Find a windows control using partial NameProperty in windows automation - c#

I'm trying to identify a windows static text control using a partial NameProperty. Here's the code I have:
// Get a reference to the window
AutomationElement epoWindow = AutomationElement.RootElement.FindFirst(TreeScope.Children, new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ClassNameProperty, "MsiDialog"));
// Get a reference to the control
AutomationElement epoControl = epoWindow.FindFirst(TreeScope.Descendants, new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.NameProperty, controlText));
I currently need the full controlText string for this to work but I'd like to search for a part of that string and return any controls found.
How do I do this?
Thanks,
John

You can iterate on a child collection with the prefefined TrueCondition, like this:
foreach(AutomationElement child in epoWindow.FindAll(TreeScope.Subtree, Condition.TrueCondition))
{
if (child.Current.Name.Contains("whatever"))
{
// do something
}
}
PS: You want to carefully choose the TreeScope if you don't want to kill the performance of your app (if it has a big children hierarchy) or wait indefinitely...

Related

Activate tab in TabControl that was retrieved as AutomationElement

I used the UIAutomationClient API to retrieve an AutomationElement t:
AutomationElement t = AutomationElement.RootElement.FindFirst(...);
The WPF counterpart of t is a TabItem inside a TabControl. I want to activate the tab that t represents (i.e. bring t into foreground). How do I do that?
I tried t.SetFocus();, but it did not have any (visible) effect at all.
If I had the TabItem (let's call it tabItem), I would just call
tabItem.IsSelected = true;
So I thought by using the select pattern I could achieve the same:
var p = t.GetCurrentPattern(SelectionItemPattern.Pattern) as SelectionItemPattern;
p.Select();
It turned out that the IsSelected property of p already is true prior to selecting it - so calling Select still does not select/activate the tab. But in the GUI, the TabItem is clearly not selected/activated.
I encountered the same problem, This is my solution below hope it helps even though it's already late.
Example UI:
Sample Code:
AutomationElement aeDesktop = AutomationElement.RootElement;
AutomationElement aeForm = aeDesktop.FindFirst(TreeScope.Descendants, new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.NameProperty, "davinceleecode"));
AutomationElement aeTabControl = aeForm.FindFirst(TreeScope.Descendants, new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.AutomationIdProperty, "tabControl1"));
aeTabControl.SetFocus();
AutomationElement aeTabPage = aeTabControl.FindFirst(TreeScope.Descendants, new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.NameProperty, "tabPage2"));
SelectionItemPattern changeTab_aeTabPage = aeTabPage.GetCurrentPattern(SelectionItemPattern.Pattern) as SelectionItemPattern;
changeTab_aeTabPage.Select();
Please check the IsKeyboardFocusable properties and make sure this is set to true.

Is it possible to activate a tab in another program using an IntPtr?

