Integrating AutoIt with Selenium for Enhanced Automation

AutoIt

AutoIt is a scripting language designed specifically for automating the Windows GUI and general scripting. It uses a combination of mouse movement, keystrokes and window control manipulation to automate a task which is not possible by Selenium Webdriver.

Why is AutoIt Necessary

In many web applications, uploading files is a common task. While Selenium WebDriver is excellent for web automation, it struggles with interacting with native operating system dialog boxes, such as the file upload window. Selenium cannot directly control these OS-level components, making file upload automation challenging. This is where AutoIt comes in. AutoIt can handle interactions with native Windows components, bridging the gap and making file uploads in web automation possible.

Combining AutoIt with Selenium WebDriver

Integrating AutoIt with Selenium WebDriver provides a powerful automation solution

• AutoIt: Handles interactions with native Windows components, enabling tasks like file uploads that Selenium WebDriver alone cannot perform.

• Selenium WebDriver: Manages interactions with web elements, navigates between pages, executes JavaScript, and performs validations in web applications.
  

This synergy is particularly valuable for applications requiring users to upload files through a web interface. Selenium WebDriver manages the web-based part of the application, while AutoIt manages the OS-level interactions necessary for completing file uploads.

Components of AutoIt

AutoIt has two components

1. AutoIt: A scripting language with tools for identifying and interacting with GUI elements on Windows, including controls like buttons, text fields, and dialog boxes.

2. AutoIt Editor: A script development environment that facilitates writing, debugging, and compiling AutoIt scripts into executable files (.exe).

How to download and install AutoIt

Step 1: Go to the link  https://www.autoitscript.com/site/

                Click on Downloads in AutoIt dropdown

Step 2 : Click on Download Auto IT

Step 3 : Click on Download Editor for AutoIt Editor

Then click on exe file

Step 4 :   Two Setup Files "Au3Info_x64" and "SciTE" will be downloaded in the downloads folder

Step 5 :   Double click and install both the exe files

Now AutoIt3 folder gets downloaded in Program Files.

Step 6 : Click on Au3Info_x64.exe in AutoIt3 folder to open AutoIT .This is used for identifying the elements on the window

Step 7 : click  on SciTE.exe in SciTE folder and AutoIt editor gets opened

Steps to integrate AutoIt with Selenium Webdriver

1. Write AutoIt script for uploading file

2. Compile AutoIt script and generate .exe file

3. Use .exe file in Selenium Webdriver script

1. Write AutoIt script for uploading file

Go to this link https://demo.automationtesting.in/Register.html

Click on Choose file and open AutoIt to find the elements

Drag the finder tool over the "File Name" box element in the file uploader window to locate basic attributes such as Title, Class , and Instance in the AutoIt window.

Now open AutoIt Editor to write AutoIt script. We use following methods to select the textbox, provide the filepath and then click on Open button.

ControlFocus () is used to focus on the textbox. We need to drag finder tool on the textbox element

Syntax:     

Script : ControlFocus("Open" ," ", "Edit1")

We need to provide title as Open, text can be empty and for controlID we need to combine Class and Instance as  Edit1 from AutoIT window

ControlSetText() is used to capture the path . We need to send the path to the filename

Syntax :

Script : ControlSetText("Open", " ", "Edit1", $CmdLine[1])

We need to provide title as Open, text as blank, control ID is combination of Class and Instance as Edit1 and new text is the file path which we provide at the runtime

ControlClick() is used to click open button. We need to drag finder tool to Open button in the window and get the attributes

Syntax: 

Script : ControlClick("Open", " ", "Button1")

We need to provide title as Open , text as blank and Control ID as combination of Class and Instance as Button1

Now the script in Auto Editor tool is as below

2. Compile AutoIt script and generate .exe file

After writing the script, we need to save the file as “fileupload. AutoIt (au3)” and  we need to compile the script , then the following window appears

We need to select Output type as EXE and output arch as Compile X64Version(it depends on Windows version) and click on compile script

After compiling script exe file will get created in the same folder

3. Use .exe file in Selenium Webdriver script

We need to provide .exe file path  and the path of the image to be uploaded in ProcessBuilder.

After executing the code, image gets uploaded.

Integrating AutoIt with Selenium WebDriver extends automation capabilities by combining web-based interaction with native Windows control manipulation. This synergy allows for comprehensive automation of file upload processes in web applications, enhancing efficiency and reliability in automated testing. By leveraging the strengths of both tools, automation engineers can achieve seamless end-to-end testing across complex web application scenarios.

I hope this blog assists you in understanding the process of uploading files using AutoIt.

Happy Learning!