What is the difference between CodedUI and UISpy? Does both use same mechanism?
I need to implement support for UISPY in my own custom grid control[WinForms] to recognize each cell as like in the MS DataGridView. currently UISPY recognizes my entire control but not individual cell.
Any help would be highly appreciated
I'm not sure how UISpy works but CodedUI uses the UI Automation framework to access the UI components in an app.
Regardless, you might want to look at using something like HawkEye or WinForms Spy as a starting point for doing what you need.
The UI Spy tool is obsolete and no longer available. Developers should use other tools such as Inspect.exe that are available in the Windows Software Development Kit (SDK).
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I recently started using Xamarin.Forms for a project. Like the documentation mentions, it's great for prototyping. However, I'm really starting to notice limitations of the shared concepts for UI design. In particular, the inability to set custom button content (such as an image) is aggravating. I'm sure there will be several instances where I'll want to change how controls work.
The way I see it, there are two routes I could take. One, continue using Xamarin.Forms and make use of custom renderers. Considering I would still like my UI code to be shared, but also customized from the basic Xamarin.Forms controls, I'm leaning towards this option. Two, use the native Xamarin projects (Xamarin.iOS, Xamarin.Android). This would give me full control over the UI for each platform, but it would also mean more code to maintain.
Like I mentioned, I'm currently favoring the option to use custom renderers with Xamarin.Forms. Could I get some insight from those who have used one or (preferably) both options?
I've mainly used Xamarin.Forms. For the right kinds of apps (ones that are, well, "Forms"-like), it works pretty well.
Writing custom renderers isn't that hard, but the documentation is, unfortunately, not that great. Depending on what you're doing, it can be a bit tricky at times translating between the native control and the Forms layout engine. However once you get the hang of it, it makes sense, and now that the code is open source, you can peek inside to see how the "built-in" controls work.
There are various extensions that add more controls. Some are free and open source, like XLabs.Forms. So the control you need might be out there already.
You can use mechanisms like TapGestureRecognizer to turn an Image or a Label into a button, so just because the built-in Forms Button is really, really lacking in customizability, you can sometimes find other ways to get the same effect and still stay within pure Xamarin.Forms.
Hope that helps!
XamarinForms is good for sample application who don't need to use a lot of specificity of the device.
For complex applications, I advise you to start on Xamarin Ios and Android.
It will take more time to take charge but you will see it is much more permissive
I am new to Xamarin and not sure if chose Xamarin.Forms to create a application for ios and android platform has a problem or not.
The application has some features below:
The application will be able to running some code in background without launching application by user.
The application can be launched by a href link or a notification.
The application is able to launch a builtin Camera application, and receive picture data from Camera application.
Thanks,
Bo
The features you are mentioning can be done with both. Actually, anything you can do on Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android can be done with Forms. Because Forms is only an abstraction layer for the UI which is installed by a NuGet package.
Now, having that said when to use Forms or when to use iOS/Android? It is mostly about UI. Are you going to do some advanced or platform specific stuff is is easier to implement that with the platform specific project.
If you UI will be the same in both platforms and mostly consists of some lists and input fields, then that is a very good candidate for a Forms project.
Notice how I said it is easier to do in the platform specific projects. Again here, you can do anything in Forms as well by the means of Custom Renderers, it is just a bit harder to do.
Ideally try it out yourself and see what suits you best.
In regard with your need to execute code in the background. This will be tricky and is very dependent on the platform that you're on. You will definitely have to write platform specific code for that for which you can use the DependencyService to abstract it to your shared code.
However like AlancLui mentioned executing code in the background isn't something that is easy to do on mobile. On iOS it is restricted to accessing location data or playing music, but still your app needs to be running (in the background). Android has something called Services for this, which makes it a bit easier.
What is the exact difference between p4.net and p4api.net?
I was trying to create a custom gui based tool for perforce and I started developing it using p4api.net. Much later I came to know about the existence of p4.net. Now I am confused with their difference and the purpose.
Also I have a doubt on which option to choose for the development.
Is there something else other than these two?
P4API.NET is the supported API for .NET applications, so I'd go with that. You can see a list of the officially released APIs for the various languages here.
Microsoft Coded UI Test (CUIT). Can I create an independent (external) Visual Studio 2012 Premium or Ultimate solution in C# to record on my application UI without the application's source code? This solution can reference the application's assemblies. The CUIT API does not seem to help. It is not desirable to use Microsoft guidelines in doing CUIT, as it creates and inserts a test project into the application's solution. The development team does not want this test project, created by the QA team, to be part of their source code to check into their source control.
Coded UI testing with Visual Studio is about testing the user interface of an application. Coded UI does not care how the application was constructed (but see Note below). Coded UI test projects do not need to be in the same solution as the application. Coded UI can be used to test websites and web applications (via a web browser) where there is no Visual Studio solution available for the application. Coded UI can also be used as an automation tool, to automate routine operations that use several programs and websites to perform some action. For such automation there would be no single solution file that should have the Coded UI project.
My understanding of Microsoft's Coded UI guidelines is that sometimes it is good to have application and test in the same solution, just to keep them together so as to encourage testers and developers to use the test and keep them up to date. But there is nothing to force such togetherness.
I do not understand the impact of this sentence in the original question: "This solution can reference the application's assemblies."
Note: Coded UI needs the application under test to expose some of its user interface properties via the MSAA or UIA mechanisms. This is done for you with many types of software. See the "Platform Support" section of the "Content Index for Coded UI Test" at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mathew_aniyan/archive/2010/02/11/content-index-for-coded-ui-test.aspx .
Added 2013-05-02:
The clarification, within the comment, about wanting to link a Coded UI test to the DLLs of an application suggests there may be some confusion between what Coded UI tests are for and what unit tests are for.
Coded UI accesses the user interface of an application much like a screen reader for the visually impaired would. It also moves the mouse pointer, clicks buttons or links and enters text much like the software for people who cannot use a normal keyboard or mouse. Coded UI does not access the code directly so it does not need to reference any DLLs of the application. Before testing your application, I suggest you experiment with writing Coded UI tests to drive the Windows Calculator or to fill in forms on web pages. There are many videos and tutorials on the internet that demonstrate how to use Coded UI. Once you have some understanding of what Coded UI does and how to use it, you should be in a much better position to test your application.
All I want is to record the actions I perform in a website and have to get the code generated for the same in c#.To make it clear,I juss want to run the code so that the manual activity is performed automatically.Any help would be great.Thanks a lot.
Visual Studio has web test recording, it actually can generate code for you. This will record integration between browser and server. So if you rerun, server will think that you are doing something. This option is not browser automation.
WatiN is another option. This time, it is browser automation tool. It has recording tool too.
Third option is Selenium, very similar to WatiN. There are many tools to record Selenium scripts. Most supported one is Selenium IDE.
All tools, are quite easy to work with, and you can find good tutorials on the respective sites.
My best guess, of your needs is that you need #2 or #3. It looks like #3 is more active/mature tool, but I used both with success, so no problem to choose #2.
If you will go with #1, check what edition of Visual Studio you use. I am afraid, Web Testing could be available only in top editions, like Ultimate.