Asp Forum - Windows automation

mkcon

3/3/2005 10:15:00 AM

Hi, you gurus out there!

I hope, somebody out here can help me:

I have a windows application (only binary) which presents a window, where
some data strings have to be typed into input fields.
I need to do that for a lot of different tasks and want to automate this -
preferrably using Ruby, of course.
Unfortunately, i am mostly an Unix guy.
I have only little experience in Windows programming (but a lot in Unix).

Can anybody help me to make this happen in Ruby?

I will have to
1. Find the correct window (either by its title or ID - where to
get that from?)
2. Activate this window
3. Hope, that i am in the correct input field ;-)
4. Send key strokes to the input field
5. Send a tab in order to switch to the next field
6. Fill out all remaining fields
7. Activate an OK button.

I wrote some Ruby extension in C for Linux and have a working mingw
C-compiler environment, if C is neccessary here.
Although i would prefer doing this task with some kind of dl-interface or
something like that.

Thank you very much for any help in advance,
Martin.

6 Answers

Dave Burt

3/3/2005 2:58:00 PM

"Martin Kahlert" <mkcon@gmx.de> wrote:
> Hi, you gurus out there!
>
> I hope, somebody out here can help me:
>
> I have a windows application (only binary) which presents a window, where
> some data strings have to be typed into input fields.
> I need to do that for a lot of different tasks and want to automate this -
> preferrably using Ruby, of course.
> Unfortunately, i am mostly an Unix guy.
> I have only little experience in Windows programming (but a lot in Unix).
>
> Can anybody help me to make this happen in Ruby?

You should be able to do this with DL. I probably can't help, but I'm going
to try, and make a fool of myself.

DL help is hard to come by:
http://www.ruby-doc.org/stdlib/libdoc/dl/rdoc/...
http://www.polarhome.com:793/manual/ruby-docs-1.6.8/refm-ja/ref...

No, wait!
http://www.jbrowse.com/text/r...
Thank you, Benjamin Peterson!

Microsoft's Windows API is available here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/winprog/winprog/windows_api_ref...

> I will have to
> 1. Find the correct window (either by its title or ID - where to
> get that from?)

require 'dl'
user32 = DL.dlopen 'user32.dll'
# HWND FindWindow(LPCTSTR lpClassName, LPCTSTR lpWindowName);
findWindow = user32['FindWindow', 'PPP'] # return Pointer, 2 Pointer params
window, args = *findWindow.call(nil, 'Window Title Goes Here!')
# <insert expletive here>, that worked! This is so much fun in irb.

> 2. Activate this window

# BOOL ShowWindow(HWND hWnd, int nCmdShow);
# Constants for nCmdShow:
SW_SHOWNORMAL = 1
SW_SHOWMAXIMIZED = 3
showWindow = user32['ShowWindow', 'IPI']
result, args = *showWindow.call(window, SW_SHOWNORMAL)

# Doesn't work that great... next function:
# BOOL SetForegroundWindow(HWND hWnd);
setForegroundWindow = user32['SetForegroundWindow', 'IP']
result, args = *setForegroundWindow.call(window)
# Much better... you'll need to use both show and foreground, I think

> 3. Hope, that i am in the correct input field ;-)

I think this feature got dropped from Longhorn...
No, seriously, you do need to drill down to an input field.

# HWND FindWindowEx(HWND hwndParent, HWND hwndChildAfter,
# LPCTSTR lpszClass, LPCTSTR lpszWindow);
findWindowEx = user32['FindWindowEx', 'PPPPP']

#control = findWindowEx.call(window, nil, 'ControlTypeGoesHere', nil) # ???
# I'm out of time on figuring out how to use this, sorry. Reference here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/winui/winui/windowsuserinterface/windowing/windows/windowreference/windowfunctions/findwi...

