I am using TestStack.White to do automation UI testing. A problem I am running into is that the elements tree is not updated after I click a button that brings up a new screen.
White works using UI Automation Verify(Microsoft tool), so if you cannot find an element using that tool, White will not be able to find it either.
If I open the app, click the button to render the view, and then open up UI Automation Verify, then all the fields in that new view show up in the tool. However, if I have UI Automation Verify open before I click the button, the new view does not show up in the tool. Hence, it seems I need to simply refresh the elements tree somehow.
Is there some way I can do this in C# so that my White testing will be able to see those new rendered elements?
I had the same problem (when switching from creating control to simply changing the visibility of existing controls).
Before that code worked:
checkButton.Toggle();
After that it didn't. The solution was to use
Mouse.Instance.Click(checkButton.ClickablePoint);
instead.
Somehow the TestStack/White does respond and refreshes UI better when you use Mouse object directly.
Have you tried InitializeOption.WithCache option?
Window modalWindow = mainWindow.ModalWindow(SearchCriteria.ByText("Modal Window"), InitializeOption.WithCache);
modalWindow.ReloadIfCached();
//or
modalWindow.ReInitialize(InitializeOption.WithCache);
Related
I am developing an application in Windows Form C#, it begins with an explanatory window, language selection and a start button when the desired language is selected, I want that when I press the start button, all the elements disappear and begin the application process, I had thought of creating a new form, but this opens a new window and I don't want that, I want everything to happen on a window. Apart from making all the previous controls invisible, is there any way to achieve this? Or maybe a way to make all the controls invisible without going one by one?
You could put multiple controls in a panel for example and hide/show entire panel.
If you dont want to do that, you could always do it in a loop
for example:
foreach ( var control in this.Controls)
{
control.Visible=false;
}
Ofcourse you could also add controls dynamically, but that might be hard for a beginner.
You could also make use of MDI forms, but that might be also not worth it.
SOLVED
Solved using user controls, user controls allow me to design the application interface in the same way as a form and I can add and remove that control from the form as many times as I want, making it possible to display numerous interfaces in a single Windows Forms window.
This solution was suggested by Jeroen van Langen in the comments of my question and it was exactly what I was looking for.
I want to do this correctly instead of a hack, so help is appreciated
I am starting a very basic project, using a DevExpress NavBar control in a WinForms project, in C#. Easy enough.
NavBar is in the left part of a splitter, and I want the right part of the splitter to change based on what item you have clicked on in the nav bar. You know, one second its a grid, then next it's a calendar.
I could screw around with hiding and showing windows, but I know that's not right.
Just using a tabbed control seems real close, except I don't need the tabs, the nav bar is where the user picks what he wants to see.
So would I use panels in some way? Some type of modified tab control? Do i just pile on top of one another my various pages of controls for each nav option? So many pieces, doesn't seem to be any clear documentation on how to accomplish this very simple problem... after an hour of digging, thought I would ask.
Thanks.
So would I use panels in some way? Some type of modified tab control?
You can use tab control in other way. Just hide the XtraTabControl headers via the XtraTabControl.ShowTabHeaders option.
You can create a user control for each view that a NavBar button would invoke. When the user clicks the button you dynamically generate that view and add to the right part of the splitter. What ever user control was there before you dispose of.
This will keep your app very light when executing and make it composable.
I have a TabControl containing Prism regions. I want to trigger some kind of notification (e.g. flashing the tab header) for certain events, and I want to trigger this notification from the components in the Prism regions.
Once the tab containing such a component was open once, this works nicely using VisualTreeUtil.GetParent() and going up until I find my TabControl and can modify it to indicate the notification.
But the problem is that this doesn't work until the tab is opened by the user because VisualTreeUtil.GetParent() returns null; obviously because Prism doesn't hook up the visual tree until then.
Calling UpdateLayout() on the TabItem containing the region doesn't help. I don't want to open the TabItems programmatically, because this would confuse the user.
Is there anything I can do short of implementing a kind of region registry (which would be rather ugly and harder to maintain)?
If you want to look at code, I wrote a minimal solution to demonstrate the issue. The Print Structure button tries to go up the visual tree from the (initially unrendered invisible) hello TextBlock on the second tab. Before you switch to the tab it prints only the TextBlock, afterwards you get to the root of the visual tree. This is what I want to accomplish without switching to the tab.
