback
Thanks everyone,
Other than the usual error:
Error Type: (0x80020009) Exception occurred.
I wasn't sure what was causing the problems. I understand that is probably due to a couple of factors.
Not closing the connection and attempting to re-open the same connection.
To many concurrent connections to the database.
The database content is as follows:
AcctID | ParentID
1 Null
2 1
3 1
4 2
5 2
6 3
7 4
The idea is so that I can have a Master Account with Child Accounts, and those Child Accounts can have Child Accounts of their Own. Eventually there will be Another Master Account with a ParentID of Null that will have childs of its own. With that in mind, am I going about this the correct way?
Thanks for the quick responses.
Thanks everyone,
Other than the usual error:
Error Type: (0x80020009) Exception
occurred.
I wasn't sure what was causing the problems. I understand that is probably due to a couple of factors.
Not closing the connection and attempting to re-open the same connection.
To many concurrent connections to the database.
The database content is as follows:
AcctID | ParentID
1 Null
2 1
3 1
4 2
5 2
6 3
7 4
The idea is so that I can have a Master Account with Child Accounts, and those Child Accounts can have Child Accounts of their Own. Eventually there will be Another Master Account with a ParentID of Null that will have childs of its own. With that in mind, am I going about this the correct way?
Thanks for the quick responses.
Look like it fails because your connection is still busy serving the RecordSet from the previous call.
One option is to use a fresh connection for each call. The danger there is that you'll quickly run out of connections if you recurse too many times.
Another option is to read the contents of each RecordSet into a disconnected collection: (Dictionary, Array, etc) so you can close the connection right away. Then iterate over the disconnected collection.
If you're using SQL Server 2005 or later there's an even better option. You can use a CTE (common table expression) to write a recursive sql query. Then you can move everything to the database and you only need to execute one query.
Some other notes:
ID fields are normally ints, so you shouldn't encase them in ' characters in the sql string.
Finally, this code is probably okay because I doubt the user is allowed to input an id number directly. However, the dynamic sql technique used is very dangerous and should generally be avoided. Use query parameters instead to prevent sql injection.
I'm not too worried about not using intLevel for anything. Looking at the code this is obviously an early version, and intLevel can be used later to determine something like indentation or the class name used when styling an element.
Running out of SQL Connections?
You are dealing with so many layers there (Response.Write for the client, the ASP for the server, and the database) that its not surprising that there are problems.
Perhaps you can post some details about the error?
hard to tell without more description of how it breaks, but you are not using intLevel for anything.
How does it break?
My guess is that after a certain number of recursions you're probably getting a Stack Overflow (ironic) because you're not allocating too many RecordSets.
In each call you open a new connection to the database and you don't close it before opening a new one.
Not that this is actually a solution to the recursion issue, but it might be better for you to work out an SQL statement that returns all the information in a hierarchical format, rather than making recursive calls to your database.
Come to think of it though, it may be because you have too many concurrent db connections. You continually open, but aren't going to start closing until your pulling out of your recursive loop.
try declaring the variables as local using a DIM statement within the function definition:
Function GetChilds(ParentID, intLevel)
Dim rsData, sSQL
Set ...
Edit: Ok, I try to be more explicit.
My understanding is that since rsData is not declared by DIM, it is not a local variable, but a global var. Therefore, if you loop through the WHILE statement, you reach the .Eof of the inner-most rsData recordset. You return from the recursive function call, and the next step is again a rsData.MoveNext, which fails.
Please correct me if rsData is indeed local.
If you need recursion such as this I would personally put the recursion into a stored procedure and handle that processing on the database side in order to avoid opening multiple connections. If you are using mssql2005 look into something called Common Table Expressions (CTE), they make recursion easy. There are other ways to implement recursion with other RDBMS's.
Based on the sugestions I will atempt to move the query into a CTE (common table expression) when I find a good tutorial on how to do that. For now and as a quick and dirty fix, I have changed the code as follows:
Function GetChilds(ParentID, intLevel)
'Open my Database Connection and Query the current Parent ID
Set rsData= Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")
sSQL = "SELECT AcctID, ParentID FROM Accounts WHERE ParentID='" & ParentID &"'"
rsData.Open sSQL, conDB, adOpenKeyset, adLockOptimistic
'If the Record Set is not empty continue
If Not IsRSEmpty(rsData) Then
Dim myAccts()
ReDim myAccts(rsData.RecordCount)
Dim i
i = 0
Do Until rsData.EOF
Response.Write "Account ID: " & rsData("AcctID") & " ParentID: " & rsData("ParentID") & "<br />"
'Add the Childs of the current Parent ID to an array.
myAccts(i) = rsData("AcctID")
i = i + 1
rsData.MoveNext
Loop
'Close the SQL connection and get it ready for reopen. (I know not the best way but hey I am just learning this stuff)
rsData.close: set rsData = nothing
'For each Child found in the previous query, now lets get their childs.
For i = 0 To UBound(myAccts)
Call GetChilds(myAccts(i), intLevel + 1)
Next
End If
End Function
Call GetChilds(1,0)
I have working code with the same scenario.
I use a clientside cursor
...
rsData.CursorLocation = adUseClient
rsData.Open sSQL, conDB, adOpenKeyset, adLockOptimistic
rsData.ActiveConnectcion = Nothing
...
as pointed out in other responses, this is not very efficient, I use it only in an admin interface where the code is called infrequently and speed is not as critical.
I would not use such a recursive process in a regular web page.
Either rework the code to get all data in one call from the database, or make the call once and save it to a local array and save the array in an application variable.