ebay https login

[vladBEL]

hello!
tried to find appropriate info here but was not sure it may work in my case.
my background is circuit design and not internet programming so i use tcl/tk for scripting and gui programming.
the task i am trying to implement is sign-in to ebay's on https url, then it passes to http and i need first to save certain html-pages for further text-processing in tcl. ebay server uses cookies for secure connection.
i thought that such task is doable only with browser's help and made qm macro well interacting with ie7. unfortunately this is not solution for for my wife because she is not supposed to watch the process but wants to do her own work instead on same computer.
for that reason i installed ms virtual pc and win2k on it with ie5.5, not to waste pc resources.
the macro does not work with ie5.5 on virtual machine as it did with ie7 on host.
it logs in, loads first page, saves it thru browsers dialog window, then load another page and does not want to go anywhere further.
i figured out that web url 1 does not work out there whichever way i limit waiting time.
please give an idea of work around.
it would be great if browserless solution is applicable. if not then tell me please if this is known issue with ie5.5 and if i have no choice but to upgrade virtual machine environment.
any advise is appreciated.
thanks,
vlad

[Gintaras]

Configuration1:

Virtual PC 2007
Windows 2000
IE 5.5

web url 1 works well with other websites but hangs with ebay.

Configuration2:

Virtual PC 2007
Windows 2000
IE5.0

web url 1 works well, but IE shows errors. The same when not using web.

Configuration3:

Windows Vista
IE 7

Everything works well.

-------

Tried various workarounds. None of them worked when using web to open the url or wait.

Workaround1:

Code:

Copy      Help

run("http://hub.ebay.com/buy")
SHDocVw.IWebBrowser2 b=web("")
rep() 0.2; if(!b.Busy) break

Workaround2:

Code:

Copy      Help

run("http://hub.ebay.com/buy")
Htm el=htm("SPAN" "Home > Buy" "" win("eBay" "IEFrame") 0 2 0x21 30) ;;waits for the element max 30 s


[vladBEL]

Thank you Gintaras for prompt help. i got first example working smooth in configuration: virtual pc 2007 + win 2000 + ie5.5
paldies

[vladBEL]

i use the code below to load ebay pages with ie5.5:

SHDocVw.IWebBrowser2 b=web("")
rep(10) 0.3; if(!b.Busy) break

it works well unless browser stops in a middle of a page, actually when it supposed to start loading main table from server. This happens ones in awhile and would be bearable if the code was capable of self-recovering from this condition.
is there any solution, watchdog like, to break rep loop or to goto some label when loop does not meet an assigned "deadline"? It would be ok for me if whole macro submits valid stop when it's out of order.
i use tcl to start qm macros but i was not able to abort locked macro.
please give me a hand.
thanks,
-vlad

[Gintaras]

What part of the code fails? Does it wait forever?

[vladBEL]

i thought it is web("") that does not return anything. macro does not get condition from browser. browser does nor get data from server which is some table from db query. when i use browser's stop button it stops but the macro does not, until break key is pushed.

[Gintaras]

If you insert

out b

after first line, what (and when) it displays in QM output when fails?

[vladBEL]

the output is seven digit number on every run. it just freezes when failure.

[Gintaras]

it just freezes when failure

That is, it does not display anything on failure? Try to use the second workaround - function htm.

If using something like watchdog, how would you like to implement it? You can use another thread (running function) that periodically checks main thread's state.

[vladBEL]

i run tcl script in continuous cycle that controls everything. so the script only has to be able to abort qm-macro when it dies on ie5.5. i tried to push break key from within the function below but it does not release qm.

<code><font color=#0000ff>function</font><br><font color=#0000ff>act </font>&quot;+IEFrame&quot;<br>'AF4<br><font color=#00a000>;hit break key</font><br>'G<br></code>

is there the way to do it properly?
thanks,
-vlad

[Gintaras]

To end a running macro, use

shutdown -6 0 "macro name"

[vladBEL]

Thank you Gintaras! it works. now i 100% sure that my inventory control process will never die.