UI automation for office 2013

Question

I need to automate pressing File->Info->"Check For Issues" in office 2013. I managed to press the File button with the code:

AutomationElement window = AutomationElement.FromHandle(Window.Handle);
AutomationElementCollection buttons = window.FindAll(TreeScope.Descendants, new PropertyCondition(
AutomationElement.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.Button));
AutomationElement file=buttons.Cast<AutomationElement>().FirstOrDefault(x => x.Current.Name == "File Tab");
InvokePattern ipClickLoadSettings = (InvokePattern)file.GetCurrentPattern(InvokePattern.Pattern);
ipClickLoadSettings.Invoke();

How can i press the "Check For Issues" button or any other button in the info window?

Thanks

Answer 1

I took a look at the Word 2013 UI using the Inspect SDK tool, and that shows that some related UI can be programmatically invoked through the UIA Invoke pattern, but some can't. Instead, other UI needs to be selected or expanded. So I just wrote the test code below to do the following...

1. Invoke the File Tab.
2. Select the Info item.
3. Expand the Check For Issues UI.
4. Invoke the Check Accessibility button.

While the code makes a few assumptions, (and will only work in English builds of Word,) it seemed to be able to invoke the Check Accessibility UI ok.

For my test, I used the unmanaged UIA API that comes with Windows, rather than the managed .NET UIA API. I call the Windows UIA API from the C# code using a wrapper that I generated with the tlbimp.exe tool.

This is what I did to generate that wrapper...

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v10.0A\bin\NETFX 4.6 Tools\x64\tlbimp.exe" c:\windows\System32\UIAutomationCore.dll /out:Interop.UIAutomationCore.dll

If steps like the ones below don't work for you, let me know and I can look into it.

Thanks,

Guy

IUIAutomation uiAutomation = new CUIAutomation8();

IUIAutomationElement rootElement = uiAutomation.GetRootElement();

// Assume the first child of the root element with a ClassName of 
// "OpusApp" is the Word window we're interested in.
int propertyIdClassName = 30012; // UIA_ClassNamePropertyId

IUIAutomationCondition conditionWordApp =
    uiAutomation.CreatePropertyCondition(
        propertyIdClassName, "OpusApp");

IUIAutomationElement wordElement =
    rootElement.FindFirst(
        TreeScope.TreeScope_Children,
        conditionWordApp);

// Find the File Tab beneath the Word element. Use the AutomationId 
// to find the button rather than the Name, because AutomationId will 
// not be localized.
int propertyAutomationId = 30011; // UIA_AutomationIdPropertyId

IUIAutomationCondition conditionFileTab =
    uiAutomation.CreatePropertyCondition(
        propertyAutomationId,
        "FileTabButton");

// Cache the Invoke pattern when we get the FileTab element, so 
// that we don't have to make another cross-process call later to 
// get the pattern.
int patternIdInvoke = 10000; // UIA_InvokePatternId
IUIAutomationCacheRequest cacheRequestInvokePattern = 
    uiAutomation.CreateCacheRequest();
cacheRequestInvokePattern.AddPattern(patternIdInvoke);

IUIAutomationElement fileTabElement =
    wordElement.FindFirstBuildCache(
        TreeScope.TreeScope_Descendants,
        conditionFileTab,
        cacheRequestInvokePattern);

// Now invoke the tab.
IUIAutomationInvokePattern invokePatternFileTab = 
    fileTabElement.GetCachedPattern(patternIdInvoke);
invokePatternFileTab.Invoke();

// Note that sometimes when making calls like this, it may be necessary to 
// Thread.Sleep() for a short time here, to give the target app a chance to 
// create and show the UI being invoked.

// Find the Info item. Unfortunately the item has no AutomationId, 
// so use other properties to find it. For this test, just use the 
// localizable Name and ControlType. (So this means this code won't 
// work for non-English builds of Word.)

int propertyIdName = 30005; // UIA_NamePropertyId

IUIAutomationCondition conditionInfoItemName =
    uiAutomation.CreatePropertyCondition(
        propertyIdName, "Info");

IUIAutomationCondition conditionInfoItemClassName =
    uiAutomation.CreatePropertyCondition(
        propertyIdClassName, "NetUIRibbonTab");

IUIAutomationCondition conditionInfoItem = uiAutomation.CreateAndCondition(
    conditionInfoItemName, conditionInfoItemClassName);

int patternIdSelectionItem = 10010; // UIA_SelectionItemPatternId

IUIAutomationCacheRequest cacheRequestSelectionItemPattern = 
    uiAutomation.CreateCacheRequest();
cacheRequestSelectionItemPattern.AddPattern(patternIdSelectionItem);

IUIAutomationElement infoItemElement =
    wordElement.FindFirstBuildCache(
        TreeScope.TreeScope_Descendants,
        conditionInfoItem,
        cacheRequestSelectionItemPattern);

// Now select the Info item, to show the "Check for issues" UI.
IUIAutomationSelectionItemPattern selectionItemPatternInfoItem = 
    infoItemElement.GetCachedPattern(patternIdSelectionItem);
selectionItemPatternInfoItem.Select();

// Now find the "Check for issues" element. This element also has no
// AutomationId, so just search for the Name and ClassName again.
IUIAutomationCondition conditionInfoCheckForIssuesName =
    uiAutomation.CreatePropertyCondition(
        propertyIdName, "Check for Issues");

IUIAutomationCondition conditionCheckForIssuesClassName =
    uiAutomation.CreatePropertyCondition(
        propertyIdClassName, "NetUIAnchor");

IUIAutomationCondition conditionCheckForIssues = 
    uiAutomation.CreateAndCondition(
        conditionInfoCheckForIssuesName, conditionCheckForIssuesClassName);

int patternIdExpandCollapse = 10005; // UIA_ExpandCollapsePatternId

// Expand the "Check for issues" UI, to show the "Check Accessibility" 
// button.
IUIAutomationCacheRequest cacheRequestExpandCollapsePattern = 
    uiAutomation.CreateCacheRequest();
cacheRequestExpandCollapsePattern.AddPattern(patternIdExpandCollapse);

IUIAutomationElement checkForIssuesElement =
    wordElement.FindFirstBuildCache(
        TreeScope.TreeScope_Descendants,
        conditionCheckForIssues,
        cacheRequestExpandCollapsePattern);

IUIAutomationExpandCollapsePattern expandCollapsePatternCheckForIssues = 
    checkForIssuesElement.GetCachedPattern(patternIdExpandCollapse);
expandCollapsePatternCheckForIssues.Expand();

// Finally find the "Check Accessibility" element. This element also has no
// AutomationId, so once again, just search for the Name and ClassName.
IUIAutomationCondition conditionInfoCheckAccessibilityName =
    uiAutomation.CreatePropertyCondition(
        propertyIdName, "Check Accessibility");

IUIAutomationCondition conditionCheckAccessibiltyClassName =
    uiAutomation.CreatePropertyCondition(
        propertyIdClassName, "NetUITWBtnMenuItem");

IUIAutomationCondition conditionCheckAccessibility = 
    uiAutomation.CreateAndCondition(
        conditionInfoCheckAccessibilityName, 
        conditionCheckAccessibiltyClassName);

IUIAutomationElement checkAccessibilityElement =
    wordElement.FindFirstBuildCache(
        TreeScope.TreeScope_Descendants,
        conditionCheckAccessibility,
        cacheRequestInvokePattern);

// Invoke this element to check the document's accessibility.
IUIAutomationInvokePattern invokePatternCheckAccessibility =
    checkAccessibilityElement.GetCachedPattern(patternIdInvoke);
invokePatternCheckAccessibility.Invoke();