Adding comment as answer:
This probably isn't exactly the answer you are looking for, but it seems like you're taking a very procedural approach.
Have you considered using an MVVM approach? Each TabItem in the TabControl can have a HeaderTemplate. In the template you can bind to a property in the ViewModel that causes the tab to flash or change appearance
Hm.. IIRC Prism regions are just a configured ContentControl/ContentPresenter. Once they are ready to work, all the bindings and datamodels should be in place, but the trees are left not created because they are invisible. If so, you should be able to call ApplyTemplate() on them to force it. I do not remember, however, if the Prism assigns the contenttemplates/datacontexts upon init, or upon demand - the latter may cause calling ApplyTemplate useless.
I'd like to be able to do following actions within another application:
to change Tabs
to Copy text from within a TextBox
to click on a Button
to enter text into a TextBox
to select DropDownList element
Right now I'm using separate methods such as:
mouse_event() to change mouse coordinates and click on a button
another mouse_event(LeftMouseClick followed by the RightMouseClick) to copy a text within a TextBox
Clipboard.GetText(System.Windows.Forms.TextDataFormat.Text) to Copy what's inside the clipboard
SendInput (for each key) - enter the text into a TextBox
Disadvantages of this approach are:
(not crucial) PC becomes unusable (you can't work while script is running)
I have to know exact pixels (read - position/coordinates) of EVERY element within an app
slow execution time (each key has to be typed separately)
I'm looking forward to create an application which can click on a TextBox/Button/List without the need of having exact coordinates of these elements.
Is such task possible with C# WinForms? My current approach works but it has it's flaws.
Any advice?
Read about Mutex. If you plan on scale-ability, read about network communication (for example, the TCP protocol. TcpListner, and TcpClient).
This sounds like a job for UI Automation. I have only used it to get text from another application, but it has functions to activate controls by name or to navigate the control tree if there is no name.
You can get text and interact with controls using AutomationElements that you find using patterns or navigating the control tree.
There is a complete framework for doing exactly this kind of thing, and it's called the UI Automation Framework
Here's some examples on how to use it.
And you can also apply this technique to generic windows's using the UI Spy to determine the automation elements.
I'd like to create a popup dialog box in silverlight in which i can manipulate controls, enter data, and return a value. I want it to be modal, so that when it is open, the page "Below" is inaccessible. I havent found an easy way to do this yet. Any suggestions?
I know the question asked for a Silverlight 2 solution but in Silverlight 3 (Beta now, RTW in July 2009) there is a built-in ChildWindow that can do everything you're looking for.
I haven't found a perfect solution either. The closest I have seen is this:
Using Popup to create a Dialog class
If it is ok to be non-modal, you can try this tip using HtmlPage.PopupWindow().
How to Popup a Browser Window
I'm new to the Sliverlight framework and am just starting to figure it out, but I have a similar need for a popup modal dialog box. I just tried an idea that looks promising:
I created a Rectangle (named "Shield") that covers my entire application area. It exists on top of everything in the main app. I set the fill-brush to White, and the opacity-brush to 81% so that the main app contents show through, but lightly (as in disabled). Then make sure the "Shield" is hit-testable. Now, when the "Shield" is visible, it will also, in effect, block all input to the controls below (at least from the mouse, haven't tried keyboard yet). When the app initializes, set the "Shield" visibility to Collapsed. In that state it won't block input to the main app.
The dialog box is then constructed on another canvas element that exists in the z-order on top of the shield. Normally the dialog box will be invisible, but when I need it, I just set the "Shield" to visible, and the dialog to visible. Since the dialog is on top of the "Shield" I get a very modal-like behavior. When the dialog box is closed, make both the dialog canvas and "Shield" canvas invisible again and the main app is again active.
I'm sure this the most brute-force way of doing it and that I will eventually zero in on a more elegant construct, but it works for now.
A more elegant solution is here:
http://community.devexpress.com/blogs/theonewith/archive/2008/08/06/custom-silverlight-controls-creating-a-reusable-messagebox-dialog-part-i.aspx
I had the same requirement and ScottGu's Building a Basic Modal Dialog Using a User Control was the best solution that fit my requirement.
Here's a free library that provides one: http://www.vectorlight.net/demos/popup_dialogs.aspx