Issue with IE Object/Form Retrieval

[JacobA]

Hello! Unfortunately I forgot my old username as I have not logged in in ages... so had to create another one. Apologies.

Anyway, I am having significant issues adding text to a weird IE Form object. It is a text area, but its of type:

<textarea name="html" id="html" class="mceEditor"></textarea>

so, when I do the normal tactic of retrieving the form or tag collection, I can pinpoint the name = "html", but I cannot "focus" or propertyset this form element.

I even attempted to do the _IEAction focus and click options, but since this is an mceEditor object, I cannot get it to add text to the text area. A simple "click" and Send() also doesn't work...

so any help would be MADLY appreciated.

Edited May 19, 2011 by JacobA

[DaleHohm]

These type of editors typically use iFrames rather than textareas for the content region. My guess is taht if you look more carefully, you'll find one.

Dale

[JacobA]

The actual object I am attempting to edit is a textarea but of type HTML (mceEditor). Consequently, it throws the INPUT TYPE=FILE issue with my attempted focus work-arounds. Using the basic focus work-around itself, also doesn't work (as mentioned above). I do not think it is an iframe, although that was my first guess also. You can see the specific form I am looking at, at the URL posted. Any help would be great... getting really frustrated here.

[JacobA]

As an addition - here is more of the HTML that contains the textarea I am trying to get to:

<td class="formInputLabel" id="editorLabelCell">
            Article Body            &nbsp;&nbsp;
            <a class="smoothbox formWhatsThisLink" title="How do I use the Online Editor?" href="#TB_inline?height=450&width=480&inlineId=editorHelpDiv">Online Editor Help</a>

        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>
            <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
            <tr>
                <td id="editorInputCell" style="height:100%;">
                    <textarea name="html" id="html" class="mceEditor"></textarea>

                </td>
                <td  style="height:100%;">
                    <div class="suggestImagesButtonDiv">
                        <input class="smallButton" id="getImageSuggestionsButton" type="button" onclick="$('suggestPicsDiv').innerHTML=''; doPaneAction('post','submit','suggest-pics','suggestPicsDiv',{'search-str':$('title').value +' '+ $('description').value +' '+ $('tags').value +' '+ tinyMCE.activeEditor.getContent()},true);" value="Get Image Suggestions">
                    </div>
                    <div id="suggestPicsDiv" class="suggestedPicsDiv"></div>
                </td>       
            </tr>
            <tr><td></td></tr>

            </table>
        </td>

And again, I have tried the normal routes because the name is quite obviously "html". I have tried many things - I will include my messy bit of code below - the things I have tried are actually commented, and I don't know where to go....

$colTags = _IETagNameGetCollection($oIE_4, "textarea") 
            For $oTag_T2 In $colTags     
                MsgBox(0, "textarea", $oTag_T2.name)
                if $oTag_T2.name == "description" Then
                    ;CLipPut($art_title_complete)
                    _IEFormElementSetValue($oTag_T2, $introduction_inserter_1)
                    ;_IEAction($oTag,"paste")
                    sleep(1000)
                    ;_ClipBoard_Empty()
                EndIf
                if $oTag_T2.name == "html" Then
                    
                    ;$html_input = _IEFormGetObjByName($oTag_T2, "textarea")
                    ;$this = _IEFormElementGetObjByName($html_input, "html")
                    
                    ;$test = _IEPropertyGet($oTag_T2, "innerhtml")
                    ;_IEPropertySet($oTag_T2, "innerhtml", "this is it!")
                                
                    ;ConsoleWrite($test)
                    ;ConsoleWRite("FOUND IT!!!!!")
                    
                    ;ClipPut("checking to see if this works")
                    ;_IEFormElementSetValue($oTag_T2, "cocker_pooper")
                    ;_IEAction($oTag_T2, "focus")
                    
                    _IEAction($oTag_T2, "click")
                    sleep(250)
                    send("hi")              
                    ;Send("this is going to rock")
                    sleep(1000)
                    ;_ClipBoard_Empty()
                EndIf               
            Next

I have also tried the basic "focus" route and that also fails.....

[DaleHohm]

The URL you provide requires a login.

You can go here to see a demo of tinyMCE - it uses an iFrame... See if you can work with this site: http://tinymce.moxiecode.com/tryit/full.php

Dale

[JacobA]

I cannot... is there a a precedent for using autoit3 to modify mce?

[JacobA]

im loosing it over here... this is the worlds most frustrating thing, and it should be so simple given the _IE functions and how easy it is to grab inputs and other forms... Edited May 19, 2011 by JacobA

[JacobA]

Whoever helps me find the solution to this dilemma is a legend.

