Exposing a Custom Control to Coded UI Tests - WinForms - automation

I wrote my own custom control in WinForms. It's actually works like a TextBox, but have other methodes and extra properties that I wrote.
I tried writing a very simple coded UI test for this control but faild. Every Time I select it with the Coded UI Test Builder it is shown as "Client" and not as a textbox. I cannot read or write to the text property of this control, or get or set other properties.
Do you know how do I expose my custom control for testing, and getting and setting all of it properties?

It is difficult to answer the question without looking at your implementation of the custom control but you can use the following link to learn how to extend a treeview control to make it code UI enabled.
http://www.ranorex.com/blog/enabling-automation-by-adding-accessibility-to-windows-forms-controls
I used that example to learn how to extend my own controls.

Related

undo for non textbox controls

new to .net coming from vba decided to rewrite a management app using vb.net and SQL Server.
Started writing the base library for my application.
I created custom controls to use in my application that would expose a Zoom function, background color for the current active control a .modified property similar to the one available in textbox and some extra other properties (SQLTableName, SQLColumnName, ...) to enable iterating through a container (form) for modified controls and Update/Insert into a SQL table via a SQLProcessClass.
Concurrently I'd like to also implement a simple undo functionality.
My first idea was to add a PrevValue variable set in the OnEnter event if the Modified property is False, exposing an OldValue property and an Undo method in the custom controls.
However I found that the TextBoxBaseClass already exposes an Undo method and that there is an UndoEngineClass available.
Unfortunately the vs helpfile does not give examples of how to use / implement that class.
Could someone explain the usage of the UndoEngine class non-textbox controls and if it is advisable to use it or rather write my own (as I first intended to do - I also found some interesting articles about undo/redo classes) but why reinvent the wheel in case .net already provides a class for it.
thks

windows form control property?

Good day everyone,
I just want to ask how to do this on vb.net using vs2010
It's like a label(i'm not sure if it's really a label), like this
and when you put the cursor on it, it will show a "button"?.. like this,
The Control to create the menu is called a toolstrip:
Tutorial for this:
Tooltrips - basics
.Net Heaven
To add those labels when hovering above it, you must use a tooltip.
There is a built in option (that doesn't require an extra control)
Tutorial: MSDN- How to: Use ToolTips in ToolStrip Controls
But you could implement the behavior yourself using the control "tooltip".
Here's some tutorials on how to implement it:
Tooltips
.Net Heaven
Dotnetperls
Enjoy

AutomationPeer - how to show data of elements not on the control?

I want to write an AutomationPeer for my custom control in WPF.
Now, I want to show textBlocks \ TextBoxex that are not actually visible on my control.
I know how to override the method GetChildrenCore().
My problem is that when i run the playback (coded ui record) - it's trying to find a control not vissible on the window. Have you got any ideas?
You can set the SearchConfiguration VisibleOnly on the Coded UI control. Also, the UITestControl.FindMatchingControls method can let you know if the search properties are too ambiguous. Coded UI stops looking for a control after the first instance of a matching control is found.
inspect.exe can shed light on a form and how Coded UI may be seeing the control.
Try opening the Designer.cs and see the hierarchy and what Coded UI is trying to find.

How to identify a specific ActiveX Interface based on limited information

I am in the process of developing an ActiveX control for embedding in Rockwell Automation's Factory Talk View. (See ActiveX DLL Error: Solved to see how great a start I got off to!)
At the moment I have an ActiveX control that seems to embed into the host system OK, but is not fully integrated into the VBA process. I believe that this is because I have not implemented some specific COM interface that is required, but I have no documentation as to what that is. I do know that standard MS controls like the Microsoft Forms 2.0 controls do implement the required interface and fully integrate.
The key functionality I am missing relates to a property that I need to set in order for my VBA code to actually see the ActiveX object. This property can be seen when opening the property panel for any activeX control placed on a Factory Talk screen, but NOT when looking at the properties of ActiveX controls embedded in (for example) Excel. Thus I am probably trying to chase down some custom Rockwell implementation. I am hoping that SO might be able to give me some aid into how to track down what I want based on recognizing the functionality it implements.
Now to the actual property. In Factory Talk the property is called "ExposeToVBA", and has a type "long". You have a choice of 3 values selected from a drop down list:
Not Exposed - When set to this, the controls name is not even visible to VBA code
Type Info Extension - Not sure what this does
VBA Control - VBA code can see and interact with the control.
When I select anything other than "Not Exposed" for my control, I get a warning dialog box with no text on it. For other controls I need to set it to "VBA Control" in order to interact with it in the VBA code (d'oh)
I suspect that the value of this property is translated into some calls to an ActiveX interface on the target control.
The Question
What I want to do is identify what interfaces something like a "Forms 2.0 Label" implements that would match the above functionality. And also perhaps how I could translate this into my C# based control (based on C# ActiveX control (CSActiveX))
I know its a long shot, but I'd appreciate any and all suggestions
This became moot when I found a canned Active-x control that had the functionality that I needed.
FWIW This is what I believe that I used: DMGraph

Creating your own component in vb.net 2008

How do you create your own custom component for vb.net 2008? I want it to simply output to a .dll, not a whole winforms app.
So, here is what I have done so far:
Made a class library project
Added a custom control object
Confused myself badly
Googled it, to no avail
How can I control the component? For example, I want my component to not have a visible design view, I want it to stay below like the stopwatch component and the notifyicon component and such, it is not something to be designed. Then, how do I edit the possible properties a user can control, and make them effect the end result? What do I place the code which powers the component on? The class library file, or something else?
Thanks for your help! I have a whole set of components I am going to create, this will get me going much faster than trial and error.
I think you may want to check some walkthrough on how to create components. Such as this one: Walkthrough: Authoring a Component with Visual Basic. Once you are done with that one, there are more walkthroughs on various related topics, such as how to use design-time support, implementing designers and so on.
OK... This is a really abbreviated example. You should start by basing yous off of an existing .net component.
Public Class MyControl
Inherits DataGridView
'...add your properties/functionality...'
End Class
Then compile the DLL, and add it as a reference to whatever project you are working on. Once added, you can add the controls in the DLL into your toolbox.
This has more instructions on how to modify a UserControl (slightly different from the one above, but it explains well. This is a general explanation.
#comments -
Yes, there, are things that will do what you want. Start with a class that inherits Form instead of DataGridView in the example I gave you, and the changes described in the links provided.
"Your properties and functionality" is whatever you want to do that the base control does not do.