XmlHttp Post in Excel VBA not updating website form - vba

Question

I routinely have to search the state of NV for unclaimed property and put the results in an Excel spreadsheet. I am trying to automate the process but I'm limited to using Excel 2010 and VBA. Below is the URL to the site I'm trying to submit a form using xmlhttp.
URL: https://nevadatreasurer.gov/UPSearch/
I created a class to automate submitting forms on other websites but no matter what I enter in the postdata the form is never submitted. Below is my submission, and method to submit the form.
Call to class:
cXML.openWebsite "Post", "https://nevadatreasurer.gov/UPSearch/Index.aspx", _
"ctl04$txtOwner=" & strSearchName
Class method:
Public Sub openWebsite(strOpenMethod As String, strURL As String, _
Optional strPostData As String)
pXmlHttp.Open strOpenMethod, strURL
If strPostData <> "" Then
strPostData = convertSpaceToPlus(strPostData)
pXmlHttp.setRequestHeader "Content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
pXmlHttp.send (strPostData)
Else
pXmlHttp.send
End If
'Create DOM html documnet
pHtmlObj.body.innerHTML = pXmlHttp.responseText
End Sub
Each time the responseText is the main website with no updates, as if I submitted no postdata. I'm fairly new to IE automation but can someone provide a reason why this isn't working and a code example that works?
Thanks!
Update: 7/26/13 8:30am PST
Without any changes to my method I was able to submit forms through another website. The state of OR unclaimed property form. It worked perfect!
URL: https://oregonup.us/upweb/up/UP_search.asp
However I ran into the same problem when I tried the state of CA unclaimed property website. No matter what I do, the responseText is always the original search page with no update.
URL: https://scoweb.sco.ca.gov/UCP/Default.aspx
It still does not work with the state of NV on my original post. I am using the proper post data, URL encoded for each website and can see no difference. Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Try below code
Public Sub openWebsite(strOpenMethod As String, strURL As String, Optional strPostData As String)
Dim pXmlHttp As Object
Set pXmlHttp = CreateObject("MSXML2.XMLHTTP")
pXmlHttp.Open strOpenMethod, strURL, False
pXmlHttp.setRequestHeader "Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
pXmlHttp.send (strPostData)
Dim pHtmlObj As Object
Set pHtmlObj = CreateObject("htmlfile")
pHtmlObj.body.innerHTML = pXmlHttp.ResponseText
MsgBox pXmlHttp.ResponseText
End Sub
Sub test()
Dim btnSearch As String, strSearchType As String, strSearchName As String, PostData As String
btnSearch = "Search"
strSearchType = "Owner"
strSearchName = "Santosh"
PostData = "ctl04%24txtOwner=" & strSearchName & "&ctl04%24btnSearch=" & btnSearch & "&ctl04%24rblSearchType=" & strSearchType
openWebsite "POST", "https://nevadatreasurer.gov/UPSearch/Index.aspx", PostData
End Sub
Post Data view using Firebug
URL encode
ResponeText

Answer 2

You should urlencode the characters in this string:
"ctl04$txtOwner=" & strSearchName
Ways to do this are discussed here: SO link, as VBA doesn't have a built-in function for this.
The dollar sign needs to be replaced with %24 and any spaces with %20. If these are the only non-alphanumeric characters in the string they you could take a simple approach, using VBA.Replace() (twice). You are currently replacing spaces with '+' which will usually work, but the dollar-sign may be an issue.