AppBar Control Type

This topic provides information about Microsoft UI Automation support for the AppBar control type.

An app bar is a UI element that presents navigation, commands, and tools to the user. For Windows Store apps, app bars for apps can be displayed by pressing Windows Key + Z.

The following sections define the required UI Automation tree structure, properties, control patterns, and events for the AppBar control type.

This topic contains the following sections.

Typical Tree Structure

The following table depicts a typical control and content view of the UI Automation tree that pertains to AppBar controls and describes what can be contained in each view. Button is the most common element within an AppBar but other controls that invoke actions for an app are also possible. An AppBar can also have 0 or more separators (Separator control type), which appear in the control view as placed between the other controls. For more information about the UI Automation tree, see UI Automation Tree Overview.

Control View Content View
  • AppBar
    • Button (0 or many)
    • Other controls (0 or many)
  • Not applicable
    • Button (0 or many)
    • Other controls (0 or many)

 

Relevant Properties

The following table lists the UI Automation properties whose value or definition is especially relevant to the controls that implement the AppBar control type. For more information about UI Automation properties, see Retrieving Properties from UI Automation Elements.

UI Automation Property Value Notes
UIA_AutomationIdPropertyId See notes. The value of this property must be unique among all peer elements in the raw view of the UI Automation tree.
UIA_BoundingRectanglePropertyId See notes. The value exposed by this property must include all of the controls contained within it.
UIA_ControlTypePropertyId AppBar
UIA_IsContentElementPropertyId FALSE An app bar control is not included in the content view of the UI Automation tree.
UIA_IsControlElementPropertyId TRUE An app bar control is always included in the control view of the UI Automation tree.
UIA_IsKeyboardFocusablePropertyId See notes If the control can receive keyboard focus, it must support this property. Controls within the app bar typically can take keyboard focus.
UIA_IsOffscreenPropertyId See notes. The value of this property depends on whether the control is viewable on the screen.
UIA_LabeledByPropertyId Null App bar controls usually do not have a label.
UIA_LocalizedControlTypePropertyId See notes. Localized string corresponding to the AppBar control type. The default value is "app bar" for en-US or English (United States).
UIA_NamePropertyId See notes. The app bar control does not need a name unless an application has more than one app bar. If there is more than one app bar in an application, use this property to expose distinguishing names, such as "Top" or "Bottom."

 

Required Events

The following table lists the UI Automation events that app bar controls are required to support. For more information on events, see UI Automation Events Overview.

UI Automation Event Notes
UIA_AutomationFocusChangedEventId
UIA_BoundingRectanglePropertyId property-changed event.
UIA_IsEnabledPropertyId property-changed event. If the control supports the IsEnabled property, it must support this event.
UIA_IsOffscreenPropertyId property-changed event. If the control supports the IsOffscreen property, it must support this event.
UIA_StructureChangedEventId

 

Relevant Events

The following table lists the UI Automation events that are especially relevant to the controls that implement the AppBar control type but not strictly required.

UI Automation Event Notes
UIA_MenuClosedEventId Platform implementations might fire this event when the app bar control is closed.
UIA_MenuOpenedEventId Platform implementations might fire this event when the app bar control is opened.
IUIAutomationPropertyChangedEventHandler Property-changed event handler.

 

Conceptual

UI Automation Control Types Overview

UI Automation Overview

Reference

AppBar XAML control

WinJS.UI.AppBar object