Get UI Automation Element Properties

This topic shows how to retrieve properties of a UI Automation element.

Get a Current Property Value

1. Obtain the AutomationElement whose property you wish to get.

2. Call GetCurrentPropertyValue, or retrieve the Current property structure and get the value from one of its members.

Get a Cached Property Value

1. Obtain the AutomationElement whose property you wish to get. The property must have been specified in the CacheRequest.

2. Call GetCachedPropertyValue, or retrieve the Cached property structure and get the value from one of its members.

Example

The following example shows various ways to retrieve current properties of an AutomationElement.

void PropertyCallsExample(AutomationElement elementList)
{
    // The following two calls are equivalent.
    string name = elementList.Current.Name;
    name = elementList.GetCurrentPropertyValue(AutomationElement.NameProperty) as string;

    // The following shows how to ignore the default property, which 
    //  would probably be an empty string if the property is not supported.
    //  Passing "false" as the second parameter is equivalent to using the overload
    //  that does not have this parameter.
    object help = elementList.GetCurrentPropertyValue(AutomationElement.HelpTextProperty, true);
    if (help == AutomationElement.NotSupported)
    {
        help = "No help available";
    }
    string helpText = (string)help;
}

Sub PropertyCallsExample(ByVal elementList As AutomationElement)
    ' The following two calls are equivalent.
    Dim name As String = elementList.Current.Name
    name = CStr(elementList.GetCurrentPropertyValue(AutomationElement.NameProperty))

    ' The following shows how to ignore the default property, which 
    '  would probably be an empty string if the property is not supported.
    '  Passing "false" as the second parameter is equivalent to using the overload
    '  that does not have this parameter.
    Dim help As Object = elementList.GetCurrentPropertyValue(AutomationElement.HelpTextProperty, True)
    If help Is AutomationElement.NotSupported Then
        help = "No help available"
    End If
    Dim helpText As String = CStr(help)

End Sub 'PropertyCallsExample

See Also

Tasks

Use Caching in UI Automation

Concepts

UI Automation Properties for Clients
Caching in UI Automation Clients