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Windows Desktop Application Automation Using AutoIt
- maxxxxx 8y agoWe do a lot of UI automation for testing. I have played with AutoIt quite a but I found it pretty difficult to get scripts to run reliably on different machines. It's get for one offs though. It wouldn't hurt if you could use it as a library from C# code. Or is that possible? The built in language is not that great.
- R0b0t1 8y agoHave a look at https://github.com/MerlijnWajer/Simba/ https://github.com/MerlijnWajer/Simba/. It uses uses a dialect of Object Pascal for scripting and some core functions are available in a library. There are other projects which attempt to do similar things but I sincerely believe Simba is the best program for desktop automation to date. I helped write it.
- softblush 8y agoSeems to have no usable documentation and the github repo has basically no activity in a long time
- R0b0t1 8y agoDon't confuse "lack of activity" with "broken." The program is considered complete. I recently moved everything to FPC 3.0, see https://github.com/MerlijnWajer/Simba/tree/fpc-3.0 https://github.com/MerlijnWajer/Simba/tree/fpc-3.0. The other work going on is language features for the scripting engine. Most functionality is documented at http://docs.villavu.com/simba/ http://docs.villavu.com/simba/.
- softblush 8y agoI don't confuse these things. I just stated that there isn't much activity. But thanks to your answer I took a second look. My problem was that the first impression of the documentation site wasn't/isn't that good IMO. I skimmed the first (quite a few) pages of the documentation and didn't find anything that gave me a first impression what this program/language looks like. You know some kind of small (or not so small) sample code. Then I skipped to the "Tutorial" section which consists of empty pages. Discouraged by that I missed the much better "Scripting Reference" section. So I suggest to at least remove the empty Tutorial section until there is actual content and/or simply link to the examples in the repository
- R0b0t1 8y agoI'm not sure why you'd mention it otherwise. We were considering moving the documentation to GitHub so people were more likely to contribute. There is a function viewer and many of the functions are documented in the source. The autogeneration was abandoned before it was set up because the program does what it was built to do. Part of it is you need to have some idea what you want to do with the program before you start. Most of the tutorials exist on villavu.com's forums with the goal of automating gameplay.
- st0le 8y agohttps://github.com/Microsoft/WinAppDriver https://github.com/Microsoft/WinAppDriver ?
- maxxxxx 8y agoI have looked at that but it needs Win10 and doesn't do WPF. Right now we a mix between Ranorex, UI Automation and Selenium. They all have their strengths and often one library can support certain elements that others can't.
- antruok 8y agoAutoItX: https://www.autoitscript.com/forum/topic/177167-using-autoitx-from-c-net/ https://www.autoitscript.com/forum/topic/177167-using-autoit...
- otterpro 8y agoI've been using AutoHotkey as well as AutoIt in the past. If I need keyboard macro, I use AHK. But if I need automation that interacts with other apps, I use AutoIt. It's fairly easy to get started writing scripts, but I've never liked the language/syntax of either AHK or AutoIt. One thing I wish I could do this is to write everything in Python, Lua, etc...
- skymt 8y agoWork on modernizing AutoHotkey's syntax has been ongoing for years, and the v2 alpha makes huge (backwards-incompatible) steps to make the syntax simpler and more consistent. https://autohotkey.com/v2/v2-changes.htm https://autohotkey.com/v2/v2-changes.htm
- mappu 8y agoI wish NSIS would do this too.
- askvictor 8y agoStrangely enough, from reading the forums, it seems that AHK's syntax makes sense for non-programmers, while programmers seem to dislike it.
- r0ash 8y agoYou can use AutoIt's Python wrapper, its somewhat reliable and I use it in automation in production.
- degenerate 8y agoThis? https://pypi.org/project/PyAutoIt/ https://pypi.org/project/PyAutoIt/ Curious if you have tried the other method (I have not): https://stackoverflow.com/a/9371563 https://stackoverflow.com/a/9371563
- r0ash 8y agoNo, I've used just first method and it was working fine. Btw second one seems more easier to transfer pure AutoIt code to Python due to same function names.
- Fnoord 8y agoHow does this compare with AHK (AutoHotKey)?
- antruok 8y agoAHK is good for hotkeys and keyboard/mouse overrides. And maybe some mini window automation. If the logic grows and automation becomes complex, AutoIt is more suitable.
- r0ash 8y agoSo far, I've used it to connect with remote mySQL/mariaDb and SQLite. In my opinion its pretty reliable, a lot than Sikuli.
- naveen99 8y agoahk was forked from the last open source version of autoit. I like ahk. Never needed to use autoit.
- zmix 8y agoAutoIT can connect to the ActiveScripting (Windows Script Host) environment, which is great!
- syntaxing 8y agoDoes anyone know how this compares to Sikuli(x)?
- r0ash 8y agoI used Sikuli couple of years ago, that time, it was not able to work if computer is locked (I used image hooks). However I am satisfied enough with AutoIt that, I might not look at other tools in couple of next few years, it has helpful community at forums and stackoverflow.
- sebazzz 8y agoWhat about other automation solutions, like UIPath Studio (which has a free community edition)?