[DaleHohm]

I cannot... is there a a precedent for using autoit3 to modify mce?

You cannot? And why is that?

Dale

[JacobA]

I cannot modify an MCE, that is what I meant. I tried on other sites with similar MCE editors. Although I can return the form value and name correctly in a console write, I cannot change the inner text.

[DaleHohm]

I'm trying to tell you, the tinyMCE site I pointed you to demonstrates how tinyMCE uses an iFrame and you must update the contents of the docment in the iFrame in order to make a change in the editor.

Dale

[JacobA]

Ok fair enough... so how would I go about doing that? Would it be via the _IE*doc functions? I could really use some help on this.. I wish it was as simple as locating and setting a value to the textarea....

As an update - I re-read the source, and the MCE on the page I am trying to modify is actually listed as a tinymc.js. I can see the javascript and everything, but its huge.

Edited May 18, 2011 by JacobA

[DaleHohm]

You'll actually find some discussion of this if you search the forum for TinyMCE.

#include <IE.au3>
$oIE = _IECreate("http://tinymce.moxiecode.com/tryit/full.php")
$oFrame = _IEFrameGetCollection($oIE, 0)
_IEDocWriteHTML($oFrame, "This is not hard")

Dale

[JacobA]

You'll actually find some discussion of this if you search the forum for TinyMCE.

#include <IE.au3>
$oIE = _IECreate("http://tinymce.moxiecode.com/tryit/full.php")
$oFrame = _IEFrameGetCollection($oIE, 0)
_IEDocWriteHTML($oFrame, "This is not hard")

Dale

Thanks Dale - I tried this before but for some reason it didn't work, but now it (partially) is!

What I have done (and it's not working 100% yet) was to first loop through the number of frames on the page to see how many there were. I found 2 (0,1). Changing index 1 does nothing, but 0 changes the text in the mceditor, yay (I first tried to use your debuggerbar to find the index of the editor, but couldn't). However, it somehow de-activated the ability to manually edit inside the editor? I mean, I can see the text in the mceditor after _IEDocWriteHTML'ing to its index, but now I can't click in there and type anymore. Did I do something wrong? I haven't clicked the submit button, but hope it will actually submit the correctly written text...

For before, simply _IEDocWriteHTML to a tag collection whos tag is $otag_t2.name = "html" (this is the mce editor) doesn't work - it writes the HTML in my entire IE object in my gui, changing the entire gui...

One further question - One of the components on the page is a "suggested images" area, that changes dynamically. I won't know the contents of it, but I do know the <td> tag it is located in (I used your DebugBar to find the exact location). Can I click in the middle of a <td> tag without knowing its contents and with the IE functions?

Edited May 19, 2011 by JacobA

[JacobA]

Ignore - Got it

Thanks!

Edited May 19, 2011 by JacobA

[JacobA]

I need to bump this...

I was able to change the mce as mentioned above, but when I hit "submit" it doesn't recognize anything that I entered within it, and removes it all. This does not happen obviously if I manually write material in the mce and submit it that way....

I suspected this was going to be an issue because after I _IEDocwritehtml it, I cannot click inside it any more, so something is getting messed up.

UPDATE:

I added the html to my clipboard before sending it to the _IEDocwritehtml. The submit button doesnt work if I click the Submit button after using the _IEdoctwritehtml to post the html in the mce. HOWEVER, if I paste it from my clipboard instead, then hit submit, it does work... what is going on?

Edited May 20, 2011 by JacobA

[Myicq]

I added the html to my clipboard before sending it to the _IEDocwritehtml. The submit button doesnt work if I click the Submit button after using the _IEdoctwritehtml to post the html in the mce. HOWEVER, if I paste it from my clipboard instead, then hit submit, it does work... what is going on?

Actually I was facing same issue. The solution I found was not to use _IEDocWriteHTML, since that will probably overwrite some iFramecode.

This works for me every time:

func readit()
        $oFrame = _IEFrameGetCollection($oie, 0)
        $i = _IEBodyReadHTML($oFrame)
        MsgBox(0,"",$i)
EndFunc

func writeit()
        $oFrame = _IEFrameGetCollection($oie, 0)
        _IEBodyWriteHTML($oframe, "<h1>Date: " & @MDAY & random(100,999,1) & "</h1>")
EndFunc

Notice use of _IEBodyWriteHTML which only updates the content between <body>..</body> of the iFrame. Basically where you write your content.