Calling native methods of an object

[tkondal]

Is it possible to call native methods for custom objects with Ranorex?

[admin]

I'm sorry but i don't understand what do you exactly mean.
Can you write a sample please.

Jenö Herget
Ranorex Team

[tkondal]

For example,

If I have a custom control with a method DoCustomAction(arg1, arg2) that gets triggered by a mouse click. I want to call that function directly without sending a mouseclick.

My usage would be something like:

Ranorex.ControlShow(hCustomControl);
Ranorex.CallMethod(DoCustomAction, arg1, arg2);

This code would call the DoCustomAction method of the object.


I evaluated Mercury QuickTest Pro and noted thatit is possible to do something similar. I was wondering it was possible to do something like this with Ranorex. I need to do so because I am dealing with a custom combobox that does not obey standard combo box rules. For instance, the function Ranorex.ComboBoxGetItemCount() returns 0 even if the combobox contains items. I wanted to know if I could simply call the object's equivalent of SetComboBoxItem() directly.

[admin]

If we automate an application with Ranorex, then our testcode runs in an other process.
We don't communicate with the objects of the application directly we use some supported mechanism.
Old windows controls can only be automated with windows messages (SendMessage and PostMessage), newer windows controls can be automated also with Active Accessibility or .NET remoting. But we can only automate a control if it supports a mechanism, we cannot call a function of an object directly from an other process. We can do it only, if we embed Ranorex in the application.

If the custom control cannot be automated with SendMessages (ComboBoxGetItemCount works only with messages at the moment), then you can use the element functions, they use active accessibility (see the sample ElementTest.py). Most of the third party user controls can be automated with the element functions. It is also possible that the control supports some mechanism, please check the documentation.

[tkondal]

Thank you for the reply.

Concering the Mercury QuickTestPro feature that I was mentioning, it allows one to call an object's function by doing something like:

GetCustomComboBox("MyCombo").Object.CustomFunction(arg1, arg2, ...)

e.g.
GetCustomComboBox("MyCombo").Object.set_SelectedItem(arg1, arg2, ...)

I also noticed that with QuictTestPro, it is possible to retrieve all the runtime properties of an object. This allows a user to change a property of a GUI object at runtime. It is most likely done with Reflection. Hope this helps you for implementing a nice feature

[admin]

Thank you for this suggestion.

[jabelshauser]

I am very interested in this feature too. When will this be available ?

Can I access a Internal object with the (already existing) handle, or in another with reflection ?

Jörg Abelshauser

[admin]

Please write us what do you exactly want to do.

What do you can from an other process, depends on the control type. It's not possible to call an internal function of an MFC control (you can only send messages if you have the control handle), but it's possible to get/set the properties of a .NET Framework control.
We use this feature in RanorexSpyPro, but we support it only for the .NET languages at the moment.

Please check your controls with RanorexSpy, you can solve most of the problems with the element class.

Jenö
Ranorex Team

[jabelshauser]

I want to access public members in a C#-Form-class, e.g.:

public class Form1 : System.Windows.Forms.Form
{
public static string bla = "boing";


Is there a way to access the Instance of the class Form1 via the Ranorex-Form, so i can access e.g. the static string bla ?

[admin]

We implemented the possibility that you can get and set the public properties of a .NET control from an other process.
RanorexSpyPro uses this mechanism, but V1.2 supports only the properties of the standard controls and it works only in C#.