UI Automation Support for the Table Control Type

Note

This documentation is intended for .NET Framework developers who want to use the managed UI Automation classes defined in the System.Windows.Automation namespace. For the latest information about UI Automation, see Windows Automation API: UI Automation.

This topic provides information about UI Automation support for the Table control type. In UI Automation, a control type is a set of conditions that a control must meet in order to use the ControlTypeProperty property. The conditions include specific guidelines for UI Automation tree structure, UI Automation property values and control patterns.

Table controls contain rows and columns of text, and optionally, row headers and column headers.

The following sections define the required UI Automation tree structure, properties, control patterns, and events for the Table control type. The UI Automation requirements apply to all table controls, whether Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Win32, or Windows Forms.

This topic contains the following sections.

• Required UI Automation Tree Structure
• Required UI Automation Properties
• Required UI Automation Control Patterns
• Required UI Automation Events
• Related Topics

Required UI Automation Tree Structure

The following table depicts the control view and the content view of the UI Automation tree that pertains to table controls and describes what can be contained in each view. For more information on the UI Automation tree, see UI Automation Tree Overview.

Control View	Content View
Table Header (0 or 1) Text (0 or 1) Various controls (0 or more)	Table Text (0 or more) Various controls (0 or more)

If a table control has row or column headers, they must be exposed in the Control View of the UI Automation tree. The Content View does not need to expose this information because it can be accessed using the TablePattern.

Required UI Automation Properties

The following table lists the UI Automation properties whose value or definition is especially relevant to Table controls. For more information about UI Automation properties, see UI Automation Properties for Clients.

UI Automation Property	Value	Notes
AutomationIdProperty	See notes.	The value of this property needs to be unique across all controls in an application.
BoundingRectangleProperty	See notes.	The outermost rectangle that contains the whole control.
ClickablePointProperty	See notes.	Supported if there is a bounding rectangle. If not every point within the bounding rectangle is clickable, and you perform specialized hit testing, then override and provide a clickable point.
IsKeyboardFocusableProperty	See notes.	If the control can receive keyboard focus, it must support this property.
NameProperty	See notes.	The table control typically gets its name from a static text label. If there is no static text label, you must assign a Name property that must always be available to explain the purpose of the table.
LabeledByProperty	See notes.	If there is a static text label, this property should expose a reference to the automation element of the control.
ControlTypeProperty	Table	This value is the same for all UI frameworks.
LocalizedControlTypeProperty	"table"	Localized string corresponding to the Table control type.
HelpTextProperty	See notes.	More details about the purpose of the table should be exposed through this property if it is not sufficiently explained by accessing the NameProperty.
DescribedByProperty()	See notes.	If the table is annotated by other UI element (for example, a text element that holds the description for the table), the DescribedBy property should expose a reference to the automation element of the text control.
IsContentElementProperty	True	The table control must always be content.
IsControlElementProperty	True	The table control must always be a control.

Required UI Automation Control Patterns

The following table lists the UI Automation control patterns required to be supported by Table controls. For more information on control patterns, see UI Automation Control Patterns Overview.

Control Pattern	Support	Notes
IGridProvider	Yes	The table control always supports this control pattern because the items that it contains have data that is presented in a grid.
IGridItemProvider	Yes (required with child objects)	The inner objects of a table should support both the GridItem and TableItem control patterns. The table itself need not support the GridItem or TableItem control patterns unless the table is part of another table.
ITableProvider	Yes	The table control always has the capability of having headers associated with the content.
ITableItemProvider	Yes (required with child objects)	The inner objects of a table should support both the GridItem and TableItem control patterns. The table itself need not support the GridItem or TableItem control patterns unless the table is part of another table.

Required UI Automation Events

The following table lists the UI Automation events required to be supported by all table controls. For more information on events, see UI Automation Events Overview.

UI Automation Event	Support	Notes
BoundingRectangleProperty property-changed event.	Required	None
IsOffscreenProperty property-changed event.	Required	None
IsEnabledProperty property-changed event.	Required	None
AutomationFocusChangedEvent	Required	None
StructureChangedEvent	Required	None

See Also

Reference

Table

Concepts

UI Automation Control Types Overview

UI Automation Overview