VBA/HTML how to: click drop down, enter value, click search

[Js Smith]

Hi all! I'm trying to pull weather for certain locations. I've got the scraping part down. I'm having trouble controlling the location; results are intermittent if I use a hard coded URL or if using cells in the worksheet to complete the URL. Sometimes it if trying for Seattle, WA it ends up in Brisbane, Spain or some other random place. My thought is to use the search function on the website but having trouble hitting the right spot. Closest I've gotten is the Bing search bar at the top of the page.

When I Inspect Element this is what I saw:

' THE BUTTON:
<a role="button" href="/en-us/weather/places?ru=/en-us/weather/today">Places</a>

'THE BLANK SPACE TO TYPE A LOCATION:
<input name="q" class="query" accesskey="L" aria-autocomplete="list" aria-label="Search for Location / City" type="search" maxlength="250" placeholder="Search for Location / City" value="" data-m='{"i":56,"p":55,"n":"weaautosuggest","y":10,"o":1}' data-id="56" autocomplete="off" data-autosuggestdelay="100" data-seemoretext="Press <Enter> to see more" data-auto-suggest-settings='{"market":"en-us","mode":"AS","baseurl":"/en-us/weather/today","action":"addfavorite","method":"get","selector":null,"urltype":"Weather","formcode":"PRWLAS","lat":43.6242,"lon":-116.289}'>

' SEARCH BUTTON:
<button title="Search" class="searchbtn" aria-label="search" type="submit" data-m='{"i":57,"p":55,"n":"wealocationsearch","y":11,"o":2}' data-id="57">
<span class="x-screen-reader">Search</span>
           </button>

I've got this bit to open the page and wait working find.

Sub check()
    Dim oHTML_Element As IHTMLElement
    Dim anchorElement As HTMLAnchorElement
    Dim oIE As InternetExplorer
    Dim IE As Variant
    Set IE = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
    IE.Visible = True
    IE.navigate "https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather"
    While IE.readyState <> READYSTATE_COMPLETE And IE.readyState <> READYSTATE_LOADED
        DoEvents
    Wend
    Application.Wait (Now() + TimeValue("00:00:03"))

End Sub

I can't for the life of me figure how to interact with the location search parts! I've tried

oIE.document.getElementsByClassName("query")(0).Click
'and
oIE.document.getElementsByClassName("searchbtn")(0).Click

But get a run time error 91 Object Variable or with block Variable not set. I am an HTML novice and know enough VBA to make me dangerous. I appreciate any help and education you can provide!

 

[severynm]

I don't know how helpful this will be, as a) I know nothing about navigating the HTML DOM in VBA, and b) have very little experience in what I am about to suggest (as I am just learning), but since there is some degree of input in the webpage you want to automate, I were in your shoes I might look into something like Power Automate Desktop to help navigate through the webpage and then run your macro. It might give you an alternative avenue to try if you cannot figure out the VBA web navigation route.