Obtain control names in Windows application

Question

Haven't found this in my search on Stackoverflow - I know I've seen a tool like it before, for obtaining control names or IDs in Windows apps which can then be used for reference in automated testing, in tools like AutoIt. Can anyone suggest one?

I've tried the OLE/COM Object Viewer and while it has control lists, there's no interactive method with it. Like the web developer toolkit in Firefox where you can click a control and get all the information about it, I'm after a similar app for Windows testing.

Answer 1

Found the tool I wanted, either NUnitForms - which means you can use the NUnit Framework to access windows forms, and includes a Recorder tool for identifying the controls, as well as Managed Spy for giving the individual component names as well as every bit of other info - font, color, size. Very nice.

NUnitForms : http://nunitforms.sourceforge.net/

ManagedSpy: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc163617.aspx

Answer 2

It's called Spy++.