Select Items from a TVirtualStringTree Control in delphi application

[Press]

Hi I am new to AutoIT and I have a scenario in delphi application to interact with a list of items in a list named "Available" and select a particular one and move it to another list named "Current".  On initial look it seemed to be a ListView control but on using the Window info it seems to both controls are VirtualStringTree .

Tried the below code to find and select a particular item from the Treeview but I couldn't. The script doesn't throw any error when ran but doesn't perform any action 

$hWindow = WinGetHandle($TitleBBTSMain, "")

    $hWnd = ControlGetHandle($hWindow, "", "[CLASS:TVirtualStringTree; INSTANCE:2]")
    $iItemCnt = _GUICtrlTreeView_GetCount($hWnd)
    ConsoleWrite("$iItemCnt  " & $iItemCnt  & @CRLF)

    $searchText = "bs bp 1 -no restrictions"
    $hItemFound = _GUICtrlTreeView_FindItem($hWnd, $searchText, True)
    ConsoleWrite("$hItemFound " & $hItemFound & @CRLF)

    While $hItemFound
        _GUICtrlTreeView_SelectItem($hWnd, $hItemFound)
        _GUICtrlTreeView_ClickItem($hWnd, $hItemFound)
        $next = _GUICtrlTreeView_GetNextVisible($hWnd, $hItemFound)
        $hItemFound = _GUICtrlTreeView_FindItem($hWnd, $searchText, True, $next)
        Sleep(5000)
    WEnd

 

o/p : 

$iItemCnt   0

$hItemFound 0

Note that there is no default selection of the item inside the treelist and the itemcount was also returned as zero. Both SelectItem and ClickItem doesn't work either.

The instances for both "Available" and "Current" list doesn't change during runtime and remains constant. Both application and AutoIT are 32bit.

Is there any way to select a particular item from the list and move them to the next   

 

 

 

Edited February 9, 2021 by Press

[FrancescoDiMuro]

@Press
You need to see if a valid control handle is returned, because it seems that your script fails before _GUICtrlTreeView_GetCount()

[Press]

Hi @FrancescoDiMuro

Thanks for the reply, yes the control handle returns value like this

$hWindow = WinGetHandle($TitleBBTSMain, "")

    $hWnd = ControlGetHandle($hWindow, "", "[CLASS:TVirtualStringTree; INSTANCE:2]")
    ConsoleWrite("$hWnd " & $hWnd & @CRLF)

    $iItemCnt = _GUICtrlTreeView_GetCount($hWnd)
    ConsoleWrite("$iItemCnt  " & $iItemCnt  & @CRLF)

    $searchText = "bs bp 1 -no restrictions"
    $hItemFound = _GUICtrlTreeView_FindItem($hWnd, $searchText, True)
    ConsoleWrite("$hItemFound " & $hItemFound & @CRLF)

    While $hItemFound
        _GUICtrlTreeView_SelectItem($hWnd, $hItemFound)
        _GUICtrlTreeView_ClickItem($hWnd, $hItemFound)
        $next = _GUICtrlTreeView_GetNextVisible($hWnd, $hItemFound)
        $hItemFound = _GUICtrlTreeView_FindItem($hWnd, $searchText, True, $next)
        Sleep($SleepBig)
    WEnd

o/p : 

$hWnd 0x00610450

$iItemCnt   0

$hItemFound 0

Edited February 9, 2021 by Press

[FrancescoDiMuro]

@Press
Since there are no so many topics about TVirtualTreeStringTree, I can suggest you to use UISpy and post a screenshot of the result, since you'd probably go with UIAutomation

Edited February 9, 2021 by FrancescoDiMuro

[BigDaddyO]

Try selecting the first item in the list and then put the spy on the control to see if it shows the selected item in the text field.

I've worked with some different non-standard lists and have to do some control send hackery to select the first item, controlgettext to see if it's the one I want, controlsend arrow down, check text, repeat until I get to the one I want, or if the text hasn't changed "bottom of list".

[Nine]

I have read on french forum that it might be a ListView (not a TreeView).  Just a stab in the dark...