> 4. Send key strokes to the input field

# BOOL PostMessage(HWND hWnd,UINT Msg,
# WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam);
# Msg constants:
WM_KEYDOWN = 0x0100
WM_KEYUP = 0x0101
WM_CHAR = 0x0102

postMessage = user32['PostMessage', 'IPIII']
#postMessage.call(window, WM_KEYDOWN, ?X, ?X << 16) # ???
#postMessage.call(window, WM_KEYUP, ?X, 0) # ???
# again, out of time on making this work

> 5. Send a tab in order to switch to the next field
> 6. Fill out all remaining fields
> 7. Activate an OK button.

# Step 1: FindWindowEx or something to get the button
# Constant for PostMessage:
BM_CLICK = 0x00F5
postMessage.call(button, BM_CLICK, 0, 0)

> I wrote some Ruby extension in C for Linux and have a working mingw
> C-compiler environment, if C is neccessary here.
> Although i would prefer doing this task with some kind of dl-interface or
> something like that.

That was DL. I don't think you'll find any limitations with this basic stuff
that would make it easier to drop down to C/C++.

>
> Thank you very much for any help in advance,
> Martin.

That was kinda fun and maybe even educational. Thanks for the question,
Martin. Good luck.

Cheers,
Dave

paul.rogers

3/4/2005 3:56:00 AM

there is win32-gui on the RAA http://raa.ruby-lang.org/project/win3...
its not been updated in a while. If it still works it should do what you need

Paul

"Dave Burt" <dave@burt.id.au> wrote in message news:<YBFVd.182663$K7.21911@news-server.bigpond.net.au>...
> "Martin Kahlert" <mkcon@gmx.de> wrote:
> > Hi, you gurus out there!
> >
> > I hope, somebody out here can help me:
> >
> > I have a windows application (only binary) which presents a window, where
> > some data strings have to be typed into input fields.
> > I need to do that for a lot of different tasks and want to automate this -
> > preferrably using Ruby, of course.
> > Unfortunately, i am mostly an Unix guy.
> > I have only little experience in Windows programming (but a lot in Unix).
> >
> > Can anybody help me to make this happen in Ruby?
>
> You should be able to do this with DL. I probably can't help, but I'm going
> to try, and make a fool of myself.
>
> DL help is hard to come by:
> http://www.ruby-doc.org/stdlib/libdoc/dl/rdoc/...
> http://www.polarhome.com:793/manual/ruby-docs-1.6.8/refm-ja/ref...
>
> No, wait!
> http://www.jbrowse.com/text/r...
> Thank you, Benjamin Peterson!
>
> Microsoft's Windows API is available here:
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/winprog/winprog/windows_api_ref...
>
> > I will have to
> > 1. Find the correct window (either by its title or ID - where to
> > get that from?)
>
> require 'dl'
> user32 = DL.dlopen 'user32.dll'
> # HWND FindWindow(LPCTSTR lpClassName, LPCTSTR lpWindowName);
> findWindow = user32['FindWindow', 'PPP'] # return Pointer, 2 Pointer params
> window, args = *findWindow.call(nil, 'Window Title Goes Here!')
> # <insert expletive here>, that worked! This is so much fun in irb.
>
> > 2. Activate this window
>
> # BOOL ShowWindow(HWND hWnd, int nCmdShow);
> # Constants for nCmdShow:
> SW_SHOWNORMAL = 1
> SW_SHOWMAXIMIZED = 3
> showWindow = user32['ShowWindow', 'IPI']
> result, args = *showWindow.call(window, SW_SHOWNORMAL)
>
> # Doesn't work that great... next function:
> # BOOL SetForegroundWindow(HWND hWnd);
> setForegroundWindow = user32['SetForegroundWindow', 'IP']
> result, args = *setForegroundWindow.call(window)
> # Much better... you'll need to use both show and foreground, I think
>
> > 3. Hope, that i am in the correct input field ;-)
>
> I think this feature got dropped from Longhorn...
> No, seriously, you do need to drill down to an input field.
>
> # HWND FindWindowEx(HWND hwndParent, HWND hwndChildAfter,
> # LPCTSTR lpszClass, LPCTSTR lpszWindow);
> findWindowEx = user32['FindWindowEx', 'PPPPP']
>
> #control = findWindowEx.call(window, nil, 'ControlTypeGoesHere', nil) # ???
> # I'm out of time on figuring out how to use this, sorry. Reference here:
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/winui/winui/windowsuserinterface/windowing/windows/windowreference/windowfunctions/findwi...
>
> > 4. Send key strokes to the input field
>
> # BOOL PostMessage(HWND hWnd,UINT Msg,
> # WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam);
> # Msg constants:
> WM_KEYDOWN = 0x0100
> WM_KEYUP = 0x0101
> WM_CHAR = 0x0102
>
> postMessage = user32['PostMessage', 'IPIII']
> #postMessage.call(window, WM_KEYDOWN, ?X, ?X << 16) # ???
> #postMessage.call(window, WM_KEYUP, ?X, 0) # ???
> # again, out of time on making this work
>
> > 5. Send a tab in order to switch to the next field
> > 6. Fill out all remaining fields
> > 7. Activate an OK button.
>
> # Step 1: FindWindowEx or something to get the button
> # Constant for PostMessage:
> BM_CLICK = 0x00F5
> postMessage.call(button, BM_CLICK, 0, 0)
>
> > I wrote some Ruby extension in C for Linux and have a working mingw
> > C-compiler environment, if C is neccessary here.
> > Although i would prefer doing this task with some kind of dl-interface or
> > something like that.
>
> That was DL. I don't think you'll find any limitations with this basic stuff
> that would make it easier to drop down to C/C++.
>
> >
> > Thank you very much for any help in advance,
> > Martin.
>
> That was kinda fun and maybe even educational. Thanks for the question,
> Martin. Good luck.
>
> Cheers,
> Dave

