Use InsertAdjacentHtml by Powershell with IE COM - powershell

Question

I am trying to use InsertAdjacentHtml with IE COM by Powershell but my code fails what can be the reason ?
$oIE = new-object -ComObject InternetExplorer.Application
$oIE.visible=$True
$oIE.navigate2("http://www.quirksmode.org/dom/core/getElementsByName.html")
While ($ie.Busy) {
Sleep 2
}
$doc = $oIE.Document
$btns = $doc.getElementsByTagName("input")
$btns.insertAdjacentHTML('afterend', '<div id="secondDiv">Second</div>');
$oIE.visible=$True
The comand line shows Invalid Operation error

Answer 1

I ran your script both line by line and by saving it as a PowerShell script, but got different results - both were errors.
When running line by line, I get this error:
Method invocation failed because [System.__ComObject] does not contain a method named 'insertAdjacentHTML'.
At line:1 char:1
+ $btns.insertAdjacentHTML('afterend', '<div id="secondDiv">Second</div>');
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (insertAdjacentHTML:String) [], RuntimeException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : MethodNotFound
Altough the method 'insertAdjacentHTML' is listed with Get-Member, it cannot be used.
So, I wanted to find a reason for that or another way to achieve the same thing. I ended up with this conclusion: PowerShell might not be the best tool to achieve what you are trying for OR you should use objects that have more reliable methods.
When I run an altered script, line by line, it sort of works:
$oIE = new-object -ComObject InternetExplorer.Application
$oIE.visible=$True
$oIE.navigate2("http://www.quirksmode.org/dom/core/getElementsByName.html")
$doc = $oIE.Document
$btn = $doc.all.item("test", 1)
$btn.insertAdjacentHTML('afterend', '<div id="secondDiv">Second</div>')
$oIE.visible=$True
This is the HTML produced:
<div id="test">
<p name="test">This is a paragraph with name="test"</p>
<ppk name="test">This is a ppk tag with name="test"</ppk>
<p><input name="test"><div id="secondDiv">Second</div>This is an input with name="test"</p>
<p><img name="test">This is an image with name="test"</p>
</div>
To make things even stranger, this only works in a normal PowerShell console, it fails when using PowerShell ISE.
EDIT: Try it with a ForEach loop, it just might work. It occurred to me that you cannot run a method on an array of objects unless you call it within a loop AND another thing, that the page the script was navigating to might have issues.
So, this works:
$oIE = new-object -ComObject InternetExplorer.Application
$oIE.visible = $True
$oIE.navigate2("https://stackoverflow.com/questions/28650033/use-insertadjacenthtml-by-powershell-with-ie-com/")
Start-Sleep -Milliseconds 3333
$doc = $oIE.Document
$btns = $doc.getElementsByName("_id_")
$btns | ForEach-Object { $_.insertAdjacentHTML('afterend', '<div id="secondDiv">Second</div>') }
Thank you for the question, this is nice to know.