Summary

I hope that this article has provided a good introduction to how the UI Automation framework can be used for the automated testing of user interfaces. When I first began learning about the framework, I thought that I would find it complicated and too much of a burden to ever use in real projects. I quickly realized that the key to understanding the framework is to look at applications from a user’s perspective rather than the point of view of the developer. The control patterns match how a user interacts with and views the system. The properties of automation elements and control patterns support how a user thinks of an application; they are not meant to expose every property that can be set by a developer.

The capabilities of the UI Automation framework extend far beyond the sample applications and tests in this article. There are a number of other control patterns to explore. Using the Text pattern with rich text controls can be quite powerful. Microsoft has created a framework that simplifies the manipulation of applications’ user interfaces. In doing so, developers now have another tool available to create solid and well tested applications.

For anyone interested in learning more about the UI Automation Framework, a good starting point is the UI Automation Fundamentals page in MSDN.

A good tool for examining applications, automation properties, and control patterns is UI Spy from Microsoft. It was removed from the Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5, but it is still available in the Windows SDK Update for Windows Vista.