Thanks in advance.
Is it possible to activate a tab in another program using an IntPtr? If so, how?
SendKeys is not an option.
Perhaps what I need is a fishing lesson. I have exhausted Google and my lead developer.
I would appreciate an outright solution OR a recommendation to continue my Google efforts.
basic process is:
I drag a shortcut icon to the launcher
This opens the target application (Notepad++) and grabs IntPtr, etc.
I would like to programmatically select various items in Notepad++ such as Edit, menu items under Edit, or a doc tab.
The basic code I am running is:
the 'blob'
item 1: IntPtr of item
item 2: IntPtr of itemsChild
item 3: control text of item 1
item 4: is rectangle parameters of item 1
root contains similar info:
As others pointed out, the standard way of doing this is to use UI Automation. Notepad++ does support UI Automation (to some extent, as it's somehow automatically provided by the UI Automation Windows layers).
Here is a sample C# console app that demonstrates the following sceanrio (you need to reference UIAutomationClient.dll, UIAutomationProvider.dll and UIAutomationTypes.dll):
1) get the first running notepad++ process (you must start at least one)
2) open two files (note there may be already other opened tabs in notepad++)
3) selects all tabs in an infinite loop
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
// this presumes notepad++ has been started somehow
Process process = Process.GetProcessesByName("notepad++").FirstOrDefault();
if (process == null)
{
Console.WriteLine("Cannot find any notepad++ process.");
return;
}
AutomateNpp(process.MainWindowHandle);
}
static void AutomateNpp(IntPtr handle)
{
// get main window handle
AutomationElement window = AutomationElement.FromHandle(handle);
// display the title
Console.WriteLine("Title: " + window.Current.Name);
// open two arbitrary files (change this!)
OpenFile(window, #"d:\my path\file1.txt");
OpenFile(window, #"d:\my path\file2.txt");
// selects all tabs in sequence for demo purposes
// note the user can interact with n++ (for example close tabs) while all this is working
while (true)
{
var tabs = GetTabsNames(window);
if (tabs.Count == 0)
{
Console.WriteLine("notepad++ process seems to have gone.");
return;
}
for (int i = 0; i < tabs.Count; i++)
{
Console.WriteLine("Selecting tab:" + tabs[i]);
SelectTab(window, tabs[i]);
Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
}
}
static IList<string> GetTabsNames(AutomationElement window)
{
List<string> list = new List<string>();
// get tab bar
var tab = window.FindFirst(TreeScope.Children, new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.Tab));
if (tab != null)
{
foreach (var item in tab.FindAll(TreeScope.Children, PropertyCondition.TrueCondition).OfType<AutomationElement>())
{
list.Add(item.Current.Name);
}
}
return list;
}
static void SelectTab(AutomationElement window, string name)
{
// get tab bar
var tab = window.FindFirst(TreeScope.Children, new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.Tab));
// get tab
var item = tab.FindFirst(TreeScope.Children, new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.NameProperty, name));
if (item == null)
{
Console.WriteLine("Tab item '" + name + "' has been closed.");
return;
}
// select it
((SelectionItemPattern)item.GetCurrentPattern(SelectionItemPattern.Pattern)).Select();
}
static void OpenFile(AutomationElement window, string filePath)
{
// get menu bar
var menu = window.FindFirst(TreeScope.Children, new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.MenuBar));
// get the "file" menu
var fileMenu = menu.FindFirst(TreeScope.Children, new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.NameProperty, "File"));
// open it
SafeExpand(fileMenu);
// get the new File menu that appears (this is quite specific to n++)
var subFileMenu = fileMenu.FindFirst(TreeScope.Children, new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.Menu));
// get the "open" menu
var openMenu = subFileMenu.FindFirst(TreeScope.Children, new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.NameProperty, "Open..."));
// click it
((InvokePattern)openMenu.GetCurrentPattern(InvokePattern.Pattern)).Invoke();
// get the new Open dialog (from root)
var openDialog = WaitForDialog(window);
// get the combobox
var cb = openDialog.FindFirst(TreeScope.Children, new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.ComboBox));
// fill the filename
((ValuePattern)cb.GetCurrentPattern(ValuePattern.Pattern)).SetValue(filePath);
// get the open button
var openButton = openDialog.FindFirst(TreeScope.Children, new AndCondition(
new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.Button),
new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.NameProperty, "Open")));
// press it
((InvokePattern)openButton.GetCurrentPattern(InvokePattern.Pattern)).Invoke();
}
static AutomationElement WaitForDialog(AutomationElement element)
{
// note: this should be improved for error checking (timeouts, etc.)
while(true)
{
var openDialog = element.FindFirst(TreeScope.Children, new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.Window));
if (openDialog != null)
return openDialog;
}
}
static void SafeExpand(AutomationElement element)
{
// for some reason, menus in np++ behave badly
while (true)
{
try
{
((ExpandCollapsePattern)element.GetCurrentPattern(ExpandCollapsePattern.Pattern)).Expand();
return;
}
catch
{
}
}
}
}
If you wonder how this has been made, then you must read about UI Automation. The mother of all tools is called Inspect: https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/desktop/dd318521.aspx
Make sure you get version at least 7.2.0.0. Note there is another one called UISpy but inspect is better.
Note, unfortunately, notepad++ tab text content - because it's based on the custom scintilla editor control - does not properly supports automation (we can't read from it easily, I suppose we'd have to use scintilla Windows messages for this), but it could be added to it (hey, scintilla guys, if you read this ... :).
In addition to the answer from Garath, you might also want to investigate the Windows automation API's i.e. the technology used to implement coded UI tests for GUI applications. As part of regular functional testing, I routinely control an external application from a set of NUnit tests using these API's.
Tools like UIAVerify will give you an indication of what controls are available in the application and you can use the Invoke Pattern (and many others) to interact with the controls at run-time.
If you want a detailed example of how to use the automation API's, the open source TestStack White project is pretty handy.
It is almost not possible if SendKeys is not an option but read more
Now more important part of the question- why:
We have to look how win32 application works: it has a WndProc/WindowProc method which is resposible for processing "events" form the UI.
So every event in the windows application must go through above method. SendKeys method is a special of SendMessage (MSDN), so you can use SendMessage to control other exe than your.
Simple code could look like:
IntPtr hwnd = FindWindow("Notepad++", null);
SendMessageA(hwnd, WM_COMMAND, SOMETHING1, SOMETHING2);
There is already on StackOverflow example how to do that with chrome: C# - Sending messages to Google Chrome from C# application , but this is only a start. You will have to find out what exactly message you want to send.
In exactly situation which you described I will try to send WM_MOUSE and WM_KEYBORD events to Notepad++ events, but it is only an idea :)

Highlighting a particular control while capturing screenshot of a dialog in web page in c#

