VBA - Go to website and download file from save prompt

Question

I've been spending the last few hours trying to figure out how to save a file onto the computer using VBA. The code template below that I found on another forum seems promising, except when I go to the desktop to access it, the .csv file has what looks like the page's source code instead of the actual file I want. This may be because when I go to the URL, it doesn't automatically download the file; rather, I am asked to save the file to a certain location (since I don't know the path name of the uploaded file on the site). Is there any way to alter this code to accommodate this, or will I have to use a different code entirely?

Sub Test()
Dim FileNum As Long
Dim FileData() As Byte
Dim MyFile As String
Dim WHTTP As Object

On Error Resume Next
    Set WHTTP = CreateObject("WinHTTP.WinHTTPrequest.5")
    If Err.Number <> 0 Then
        Set WHTTP = CreateObject("WinHTTP.WinHTTPrequest.5.1")
    End If
On Error GoTo 0


MyFile = "MY_URL_HERE"

WHTTP.Open "GET", MyFile, False
WHTTP.send
FileData = WHTTP.responseBody
Set WHTTP = Nothing

If Dir("C:\Users\BLAHBLAH\Desktop", vbDirectory) = Empty Then MkDir "C:\Users\BLAHBLAH\Desktop"

FileNum = FreeFile
Open "C:\Users\BLAHBLAH\Desktop\memberdatabase.csv" For Binary Access Write As #FileNum
    Put #FileNum, 1, FileData
Close #FileNum

End Sub

Cross posts:
http://www.ozgrid.com/forum/showthread.php?t=178884
http://www.excelforum.com/excel-programming-vba-macros/925352-vba-go-to-website-and-download-file-from-save-prompt.html

Answer 1

I found over the years more ways how to save/download data using vba:

• The firs option witch I prefer and would recommend is to use the URLDownloadToFile function of the user32 library using the following solution
• The second one which was also mentioned be yourself. The point here is to use the Microsoft WinHTTP Services (Interop.WinHttp) COM library. In order to achieve this you can also add the Interop.WinHttp reference to your project link. After that you are able to use simpler notation like here link
• The third option I aware is to ask the browser to save it for us and then using the Save_Over_Existing_Click_Yes function was mentioned by Santosh. In this case we open an Internet Explorer using the COM interface and navigate to the proper site. So we have to add the Microsoft Internet Controls (Interop.SHDocVw) and the Microsoft HTML Object Library (Microsoft.mshtml) references to our project in order to gain intellisense feature of the editor. I don't like this download method because this is a work around by hacking. BUT if your IE session was already established authenticated etc. this gonna work nicely. The save function of the Internet Controls was dropped because of security concern. See for example: link

Newer the less you have to have the correct url to download what you want. If you pick the wrong one you will download something else :)

• So please try to make sure the the url you use is correct by enter it in a browser. If it opens the right .csv file than your source could work too.
• Also please try to send some more information: for example the url to the .csv file

Answer 2

Try below code :

Copied from here (Not tested)

Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String) As Long

Declare Function FindWindowEx Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowExA" (ByVal hWnd1 As Long, ByVal hWnd2 As Long, ByVal lpsz1 As String, ByVal lpsz2 As String) As Long

Declare Function SetForegroundWindow Lib "user32" Alias "SetForegroundWindow" (ByVal hwnd As Long) As Long

Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias "SendMessageA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, lParam As Any) As Long

Declare Sub Sleep Lib "kernel32" Alias "Sleep" (ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long)

    Private Sub Save_Over_Existing_Click_Yes()

        Dim hWnd As Long
        Dim timeout As Date

        Debug.Print "Save_Over_Existing_Click_Yes"

        'Find the Download complete window, waiting a maximum of 30 seconds for it to appear.  Timeout value is dependent on the
        'size of the download, so make it longer for bigger files

        timeout = Now + TimeValue("00:00:30")
        Do
            hWnd = FindWindow(vbNullString, "Save As")
            DoEvents
            Sleep 200
        Loop Until hWnd Or Now > timeout
        Debug.Print "   Save As window "; Hex(hWnd)

        If hWnd Then
            'Find the child Close button

            hWnd = FindWindowEx(hWnd, 0, "Button", "&Yes")
            Debug.Print "   Yes button "; Hex(hWnd)
        End If

        If hWnd Then

            'Click the Close button

            SetForegroundWindow (hWnd)
            Sleep 600  'this sleep is required and 600 miiliseconds seems to be the minimum that works
            SendMessage hWnd, BM_CLICK, 0, 0
        End If
    End Sub