I don't understand the concept of "Control ID"

[MonsieurOUXX]

Hi all,

I'm a total beginner to AutoIT. I've made a script that uses the coordinates of the controls but I'm not satisfied with it, I'd like to make it more universal, and therefore I'd like to use functions like "ControlCommand" instead of "MouseClick". this is where I encounter issues.

When I run "AutoIt v3 Window Info" and move my mouse over some controls in the application that I wish to automate, the info window displays the *same* ID for several controls. Same thing for the class and Instance. Is it that the guys who made this application didn't design it well and gave the same ID to those controls, or is it that I don't understand what's the ID of a control? Is it because those controls are embedded into a more general control, like a tab or a frame?

I'm confused. The IDs seem to be completely random (2 edit boxes next to each other will have the same ID and class/instance, and another edit box just below will have different ones). See screenshot attached.

Can you help me? Maybe you'll say that I should use the handle, but isn't the handle generated dynamically and doesn't it change every time?

PS : I've tried to search the forum, but I couldn't find appropriate keywords for such a trivial question...

[WideBoyDixon]

It's possible that the controls in the application are completely owner-drawn. This would mean that the only window handle you get is to the overall control and not to what you *think* are controls on there.

[ResNullius]

@MonsieurOUXX

Googling GXWND (the class of your control) proves this not to be an easy task

[MonsieurOUXX]

Googling GXWND proves this not to be an easy task

Indeed. That external application I'm trying to automate keeps surprising me by how non-standard, crappy and awfully designed it is. Well, at least I can still stick to the MouseClicks.

Thanks for the help.