I have a requirement to capture the screen shot of the opened dialog with a particular html control highlighted ( whose static id is given ). currently I Implemented the code following manner :
public void Snapshot()
{
Image currentImage = null;
currentImage = GetOpenedDialogFrame().CaptureImage();
}
public UITestControl GetOpenedDialogFrame()
{
var dialogsFrames = new HtmlDiv(this.BrowserMainWindow.UiMobiControlDocument);
dialogsFrames.SearchProperties.Add(new PropertyExpression(HtmlControl.PropertyNames.Class, "mcw-dialog", PropertyExpressionOperator.Contains));
var dialogs = dialogsFrames.FindMatchingControls();
if (dialogs.Count == 0)
{
return null;
}
return dialogs[dialogs.Count - 1];
}
Now I have to write the code to highlight the particular html control while taking a screenshot. The DrawHighlight() method of Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UITesting.dll does not take any parameter so how can I highlight a particular html control in the screenshot.
DrawHighlight() is a method of a UI Control. It could be used in this style:
public void Snapshot()
{
Image currentImage = null;
var control = GetOpenedDialogFrame();
// TODO: protect the code below against control==null.
control.DrawHighlight();
currentImage = control.CaptureImage();
}
Whilst that answers your question about DrawHighlight, I am not sure it will achieve what you want. Please see this question the Microsoft forums where they are trying to do a similar screen capture.
Why not simply user the playback settings:
Playback.PlaybackSettings.LoggerOverrideState = HtmlLoggerState.AllActionSnapshot;
This will produce the html log file with all the screenshots that your codedui test went threw.
After searching for the matching controls you can try to highlight each one of them.
something like:
foreach( var control in controls)
{
control.drawhighlight();
}
that way you'll be able to which controls are located by the playback(qtagent to be more precise). furthermore this will help you decide which instance to refer to. (run and wait to see which controls are highlighted, pick the one you need and hard code it to be part of the test).
so after the test run you'll end up with something like:
var dialogs = dialogsFrames.FindMatchingControls();
dialogs[desiredLocation].drawhighlight();
hope this helps.

Get Firefox URL with UI Automation

I am trying to get the value of the URL in Firefox using the following code. The problem is it only returns "Search or enter address" (see tree structure with Inspect.exe below). It looks like I need to go one level down. Can someone show me how to do this.
public static string GetFirefoxUrl(IntPtr pointer) {
AutomationElement element = AutomationElement.FromHandle(pointer);
if (element == null)
return null;
AutomationElement tsbCtrl = element.FindFirst(TreeScope.Subtree, new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.NameProperty, "Search or enter address"));
return ((ValuePattern)tsbCtrl.GetCurrentPattern(ValuePattern.Pattern)).Current.Value as string;
}
For the tree structure, see:
It's not clear which element you are starting the search from, but you've got two elements with that name. One is a combo box control the other is an edit control. Try using using an AndCondition to combine multiple PropertyCondition objects:
var nameCondition = new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.NameProperty, "Search or enter address");
var controlCondition = new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.Edit);
var condition = new AndCondition(nameCondition, controlCondition);
AutomationElement editBox = element.FindFirst(TreeScope.Subtree, condition);
// use ValuePattern to get the value
If the search starts from the combo box, you could instead change TreeScope.Subtree to TreeScope.Descendants since Subtree includes the current element in the search.

Funky results when using UI Automation to get items in a ComboBox

We are using the code below to get a list of items out of a ComboBox inside another application's window. This code works (correctly retrieves the list of items) for ComboBoxes in any other application we've tested this code on, however for this particular application the Name property retrieved for each ListItem is garbled.
Here is the code:
using System.Windows.Automation;
var condition = new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.NameProperty, "Change/Add/Delete Setting");
var condition2 = new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.Window);
var condition3 = new AndCondition(new Condition[] {condition, condition2});
var window = AutomationElement.RootElement.FindFirst(TreeScope.Subtree, condition3);
condition = new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.ComboBox);
var combo = window.FindFirst(TreeScope.Subtree, condition);
condition = new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.ListItem);
AutomationElementCollection children = combo.FindAll(TreeScope.Subtree, condition);
var comboItems = new List<string>();
foreach (AutomationElement child in children)
{
comboItems.Add(child.Current.Name);
}
And here is a screenshot of what we end up with for this one app.
What could cause the Name property to be garbled like this? Could this be an encoding problem?
How can we get the correct text for each item?
If this combobox has the CBS_OWNERDRAWFIXED or CBS_OWNERDRAWVARIABLE style, or the contained listbox has the LBS_OWNERDRAWFIXED or LBS_OWNERDRAWVARIABLE style. then the text isn't known by the control at all. When an app uses one of these styles, it gets WM_DRAWITEM messages whenever the control needs to draw, then it pulls the text from it's pocket and draws it wherever it was asked to.
This is a trick that allows an application to quickly and easily change the contents of a listbox or combobox on the fly, it's mostly used when the contents are volatile or when there are LOTS of items. It's one way to get around the limit on the number of items an listbox/combobox can hold.
Use Spy++ to check the styles on these windows.

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