AutoHotKey, set focus on a button webpage and send click

Question

I have one button on my html page with window title "Page":

<button onclick="alert('This button has been clicked')">Submit</button>

and using AutoHotKey, I'm trying to set focus on him and then send a mouse click.

This is the AHK code i write:

^p::
ControlFocus, Submit, Page
MouseClick left
return

On pressing Ctrl+P keys, it should do his job. Unfortunately, it doesn't work. I've read the documentation with some examples and I can't get it to work...

HTML elements in rendered pages are far from being represented as own window controls in modern browsers. That is, your browser won't expose a control for every element there is; in fact, it will only expose one control for the entire rendered page or even just one control for the whole browser window. If you're using IE, try [COM object automation](https://autohotkey.com/board/topic/64563-basic-ahk-v11-com-tutorial-for-webpages/). In Chrome or Firefox, I recommend writing a [userscript](http://stackoverflow.com/q/11555442/1282023). — MCL, Jul 28 '16 at 11:34
Except using click coordinates or Tab key, Is there no other way to get the focus on a button ? — EddNewGate, Jul 28 '16 at 11:34
@EddNewGate Yes, it is easy so long as you use IE and do what @MCL said about COM object automation. It ends up being something like `wb.Document.getElementByID("ElementName").click()` (if you know the element name) or `wb.document.getElementsByTagName("button")[1].click()` if it can only be accessed by its tag type and index. See also https://autohotkey.com/board/topic/47052-basic-webpage-controls-with-javascript-com-tutorial/ — PGilm, Jul 28 '16 at 13:56
Sorry, you did want to click, right? If all you want is to focus on a control, change the `.click()` to `.focus()`. Or, if you need to check the text of the control (like when the button is randomly placed on left or right), you can look at the `.innerText` or `.innerHTML` but this is all explained in the two tutorials @MCL and I directed you to. — PGilm, Jul 28 '16 at 14:06
@PGilm I don't want to resort to IE. Was searching these days if is possible to make it work, like how it works in IE on other browsers aswell, but later I found out is not possible or not very easy... I know there are other ways to focus a button and then send a click, which works on all browsers, but is not that briliant ( like seting the mouse cursor to specific coordinates on screen which matches the button position). I think I will follow MCL solution provided. I believe if I can write a script to assign hotkeys to a button on a webpage, I can then invoke it in AHK. I'll see :) — EddNewGate, Jul 28 '16 at 14:14

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

You can learn a lot more about intergrating AHK with HTML DOM here:
https://autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4588
See the following example on how something like this can be achieved.

Example

#SingleInstance, off
OnExit,OnExit

Gui Add, ActiveX, x0 y0 w640 h480 vWB, Shell.Explorer  ; The final parameter is the name of the ActiveX component.
WB.silent := true ;Surpress JS Error boxes
WB.navigate("http://example.com/") ;put your web address here...
ComObjConnect(WB, WB_events)  ; Connect WB's events to the WB_events class object.
Gui Show, w640 h480

return

GuiClose:
OnExit:
ExitApp

class WB_events
{
    ;NavigateComplete2(wb, NewURL)
    ;DownloadComplete(wb, NewURL)
    DocumentComplete(wb, NewURL)
    {
        if (WB.ReadyState == 4) { ; see http://stackoverflow.com/a/9835755/883015
            Sleep, 300 ;wait 300 ms
            
            ;Do what you here...
            ;for example, click the first link on the page, you can change this for a button.
            wb.document.getElementsByTagName("a")[0].click()
            MsgBox Item was clicked.
        }
        return
    }
}

@ThierryDalon Yes, for chrome you will have to do something else. You can use [Chrome.ahk](https://github.com/G33kDude/Chrome.ahk) to simplify things. — Joe DF, Mar 09 '20 at 14:23

AutoHotKey, set focus on a button webpage and send click

1 Answers1

Example