Open ModalDialog blocks TestClient : Automation API

[lasombra]

My client application opens a new modal dialog to create a new user:

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Ranorex.Element elemMenuItem = mainForm.Element.FindChild(Ranorex.Role.MenuItem, "New User");
elemMenuItem.DoDefaultAction();
Ranorex.Form myForm2 = Ranorex.Application.FindFormTitle("Standard User");

While the dialog is open, the client application is blocked until I close the modal dialog by hand. What or how I can do with ranorex, that the client application don't block and continues running?

I know that there is an issue with UIA, where I must to subscribe to an UIA event (e.g. SubscribeToInvoke) before I click on a button, that opens a modal dialog. But this possibility I miss in ranorex.

[Support Team]

The Element.DoDefaultAction() method blocks until the default action is executed. So, if the default action is an EventHandler that opens a modal dialog, the DoDefaultAction method will block until the EventHandler returns. It is similar to the .NET Control.Invoke mechanism.

The solution is either to use Mouse.ClickElement to click on the menu item or to spawn a new thread that searches for the Element and calls DoDefaultAction:

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Thread thread = new Thread(new ThreadStart(delegate
{
    Ranorex.Element elemMenuItem = mainForm.Element.FindChild(Ranorex.Role.MenuItem, "New User");
    elemMenuItem.DoDefaultAction();
}));
thread.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);
thread.Start();

Thread.Sleep(500);
Ranorex.Form myForm2 = Ranorex.Application.FindFormTitle("Standard User");
// do stuff with myForm2

Regards,
Alex
Ranorex Support Team

[lasombra]

Thanks for your answer. Unfortunately I have a strange problem with the Mouse.ClickElement, for which reason I'd like the DoDefaultAction(). Well, the problem is the following: I have a loop (can be a sequence too, the problem appears anyway) to create various users:

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for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
   myTreeView = myHelper.FindTreeView("mTreeView");
   myTreeView.SelectItem("Everyone");
   Ranorex.Application.Sleep(300);
   myHelper.clickMenuItem("File/New/User");
   myHelper.clickMenuItem("Edit/Rename");
   Ranorex.Application.SendKeys("UserGroup" + i + "{ENTER}");



and in the class myHelper

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public void clickMenuItem(String menuPath)
{
   foreach (String menuItem in menuItems)
  {
   String[] menuItems = menuPath.Split('/');
   foreach (String menuItem in menuItems)
   {
      Ranorex.Element elemMenuItem = mainForm.Element.FindChild(Ranorex.Role.MenuItem, menuItem);
      Ranorex.Mouse.ClickElement(elemMenuItem);
   }
   }
}


The code opens a menu "File>New>User". This works well the first time. The second time the element "User" found by FindChild() contains the wrong x coordinate, which sends the mouse to the wrong point. The x coordinates seems to be the same as the x coordinate of the main application window (Ranorex.Form).

I don't understand why the first time to object properties are correct and the second time not.

Update
In some cases (e.g. other menu items) the use of the Ranorex.Mouse.ClickElement() don't work either the first time.

The menu is a MenuStrip.

[Support Team]

Well, that's in fact a strange problem. Are your testing application and the application under test separate processes?

You can also try using the MenuStrip.SelectItemText() method that basically replaces your myHelper.clickMenuItem method.

Anyway, if your using a separate thread to find the MenuItem element and invoke DoDefaultAction in that thread (like in my sample code posted before), it should also work.

Regards,
Alex
Ranorex Support Team

[lasombra]

Thanks Alex. In this form (threads) I could achieve what I wanted.