asked on

Close Button, getElementById, overlay

I have a screen scraper app. I'm scraping a page that has an overlay - it's that object that makes it look a modal popup, but actually is not. Now, there are elements within the overlay that I extract data from. These elements all have ID values. Now, the overlay has a "Close" button. I want to click the close button. The button does not have an ID, so I'm attempting to find it my looping through all the DOM elements and picking off the buttons, by class name, and then examining the text on the button. However, my loop through all the DOM elements never finds this button that is located within the overlay. There are other buttons on the page that are not within the overlay, and I do find these within the loop.

Any thoughts on why I cannot find the button within the overlay?

Roopesh Reddy

Hi,

I think you can try with jQuery CSS selector!

<input type="button" id="btn" value="Click" /> 

    <script type="text/javascript">
        $(document).ready(function () {
           var btnText = $('#btn').attr('value');
           alert(btnText);
        });
    </script>

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Hope it helps u...

HLRosenberger

ASKER

To use JQuery, don't I need to own the page? The JQuery, like Javascript, runs in the page on the client?

I have a .NET console app that extracting data out of the DOM of someone elses page.

Obadiah Christopher

Did u try and find the button when the overlay is not opened?

What method are you using to loop through the buttons?

Is it possible that you are not able to find the button since it is inside another div and not the outermost div?

Daniel Van Der Werken

First, you need to make sure the button exists on the page you're scraping like informaniac suggests.

Are you recursively looping through the elements? You need to make sure you find any elements within elements within elements. Share how you're doing the loop. We might be able to help with a recursive mechanism for getting them all. Something like:

 public static Control _prvGetFirstControlTypeFromControlCollection( Type param_Control_Type, Control param_Control )
        {
            Control foundControl = null;
            ControlCollection ccc = param_Control.Controls;
            foreach ( Control c in ccc )
            {
                if ( c.GetType() == param_Control_Type )
                {
                    foundControl = c;
                    break;
                }
                else
                {
                    if ( c.Controls.Count > 0 )
                    {
                        foundControl = _prvGetFirstControlTypeFromControlCollection( param_Control_Type, c );
                    }
                }
            }
            return foundControl;
        }

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...but this method that I wrote only gets the first instance of a control of the type specified. Plus, it is used by an ASP .NET page that is generating a web page, not a screen scraper. I added it to show you how you might go about implementing your own though.

HLRosenberger

ASKER

informaniac

It is inside another div. The overlay is a div. So, how then do I find it? I'm doing this to find the button:

Public Function FindCloseButton(ByVal doc As Object) As HTMLButtonElement

Dim btn As HTMLButtonElement

FindCloseButton = Nothing
For i As Integer = 0 To doc.all.Length - 1

' Find Input Element
If TypeName(doc.all(i)) = "HTMLButtonElementClass" Then

btn = doc.all(i)
If btn.innerText = "Close" Then
FindCloseButton = btn
Exit For
End If

End If
Next i

End Function

Roopesh Reddy

Hi,

Did you tried the solution which i have provided?

Moreover, are you looking for solution in (Server Side)Code behind or Client Side?

HLRosenberger

ASKER

Server side. There is no "client side" in effect, as this is a console app that is a screen scraper. I' using the SHDocVw.InternetExplorer object.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

HLRosenberger

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HLRosenberger

ASKER

This is the only solution that worked for me.