daz

3/4/2005 7:44:00 AM

Martin Kahlert wrote:
>
> [...]
> Can anybody help me to make this happen in Ruby?
> [...]
>
> Martin.

Take a look at:
http://www.rubygarden.org/ruby?AutoIt_F...

The AutoIt package (link near top of page) can be run
from Ruby via WIN32OLE.

I think that's the easiest way.

Maybe Dave Burt could confirm ? (Epic reply, BTW :-)

daz

Dave Burt

3/4/2005 3:34:00 PM

"daz" <dooby@d10.karoo.co.uk> suggested:
>
> Take a look at:
> http://www.rubygarden.org/ruby?AutoIt_F...
>
> The AutoIt package (link near top of page) can be run
> from Ruby via WIN32OLE.
>
> I think that's the easiest way.
>
> Maybe Dave Burt could confirm ? (Epic reply, BTW :-)

I haven't tried it, but it looks like it'll do the job. You'd have to
install the COM component, but it'll make your job easier.

Alternately, there is Paul's suggestion of win32/guitest.

And if you don't mind dropping down to Perl, there's Win32::GuiTest on that
platform :)

http://search.cpan.org/author/CTRONDLP/Win32-GuiTest-1.50.3-ad/...

(Are you allowed to post CPAN links in this newsgroup? *ducks*)

Cheers,
Dave

mkcon

3/7/2005 6:17:00 AM

Hi!

Thank you very much for all of the replies!

I will have a look - especially on guitest (even the perl version).

Let's see if that does the job.

Thanks again,
Martin.

Dave Burt

3/7/2005 7:36:00 AM

"Martin Kahlert" <mkcon@gmx.de> wrote:
> Hi!
>
> Thank you very much for all of the replies!

You're welcome :)

> I will have a look - especially on guitest (even the perl version).
>
> Let's see if that does the job.

Note that ruby's win32/guitest (linked in Paul's message) requires cygwin.

And I didn't get it working even with cygwin... although it may just be a
DLL path issue.

Cheers,
Dave

comp.lang.ruby

Windows automation

mkcon

Dave Burt

paul.rogers

daz

Dave Burt

mkcon

Dave Burt

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