Getting list of underlying menu items via UIAutomation with Delphi
I have been trying to get a list of menu sub-items from a standard Windows application using the UIAutomationCore library imported as a TLB into Delphi - ie
File -> New | Exit
Help -> About
I can get the application menu, and then the top-level items into a list (ie in the example above, 'File' and 'Help', but I cannot get a list of ANY controls that are under these menuitems. My code is as below - the FElement represents the actual menuitem I am checking.
The length of the collection returned by FindAll is always 0. I have tried expanding the menuitem prior to this code, but it seems to have no effect.
UIAuto.CreateTrueCondition(condition);
FItems := TObjectList<TAutomationMenuItem>.create;
self.Expand;
sleep(3000);
// Find the elements
self.FElement.FindAll(TreeScope_Descendants, condition, collection);
collection.Get_Length(length);
for count := 0 to length -1 do
begin
collection.GetElement(count, itemElement);
itemElement.Get_CurrentControlType(retVal);
if (retVal = UIA_MenuItemControlTypeId) then
begin
item := TAutomationMenuItem.Create(itemElement);
FItems.Add(item);
end;
end;
I can see examples of this in C#, and they are not really doing anything different from the code above (as far as I can see)
Thanks in advance
Update : It looks very similar to this question
Update2 : In this example it is trying to do this for another Delphi application. However, if I try the same thing on notepad (for example), the same issue occurs.
Update3 : Using Inspect (and then using UI Automation), I have the following structure ...
Name = Exit Ancestors = File (menu) Form1 (pane)
I have also tried this after expanding the menu (file), and the same thing is happening (or not happening).
I think you have the following two issues:
The following works for me:
// Careful: the code might not be 100% threadsafe, but should work for the purpose of demonstration
const
UIA_MenuItemControlTypeId = 50011;
UIA_ControlTypePropertyId = 30003;
UIA_NamePropertyId = 30005;
UIA_ExpandCollapsePatternId = 10005;
procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
TThread.CreateAnonymousThread(procedure begin CoInitializeEx(nil, 2); FindItems(true); CoUninitialize; end).Start;
end;
procedure TForm1.FindItems(Recurse: Boolean);
var
UIAuto: TCUIAutomation;
condition: IUIAutomationCondition;
collection: IUIAutomationElementArray;
Length: Integer;
Count: Integer;
itemElement: IUIAutomationElement;
retVal: Integer;
val: WideString;
ExpandCollapsePattern: IUIAutomationExpandCollapsePattern;
FElement: IUIAutomationElement;
begin
UIAuto := TCUIAutomation.Create(nil);
UIAuto.CreateTrueCondition(condition);
// Find the elements
UIAuto.ElementFromHandle(Pointer(Handle), FElement);
FElement.FindAll(TreeScope_Descendants, condition, collection);
collection.Get_Length(length);
for Count := 0 to length - 1 do
begin
collection.GetElement(Count, itemElement);
itemElement.Get_CurrentControlType(retVal);
if (retVal = UIA_MenuItemControlTypeId) then
begin
ItemElement.Get_CurrentName(val);
TThread.Synchronize(nil,
procedure
begin
memo1.lines.Add(val);
end);
itemElement.GetCurrentPattern(UIA_ExpandCollapsePatternId, IInterface(ExpandCollapsePattern));
if Assigned(ExpandCollapsePattern) then
begin
ExpandCollapsePattern.Expand;
if Recurse = True then
FindItems(False);
end;
end;
end;
UIAuto.Free;
end;