How to retrieve masked value of the control using Microsoft UIA

Question

In our application we have fields like date/SSN and those contains default masked value as ‘MM/DD/YYYY’ or ‘xxx-xx-xxxx’ etc. when we focus these controls these values gets hidden and blank control gets displayed. We needed to check the default value available in this control and wondering if there is any way using UIA to retrieve masked value of control.

Many thanks in advance!

Answer 1

The Microsoft UIA framework prevents you from retrieving masked values, but depending on the target application you're testing against, you might be able to get the data you want through more invasive means. Look into retrieving properties by using SetWindowsHookEx() to get some of your own test code to execute within the context of the target process.