Simulating a link click webbrowser control vb.net

Question

I am trying to make my application click a link that is inside a page loaded in a web browser control but nothing seems to be happening. Clicking manually on the link works (it performs some javascript command to load an data using ajax). I cannot simply go to the URL since the HREF is "#"

So far I have tried these methods:

wb.Document.GetElementById("MyElement").InvokeMember("click") wb.Document.GetElementById("MyElement").RaiseEvent("onmousedown") wb.Document.GetElementById("MyElement").RaiseEvent("onclick")

Not sure if it will help, but: wb.Document.GetElementById("MyElement").RaiseEvent("onmouseover") Seems to partially simulate a mouseover on the link

Any other options I can try to simulate a mouse click?

Thanks!

Answer 1

I had the same issue. Nothing would work; RaiseEvent, Document.GetElementById(oLink.Id).InvokeMember("click"), etc.

Finally I found the link by looping through the Document.Links HTMLElementCollection; then did a link.Focus, and a stupid SendKeys.Send("{ENTER}"). This worked! See below:

        Dim bFound As Boolean = False
        Dim oLink As HtmlElement = Nothing

        For Each oLink In wbExample.Document.Links
            If oLink.InnerText IsNot Nothing _
            AndAlso oLink.InnerText.ToString.Trim = "12345" Then
                bFound = True
                Exit For
            End If
        Next

        If bFound = False Then
            Throw New Exception("Big time lameness; can't find the link.")
        End If

        oLink.Focus()
        SendKeys.Send("{ENTER}")

Answer 2

First of all, this is my first answer post to a submitted issue on any site, ever. I had this same issue, and came up with the following based on earlier posts, which worked, at least in my situation and avoided the use of sendkeys:

Dim oLink As HtmlElement = Nothing

For Each oLink In WebBrowser1.Document.Links
    If oLink.InnerText IsNot Nothing _
       AndAlso oLink.InnerText.ToString.Trim = "TextToSearchFor" Then
        oLink.InvokeMember("click")
        Exit For
    End If
Next

If the link I was trying to access had an ID associated with it, I think the solution would have been even simpler, not requiring the loop, but since it didn't, it is what it is. Hope this helps someone else.

Answer 3

I had the same issue... This works.

For Each Mylink As HtmlElement In WebBrowser1.Document.Links
    If Mylink.InnerText.Contains("SomeTextToSearchFor") Then
        WebBrowser1.Navigate(Mylink.GetAttribute("href"))
    End If
Next