[Press]

Hi @Nine

Tried as you suggested with the below code considering it as ListView , but no luck. The script doesn't throw any error but didn't do any action

 

$hWindow = WinGetHandle($TitleBBTSMain, "")

    $hListView = ControlGetHandle($hWindow, "", "[CLASS:TVirtualStringTree; INSTANCE:2]")
    ConsoleWrite("$hListView " & $hListView & @CRLF)

    $iItemCnt = _GUICtrlListView_GetItemCount($hListView)
    ConsoleWrite("$iItemCnt  " & $iItemCnt  & @CRLF)

    For $i = 0 To $iItemCnt Step +1
        $test= _GUICtrlListView_GetItem($hListView,$i)

        if ($test[3] = $parameterBoardPlan) Then
            _GUICtrlListView_ClickItem($hListView,$i)

        EndIf
    Next

o/p:

$hListView 0x00120268
$iItemCnt  0

[Nine]

Ok, it was not clear if the guy had success or not.

Any luck with UIAutomation (UIASpy) ?

[Press]

Hi @BigDaddyO,

 Tried as you suggested, by selecting the an item in the list by using arrow keys and highlighting it. Then used the spy to see whether the text field shows the value. But it doesn't and hence the ControlGetText returns null value

Send("{DOWN}")
    ConsoleWrite("Select board Plan" & @CRLF)
    Sleep($SleepBig)
    $hWindow = WinGetHandle($TitleBBTSMain, "")

    $hWnd = ControlGetHandle($hWindow, "", "[CLASS:TVirtualStringTree; INSTANCE:2]")
    ConsoleWrite("$hWnd " & $hWnd & @CRLF)

     $Text = ControlGetText($hWindow, "", "$hWnd")
     ConsoleWrite("$Text  " & $Text  & @CRLF)

o/p

$hListView 0x00120268
$Text  

[Press]

Hi @FrancescoDiMuro  & @Nine

Tried with UIASpy to detect the element, posting the screenshot here. I am new to UIASpy and probably not sure if the Element Properties required for selecting the item from the list is captured.  

Awaiting for your suggestions

 

[Earthshine]

yep, you need to use UIAutomation for that as @FrancescoDiMuro posted

 

[FrancescoDiMuro]

@Press
Could you share somehow the application you are trying to automate?

[Nine]

4 minutes ago, Earthshine said:

you need to use UIAutomation

Not so sure about that.  That pane doesn't seem to have any element inside.  What F key did you use ?

[Earthshine]

With Delphi, they usually are not usable from AutoIt. I have never seen one work with it. From the info from UISpy I can tell it's available to be used from UIAutomation. I wouldn't waste time with straight up AutoIt on it myself. That's not a standard windows control.

Edited February 9, 2021 by Earthshine

[junkew]

Try the tools as mentioned in wiki faq 31 which you already partly are trying with uiaspy

Commercial tools like ranorex and testcomplete are doing this to get some kind of reflection dll injected to get information of these controls.Commercial tools like ranorex and testcomplete are doing this to get some kind of reflection dll injected to get information of these controls.

Handy people can probably fix this with sendmessage and some info from https://github.com/Fr0sT-Brutal/Delphi_MiniRTL/blob/master/CommCtrl.pas

I think for dellphi controls you can only reach them with code injecting a dll and thats probably tough from AutoIt. Libraries like easyhook, mhook, .... 

I never understood why those delphi Txxxcontrols do not behave normally with sendmessge api

Some references for try just to get item count with sendmessage and from there onwards get the messages to retrieve text. (In general then I advice to start using the commercial tooling as thats the reason these tools exist)

{$EXTERNALSYM LVM_FIRST} LVM_FIRST = $1000; { ListView messages } const   {$EXTERNALSYM LVM_GETITEMCOUNT}   LVM_GETITEMCOUNT        = LVM_FIRST + 4; IntPtr count = API.SendMessage(child1, API.LVM_GETITEMCOUNT, 0, 0); PageCount := sendmessage( listview1.handle, LVM_GETCOUNTPERPAGE, 0, 0);
Microsoft base: https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/vstudio/en-US/4a335b85-7a85-4bf9-9079-8f9f1dc45dd0/select-listviewitem-in-a-listview-by-api?forum=windowsuidevelopment

 

 

Some thoughts references added if maybe someone understands better and maybe we should get some small delphi executable with just a form, textbox, checkbox to experiment with.

0. message explanation delphi

https://doc.lagout.org/programmation/Delphi/Delphi/Delphi - Messages (chapter).pdf

1. Delphi seems just as any other windows app based on the message loop so reachable with sendmessage/postmessage

https://delphidabbler.github.io/delphi-tips/tips/105.html

2. From delphi to other apps just sendmessage

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6115296/delphi-how-to-send-command-to-other-application

3. Interesting if you prevent apps from processing messages

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1251678/how-to-prevent-processmessages-in-delphi

 

 

Edited February 10, 2021 by junkew
enhanced delphi information