Automation of Installation Process

[erika87]

Hello

 

My first post here and i hope i do everything right. I am pretty new to Autoit and heard about it from a friend. Until recently I only made very small and easy automations for my PC. Recently I tried to automate the installing of my accounting program the other day, but wasn't able to do it.

I always have to update the program each time I start it, which starts downloading updates - it often takes more than 20 minutes. Afterwards it asks for install.

I would have liked to automate the install process. I want the program to do the click on install after the download has finished. The screen changes when the download finishes and so I thought I could make some kind of survey which looks for a pixel change and then clicks on a specific position. I looked around on the internet for a while and wasnt able to find a solution (everything I tried failed)

Now I found this website and hope one of you kind souls could help me do this.

Your help would be much appreciated

Have a nice start into the new week!

 

 

[SadBunny]

Well, with as little information as this it's hard to offer anything substantial.

Ideally the installation process uses a GUI with standard Windows controls, which makes it easy to automate. Try the Au3Info tool from Scite (Ctrl+F6, if it doesn't work make sure you installed the full version, the top one from here). You can use that to inspect the installer window and check for windows controls.

Then you can use commands like WinExists, WinWaitActive and many others to interact with the installer window, and commands like ControlClick, ControlSend to interact with specific controls. Check the helpfile under Function Reference -> Window Management.

See how far you get, and if you get stuck, be sure to ask a more specific question and post the code you managed to come up with, and if possible some screenshots of the window(s) you have trouble with, so there's something to actually help you with  

/edit: but first make sure that your installer doesn't simply have a "silent" mode where you run it with some commandline paratemeter to make it run automatically in the background without bothering the user. Many installers do.

Edited August 1, 2016 by SadBunny

[erika87]

Thank you for the reply

I tried the info tool with the latest version, but it doesn't seem to work with the program window.

I do not think its a standart Windows GUI and unfortunately I couldn't find a silent mode or something comparable.

I found this code on google searching and think it is pretty close to what i need:

 

    Dim $color, $tmp
    While Sleep(20000)
    $color = PixelGetColor(x, y)
    If $color<>$tmp Then
    "Have to add mouseclick here with the correct position"
    EndIf
    WEnd

The way I understood this it creates 2 variables with the same color value. Afterwards it surveys the value of $color and if the $tmp and $color are different the action will be carried out.

Maybe someone can point me to an error in the code

Thank you!

 

 

[SadBunny]

Please post your code in code tags (the <> button above the reply box), that way it looks like this:

Dim $color, $tmp
While Sleep(20000)
    $color = PixelGetColor(x, y)
    If $color <> $tmp Then
        "Have to add mouseclick here with the correct position"
    EndIf
WEnd

And yes, it creates two variables ($color and $tmp), but they are empty when created. The only thing the loop does is assign the color of your pixel on coordinates x,y to the $color variable, then see whether it is something else than $tmp. As nothing is in $tmp, any value stored in $color will be different than $tmp, so the "have to add" will activate. For a mouse click, you can use the MouseClick() function.

This code will not work as is, as 1) you have to replace the x,y with actual numbers (or variables storing those numbers), and 2) obviously you will have to add the mouse clicking code.

Having said all that... It is really quite typical for office applications like accounting software to not use standard windows controls in their installers. Automating a gui by pixelhunting and mouseclicking coordinates is notoriously unreliable and almost never necessary. If you could, please post a screenshot (black out any privacy info of course); it will be much easier for everyone to provide better assistance.

[water]

Can you post a screenshot of the Control tab of the Window Info Tool?

[erika87]

@Sadbunny: I changed the things you mentioned and it works now like a charm. I tried it with another program and it seems reliable.
Whenever the pixel changes the click is executed.

@water: when I click into the program with that targetting function everything stays blank. I am not sure why it does.

You helped me alot, TYVM guys :)

[SadBunny]

Did you unfreeze the au3info tool?

[water]

The AutoIt Window Info Tool should at least show some info for the window.