Unable to Highlight windows control or form as with mstest

[johnjphp]

Hi, do we know when windows appl driver will have the functionality to highlight a WFP control or form - like we were able to do with MStest and coded UI? This is very valuable. control.DrawHighlight();

thank you, John

[KiranBehara]

Hey John,

I too raised a same question - https://github.com/Microsoft/WinAppDriver/issues/647 Please let me know if you have any updates.

Regards, Kiran B.

[technoscavenger]

I woud like to see this too

[timotiusmargo]

This scenario is well understood and I recognize the value. Unfortunately, WebDriver spec doesn't currently have such API endpoint that highlights certain element on demand. And without an implementation in the language bindings (C#, Java, JavaScript, etc.), this command cannot be performed.

An alternative to this would be to implicitly highlight the element that is currently undergoing certain operation (isSelected, Click, SendText, etc.). But this would require some sort of configuration attribute in the capabilities that is turned off by default.

[naeemakram]

In life & death scenarios, we might use the screenshot feature to get a screenshot of the control which is being found. At least that would give us some idea in some scenarios.

[ericleigh007]

go here and submit a pull request. All they can say is "no" https://github.com/w3c/webdriver/ Warning: you'll have to submit changes here as well https://github.com/web-platform-tests/wpt/tree/master/webdriver

[KiranBehara]

This scenario is well understood and I recognize the value. Unfortunately, WebDriver spec doesn't currently have such API endpoint that highlights certain element on demand. And without an implementation in the language bindings (C#, Java, JavaScript, etc.), this command cannot be performed.

An alternative to this would be to implicitly highlight the element that is currently undergoing certain operation (isSelected, Click, SendText, etc.). But this would require some sort of configuration attribute in the capabilities that is turned off by default.

Do you mean the end point is not exposed by Appium ? Do you have any implementation to show for the alternative approach ? Is there a chance of having this feature in next releases ?

[timotiusmargo]

Hi @KiranBehara,

Windows Application Driver follows Appium interface which inherits the W3C WebDriver interface. None of these API surfaces has the endpoint to draw a highlight rectangle in question. As @ericleigh007 pointed out, you can attempt to propose it at the Selenium or Appium specification level. Once, it is accepted with a specified calling convention, it will be fairly straight forward to support the API on the Windows Application Driver side.

[KiranBehara]

Hi @KiranBehara,

Windows Application Driver follows Appium interface which inherits the W3C WebDriver interface. None of these API surfaces has the endpoint to draw a highlight rectangle in question. As @ericleigh007 pointed out, you can attempt to propose it at the Selenium or Appium specification level. Once, it is accepted with a specified calling convention, it will be fairly straight forward to support the API on the Windows Application Driver side.

Thank you :)

[technoscavenger]

Can we have experimental feature in WinAppDriver to support drawing a highlight? For example, support /session/:sessionId/element/:id/draw_highlight?

As a community we can try it and solidify the implementation. Once we are happy we propose it to WebDriver team?

[naeemakram]

It shouldn't be a problem, the code for highlighting items is already written & working in The UI Recorder. Yes, it can be done.

[chilakamarthi]

Is this functionality in place yet?

[johndlawlor]

I'd love to see this in place, similar to the way it operated in CodedUI.