VBA - Addressing Internet Explorer tabs - vba

Question

Strangely enough I didn't find any information on the topic and I'm currently stuck at the point where I managed to open a new tab in an instance of IE by programmatically clicking a button, but I haven't the faintest clue of how to address the new tab in order to get information from there (the button basically brings up a new tab with the result of a search).
This is basically a straightforward question, but I'm including my code anyway:
Sub AddInfoFromIntranet()
Dim Ie As SHDocVw.InternetExplorer
Dim URL As String
Dim iFrames As MSHTML.IHTMLElementCollection
Dim iFrame As MSHTML.HTMLFrameElement
Dim Doc As MSHTML.HTMLDocument
Dim InputBox As MSHTML.IHTMLElementCollection, htmlButton, allTags, Tag
' Opens Intranet - yeah, sadly it's not a public web page
URL = "{My intranet website}"
Set Ie = New SHDocVw.InternetExplorer
With Ie
.navigate URL
.Visible = True
While .Busy Or .readyState <> READYSTATE_COMPLETE: DoEvents: Wend
Set Doc = .document
End With
' Gets top_window frame and navigates to it, then inserts the name to search
Set iFrames = Doc.getElementsByName("top_window")
If Not iFrames Is Nothing Then
Set iFrame = iFrames(0)
Ie.navigate URL & iFrame.src
While Ie.Busy Or Ie.readyState <> READYSTATE_COMPLETE: DoEvents: Wend
Set InputBox = Doc.getElementsByName("Nachnamevalue")
If Not InputBox Is Nothing Then InputBox(0).Value = "test"
' Clicks on "search"
Set allTags = Doc.getElementsByTagName("input")
For Each Tag In allTags
If Tag.Value = "suchen" Then
Tag.Click
Exit For
End If
Next
' Here a new tab is opened, must find info in this tab
While Ie.Busy Or Ie.readyState <> READYSTATE_COMPLETE: DoEvents: Wend
' HERE I HAVE NO CLUE WHAT TO WRITE. THE CODE ABOVE WORKS FLAWLESSLY
End If
Set Doc = Nothing
Set iFrames = Nothing
Set iFrame = Nothing
Set InputBox = Nothing
Set allTags = Nothing
Set Ie = Nothing
Ie.Quit
End Sub
Now, is there a way to address a tab by: 1) its name (and where do I find it) 2) its position in browser 3) the status (if it is "active") ?
Bonus questions: since I am new to VBA and Internet Explorer interaction, what exactly are the variables: htmlButton, allTags, Tag ? Also, could anyone explain if I need to set all the variables at the end to nothing, or I just need to set the Internet Explorer to nothing?
Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

See below for a function you can use to get an open IE document window - I don't think IE exposes any simple (VBA-accessible) API for working directly with tabs or determining whether a specific tab is active.
allTags is a collection of DOM elements with type "" , and Tag is a single memeber of that collection.
You do not have to set objects to Nothing before exiting a Sub (though some people still do that) - the VBA runtime will take care of that for you.
Sub TestGetIE()
Dim IE As Object
Set IE = GetIE("http://stackoverflow.com")
If Not IE Is Nothing Then
IE.document.execCommand "Print", False, 0
End If
End Sub
'Get a reference to an open IE window based on its URL
Function GetIE(sLocation As String) As Object
Dim objShell As Object, objShellWindows As Object, o As Object
Dim sURL As String
Dim retVal As Object
Set retVal = Nothing
Set objShell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
Set objShellWindows = objShell.Windows
For Each o In objShellWindows
sURL = ""
On Error Resume Next
'check the URL and if it's the one you want then
' assign it to the return value
sURL = o.document.Location
On Error GoTo 0
'Debug.Print sURL
If sURL Like sLocation & "*" Then
Set retVal = o
Exit For
End If
Next o
Set GetIE = retVal
End Function