\nToday’s Little Program is a managed version of the\n\ntext-extraction program from\nseveral years ago<\/A>.\nIt turns out that it’s pretty easy in managed code\nbecause the accessibility folks sat down and wrote a whole framework for you,\nknown as\n\nUI Automation<\/A>.\n<\/P>\n \n(Some people are under the mistaken impression that UI Automation\nworks only for extracting data from applications written in managed code.\nThat is not true.\nNative code can also be a UI Automation provider.\nThe confusion arises because the name UI Automation<\/I> is used\nboth for\n\nthe underlying native technology<\/A>\nas well as for\n\nthe managed wrappers<\/A>.)\n<\/P>\n class Program\n{\n static Point MousePos {\n get { var pos = Control.MousePosition;\n return new Point(pos.X, pos.Y); }\n }<\/p>\n public static void Main()\n {\n for (;;) {\n AutomationElement e = AutomationElement.FromPoint(MousePos);\n if (e != null) {\n Console.WriteLine(“Name: {0}”,\n e.GetCurrentPropertyValue(AutomationElement.NameProperty));\n Console.WriteLine(“Value: {0}”,\n e.GetCurrentPropertyValue(ValuePattern.ValueProperty));\n Console.WriteLine();\n }\n System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);\n }\n }\n}\n<\/PRE>\n \nWe use the \nWell that was pretty simple.\nI may as well do something a little more challenging.\nSince the feature is known as UI Automation<\/I>,\nI’ll try automating the Run<\/I> dialog by\nprogrammatically entering some text and then clicking OK.\n<\/P>\n class Program\n{\n static AutomationElement FindById(AutomationElement root, string id)\n {\n return root.FindFirst(TreeScope.Children,\n new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.AutomationIdProperty, id));\n }<\/p>\n public static void Main()\n {\n var runDialog = AutomationElement.RootElement.FindFirst(\n TreeScope.Children,\n new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.NameProperty, “Run”));\n if (runDialog == null) return;<\/p>\n var commandBox = FindById(runDialog, “12298”);\n var valuePattern = commandBox.GetCurrentPattern(ValuePattern.Pattern)\n as ValuePattern;\n valuePattern.SetValue(“calc”);<\/p>\n var okButton = FindById(runDialog, “1”);\n var invokePattern = okButton.GetCurrentPattern(InvokePattern.Pattern)\n as InvokePattern;\n invokePattern.Invoke();\n }\n}\n<\/PRE>\n \nThe program starts by looking for a window named Run<\/I>\nby performing a children search on the root element\nfor an element whose Name<\/I> property is equal to\n \nAssuming it finds it,\nthe program looks for a child element whose\n\nautomation ID<\/A>\nis\n \nMind you, since I am automating something outside my control,\nI have to accept that the automation ID may change in future\nversions of Windows.\n(It’s not like they check with me before making changes.)\nBut this is a Little Program, not a production-level program,\nso that’s a limitation I will accept,\nsince I’m the only person who’s going to use this program,\nand if it stops working, I know who to talk to (namely, me).\n<\/P>\n \nAnyway, afer we find the command box, I ask for its Value pattern.\nAutomation elements can support patterns<\/I>\nwhich expose additional properties and methods specific to particular\nuses.\nIn our case, the Value pattern lets us get and set the value\nof an editable object,\nso we use the \nusing System;\nusing System.Windows;\nusing System.Windows.Forms;\nusing System.Windows.Automation;<\/p>\n
FromPoint<\/CODE> method to locate the\nautomation element under the current mouse position and print\nits name and value.\n<\/P>\n\nusing System.Windows.Automation;<\/p>\n
“Run”<\/CODE>.\n<\/P>\n“12298”<\/CODE>.\nHow did I know that was the automation ID to use?\n\nThe documentation for UI Automation<\/A>\nsuggests using a tool like UI Spy to look up the automation IDs.\n<\/P>\nSetValue<\/CODE> method to set the\ntext in the Run dialog to calc<\/TT>.\n<\/P>\n