How to fill out and submit a web form using LabVIEW

[THailey3]

Almighty Forum,

This question will require knowledge not only of LabVIEW, but also of HTML, JavaScripting, and possibly more.  I don't know about you, but I have an on-line account for pretty much everything: Bank, Credit Card, Savings, ETrade, 401K, Roth IRA, etc.  About once a day I want to go and check on everything (because I'm an anal engineer), but it takes so freaking long to navigate and login to each site.  Even after favoriting all the links and using cookies to save my "username", I still have to type in my password, hit enter, and wait for each site.  This takes time, time is money, and money is why I'm doing this in the first place; so, I need a better solution.  And since I stand by LabVIEW, I want a LabVIEW solution. 

The solution in my head is something like this.  I have one front panel with an embedded IE browser (in an ActiveX container).  On the side of the browser I have my "favorite" toolbar.  When I click on a button in the toolbar, it takes me to the site and automatically logs me in.  Simple.  Now once that is working I could make a single app with no browser interface that simply went out and queried all my sites for the important values and displayed them on the front panel.  But not to get ahead of myself, I'll stick with my first goal for now.  Baby steps.

So here is what I have now.  I can load www.bankofamerica.com into my browser and automatically enter my "online ID" and "passcode".  I just can't seem to figure out how to submit the form.  I realize that I could just simulate a mouse click on the coordinates of the Sign In button, but that would not be nearly elegant enough for me to have pride in this application. 

If you run the VI that I'm posting, and click Submit Info, you are taken to a error page saying something along the lines of "We're temporarily unable to process this request.  Please try again."  Now this would probably make sense with the "dummy" ID and passcode that is being used in this VI, but I get the same thing when I use my real information.  I'm beginning to think that this is something BOA has done to prevent people from logging in programmatically.  That would probably make sense to deter potential hackers.

There's got to be a way...  can you help?  This might take some time, but think how it could help streamline you in the long-run

PS:  I down-converted the VI to 7.0 format for anybody stuck in 2003

Thanks,

Travis H.

[Otman]

Travis,

Let me understand totally what you're trying to do. Simply stated, you want to hit some button on your app and instantly see all your accounts no matter where from, is that correct? Sounds like an interesting app. I know it would be cool to write it in LV. If you're pressed for time, and as you said time is definitely money, try any personal finance software. Most already have this capability built-in.

Otman

[THailey3]

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Otman wrote:
Simply stated, you want to hit some button on your app and instantly see all your accounts no matter where from, is that correct?
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Hi Otman,
Actually, my first goal is to be able to hit a single button that automatically logs into a single account.  For example, when Bank of America Login - test.vi (attached above) is run, it should automatically:

1) Navigate to www.bankofamerica.com
2) Programmatically enter the "Online ID" and "Passcode"
3) Submit the form and log in

Its step 3 that I'm having trouble with.  Again, see the VI attached to my first post for a good example of what I'm talking about.

Thanks,

Message Edited by Travis H. on 11-16-2005 10:27 PM

[pknight12133123123]

I know this is an old post, but I wanted to reply with a fix so that anyone trying to control website will know how to fix the problem.

The Bank of America.vi has all the information needed.  The problem with it, is that it did not take far enough.  You must get a reference to the

login button, the same way you get a reference to the login form to enter the account name.  Then use the "submit" method of the reference button.

You must know the name the webpage uses for the button, a good program to use is IEDevToolBar from Microsoft.  It only works with IE.

Paul

[mrbean]

Travis,

Did you ever get this to work.  I'm trying to create a LabVIEW app that will talk to a secure link (https using TLSv1) and the things you've mentioned are similar to what I need to do (i.e. GET/POST)

[dthor]

Here's a working version of the code, but for WellsFargo.

I thought I had made the change that pknight mentioned, but then I double checked the code and it looks the same... oh well. Perhaps it has to do with how BofA has changed their site over the years. I hope this helps for anyone looking at this old thread.

**EDIT: LabVIEW 2010

[gbusletta]

I also have a similar application, but accessing the web interface for some test equipment. This will work for me, but I get to the point where I click on an item and it opens up a save/open pop up window. I would like to hit the save button and than specify the save file location and name in the program. How do I deal with these pop ups in labview code?

[dthor]

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@gbusletta wrote:

How do I deal with these pop ups in labview code?

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Sadly, I do not know. That is something I've been working on in my spare time.

[anderg]

Hello I have the same problem, can You explain how to solve it??

[jacky_jssz]

Hi, all

     I have the same problem with the fill information and submit a web application.

     The code is pass when I run with highlight, step by step, it can fill information, submit and access the web; but when I run directly, it will error on the 3rd Flat Sequence Structure and unstable, sometimes error at 3rd sequence, sometimes error at 5th sequence, sometimes it 6th, can anybody help me? thanks

Jacky