.NET Applications & AutoIt v3

[JimmyCollins]

Hi,

I am fairly new to AutoIT (< 1 month exposure). I have used AutoIt to automate simple build verifcation tests, (e.g. install, do a few small tests, take some screenshots, uninstall), for applications which used the DOM.

Now, I want to use AutoIt to do much the same thing for a .NET application. Can anybody advise me on this? From initial searches on this forum and others I get the impression that AutoIt and .NET apps don't integrate well. Is this the case?

Thanks,

JC

[zfisherdrums]

Hello JimmyCollins,

It is not so much that .NET and AutoIT don't play well together. It's just that UI's in the .NET framework can be somewhat quirky to automate. I've had issues with window discovery, persistent control identifiers, etc. But these issues can exist just as readily in a non-.NET application ( i.e., try using AutoIt to select a specific song in iTunes ).

Another example: if a .NET control provides me with no Control ID and no usable text, I have to rely on the CLASSNAMENN way of doing things. Problem is that sometimes the CLASSNAME can change between instances of the application under test. That can be a real headache. Dynamic control identification is not a new issue per se, but appears to be more prevalent in the new regime.

That said, you way want to investigate using the .NET framework itself to handle some of the UI automation tasks. James D. McCaffrey has written an excellent book entitled ".NET Test Automation Recipes" that detail, amongst other things, using Reflection to automate the UI ( caveat: using reflection does not always guarantee code paths are the same as user interactions; consult with your developers ). Also, I'm reading alot about some UI Automation functionality baked into .NET 3.0 and the WPF. I haven't had much experience with it, though.

Hope this helps,

Zach...

Edited November 6, 2007 by zfisherdrums

[koresho]

/2cents

the reason for this quirky-ness is that instead of having their coders follow good programming practice, Microsoft made the .NET framework so you could be horribly sloppy and it still work.

This is why stuff is so wierd.

/2cents off

[JimmyCollins]

Thanks guys.