1. Overview #
Clicknium IA automation is based on Microsoft Active Accessibility(MSAA) to support the recording function, locators, and all operations on elements.
As MSAA is now considered a legacy API, we treat IA as a supplement of UIA, on some Electron&CEF applications or legacy applications, IA can be better. Please manually choose IA technology if you want to use IA during recording.
2. Locator attributes #
Learn locator concept first. For IA automation, the definition of the attributes is listed in the following:
| Name | equals | contains | startWith | endWith | regex |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ClassName | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| HelpText | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| AccessKey | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| DefaultAction | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Description | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Role | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| IsDirectChild | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Tag | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Index | Yes | No | No | No | No |
3. Locator samples #
- github desktop ‘open in visual studio code’ button
<Application processName="GitHubDesktop" filePath="GitHubDesktop.exe" version="1.3" />
<IA className="Chrome_WidgetWin_1" isDirectChild="True" name="GitHub Desktop" role="window" />
<IA role="document" />
<IA defaultAction="click" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" index="2" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" index="2" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA className="Chrome_WidgetWin_1" defaultAction="press" name="Open in Visual Studio Code" />- github desktop commit ‘description` edit
<Application processName="GitHubDesktop" filePath="GitHubDesktop.exe" version="1.3" />
<IA className="Chrome_WidgetWin_1" isDirectChild="True" name="GitHub Desktop" role="window" />
<IA role="document" />
<IA defaultAction="click" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" index="2" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" index="2" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" isDirectChild="True" name="Create commit" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA className="Chrome_WidgetWin_1" defaultAction="activate" name="Description" role="edit" />- github desktop ‘history’ tabitem
<Application processName="GitHubDesktop" filePath="GitHubDesktop.exe" version="1.3" />
<IA className="Chrome_WidgetWin_1" isDirectChild="True" name="GitHub Desktop" role="window" />
<IA role="document" />
<IA defaultAction="click" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" index="2" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" index="2" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" isDirectChild="True" role="group" />
<IA defaultAction="click ancestor" isDirectChild="True" role="tab" />
<IA className="Chrome_WidgetWin_1" defaultAction="click" name="History" role="tabItem" />4. IA element properties #
By find_element on one IA locator, you can get one IA element, and you can get properties of the element by get_property, Clicknium IA supports the following properties:
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | the name of the user interface |
| IsEnabled | whether the element is enabled in the user interface |
| AccessKey | a string containing the access key character for the element |
| BoundingRectangle | the coordinates of the rectangle that completely encloses the element |
| ProcessId | the process identifier (ID) of the element |
| Description | description of the element |
| AcceleratorKey | a string containing the accelerator key combinations for the element |
| HelpText | the help text of the element |
| ControlType | the ControlType of the element. |
