My interactive C.V - https://sway.com/_my1EHcy_bxdfD9t

My life till now in a new country - https://sway.com/buSuINktUFmula2H

There is a small work around for this. You can go to the UIMap.uitest file, edit the window's search properties and remove the classname property from it (check the image below).

1. Excel 2013 X VS 2013 Update2
2. Excel 2010 X VS 2013 Update2
3. Excel 2010 X VS 2012

Install Instructions:

1. Hit F5 on the solution. That installs the Excel Add-In
2. Copy Microsoft.VisualStudio.Test.Sample.UI.dll to UITestExtensionPackages and PrivateAssemblies
3. Copy Microsoft.VisualStudio.Test.Sample.UI.Excel.Communication.dll to PrivateAssemblies. 

 Important Points: 

1. In case of VS 2013, you need update 2 to get things working
2. Donot use two plugins at once. Pick the required set and ensure that only one addin is loaded into excel. To be sure go to Excel -> File -> Options -> Add Ins -> Manage combobox (Com Add ins) -> Go. Here remove the CodedUIAddinHelper. Open the appropriate solution from above and hit F5. This will launch excel and also loads the plugin. Subsequent launches of excel can be done from anywhere (taskbar etc)
3. I have implemented Value as a writable properly that can be handcoded.

Note:

• Path to UITestExtensionPackages will usually be something like C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VSTT\12.0\UITestExtensionPackages 
• Path to PrivateAssemblies will usually be something like C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies

ExcelPlugins.zip

Authoring on (or inside) a webview control is the same as any other control. You drag and drop the cross hair of Coded UI Test Builder on top of the control or hover the mouse cursor on the control and press Ctrl+I. The hierarchy of the html controls inside webview looks like this –

The top most element in the hierarchy is the XamlWindow, followed by the XamlWebView which is the webview control hosting the html content. The document and the textbox are web controls. The complete set of the web controls is documented here. On these controls you will be able to see properties like innerText and tagName which are specific to web controls.

Hand coding on hosted html controls will require a couple of things

1.     The XamlWebView and the HtmlDocument immediately inside it are to be always added in the hierarchy of the control.

2.     Name should always be added as a search property to the XamlWebView.

3.     If there is a HTML frame in the hierarchy, the HTMLFrame and the HTMLDocument immediately below it are to be added.

Sample code looks like below

Having made that clear, here I go.

I have been reading a lot of discussion going on in the web over the removal of start button and start menu in windows 8.  While most folks are excited about the new windows 8 start screen, a few are of the opinion that it slows them down. I will try to prove them wrong via this post. Now the below is a snapshot of a windows 7 start menu. 

It typically contains a bunch of programs like outlook, word, media player, a browser etc and a bunch of links to folders like Documents, Music etc. The highlight of the windows start menu at least for me was the search box in it. In fact, I had gotten so used to it, pressing windows key, typing something and hitting enter had become muscle memory. And yea, there is also an “All Programs” item which can be used to launch many other programs but I prefer using search box to this item.

 Now, in windows 8, there are several awesome windows store apps that work brilliantly with mouse and keyboard. I use them on a regular basis. But for those who are going to be mainly living in the desktop world and want their start screen back, I have some good news - the start menu has in fact become larger and is now called the start screen. There is nothing significant that the start menu in windows 7 used to do that the new start screen cannot (but the reverse is obviously not true). Now, have a look at the picture below, you can see I have mimicked the structure of the start menu in the start screen. And there is scope of pinning more desktop programs over here.

Now let’s do a compare of the earlier points shall we

 As you can see the windows 8 start screen is either better or is same as the start menu of windows 7 in all respects. So, put to rest all the worries about start screen slowing you down because it doesn’t. It just got bigger and better.

You need more reasons to upgrade? Well, I will just give 8 reasons but there are several others. And if I start talking about using the windows store apps then I can give 88 plus reasons. But let’s stick to pure desktop users.

