Sample Excel Extension: Element Classes

The extension uses classes that are derived from UITechnologyElement and represent the Worksheet control and Cell control in Microsoft Excel.

The base element for this extension is the ExcelElement. The ExcelWorksheetElement class and the ExcelCellElement class inherit from that element

Element and ElementInformation Classes

The Element is the base class for all user interface elements for the Excel extension, and it inherits from the UITechnologyElement class. ElementInformation is the base class for the element information classes in the sample, and it has no members.

Simple Properties and Methods

These members return simple values, such as the value of the Name property or the value of the ClassName property, and the code is clear and easy to read. Some values are returned by using the Utility class, which is discussed later. Others return null because they are not relevant in this sample extension. Two members are more interesting than the others: the QueryId property and the CacheProperties method.

QueryId Property

This property returns a condition that is made of property name-value pairs that uniquely identify the control during playback. For each derived control class, the developer must override this property to return an IQueryElement object that the framework can use to find the control in the UI.

CacheProperties Method

This method is called by the testing framework during the recording process to tell the element to save a snapshot of important properties. This keeps the properties available even when the actual UI control is no longer on the screen.

WorksheetElement and WorksheetInformation Classes

The WorksheetElement class represents an Excel Worksheet in the testing framework, and inherits from the Element base class. Three properties are overridden to provide specific information about the Excel Worksheet object: ClassName, ControlTypeName, and Name.

The ComVisibleAttribute is also applied to this class to make it visible to COM.

The WorksheetInformation class represents information about an Excel Worksheet. It has only one member, the SheetName property, which is sufficient for this sample.

CellElement and CellInformation Classes

The CellElement class represents an Excel Cell, and inherits from the Element base class. The only overridden member is the QueryId property, which returns an IQueryElement that uses the RowIndex and ColumnIndex properties to identify the cell.

Utilities and ExcelUtilities Classes

The internal ExcelUtilities class provides some constant values, such as the technology name, and a method that determines if the provided window handle represents an Excel worksheet.

The Utilities class has helper methods that return a variety of information about the UI. Some methods use direct calls into external system DLLs, such as USER32.DLL and OLEACC.DLL, to get window handles from the UI.

See Also

ComVisibleAttribute IQueryElement Extending Coded UI Tests and Action Recordings to Support Microsoft Excel