IA Automation
Overview
Clicknium IA automation is based on Microsoft Active Accessibility(MSAA) to support the recording function, locators, and all operations on elements.
As MSAA is now considered a legacy API, we treat IA as a supplement of UIA, on some Electron&CEF applications or legacy applications, IA can be better. Please manually choose IA technology if you want to use IA during recording.
Locator attributes
Learn locator concept first. For IA automation, the definition of the attributes is listed in the following:
| Name | equals | contains | startWith | endWith | regex |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ClassName | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| HelpText | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| AccessKey | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| DefaultAction | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Description | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Role | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| IsDirectChild | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Tag | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Index | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Locator samples
- github desktop 'open in visual studio code' button
<Application processName="GitHubDesktop" filePath="GitHubDesktop.exe" version="1.3" />
<IA className="Chrome_WidgetWin_1" isDirectChild="True" name="GitHub Desktop" role="window" />
<IA role="document" />
<IA defaultAction="click" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" index="2" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" index="2" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA className="Chrome_WidgetWin_1" defaultAction="press" name="Open in Visual Studio Code" />
- github desktop commit 'description` edit
<Application processName="GitHubDesktop" filePath="GitHubDesktop.exe" version="1.3" />
<IA className="Chrome_WidgetWin_1" isDirectChild="True" name="GitHub Desktop" role="window" />
<IA role="document" />
<IA defaultAction="click" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" index="2" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" index="2" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" isDirectChild="True" name="Create commit" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA className="Chrome_WidgetWin_1" defaultAction="activate" name="Description" role="edit" />
- github desktop 'history' tabitem
<Application processName="GitHubDesktop" filePath="GitHubDesktop.exe" version="1.3" />
<IA className="Chrome_WidgetWin_1" isDirectChild="True" name="GitHub Desktop" role="window" />
<IA role="document" />
<IA defaultAction="click" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" index="2" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" index="2" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" isDirectChild="True" role="tab" />
<IA className="Chrome_WidgetWin_1" defaultAction="click" name="History" role="tabItem" />
IA element properties
By find_element on one IA locator, you can get one IA element, and you can get properties of the element by get_property, Clicknium IA supports the following properties:
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | the name of the user interface |
| IsEnabled | whether the element is enabled in the user interface |
| AccessKey | a string containing the access key character for the element |
| BoundingRectangle | the coordinates of the rectangle that completely encloses the element |
| ProcessId | the process identifier (ID) of the element |
| Description | description of the element |
| AcceleratorKey | a string containing the accelerator key combinations for the element |
| HelpText | the help text of the element |
| ControlType | the ControlType of the element. |