Differentiating between Windows

[gnuchu]

Hi there,

Apologies for the newbyish question. I've had a dig around in the forums and the documentation and I can't find any answer to this.

I am using Autoit to automatically log into an application. Using code something like:

CODE

ShellExecute ("C:\Program Files\<program>.exe")

WinWaitActive("XYZ")

Sleep(100)

ControlFocus("XYZ","","[Class:TEdit; Instance:2]")

...

... Log in stuff

...

This is working fine the first time I run the script. However, I want to use it to open multiple instances of the application XYZ. However, when I use the ControlFocus, when running the script for the second instance, it doesn't always select the new window that is being opened, but the one that is already open.

How can I keep unique control over each window that I open?

Thanks,

gnuchu

[martin]

Hi there,

Apologies for the newbyish question. I've had a dig around in the forums and the documentation and I can't find any answer to this.

I am using Autoit to automatically log into an application. Using code something like:

CODE

ShellExecute ("C:\Program Files\<program>.exe")

WinWaitActive("XYZ")

Sleep(100)

ControlFocus("XYZ","","[Class:TEdit; Instance:2]")

...

... Log in stuff

...

This is working fine the first time I run the script. However, I want to use it to open multiple instances of the application XYZ. However, when I use the ControlFocus, when running the script for the second instance, it doesn't always select the new window that is being opened, but the one that is already open.

How can I keep unique control over each window that I open?

Thanks,

gnuchu

Titles for windows are not unique but handles are so you need to find the handle for each window.

When you open the first instance it's quite simple because you can just say

$inst = 0
$aHandle[$inst] = WinGetHandle("XYZ")

After that you could say that if you start another instance and assuming it then becomes the active window

$inst += 1
$aHandle[$inst] = WinGetHandle(WinGetTitle(""))

To be certain you could use WinList which returns all the windows with a certain title. Then you can check the handles against the list of handles you already have and if there is an extra handle then that must be for the new window.

Edited September 28, 2008 by martin

[rasim]

Use a WinGetHandle() function, something like so:

ShellExecute ("C:\Program Files\<program>.exe")
WinWaitActive("XYZ")

$hWnd = WinGetHandle("XYZ")

Sleep(100)
ControlFocus($hWnd,"","[Class:TEdit; Instance:2]")
...
... Log in stuff
...

[gnuchu]

Thanks Martin and Rasim. I had seen the window handle in the 'AutoIt Window Info' and thought I could probably use it, but hadn't worked out how. This is exactly what I need.

Cheers,

John

[gnuchu]

Just a quick supplemental question to this:

I am now using handles to keep track of the different windows. However, when I use WinGetList("myapp") it returns two handles and not one, as expected. Is it normal for an application to have 2 handles?

[rasim]

gnuchu

However, when I use WinGetList("myapp") it returns two handles and not one, as expected. Is it normal for an application to have 2 handles?

Show your code.

[gnuchu]

Well, when I run the following

CODE

ShellExecute ("C:\Program Files\mysapp\myapp.exe")

$wins = WinList("myapp")

for $i =1 to $wins[0][0]

MsgBox(0, $wins[$i][0], $wins[$i][1])

Next

I get two message boxes, each with a different handle for the title 'myapp'. But there's only ever one item in my windows task list.

[rasim]

Example with notepad works fine for me:

ShellExecute("notepad.exe")

WinWait("[CLASS:Notepad]")

$wins = WinList("[CLASS:Notepad]")

for $i = 1 to $wins[0][0]
    MsgBox(0, $wins[$i][0], $wins[$i][1])
Next