pywinauto.application module¶

pywinauto.base_application module¶

The application module is the main one that users will use first.

When starting to automate an application you must initialize an instance of the Application class. Then you have to start the program with Application.start or connect to a runing process of an application with: Application.connect

Once you have an Application instance you can access dialogs in that application by using one of the methods below.

dlg = app.YourDialogTitle
dlg = app.window(name="your title", classname="your class", ...)
dlg = app['Your Dialog Title']

Similarly once you have a dialog you can get a control from that dialog in almost exactly the same ways.

ctrl = dlg.YourControlTitle
ctrl = dlg.child_window(name="Your control", classname="Button", ...)
ctrl = dlg["Your control"]

Note

For attribute access of controls and dialogs you do not have to specify the exact name/title/text of the control. Pywinauto automatically performs a best match of the available dialogs or controls.

With introducing the cross-platform support in pywinauto, the Application class is automatically created with the platform default backend. For MS Windows OS it is ‘win32’ and for Linux OS it is ‘atspi’.

See also

pywinauto.findwindows.find_elements() for the keyword arguments that can be passed to both: WindowSpecification.child_window and WindowSpecification.window

pywinauto.windows.application.Application for the ‘win32’ and ‘uia’ backends

pywinauto.linux.application.Application for the ‘atspi’ backend

exception pywinauto.base_application.AppNotConnected¶

Bases: Exception

Application has not been connected to a process yet

exception pywinauto.base_application.AppStartError¶

Bases: Exception

There was a problem starting the Application

class pywinauto.base_application.BaseApplication¶

Bases: object

Represents an application

__getattribute__(attr_name)¶: Find the specified dialog of the application

__getitem__(key)¶: Find the specified dialog of the application

Window_(**kwargs)¶

Return a window of the application

You can specify the same parameters as findwindows.find_windows. It will add the process parameter to ensure that the window is from the current process.

See pywinauto.findwindows.find_elements() for the full parameters description.

active()¶: Return WindowSpecification for an active window of the application

connect(**kwargs)¶

Connect to an already running process

The action is performed according to only one of parameters

Parameters:	pid – a process ID of the target handle – a window handle of the target path – a path used to launch the target timeout – a timeout for process start (relevant if path is specified)

See also

pywinauto.findwindows.find_elements() - the keyword arguments that are also can be used instead of pid, handle or path

cpu_usage(interval=None)¶: Return CPU usage percent during specified number of seconds

is_process_running()¶

Checks that process is running.

Can be called before start/connect.

Returns True if process is running otherwise - False

kill(soft=False)¶

Try to close and kill the application

Dialogs may pop up asking to save data - but the application will be killed anyway - you will not be able to click the buttons. This should only be used when it is OK to kill the process like you would do in task manager.

start(cmd_line, timeout=None, retry_interval=None, create_new_console=False, wait_for_idle=True, work_dir=None)¶

Start the application as specified by cmd_line

Parameters:	cmd_line – a string with a path to launch the target timeout – a timeout for process to start (optional) retry_interval – retry interval (optional) create_new_console – create a new console (optional) wait_for_idle – wait for idle (optional) work_dir – working directory (optional)

top_window()¶: Return WindowSpecification for a current top window of the application

wait_cpu_usage_lower(threshold=2.5, timeout=None, usage_interval=None)¶: Wait until process CPU usage percentage is less than the specified threshold

wait_for_process_exit(timeout=None, retry_interval=None)¶

Waits for process to exit until timeout reaches

Raises TimeoutError exception if timeout was reached

window(**kwargs)¶

Return a window of the application

You can specify the same parameters as findwindows.find_windows. It will add the process parameter to ensure that the window is from the current process.

See pywinauto.findwindows.find_elements() for the full parameters description.

window_(**kwargs)¶

Return a window of the application

You can specify the same parameters as findwindows.find_windows. It will add the process parameter to ensure that the window is from the current process.

See pywinauto.findwindows.find_elements() for the full parameters description.

windows(**kwargs)¶: Return a list of wrapped top level windows of the application

exception pywinauto.base_application.ProcessNotFoundError¶

Bases: Exception

Could not find that process

class pywinauto.base_application.WindowSpecification(search_criteria, allow_magic_lookup=True)¶

Bases: object

A specification for finding a window or control

Windows are resolved when used. You can also wait for existance or non existance of a window

__getattribute__(attr_name)¶

Attribute access for this class

If we already have criteria for both dialog and control then resolve the control and return the requested attribute.

If we have only criteria for the dialog but the attribute requested is an attribute of DialogWrapper then resolve the dialog and return the requested attribute.

Otherwise delegate functionality to __getitem__() - which sets the appropriate criteria for the control.

