Application discovery in automations

When you interrogate an application and add controls to your project, take care not to interact directly with the controls and operate as if only Robot Studio can work with them. Using the Robot Studio tools to test your controls helps you prepare for how controls work in production while learning about any pitfalls that cause production issues. Some of the issues that you can encounter include embedded controls that you cannot interrogate directly, or controls that do not respond to the interrogation methods that you plan to use. Use the Testing section on the interrogation form or invoke testing methods directly from the Palette while interrogation is running to verify whether the controls function the same way they should in your application.

Interact with your application by interrogating a control and performing a user action such as clicking or entering text while using the interrogation form. Using the interrogation form allows you to remove direct user interaction from your application and see how different controls function in your application. For example, suppose you identify an input box on a web page and create a new control using the Select Element interrogation option. In that case, you can manipulate this input box by using the testing items on the interrogation form. For example, you can use the tools in the SendKeys section to perform standard functions such as adding an input, as shown in the figure below:

While running in interrogation mode, you can also go to the Palette directly by right-clicking the control and invoking a test method if the test you’d like to perform isn’t in the Testing section. Use test controller methods to access all of the methods that are available to that control. Enter values in the parameter section on the right side of the window and then click Invoke to test your specified method.