The Microsoft UI Automation (UIA) framework provides programmatic access to most user interface elements on Win32, WinForms, and WPF applications. It is primarily used for the purposes of automated UI testing and accessibility assistance.
The Microsoft UI Automation (UIA) framework provides programmatic access to most user interface elements on Win32, WinForms, and WPF applications. It is primarily used for the purposes of automated UI testing and accessibility assistance.
The UI Automation Framework was introduced in .NET 3.0 with two APIs. A client API which provides a means for obtaining information about UI elements and interacting with them, and a provider API which contains interfaces which developers can implement to enable interaction with non-standard UI elements in their applications.
The UIA framework exposes every UI component as an AutomationElement object. These objects comprise a tree structure wherein the Windows desktop is the root element. Navigation of this tree is primarily accomplished with the client API's TreeWalker object.
Each AutomationElement exposes a set of control patterns which define the way clients can interact them. For example, if the element defines a ValuePattern, a client can get this pattern and store it in a ValuePattern object, and use that objects getValue and setValue methods to access the UI element's value (the text in a textbox for instance).
Originally just available to managed .NET projects, the UIA 3.0 update released alongside Windows 7 introduced a native COM library which boasts improved compatibility, stability, and speed. UIA 3.0 is also available as a separate hotfix KB971513 for Vista and XP SP3.
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