interact with internal GUI (WinMerge)

[orbs]

application i'm trying to automate is WinMerge. it has plenty of registry settings which i can accomplish most of my tasks with, but this is not one of them (not directly, anyway).

apparently, WinMerge is composed of several internal GUI's, for example in this screenshot:

there is an internal GUI with the title of the files being compared, delimited by a space&hyphen&space string, in this case being:

 

WinMerge-0.reg - WinMerge-1.reg

this is properly detected in the "Control" tab of the AutoIt info tool:

the parameters Class, ClassnameNN, Handle have different values every time i launch WinMerge or a new pair of files. however, the Control ID (=65280) remains identical over launches (as far as i can see). so this works:

ControlFocus('WinMerge','',65280)

so, apparently this GUI is a control and not a window. but it does have a Maximize button! that button is not detected by the Info Tool.

i'm trying to maximize this internal GUI, similar to manual click on the Maximize button. i tried by simulate of double-click on the control (which works manually):

ControlClick('WinMerge','',65280,'left',2)

it returns 1, but does not work (i.e. the internal window is not maximized).

trying to send WM to maximize (i think that's how it should be done):

ControlCommand('WinMerge','',65280,'SendCommandID',0x0225) ; 0x0225 = WM_MDIMAXIMIZE

it does not work, and returns 0.

trying to send a click where the Maximize button is supposed to be - approx. 50px back from the right-hand-side (width of the control):

Opt('CaretCoordMode',2)
$aPos=ControlGetPos('WinMerge','',65280)
MouseClick('left',$aPos[2]-50,15,1,0)

the click position is wrong! the horizontal position is OK, but the vertical position seems to be relative to the full screen, not relative to the control position - and not even relative to the main window - no matter what i set CaretCoordMode as.

any hints or suggestions are appreciated.

 

EDIT: silly mistake. it should be MouseCoordMode rather than CaretCoordMode. but still, that's the crude and non-robust way of doing it; i'm hoping to find a way to interact with the control directly.

Edited December 22, 2014 by orbs

[mLipok]

I'm not sure but maybe this _WinMergeCompare2Files() can be handy for you.

mLipok

[orbs]

thanks mLipok, but this just calls WinMerge with the files as command line parameters, after reading it's exe path from the registry. i already got this far... 

[mLipok]

Please make a reproducer script.

edit: I mean join it toogether.

Edited December 22, 2014 by mLipok

[mLipok]

did you try to make a workaround.

for example:

Check for UpperRight Corner of this control:

 

[CLASS:Edit; INSTANCE:2]

 

And then click over

edit: hmm. I see you try it.

This is intresting for me I will back to this at night.

Edited December 22, 2014 by mLipok

[orbs]

as for raw clicking, i got it working with this code:

Opt("MouseCoordMode",2)
$aPos=ControlGetPos('WinMerge','',65280)
MouseClick('left',$aPos[2]-50,15,1,0)

but it depends on lack of user interaction, window kept in focus, and Windows themes and OS versions which may have different positioning scheme for the Maximize button. that's why i want to interact with the control directly.

[BrewManNH]

What exactly are you trying to automate in WinMerge? This program isn't intended for unattended/automated usage, that would make it almost useless.

Edited December 22, 2014 by BrewManNH

[orbs]

what i'm trying to automate in WinMerge is the way it looks when it opens.

we have an application that can generate reports. when the user has selected the reports, the application exports the reports as files. but the application has no comparison module, so my AutoIt script traps the exported files and calls WinMerge to compare the files.

for best user experience, WinMerge needs to show the reports in a specific way: entire window is maximized, no toolbars, no diff pane, specific coloring, etc. i can do all that by applying registry settings before i call WinMerge; what i cannot do (except as described in post #6 above) is to have the two contents panes maximized within the main window.