__getitem__(key)¶

Allow access to dialogs/controls through item access

This allows:

app['DialogTitle']['ControlTextClass']

to be used to access dialogs and controls.

Both this and __getattribute__() use the rules outlined in the HowTo document.

WAIT_CRITERIA_MAP = {'visible': <function WindowSpecification.<lambda> at 0x7efda5af6320>, 'enabled': <function WindowSpecification.<lambda> at 0x7efda5af63b0>, 'active': <function WindowSpecification.<lambda> at 0x7efda5af6440>}¶

WAIT_NOT_CRITERIA_MAP = {'visible': <function WindowSpecification.<lambda> at 0x7efda5af64d0>, 'enabled': <function WindowSpecification.<lambda> at 0x7efda5af6560>, 'active': <function WindowSpecification.<lambda> at 0x7efda5af65f0>}¶

by(**criteria)¶

Add criteria for a control

When this window specification is resolved it will be used to match against a control.

dump_tree(depth=10, max_width=10, filename=None)¶

Dump the ‘identifiers’ to console or a file

Dump identifiers for the control and for its descendants to a depth of depth (the whole subtree if None).

Parameters:	depth – Max depth level of an element tree to dump (None: unlimited). max_width – Max number of children of each element to dump (None: unlimited). filename – Save tree to a specified file (None: print to stdout).

Note

The identifiers dumped by this method have been made unique. So if you have 2 edit boxes, they won’t both have “Edit” listed in their identifiers. In fact the first one can be referred to as “Edit”, “Edit0”, “Edit1” and the 2nd should be referred to as “Edit2”.

exists(timeout=None, retry_interval=None)¶

Wait for the window exists, return True if the control exists.

Parameters:	timeout – how much time (in seconds) to try to find the control. Default: `Timings.exists_timeout`. retry_interval – how long to wait between each retry. Default: `Timings.exists_retry`.

find(timeout=None, retry_interval=None)¶

Find a control using criteria. The returned control matches conditions from criteria[-1].

criteria - a list with dictionaries

1st element is search criteria for the dialog

other elements are search criteria for a control of the dialog
timeout - maximum length of time to try to find the controls (default 5)
retry_interval - how long to wait between each retry (default .2)

find_all(timeout=None, retry_interval=None)¶

Find all controls using criteria. The returned controls match conditions from criteria[-1]. Parent controls are assumed to exist in a single instance. Otherwise it will result in an ElementAmbiguousError.

criteria - a list with dictionaries

1st element is search criteria for the dialog

other elements are search criteria for a control of the dialog
timeout - maximum length of time to try to find the controls (default 5)
retry_interval - how long to wait between each retry (default .09)

not_exists(timeout=None, retry_interval=None)¶

Wait for the window does not exist, return True if the control does not exist.

Parameters:	timeout – how much time (in seconds) to wait until the control exists. Default: `Timings.exists_timeout`. retry_interval – how long to wait between each retry. Default: `Timings.exists_retry`.

print_control_identifiers(*args, **kwargs)¶

print_ctrl_ids(*args, **kwargs)¶

wait(wait_for, timeout=None, retry_interval=None)¶

(DEPRECATED) Wait for the window to be in a particular state/states. :param wait_for: The state to wait for the window to be in. It can

be any of the following states, also you may combine the states by space key.

‘exists’ means that the window is a valid handle

‘visible’ means that the window is not hidden

‘enabled’ means that the window is not disabled

‘ready’ means that the window is visible and enabled

‘active’ means that the window is active

Parameters:	timeout – Raise an `pywinauto.timings.TimeoutError()` if the window is not in the appropriate state after this number of seconds. Default: `pywinauto.timings.Timings.window_find_timeout`. retry_interval – How long to sleep between each retry. Default: `pywinauto.timings.Timings.window_find_retry`.

An example to wait until the dialog exists, is ready, enabled and visible:

self.Dlg.wait("exists enabled visible ready")

wait_not(wait_for, timeout=None, retry_interval=None)¶

(DEPRECATED)Wait for the window to not be in a particular state/states. :param wait_for_not: The state to wait for the window to not be in. It can be any

of the following states, also you may combine the states by space key.

‘exists’ means that the window is a valid handle

‘visible’ means that the window is not hidden

‘enabled’ means that the window is not disabled

‘ready’ means that the window is visible and enabled

‘active’ means that the window is active

Parameters:	timeout – Raise an `pywinauto.timings.TimeoutError()` if the window is sill in the state after this number of seconds. Default: `pywinauto.timings.Timings.window_find_timeout`. retry_interval – How long to sleep between each retry. Default: `pywinauto.timings.Timings.window_find_retry`.

An example to wait until the dialog is not ready, enabled or visible: ::: self.Dlg.wait_not(“enabled visible ready”)