Automating desktop app test cases using open source tools is an herculean task. It requires complete understanding of your application’s technology and in-depth knowledge of how your OS interacts with desktop applications. For example: If you are automating a Windows desktop application, you should be aware of how Windows Event-driven programming interacts with your application. In this blog article, we will see most of the technical information based on Windows application.
Technologies for windows desktop app development
Knowing the technologies for Windows desktop app development is a key information to decide a right automation tool. If you take any Windows based desktop application, it must have been developed using the following package/framework Windows API, MFC (Microsoft Foundation Classes), and .NET. When you choose a test automation tool, just check whether these technologies are supported.
How Windows Works
Consider your software under test is developed using Windows API. Each application window is assigned with Window Handle (hwnd). Once the user depresses the left mouse button on the application window, then Windows OS will construct a message and send it to the designated window using hwnd.
Automating Windows Desktop Application
From our experience, we recommend the following libraries (White Framework, FlaUI, .NET UI Automation, and Win32 Library for .net) to automate desktop applications. Choosing a tool is a cakewalk. However, selecting an unique identifier to locate a Windows object is tricky. Automating Desktop application test cases using coordinates is not a good idea. You always need to write robust locators to achieve consistency in automated script execution. Use Object Spy, understand the underlying technology, and perform trail & error method to construct valid object locators.
In Conclusion:
Don’t automate Desktop Application Test suite without doing a POC. Make sure you engage a test automation architect who has vast experience in automating Desktop, Web, and Mobile applications.
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