Major issues interacting with ComboBox

[Tacomas]

Hello all,

I am aware that most of you may have seen similar questions being asked a lot. I've spent some days know to go through many of the propesed answers but so far none of those answers were able to help me to resolve the issue, i.e. interacting with a standard ComboBox of a third party software.

I am doing this on Windows 11 (22H2) using AutoIt v3.3.16.1.

What I am trying to do is to select a language from a ComboBox when running an InstallShield setup launcher (setup.exe). The only thing I managed so far is to read out the currently selected value that is being displayed:
 

Local Const $sWndTitle = "InstallShield Wizard"
Local Const $sCtrlClass = "[CLASS:ComboBox; INSTANCE:1]"

WinActivate($sWndTitle)
Local $hWnd = WinWaitActive($sWndTitle, "", 5)
Local $sCurrentLang = ControlGetText($hWnd, "", $sCtrlClass)
ConsoleWrite("$sCurrentLang: " & $sCurrentLang & @CRLF) ; OK

Considering this dialog

this gives me "$sCurrentLang: Deutsch" on the console. So far, so good.

Now the issue is that I can't figure out how to select a different value from that ComboBox. I've tried all kinds of things ranging from all sorts of Control Name variations to different methods I found here in this forum, on StackOverflow, the web, like:

ControlSetText($hWnd, "", "[CLASS:ComboBox; INSTANCE:1]", "Englisch", 1)

ControlSend($hWnd, "", "[CLASS:ComboBox; INSTANCE:1]", "E")
ControlSend($hWnd, "", "[CLASS:ComboBox; INSTANCE:1]", "Englisch")

ControlCommand($hWnd, "" , "[CLASS:ComboBox; INSTANCE:1]" , "SelectString" , "Englisch")

ControlSend($hWnd, "", $hCtrl, "Englisch")

_GUICtrlComboBox_SetCurSel(306, 1)  ;ID from AutoIt Info Tool
_GUICtrlComboBox_SetCurSel("ComboBox1", 1)

;...

The AutoIt Info Tool gives the following information about the ComboBox:

>>>> Window <<<<
Title:  ABC - InstallShield Wizard
Class:  #32770
Position:   1088, 617
Size:   384, 157
Style:  0x94C808C4
ExStyle:    0x00010101
Handle: 0x00000000000D0910

>>>> Control <<<<
Class:  ComboBox
Instance:   1
ClassnameNN:    ComboBox1
Name:   
Advanced (Class):   [CLASS:ComboBox; INSTANCE:1]
ID: 306
Text:   
Position:   51, 65
Size:   317, 21
ControlClick Coords:    120, 19
Style:  0x50010343
ExStyle:    0x00000004
Handle: 0x00000000003F10EC

I also tried other CombBox related functions, for example:

ControlCommand("InstallShield", "", "ComboBox1","ShowDropDown", "")

but nothing worked, except ControlGetText().

I would be very thankful if anybody could give me a hint on how to interact with this ComboBox. If anything is unclear or missing please do not hesitate to ask.

Best regards,
Tacomas

 

Edit: This might be a Windows 11 issue, since I just found that I also can't click a button on this dialog. Either this or I completely misunderstood how to use AutoIt to interact with UI controls.

WinActivate($sWndTitle)
If ControlClick($sWndTitle, "", "[CLASS:Button; INSTANCE:2]") = 0 Then ConsoleError("ERROR: ControlClick() failed!" & @CRLF) ;no click, no error

 

Edited August 28, 2023 by Tacomas
edit

[water]

Have you tried to do a silent install with Install Shield? This way you do not need to automate the installation GUI.

[Tacomas]

Sorry for not having mentioned it, but a silent installation is not an option because it's the installation process that I need to write a test for. Some of the test cases include the control of proper translation etc. so the script has to go through every single step of the installation process.

[water]

As you can read out the currently selected value I suggest to use the same approach to set the value. Plus add some error checking.

Local Const $sWndTitle = "InstallShield Wizard"
Local Const $sCtrlClass = "[CLASS:ComboBox; INSTANCE:1]"
Local Const $sSetLang = "English"

If WinActivate($sWndTitle) = 0 Then Exit MsgBox(0, "Error", "WinActivate - Could not activate the window!")
Local $hWnd = WinWaitActive($sWndTitle, "", 5)
If $hWnd = 0 Then Exit MsgBox(0, "Error", "WinWaitActivate - error when waiting for the window to become active!")
ControlCommand($hWnd, "", $sCtrlClass, "SelectString", $sSetLang)
If @error Then Exit MsgBox(0, "Error", "ControlCommand - error when selecting a language from the ComboBox!")

BTW: What is the exact value in your ComboBox? "English" or "Englisch"?

[Tacomas]

> BTW: What is the exact value in your ComboBox? "English" or "Englisch"?

Currently both writings exist in the installer, but you are right, I should take care to use it consistently in my script.

> Plus add some error checking.

I left it out of my posts to keep the focus on the function calls. Actually I do nearly the exact same error checking in my current script as you have proposed: 😉 

ConsoleWrite("ControlFocus(""" & $sWndTitle & """, """", """ & $sCtrlClass & """" & @TAB & "--> ")
If ControlFocus($sWndTitle, "", $sCtrlClass) = 0 Then 
    ConsoleWrite("Success" & @CRLF)
Else
    ConsoleWriteError("Failed: " & @error & @CRLF)
EndIf

It seems as if the problems with the setup dialog interaction might be caused by Windows UAC. I will do some more testing and post the results.

[Danp2]

Have you tried adding #RequireAdmin at the top of your script?

[Tacomas]

Thank you @Danp2, adding #RequireAdmin solved the issue.

Anyway, I still wonder why all functions return with no error when there actually is an error (aka missing elevation). That's quite confusing.

[Nine]

On 8/29/2023 at 9:56 AM, Tacomas said:

I still wonder why all functions return with no error

Well, in the code you posted, there is not a single line checking for @error or function result.  AutoIt will not crash your script because there is an error in it (unless absolutely necessary).  So you need to check yourself if AutoIt informs you of an error.  Make senses, don't you think ? 

[Tacomas]

On 9/1/2023 at 12:21 AM, Nine said:

Well, in the code you posted, there is not a single line checking for @error or function result.  AutoIt will not crash your script because there is an error in it (unless absolutely necessary).  So you need to check yourself if AutoIt informs you of an error.  Make senses, don't you think ? 

Thanks Nine. Of course I use "If @error" in my script after each API call that sets it. Yet in this case none of the calls return with an error. Hence the confusion.