Current state of AutoIT / Web DOM integration

[zenocon]

Hi, After scouring the forums for many hours, I'm trying to compile the most up to date / recent information on the options available for integrating with JavaScript / DOM -- as it relates to scraping + automation of web pages.

It's my understanding there is IE.au3 script for automation of IE through a COM interface.  But I believe this only works with IE and won't work with Edge, correct?  Is there a COM interface that works with Edge, or any other options for integrating with Edge (other than IUIAuatomation?)

I know there was also a FF.au3 UDF, but Mozilla abandoned the support for their mozrepl in favor of Web Extensions, and my understanding is that the FF.au3 UDF no longer works, is that correct?

There was also a Chrome.au3 UDF, but my read on the forums indicate that this also broke many Chrome releases past.

Which leaves IUIAutomation which I have been using to automate / scrape Windows apps, but when I am trying it on a website, it is not as useful.  For example, if I know the exact DOM id / class, I can get at it and do whatever I need to in JavaScript very simply.  With IUIAutomation, the DOM properties are not available, and most tags / elements in DOM have no useful defining characteristics to be able to get at them reliably (if they are targetable at all).  Some things might be able to be done with IUIAutomation, but I see it's value in targeting website automation / scraping as fairly limited.

At this point, it seems like my best option is to use IE.au3, but that forces users on IE, which is probably a showstopper.

Is there another way to bridge into the DOM?  I have written Web Extensions for Chrome and Firefox before.  They can communicate with external processes via AJAX or messaging.  I'm wondering if I can build what I need in a WebExtension and then trigger it from AutoIT Script, and gather up the results somewhere.

I know there was the ISimpleDOM.au3 and some Microsoft Accessability scripts, but they seem to only be partially supported in browsers, and I didn't have a lot of luck getting those examples to run correctly.

[zenocon]

Hi, After scouring the forums for many hours, I'm trying to compile the most up to date / recent information on the options available for integrating with JavaScript / DOM -- as it relates to scraping + automation of web pages.

It's my understanding there is IE.au3 script for automation of IE through a COM interface.  But I believe this only works with IE and won't work with Edge, correct?  Is there a COM interface that works with Edge, or any other options for integrating with Edge (other than IUIAuatomation?)

I know there was also a FF.au3 UDF, but Mozilla abandoned the support for their mozrepl in favor of Web Extensions, and my understanding is that the FF.au3 UDF no longer works, is that correct?

There was also a Chrome.au3 UDF, but my read on the forums indicate that this also broke many Chrome releases past.

Which leaves IUIAutomation which I have been using to automate / scrape Windows apps, but when I am trying it on a website, it is not as useful.  For example, if I know the exact DOM id / class, I can get at it and do whatever I need to in JavaScript very simply.  With IUIAutomation, the DOM properties are not available, and most tags / elements in DOM have no useful defining characteristics to be able to get at them reliably (if they are targetable at all).  Some things might be able to be done with IUIAutomation, but I see it's value in targeting website automation / scraping as fairly limited.

At this point, it seems like my best option is to use IE.au3, but that forces users on IE, which is probably a showstopper.

Is there another way to bridge into the DOM?  I have written Web Extensions for Chrome and Firefox before.  They can communicate with external processes via AJAX or messaging.  I'm wondering if I can build what I need in a WebExtension and then trigger it from AutoIT Script, and gather up the results somewhere.

I know there was the ISimpleDOM.au3 and some Microsoft Accessability scripts, but they seem to only be partially supported in browsers, and I didn't have a lot of luck getting those examples to run correctly.

[JLogan3o13]

Duplicate threads merged.

[zenocon]

1 minute ago, JLogan3o13 said:

Duplicate threads merged.

That's odd, I only posted it once

[JLogan3o13]

It happens from time to time, no worries.

[Gianni]

... here (https://www.autoitscript.com/forum/topic/176731-autoit-javascript-roundtrip/?do=findComment&comment=1365262) a possible way to interact with javascript/DOM from within an AutoIt script ..

 

[junkew]

And with iuiautomation or controlsend you can allways execute javascript thru adressbar on any browser which gives you unlimited possibilities of injecting javascripts in the page you want to act on.

1. Inject a simple script thru addressbar to make a 1x1 pixel sized textbox. For debugging make it bigger

2. Put a bunch of javascript code in the added textbox with iuiautomation

3. Eval with an addresbar javascript the content of the textbox

More examples

https://www.autoitscript.com/forum/search/?&q="javascript:"&author=Junkew