1. Did you check out the boot times – absolutely amazing
2. The new explorer
3. The cute yet powerful new task manager
4. Better battery life
5. Better copy paste experience
6. Inbuilt ISO and VHD reading
7. Inbuilt USB 3.0 support
8. Sync settings across machines

I use three pcs at work and one at home. Out of these one is a hybrid-laptop (touch and type), one works on dual-monitor, one is a powerful machine which hosts several VMS and the last one is a netbook. All of these now run on Windows 8 and I have never been so satisfied with an OS.  I urge all the desktop users to give windows 8 start screen a try, you will be surprised at how much you will like it. And at 40$ for an upgrade, it’s a steal.

private bool UsualMethod3(bool a, int b)

{

Pinger pinger = new Pinger();

for (int i = 0; i < 2; i++)

{

try

{

return pinger.Ping(a, b);

}

catch (Exception e)

{

if (i == 0 && e is TimeoutException)

{

Console.WriteLine(string.Format("Got an exception \"{0}\" in attempt {1}, retrying", e.Message, i + 1));

continue;

}

throw e;

}

}

return null;

}

The problem with the above code is that you have to repeat the same for every method of PingerClass. If there are several such methods, very quickly we might end up having a lot of duplication of the same try catch and for loop. A simple solution for this is to have a method that takes any kind of function as an input and does retry etc for this. This can be achieved using Func. So, if you check the attached code, you will find that I have a method like this.

 public object Retry(Func<object> function, Action<Exception> retryHandler, int retryCount). 

So anywhere you need to do a retry, you just pass the function or a chunk of code wrapped in a function to it, You will be able to execute any kind of code in this retry block.

RetryManager.Instance.Retry(() =>

             {

                    //Write whatever code you want to be retried here. For the above case, you would be making a call to pinger.Ping() here

                }, null, 1);

 If you want to handle some kind of exceptions only, then you can write code in the handler.

RetryManager.Instance.Retry(() =>

             {

                    //Write whatever code you want to be retried here. For the above case, you would be making a call to pinger.Ping() here

                },

            (e) =>

            {

                   //Write code to handle a failure here before the retry happens. For the above case, it would be if(!(e is TimeoutException)) throw e;

            }, 1);

To use the attached solution, unzip it, build the Pinger class first(because it is used as a dll ref in the test project) and then look at the test code. There are two testmethods RetryTestsUsual and RetryUsingRetryHelper. In RetryTestsUsual, retrying is done using a for loop and a try catch. As said above this is a simple solution if are doing it for only one or two methods. In RetryUsingRetryHelper, you will find that the code has been significantly reduced and there is a lot less duplication.

Retrier.zip

The app itself is very simple. Just a bunch of stories converted into a e-book styled application for easy reading. I had written those stories when I was in college.

Here is the link to the app. Just a click on it from your windows phone should take it to the installation page in the market place. Love Stories From India

Note: Because I wanted to do it in less than one hour, I didn't spend much time in polishing it well. So there may be a few rough edges. But the stories should be a nice pass time ( I hope :-) ) .

All you have to do is unzip the attached file, build it and put the UIAProxy.dll in %ProgramFiles%\Common Files\microsoft shared\VSTT\10.0\UITestExtensionPackages\ (or %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Common Files\microsoft shared\VSTT\10.0\UITestExtensionPackages\ if it is a 64 bit machine).

Note1: If it is still not working for you. You might have to do some code changes in the UIAProxyTechnologyManager.cs file. There is a method called GetControlSupport in that file. Check what your controls classname is coming as, and ensure that you return (int)ControlSupport.NativeSupport for that class name.

Note2: This code is not production quality code and has not undergone complete testing. So there might be a few bugs. If you find any issues as such, do ping me, I will do my best to get them resolved.

Update:

We have released a QFE after which achieving the above(using UIA instead of MSAA) has become a lot more easier.

Go through http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudioalm/archive/2012/05/24/coded-ui-test-new-extensibility-qfe.aspx to know more about the QFE.

I am attaching a sample project which you can use as a improved/easier replacement for UIAProxy.dll.

Download ProxyPlugins.zip, extract, build the  WPFExtendPlugin solution and copy WPFExtendPlugin.dll to %ProgramFiles%\Common Files\microsoft shared\VSTT\10.0\UITestExtensionPackages\ (or %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Common Files\microsoft shared\VSTT\10.0\UITestExtensionPackages\ if it is a 64 bit machine).

If you are already using UIAProxy.dll, do delete it before using this.

If you want to fine tune this further, you need to modify GetControlSupportLevel() method in WPFExtendManager.cs file to return ControlSupport.ControlSpecific support only for the controls of your choice.

ProxyPlugins.zip