Ranorex Forum

Hi,

Is there a way to expose a custom property on a WPF user control and read its value through Ranorex? Ideally it should also show in Ranorex Spy but that's not absolutely necessary.

Thanks!

Hans

Hi,

Yes, this is possible.
You could use one of the not used attributes, for instance "ItemStatus", in order to get the value of the custom property with Ranorex.
Here is a small sample which shows how this could work in WPF. The code shows how to expose the background color attribute of a button:

<Button Background="Red" AutomationProperties.ItemStatus="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self}, Path=Background}">
            MyButton
        </Button>

I hope this will point you in the right direction.

Regards,
Markus

Hi Markus,

Thanks for the suggestion. I have tested it and it works.

My only problem is that it feels a little "hacky" if you know what I mean. Is there a way to expose a property to automation so it can be accessed directly and is also visible to Ranorex Spy? I think we can live with the ItemStatus solution but I wonder if there is a more elegant/robust way.

Cheers,

Hans

Hi Hans,

Ranorex uses accessibility (UI Automation) for testing of WPF applications. This accessibility (UI Automation) infrastructure only exposes a subset of control properties which is limiting in some cases.
There might be other workarounds as well (for instance overwriting the IValueProvider) but the posted workaround seems to be the easiest one for me .

Regards,
Markus

Hi Markus,

I think we have what we need for now. The ItemStatus solution works and if we ever want to make things more elegant we know where to look.

Thanks!

Hans