[dba-VB] How to problematically (or by other automation) control an ActiveX control in IE

Stuart McLachlan stuart at lexacorp.com.pg
Mon Dec 12 17:27:08 CST 2011


Two approaches which I would use in this situation:

1.  Put Wireshark or similar on the PC and monitor the HTTP(S?) traffic when orders are 
being placed with the current system.

Then you'll know exactly what needs to be sent to the online application and what responses 
it generates.   Having done that, decide if it feasible to write another application to send and 
receive the same HTTP(S?) traffic.  (Hint PowerBASIC is great for that sort of thing <g>)

If that it is not feasible: -

2.  Write an AutoIt application to extract the data from the spreadsheet and feed it to the 
ActiveX screen.

-- 
Stuart


On 12 Dec 2011 at 22:54, Mark Breen wrote:

> Hello All,
> 
> I arrived into a customer today with the intention of preparing for a
> project to automate a process for placing orders in an online database.
> 
> The process today is that the user sits for four hours and copy and pastes
> from Excel into a browser.  I was hoping to use Selenium to automate that.
> 
> However, I was disappointed to note that the website is actually an ActiveX
> control running in IE.
> 
> That leaves me with options such as
> 
> a) using other macro software, attempt to automate the process
> b) find out how to programatically manipulate an ActiveX
> c) some other option not thought of yet.
> 
> I am asking the list whether you have any advice to give?  If this ActiveX
> has been installed on the PC and runs well, how difficult would it be to
> execute all the functionality it offers?  I may have no documentation.
> 
> Does my question even make sense?
> 
> Your advice, as always, is appreciated.
> 
> thanks
> 
> Mark
> 
> PS, Happy Birthday to Rocky
> _______________________________________________
> dba-SQLServer mailing list
> dba-SQLServer at databaseadvisors.com
> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-sqlserver
> http://www.databaseadvisors.com
> 
> 






More information about the dba-VB mailing list