Using AutoHotKey to choose a SysListView32 Item - autohotkey

I'm currently developing an automation script that gets information from an ERP software. I chose AutoHotkey because it's what the company uses for it's automation jobs.
However i got stuck trying to select an item from a SysListView32 control, which isn't the same as a ListView control apparently. Currently i'm able to send {Down} key strokes multiple times until i find the specific control, however i'd like to find a more elegant way like
Control, ChooseString, "String", WinName
Do you know if AHK is capable of such? Or do you know if there are other ways that are similar?

Related

Build logic in AutoHotKey based on content of GUI

I'm completely new to AHK and I'm trying to find out if AHK can be used as a solution to a problem that I currently have regarding data export from a software tool as I'm struggling to understand what functionality and flexibility you can reach with AHK.
As I don't want to spend too much time in vain for researching and trying stuff out myself with AHK, I would appreciate it if you could evaluate the fit of AHK to the following problem situation.
In the GUI I have a view like this:
I'd like to export each image in both lists one by one by right-clicking the image and then follow along the shortcut menu.
The number of menu items is very flexible on each list so there could be few or even more.
Is it therefore possible to have some kind of function in AHK to assess the number of listed items beforehand and then have a loop that will be executed x times depending on the number of items?

Is it possible to automate windows application?

I have some test cases to validate whether the user details are appearing when applications like (SQL Server, Bitbucket, RDC, PuTTY etc. ) are launched. I want to understand if this scenario can be automated through PowerShell.
https://wasp.codeplex.com
 WASP is a PowerShell snapin for Windows Automation tasks like selecting windows and controls and sending mouse and keyboard events. We have automation cmdlets like Select-Window, Select-Control, Send-Keys, Send-Click, Get-WindowPosition, Set-WindowPosition, Set-WindowActive, Remove-Window ... etc.
Our goal is to enable you to accomplish most Windows GUI Automation scripting from inside PowerShell, without resorting to specialized (and expensive) scripting tools. 
Just to be clear, don't expect any "click to record" functionality ... but do expect to be able to automatically tile windows, send mouse clicks and keystrokes, and in general, automate those tasks that you would normally not be able to do from a console.

Writing a macro-like tool

Recently I've been finding myself doing repetitive tasks. I would click button A, highlight text field A, type in some text, click an APPLY button, click on a drop-down box and select a specific option depending on the item I'm working with, select it and hit APPLY, then repeat this process only a couple hundred to thousand times.
So I thought maybe there's a way I could automate this? Macros then came to mind. However I've never wrote macros before so am not sure of several details such as
-what tools should I even work with?
-how do I determine which button to click?
-ideally, I would want to be able to read input from a text file to specify what should be typed in and which option should be selected from the dropdown list. Is this even possible? It seems like an operation that require some intelligence.
I am not picky on tools nor about cleanliness. I just want to be able to automate the process. It will be for personal use unless I find a convenient way such that others can use it as well.
Some details about the dropdown box: when the box is focused, I can hit the DOWN key to scroll from option to option. The items that I have to associate with these options are named exactly the same, so they appear in the same "index" order (meaning, the first item and first option appear at the top of the list, second item and second option appear after, thid item and third option...etc)
The placement of all of these fields can be fixed, so if I have to manually specify where on the screen I should be clicking, that is also a possibility.
Any idea where I should look?
If you're using Windows, AutoIt is a really nice tool.
It records actions (like a word/excel macro)
It offers a BASIC like language + API which is really easy to program (if you need to)
The API is pretty powerful
Check for Windows with a certain title
Automate klicks
...
You can "compile" your scripts into exe files so you can share your tools
It comes bundled with Scite (a nice text editor) + AutoIt syntax higlighting
But you can use any editor you want
It's well documented
It's Freeware
http://www.autoitscript.com/site/
On the Mac, there is Automator. Java has the Robot class in the basic library, to help with such automation. No doubt there are other similar tools.

Automate Human Activity software

Anyone know any softwares that can simulate human interaction on desktop browser specifically by clicking or entering some data and run some report and print automatically obviously with some programming behind this. Main, it will be used for reducing business process steps on human interaction day to day activity (possibly testing purpose in the future).
I am appreciated your comment or input.
Thanks
I tried a few different automation tools myself when trying to automate desktop software, one is AutoIt which is one of the most complete in my opinion. It helps to automate small tasks, ie: select a window and press a button to do the rest. It even has a macro recorder to get you started.
Telerik WebUI Test Studio
Watir
Selenium
...to name a few
To keep up with the namedropping, here's 2 APIs for Java:
Robot
Abbot (Built on top Robot)

desktop icon functionality in a window

My wife complains that I have too many icons on the Windows XP-Pro desktop.
I like to be able to quickly drop a file onto the icon for application I want to have open it. And I like to follow a link to open often-used deeply nested folders rather than navigate there. Thus, I have over 100 icons on the desktop.
(We share the same user account because we switch back and forth so often and because we both need to access the same e-mail, so separate accounts isn't the answer.)
I'd like to write a program which would have similar functionality to the Windows desktop. Then I could open that window to do the drag and drop work, but, when minimized, would leave the desktop display sparsely populated for my wife. As an added bonus, I could implement better organization of the icons than the desktop allows.
This is similar to what an Explorer window does, with the key exception that the desktop allows you to do some arrangement of icons. (For instance, program icons on the left (with the most used ones near the top), folders at the top, data files on the right.)
How do I go about getting an icon to display in a Windows Form (or on an appropriate control on the form)? (For instance, if I drop in a link to Notepad or a link to a file folder.)
How do I take the same action that the desktop does if the icon is double clicked? (For instance, if a link to a folder is double clicked.)
How do I take the same action that the desktop does if the icon has something dragged onto it? (For instance, a text file is dragged onto the Notepad icon.)
I'm using Visual Studio and C#.NET for programming.
I know how to do basic drag and drop.
I do not know:
A. what controls to use on the form to display the icons
B. how to find the icon
C. what commands are built by the desktop under various situations (so I can emulate the functionality)
I apologize that this is a multi-part question, but it was hard to break apart without explaining the whole story again.
This is a big question, but I'll give you some quick thoughts to get things moving in the right direction. WinForms exposes the functionality needed to make this happen, it's just a matter of wiring everything up the way you want it.
The key piece that you will want to look into is Drag/Drop, which is very well supported by WinForms. If you implement your icons as ImageBoxes you can set the AllowDrop property on the program icons and then handle the DragDrop event and have it call an overload of System.Diagnostics.Process() to start the application with the dropped filename as an argument.
As far as finding icons, most programs have their icon included as a resource in their .EXE file or in a related .DLL.
Regarding question C, the underlying question is what behaviors of the desktop would you like to have in your program? Explorer.exe is a massive application that does far more than what you need or what you will need or want to implement. Once you decide what functionality you want, play around with the IntelliSense list of events for the form and imagebox controls. You'll find that a lot of behavior is given to you for free in the Windows common controls, and additional behavior is fairly easy to add by handling the appropriate events.
Why dont you just use a Virtual Desktop??
Try http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net/
You will skip a lot of coding.
Right from their page:
"VirtuaWin is a virtual desktop manager for the Windows operating system (Win9x/ME/NT/Win2K/XP/Win2003/Vista). A virtual desktop manager lets you organize applications over several virtual desktops (also called 'workspaces'). Virtual desktops are very common in Unix/Linux, and once you get accustomed to using them, they become an essential part of a productive workflow."