Why does a right click sent from pywinauto not change the state of the grayed out connect button in informatica, but a real mouse button click does?

1
votes

I am trying to write a script using pywinauto to open a repository in Informatica powercenter workflow manager (v9.6.1)

After the below lines are executed, I get the context menu with the connect option as in the screenshot. Also notice the 'connect' button on the toolbar stays grayed out. If I use the actual mouse and click on the treeview item for the repository I want to connect to, the connect button turns green and enabled. But not when pywinauto sends the right click.

from pywinauto.application import Application
from pywinauto.keyboard import SendKeys
import time

app = Application().Start(cmd_line=r'C:\PowerCenterClient\client\bin\pmwflmgr.exe')
informaticaworkflowmanager = app[u'Informatica::WorkflowManager']
informaticaworkflowmanager.Wait('ready')
time.sleep(2)
systreeview = informaticaworkflowmanager[u'TreeView']
tree_item = systreeview.GetItem([u'Repositories', u'REP'])
tree_item.Select()
tree_item.Click(button='right',double=True,where='icon')

enter image description here

I tried using SendKeys to send 'c' followed by {ENTER} and it just returns without doing anything. Also if I use the actual keyboard on the right click context menu generated after the above pywinauto steps run- it selects the connect menu when i press c , but it just doesn't do anything when I press Enter. I think somehow the connect function is not enabled. I am clueless if any other input is required by the application to enable it. I also tried using the informaticaworkflowmanager.MenuItem(u'&Repository->&Connect...') option but to no avail- it says it is disabled.

Any pointers to help get pywinauto to open a repository are welcome!

1
ui-automationinformatica-powercenterpywinauto
First try running the script as Administrator. If it doesn't help, use method click_input(). It runs real click like a user does. Method click() sends WM_CLICK or BM_CLICK which is probably not handled by the app in grayed button state. – Vasily Ryabov
@VasilyRyabov thanks! the click_input() worked. You can add an answer if you would like to. Also thanks for introducing me to the whole GUI automation thing, last few days I was reading about similar frameworks (sikuli etc.) it is like opening up a whole new world of productivity. I can't believe how no one is talking about these more often! – dbza
@VasilyRyabov I am stuck at another issue now probably it needs the Admin rights. How do I run the Application().Start() as administrator? – dbza
If you run the script as Administrator, it should inherit privileges for child process by default. There is no special flag in method start() because some functions may not work if target app process has higher privileges. Anyway elevation usually requires confirmation from user and this Security Confirmation dialog can't be automated by OS design. – Vasily Ryabov

1 Answers

2
votes

Just summarizing the comments...

  1. First try running the script as Administrator. If it doesn't help, use method click_input(). It runs real click like a user does. Method click() sends WM_CLICK or BM_CLICK which is probably not handled by the app in grayed button state.

  2. If you run the script as Administrator, it should inherit privileges for child process by default. There is no special flag in method start() because some functions may not work if target app process has higher privileges. Anyway elevation usually requires confirmation from user and this Security Confirmation dialog can't be automated by OS design (even click_input() with hard coded coordinates won't work while this dialog was shown, I checked it a while ago).