VBA-Web (formerly Excel-REST) makes working with complex webservices and APIs easy with VBA on Windows and Mac. It includes support for authentication, automatically converting and parsing JSON, working with cookies and headers, and much more.
- Download the latest release (v4.1.1)
- To install/upgrade in an existing file, use
VBA-Web - Installer.xlsm - To start from scratch in Excel,
VBA-Web - Blank.xlsmhas everything setup and ready to go
For more details see the Wiki
To upgrade from Excel-REST to VBA-Web, follow the Upgrading Guide
Note: XML support has been temporarily removed from VBA-Web while parser issues for Mac are resolved. XML support is still possible on Windows, follow these instructions to use a custom formatter.
- Authentication support is built-in, with suppory for HTTP Basic, OAuth 1.0, OAuth 2.0, Windows, Digest, Google, and more. See Authentication for more information
- For proxy environments,
Client.EnabledAutoProxy = Truewill automatically load proxy settings - Support for custom request and response formats. See RegisterConverter
The following examples demonstrate using the Google Maps API to get directions between two locations.
FunctionGetDirections(OriginAsString,DestinationAsString)AsString' Create a WebClient for executing requests' and set a base url that all requests will be appended toDimMapsClientAsNewWebClientMapsClient.BaseUrl="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/"' Use GetJSON helper to execute simple request and work with responseDimResourceAsStringDimResponseAsWebResponseResource="directions/json?"&_"origin="&Origin&_"&destination="&Destination&_"&sensor=false"SetResponse=MapsClient.GetJSON(Resource)' => GET https://maps.../api/directions/json?origin=...&destination=...&sensor=falseProcessDirectionsResponseEndFunctionPublicSubProcessDirections(ResponseAsWebResponse)IfResponse.StatusCode=WebStatusCode.OkThenDimRouteAsDictionarySetRoute=Response.Data("routes")(1)("legs")(1)Debug.Print"It will take "&Route("duration")("text")&_" to travel "&Route("distance")("text")&_" from "&Route("start_address")&_" to "&Route("end_address")ElseDebug.Print"Error: "&Response.ContentEndIfEndSubThere are 3 primary components in VBA-Web:
WebRequestfor defining complex requestsWebClientfor executing requestsWebResponsefor dealing with responses.
In the above example, the request is fairly simple, so we can skip creating a WebRequest and instead use the Client.GetJSON helper to GET json from a specific url. In processing the response, we can look at the StatusCode to make sure the request succeeded and then use the parsed json in the Data parameter to extract complex information from the response.
If you wish to have more control over the request, the following example uses WebRequest to define a complex request.
FunctionGetDirections(OriginAsString,DestinationAsString)AsStringDimMapsClientAsNewWebClientMapsClient.BaseUrl="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/"' Create a WebRequest for getting directionsDimDirectionsRequestAsNewWebRequestDirectionsRequest.Resource="directions/{format}"DirectionsRequest.Method=WebMethod.HttpGet' Set the request format' -> Sets content-type and accept headers and parses the responseDirectionsRequest.Format=WebFormat.Json' Replace{format} segmentDirectionsRequest.AddUrlSegment"format","json"' Add querystring to the requestDirectionsRequest.AddQuerystringParam"origin",OriginDirectionsRequest.AddQuerystringParam"destination",DestinationDirectionsRequest.AddQuerystringParam"sensor","false"' => GET https://maps.../api/directions/json?origin=...&destination=...&sensor=false' Execute the request and work with the responseDimResponseAsWebResponseSetResponse=MapsClient.Execute(DirectionsRequest)ProcessDirectionsResponseEndFunctionPublicSubProcessDirections(ResponseAsWebResponse)' ... Same as previous exampleEndSubThe above example demonstrates some of the powerful feature available with WebRequest. Some of the features include:
- Url segments (Replace{segment} in resource with value)
- Method (GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE)
- Format (json, xml, url-encoded, plain-text) for content-type and accept headers and converting/parsing request and response
- QuerystringParams
- Body
- Cookies
- Headers
For more details, see the WebRequest portion of the Docs
The following example demonstrates using an authenticator with VBA-Web to query Twitter. The TwitterAuthenticator (found in the authenticators/folder) uses Twitter's OAuth 1.0a authentication and details of how it was created can be found in the Wiki.
FunctionQueryTwitter(QueryAsString)AsWebResponseDimTwitterClientAsNewWebClientTwitterClient.BaseUrl="https://api.twitter.com/1.1/"' Setup authenticatorDimTwitterAuthAsNewTwitterAuthenticatorTwitterAuth.Setup_ConsumerKey:="Your consumer key",_ConsumerSecret:="Your consumer secret"SetTwitterClient.Authenticator=TwitterAuth' Setup query requestDimRequestAsNewWebRequestRequest.Resource="search/tweets.json"Request.Format=WebFormat.JsonRequest.Method=WebMethod.HttpGetRequest.AddQuerystringParam"q",QueryRequest.AddQuerystringParam"lang","en"Request.AddQuerystringParam"count",20' => GET https://api.twitter.com/1.1/search/tweets.json?q=...&lang=en&count=20' Authorization Bearer Token... (received and added automatically via TwitterAuthenticator)SetQueryTwitter=TwitterClient.Execute(Request)EndFunctionFor more details, check out the Wiki, Docs, and Examples
View the changelog for release notes
- Author: Tim Hall
- License: MIT