Using InStr to Search for Words on Web Page?

[JonSea31]

If I were to key in a word like "automobile" and open the first page for that particular word on Thesaurus.com, and then search within that web page in the Synonyms section for any synonyms, and then print all those synonyms in the Synonyms section on a line on a text file (with a line separator "|"), what would I have to do?

Of course, I don't want all the words in Thesaurus.com. I only want select words that I intend to use for a Family Feud game I am developing.

[Conroy Vanderbluff]

There are a couple of ways I can think of off the top of my head. One would be to use the "getelementbyid" property, which would require you to have a webbrowser control on your form... probably Visible = False. The other way (which I actually prefer) is to ghost download the page and search through it via that. That way, you're downloading text and it would be easier to search using Instr for what you want to extract.

Here is the code for the ghost download:

Form Declarations

Private Declare Function URLDownloadToFile Lib "urlmon" Alias _
    "URLDownloadToFileA" (ByVal pCaller As Long, _
    ByVal szURL As String, _
    ByVal szFileName As String, _
    ByVal dwReserved As Long, _
    ByVal lpfnCB As Long) As Long

Public Function DownloadFile(URL As String, _
    LocalFilename As String) As Boolean
    Dim lngRetVal As Long
    lngRetVal = URLDownloadToFile(0, URL, LocalFilename, 0, 0)
    If lngRetVal = 0 Then DownloadFile = True
End Function

Call like this:

DownloadFile "http://thesaurus.com/browse/automobile", "c:\Downloads\thes_automobile.htm"

Then search through it like this

Open "c:\Downloads\thes_automobile.htm" For Input As 1
Dim U As String
        While EOF(1) = 0
        Line Input #1, U
'Search using Instr here... U is the string it's currently getting
Wend
Close #1

Hope this helps.

[Rattled_Cage]

another way without downloading each page is to add Microsoft html object libary >>in Project References


and use the Function in this

Private Sub Command1_Click()
    Dim strfindword As String
        strfindword = "Rattled"
            If WebPageContains(strfindword) = True Then 'check if the word is in page
               ''' MsgBox "The webpage contains the text" 'string is in page
            MsgBox strfindword & "Found"
            Else
            MsgBox "The webpage doesn't contains the text" 'string is not in page
            End If
End Sub
Private Sub Form_Load()
WebBrowser1.Navigate "http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?746939-Using-InStr-to-Search-for-Words-on-Web-Page"
End Sub
Private Function WebPageContains(ByVal s As String) As Boolean
    Dim I As Long, EHTML
    For I = 1 To WebBrowser1.Document.All.length
        Set EHTML = _
        WebBrowser1.Document.All.Item(I)
        If Not (EHTML Is Nothing) Then
            If InStr(1, EHTML.innerHTML, _
            s, vbTextCompare) > 0 Then
            WebPageContains = True
            Exit Function
        End If
    End If
Next I
End Function

[Conroy Vanderbluff]

I'm sure he could do either way, yet I don't see how he would know what words to search for. If he plans on using hundreds of words, being specific about each entry is going to be ridiculously time-consuming. Perhaps if he were just wanting a certain number of words, he could cut off the search at, say, 5 entries found. When he says "I only want select words", I'm not sure he would know which words would appear on the page, especially if he's using hundreds of primary words to search for. Now, if he meant "I only want a certain number of words returned", that would seem more logical. Perhaps if the OP could embellish on how he plans to choose which "select words" he wants, that could help us help him.