Web automation using .NET

Question

I am a very newbie programmer. Does anyone of you know how to do Web automation with C#? Basically, I just want auto implement some simple action on the web. After I have opened up the web link, i just want to perform the actions below automatically.

1. Automatically Input some value and Click on "Run" button.
2. Check In the ComboBox and Click on "Download" button.

How can I do it with C#? My friend introduce me to use Powershell but I guess .Net do provide this kind of library too. Any suggestion or link for me to refer?

Answer 1

You can use the System.Windows.Forms.WebBrowser control (MSDN Documentation). For testing, it allows your to do the things that could be done in a browser. It easily executes JavaScript without any additional effort. If something went wrong, you will be able to visually see the state that the site is in.

example:

private void buttonStart_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    webBrowser1.DocumentCompleted += new WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventHandler(webBrowser1_DocumentCompleted);
    webBrowser1.Navigate("http://www.wikipedia.org/");            
}

void webBrowser1_DocumentCompleted(object sender, WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventArgs e)
{
    HtmlElement search = webBrowser1.Document.GetElementById("searchInput");
    if(search != null)
    {
        search.SetAttribute("value", "Superman");
        foreach(HtmlElement ele in search.Parent.Children)
        {
            if (ele.TagName.ToLower() == "input" && ele.Name.ToLower() == "go")
            {
                ele.InvokeMember("click");
                break;
            }
        }
    }
}

---

To answer your question: how to check a checkbox

for the HTML:

<input type="checkbox" id="testCheck"></input>

the code:

search = webBrowser1.Document.GetElementById("testCheck");
if (search != null)
    search.SetAttribute("checked", "true");

actually, the specific "how to" depends greatly on what is the actual HTML.

---

For handling your multi-threaded problem:

private delegate void StartTestHandler(string url);
private void StartTest(string url)
{
    if (InvokeRequired)
        Invoke(new StartTestHandler(StartTest), url);
    else
    {
        webBrowser1.DocumentCompleted += new WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventHandler(webBrowser1_DocumentCompleted);
        webBrowser1.Navigate(url);
    }
}

InvokeRequired, checks whether the current thread is the UI thread (actually, the thread that the form was created in). If it is not, then it will try to run StartTest in the required thread.

Answer 2

If you want to simulate a real browser then WatiN will be a good fit for you. (Selenium is another alternative, but I do not recommend it for you).

If you want to work on the HTTP level, then use WebRequest and related classes.