I looking to try and automate UI tests of Microsoft Dynamics AX (All Versions). I intend on using free and open source tools only.
What framework is the UI of Microsoft Dynamics AX built in? I had heard it may be WPF but I had had no luck so far as to finding much information around this.
I have tried using autoit but it cannot find controls as I expected.
I have tried using the microsoft UI automation stuff and using patterns found by Inspect but I get errors running when running the code saying the pattern is unsupported and it has no supported patters.
Has anyone had any experiance in trying to do this or has anyone got any information around this, anything may prove to be useful.
Cheers,
Teststack.White tool may be useful though it's based on the Microsoft UI Automation API.
I'm looking for a library that can be used in native .NET code, just like any .NET assembly. The purpose of the library must be to automate Windows (push a button, select a window, send keys, record & playback, that sort of thing).
So: the library is supposed to be used natively in .NET, but the automation itself must be able to target any native or .NET Windows application that can receive user input.
Suggestions so far:
benPearce suggested AutoIt. It has a DLL, which is native Win32 but not native .NET and cannot be used without use of .NET Interop.
Chris Dunaway suggested Global Mouse Keyboard Lib. This came closest, but is not an automation lib. It just helps setting up keyboard and mouse hooks.
pm100 suggested Microsoft's WPF UI Automation. This one is pretty good, albeit that it's not available if you develop in .NET 2.0 and it requires the WPF to be installed on the system. It can, however, automate everything from Win32 apps to HTML in a browser.
JasonTrue suggested WebAI from ArtOfTest. This is a testing framework mainly geared towards browsers and web applications. It is unfortunately not well suitable for use for Windows automation.
If nothing else appears available, I'll probably choose Microsoft's UI Automation and upgrade any projects that require it that are still in .NET 2.0 to .NET 3.5, if possible. But I hope for a more widely applicable automation framework (.NET prior to 2.0 does not need to be supported).
Have you looked at the White framework?
I have used AutoIt in the past with success.
microsoft's own built in one is fine
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms747327.aspx
not restricted to wpf as some seem to think.
If you haven't seen it yet, and a commercial library is acceptable, you might check out Ranorex:
http://www.ranorex.com/
I used Ranorex 1.5 quite a bit to write small C# UI automation utilities. It was pretty effective! Development seemed faster compared to using the MS UI Automation API directly, since Ranorex has a lot of useful convenience methods already available.
I haven't used Ranorex 2 very much yet, though.
In Ranorex 1.5, there was also support for traditional Win32 development in C++, but I didn't use it. As far as I know, that's still available in Ranorex 2.
I can't speak to the quality of the record/playback support in Ranorex since I never used that feature.
One final plus: Their support team was really responsive and helpful anytime I emailed them.
This library is pretty interesting and is fairly simple. Perhaps it will help you.
Check out Tools for automated GUI testing on windows
I would still suggest FlaUI for autoamating .Net Desktop,Mobile apps. Its based on Microsoft UIA libraries and have support for external controls like the DevExpress Grid too
Moreover, it is built on top of TestStack.White so indeed a very good library and has a github page also
I have used WebAii from ArtOfTest with a fair degree of success in automating integration testing for a Silverlight app. It also supports WinForms and Web applications.
Microsoft UI Automation, the successor to Active Accessibility, can do almost all of the Windows UI automation you would need.
How about CSharpScript, here's an article about it on Codeproject, and here's the link to the main website. Furthermore, it is familiar C#, scripted which can be used to automate anything.
Hope this helps,
Best regards,
Tom.
Is there any way to download Windows updates programmatically from within a C# application? I want to manage the installation of updates from within my application.
The Windows Update API is documented here. A quick stackoverflow search has convinced me that you can indeed use COM from C# so this should solve your problem.
I also have some sample code, not in C#, but it may give you a head start in understanding how the interfaces can be used.
I'm trying to automate a hidden .NET application, with another .NET application (written in c#) using the easiest way possible. It's NOT for testing purposes, it's a way to fulfill the lack of scripting for this application.
I already tried white framework, but there is one major problems with it: the way it's working. It's slow and it's not working on hidden windows and controls (like the winAPI does). Whats more, when "clicking" white moves the mouse, brings it's targeted window to the front and so on.
I was also thinking about using a user32.dll wrapper, because the way it's handling it's target is what I need, but I've red it's not working with .NET applications. It also would be a problem working with it, because my targeted application got 5 button labeled "...", and would be really hard finding 2 of them I need. I also would like to use the controls .NET id (the name the developer gave to it's controls when designing the GUI).
BTW, my targeted application is MeGUI if that helps. We do a lot of video encoding and a tool like this would help us a lot. I need the MeGUI to be hidden, because I'm the only programmer, others using my tool shouldn't see what happens in the background, not to talk about the many windows popping all around.
You can add a reference to the exe from your project and then create an AppDomain to run its main method. From there, it should be possible to queue delegates to its main thread's loop. With a bit of reflection, you could have those delegates invoke the click events and whatnot directly.
I've never attempted this approach, but it should work.
You should try Stephens idea instead of scripting a hidden app. A .NET Windows Forms App (EXE) is still a .NET Assembly and that means you can use that the same way as a DLL, just add a reference and use the public classes.
If you still want to try some scripting, take a look on the "Microsoft UI Automation" API and the "System.Windows.Automation" namespace.
Nice article here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc163465.aspx
MSDN Doc: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.automation.aspx
Does anyone have any pointers on where to start with this?
I'm using MS UI Automation to do some acceptance testing of an application, but the MenuStrip control doesn't support MSUIA, and apparently the only way to get what I want from it is Active Accessibility (MSAA).
Sadly, there appears to be very little available on how to act as a MSAA client in C#.
If anyone has any pointers I'd appreciate it!
As far as I know, you have to use COM interop to write a MSAA client in C#.