How to make sure all the parts of a macro are running correctly?

Question

I have this piece of code that basically should click on several buttons from a website successively.

For Each Element In Ie.getElementsByTagName("a")
    If Element.innerText = "Advanced Search" Then
        'Debug.Print element.innerText
        '**element.Click**
        Exit For
    Else
    End If
Next Element

Set objShell2 = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
IE_count = objShell2.Windows.Count

For X = 0 To (IE_count - 1)
    On Error Resume Next
    my_url = objShell2.Windows(X).Document.Location
    my_title = objShell2.Windows(X).Document.Title
    MsgBox ("The title of this page is: " & my_title)


    If my_title Like "Client List Management" & "*" Then
        Set ie2 = objShell2.Windows(X).Document
        my_title3 = ie2.Title
        MsgBox ("The title of Client List Management is: " & my_title3)
        Exit For
    Else
    End If

Next

For Each Element In ie2.getElementsByTagName("a")
    If Element.innerText = "Accounts" Then
        'Debug.Print element.innerText
        '**element.Click**
        Exit For
    Else
    End If
Next

For Each Element In ie2.getElementsByTagName("a")
  If Element.innerText = "SEARCH" Then
        'Debug.Print element.innerText
        '**element.Click**
        Exit For
    Else

    End If
Next

For Each Element In ie2.getElementsByTagName("a")
    If Element.innerText = "BATCH EXPORT" Then
        'Debug.Print element.innerText
        '**element.Click**
        Exit For
    Else
    End If
Next

The problem is that when I run the whole macro, only the first button is being clicked (button "Advanced Search") and nothing happens with the others that should be clicked after the "Advanced Search" button is clicked.

However, when I try to debug my code and step into every step of the program, each and every button that should be clicked is being clicked. Everything works perfectly when I debut. The only problem resides when the program is actually running by its own.

Do you know how to fix this problem?

Thank you :)

Answer 1

If timing is an issue then you can wait for Internet Explorer to not be busy and the readystate is equal to 4.

Try placing While Ie.readyState <> 4 Or Ie.Busy: DoEvents: Wend in sections where the page might be loading. (after navigation, button clicks, etc.).

---

If all said that this isn't sufficient enough, you could always play with the sleep API.

#If VBA7 And Win64 Then
    Private Declare PtrSafe Sub Sleep Lib "kernel32" (ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long)
#Else
    Private Declare Sub Sleep Lib "kernel32" (ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long)
#End If

I would only do this if you can't get the wait above to work.

---

Readystate 4 means that the request had been sent, the server had finished returning the response and the browser had finished downloading the response content.

Busy from Microsofts Documentation is described as:

Gets a value that indicates whether the object is engaged in a navigation or downloading operation.