Reputation: 2350

Automation support for Visual Basic 6 ListView

I need to get value/text of control via automation interface (coding with C++/C#). I tried with UI Automation API and this is some result captured by the Inspect:

UI Automation recognize these control as pane and I can't get list view text item or get/set slider value as normal.
Tried with other tool like MSAA, Automation Spy give the same result.

After researching, I found that control with class name like ListView20WndClass, Slider20WndClass, ... belong to Visual Basic 6 control.
So, Is there any API can support these type of control as well?

Remark 1: There is a tool named Ranorex can support these control (sadly, it is €3490 commercial license), and I don't know which underlying API was used:

Remark 2 There are some other control type used in the application under test that UI Automation still can get value:

ThunderRT6FormDC: recognize as window
ThunderRT6CommandButton: recognize as button
ThunderRT6CheckBox: recognize as checkbox
etc...
sadly, they embed ListView20WndClass and Slider20WndClass but both recognize as pane

Update 1 I create a simple program to get text but still not working (compile as Unicode Character Set):

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

#include <UIAutomation.h>
#include <atlstr.h>
#include <Commctrl.h>

CString getListViewItemText(HWND hwnd, int nItem, int nSubItem) {
    LVITEM item;
    memset(&item, 0, sizeof(LVITEM));
    item.iSubItem = nSubItem;
    CString string;
    int Length = 64; //initial reasonable string length
    int ReturnCode;

    do {
        Length *= 2; //resize the string buffer
        item.cchTextMax = Length;
        item.pszText = string.GetBufferSetLength(Length);

        ReturnCode = (int)::SendMessage(hwnd, LVM_GETITEMTEXT,
            (WPARAM)nItem, (LPARAM)&item);
        printf("len = %d \n", ReturnCode);

    } while (ReturnCode == Length - 1); //if could not get all chars, try again

    string.ReleaseBuffer();
    return string;
}

void UI_Spy() {

    // Init COM
    CoInitialize(NULL);

    // Init UIAutomation instance
    IUIAutomation *pAuto;
    CoCreateInstance(CLSID_CUIAutomation, NULL,
        CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER, IID_IUIAutomation, reinterpret_cast<void**>(&pAuto));

    if (pAuto) {

        IUIAutomationElement *pElm;
        POINT p;

        for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
            for (int j = 5; j > 0; j--) {
                Sleep(1000);
                printf("%d ", j);
            }
            GetCursorPos(&p);
            if (pAuto->ElementFromPoint(p, &pElm) == S_OK) {
                wprintf(L"\nPOSITION x = %d, y = %d\n", p.x, p.y);

                BSTR str;
                pElm->get_CurrentName(&str);
                wprintf(L"-Name = %s\n", str);
                SysFreeString(str);

                pElm->get_CurrentLocalizedControlType(&str);
                wprintf(L"-Type = %s\n", str);
                SysFreeString(str);

                CONTROLTYPEID typeId;
                pElm->get_CurrentControlType(&typeId);

                switch (typeId) {

                    // Process checkbox
                case UIA_CheckBoxControlTypeId:
                    IUIAutomationTogglePattern  *toggle;
                    pElm->GetCurrentPattern(UIA_TogglePatternId, (IUnknown**)&toggle);
                    ToggleState state;
                    toggle->get_CurrentToggleState(&state);
                    printf("-Checkbox = %s\n", state == ToggleState::ToggleState_On ? "TRUE"
                        : (state == ToggleState::ToggleState_Off ? "FALSE" : "INTER"));
                    break;

                    // Process VB6 listview
                case UIA_PaneControlTypeId:
                    pElm->get_CurrentClassName(&str);
                    if (str != nullptr && wcscmp(str, L"ListView20WndClass") == 0) {
                        HWND hwnd;
                        pElm->get_CurrentNativeWindowHandle((UIA_HWND*)&hwnd);
                        printf("-VB6 Listview: %p\n", hwnd);

                        CString txt = getListViewItemText(hwnd, 0, 0);
                        //txt = "Test";
                        printf("-[0,0] = %S\n", (const wchar_t*)txt);
                    }
                    SysFreeString(str);
                    break;

                    // Process normal listview
                case UIA_ListControlTypeId:
                    HWND hwnd;
                    pElm->get_CurrentNativeWindowHandle((UIA_HWND*)&hwnd);
                    printf("-Normal Listview: %p\n", hwnd);

                    CString txt = getListViewItemText(hwnd, 0, 0);
                    //txt = "Test";
                    printf("-[0,0] = %S\n", (const wchar_t*)txt);
                    break;
                }

                wprintf(L"\n");
                pElm->Release();
            }
            printf("\n");
        }

        // Release UIAutomation instance
        pAuto->Release();
    }

    // Release COM
    CoUninitialize();
}

int main()
{
    UI_Spy();

    cin.get();
    return 0;
}

When it count 5..4..3..2..1 just mouse over some element on the screen to check.
But when I mouse over the list view:

VB6 list view (ListView20WndClass): it return an empty string (expected is 101 as my example)
MFC/Winform list view (SysListView32): the application under mouse stopped working (the console application still running)

Upvotes: 4

Automation support for Visual Basic 6 ListView

Answers (2)

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