Coded UI Test – Tip of the Day#2 – Use the navigation dial to move around in the UI Tree

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In some user interfaces, it is very difficult to drag the cross-hair from the Coded UI Test Builder onto a specific control. e.g- I want to locate a table on an html page, but when i drag the cross-hair on it, the cell gets selected. In such cases, you drop the cross-hair onto a nearest control and then use the navigation dial to reach the desired control.

 

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The following 4 operations are possible with the navigation dial.

1. Navigate to the parent of the selected control.

2. Navigate to the first child of the selected control.

3. Navigate to the peer control to the left of the selected control.

4. Navigate to the peer control to the right of the selected control.

 

If there are no qualifying control to navigate, the corresponding arrow is disabled. In the screenshot above, the left peer navigation is disabled.

Sometimes all navigation arrows are disabled. In this case, click on the Refresh button (next to it). This will retrieve all the properties of the control and enable the appropriate navigation arrows.