[RESOLVED] Assistance needed with filling out internet forms from MS Excel using VBA

[adrian1906]

I have VBA code that goes online and automatically registers individuals for track and field competitions using performance data found in the Excel spreadsheet.

This code worked fine last year but now I am receiving errors. I believe I found the culprit but will need assistance on solving the problem.

Here is the relavant code

Dim oBrowser As Object
Set oBrowser = GetObject("", "InternetExplorer.Application")
Dim URLcoll As New Collection
Dim ipf As Variant
dim URL as string:URL = "http://www....."
    With oBrowser
        .Silent = True
        .navigate URL
        .Visible = True
        Do While .Busy Or .readyState <> 4: Loop
    End With
    Set ipf = oBrowser.document.getElementsByTagName("a")
    For counter = 3 To ipf.Length - 1
        URLcoll.Add ipf(counter).href
    Next

The problem occurs when setting the ipf object. When I step through the code while debugging, the next line of code executes fine. However, when I run the code, I get an error message indicating that the object is not set. It appears that

For counter = 3 To ipf.Length - 1

is being executed before ipf is ready. My assumption is that the next line of code would not execute until the variable is ready so I did not initially put in any wait commands. I eventually inserted a delay, starting at 1 second and ramping all the way up to 5 seconds before it was able to run without error. I then inserted the 5 second delay througout my subroutine (adding about a minute to the processing time!).

My next approach is the create a while loop that waits until ipf <> Nothing, but before doing that, i thought it would be prudent to try and get to the heart of the problem. Again, it worked like a charm last year. Is it possible that a change occured via a Microsoft Update that changes the way internet explorer operates? I am seeing this error across 4 computers (all 4 worked last year.)

Thank you.

[adrian1906]

I figured it out.

I needed to either use variant or IHTMLElementCollection instead of object.... go figure