Automation Testing

Selenium: How to Handle Windows-Based Dialogs and Pop-Ups

By Test Guild
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In my previous post, Selenium + AutoIT: How to Automate Non-Browser Based Functionality, I showed you how to programmatically use Java to automate the Calculator found in Windows.

Today I want to show you an example of how the same approach can be used to automate pop-up windows that you might encounter when using Selenium. There are usually three types of alerts or pop-ups you will face when creating an automated Selenium tests

  • Windows authentication popup
  • Windows security popup
  • Web-based popup alerts

Remember, Selenium only works for browser automation.

Any time you encounter a non-browser window — like an authentication pop-window — Selenium will not be able to recognize it since it is an OS-level dialog.



How to automate OS-level dialogs with Selenium?

So what do you do in these situations? Here is one example that I've found to be an awesome workaround when developing Selenium test automation scripts in Java utilizing the AutoITX3 DLL.

For this example, I'm going to automate the browser print dialog as an example of a non-browser type window you might encounter in some of your web-based Selenium automation test flows.

To see the issue, let's first manually inspect it before automating it:


  • A Windows-based Print pop-up should appear.
  • We're going to automate:
    • Selecting the Pages radio button
    • Enter the value of 50 in the to field
    • Click on the Cancel button

How to Spy on a Windows Dialog using Selenium?

Cool! But before we can automate this we need to be able to spy on the dialogs fields in order to know what properties we can used to identify them in our Selenium script.

The first issue you'll notice is that Firebug will not work against this window since it's not CSS, HTML or JavaScript based. In order to get the identification properties we need, we'll use the Windows UISPY tool. (You can get the UISpy.zip from my site's downloads section.)

  • Start up the UI SPY
  • Locate the “Dialog” “Print” section under the window Selenium WebDriver Validation section.


  • Expanding the “Dialog” “Print” section will display all the elements and their properties.
  • Click on the “radio Button” “pages” under the control view.
  • You should then be able to see all the properties for that element.


  • We will use the AutomationId for each element as the identification property in our automation test example.
  • So, for this demo we will be using the following ID's:
Element Name AutomationID
radio button Pages 1058
edit to: 1153
button Cancel 2

Putting it all together

Now that we have the automation ID's that we'll be using to open up the Java IDE of your choice, add the following code (I'll assume you've already followed the setup steps I've outlined in my previous post on Selenium and AutoIt):    

File file = new File("lib", jacobDllVersionToUse);
System.setProperty(LibraryLoader.JACOB_DLL_PATH, file.getAbsolutePath());
WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();
driver.get("https://testguild.com/SeleniumTestPage.html");
WebElement printButton = driver.findElement(By.id("printButton"));
printButton.click();
AutoItX x = new AutoItX();
x.winActivate("Print");
x.winWaitActive("Print");
x.controlClick("Print", "", "1058");
x.ControlSetText("Print", "", "1153", "50");
Thread.sleep(3000); //This was added just so you could see that the values did change.
x.controlClick("Print", "", "2");
  • Run the tests.

If all goes well, you should see that your script opened the example web page, clicked on the print dialog, changed some value, and then clicked on the Cancel button. (Note: you should never use Thread.Sleep in your real-world test cases – I just added it here so you could see what was happening.)

In this example, we made use of the existing AutoIt functions programmatically in Java. For detailed information on the methods used in this example, and to see all the other functions available in AutoIt, check out the online AutoIt function library reference.

Awesome Awesomeness in action – -Right?!? So what are some other tools you could use to test more complicated window based dialog or thick client application that your web app might integrate with?

Sikuli


Another popular method to get around other types of windows objects when using Selenium is using a tool like Sikuli. What’s cool about SikuliX is that it allows you to automate anything you see on your screen using image-based testing. Find out more in my Getting Started with Sikuli post and video.

LeanFT


Essentially, Lean Functional Testing (LeanFT) combines the best of both the vendor-based and open-source worlds by morphing Selenium with some key functionality currently found in UFT. Find out more in my A sneak peek at Lean Functional Testing (LeanFT) post.

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About Joe Colantonio

Joe Colantonio is the founder of TestGuild, an industry-leading platform for automation testing and software testing tools. With over 25 years of hands-on experience, he has worked with top enterprise companies, helped develop early test automation tools and frameworks, and runs the largest online automation testing conference, Automation Guild.

Joe is also the author of Automation Awesomeness: 260 Actionable Affirmations To Improve Your QA & Automation Testing Skills and the host of the TestGuild podcast, which he has released weekly since 2014, making it the longest-running podcast dedicated to automation testing. Over the years, he has interviewed top thought leaders in DevOps, AI-driven test automation, and software quality, shaping the conversation in the industry.

With a reach of over 400,000 across his YouTube channel, LinkedIn, email list, and other social channels, Joe’s insights impact thousands of testers and engineers worldwide.

He has worked with some of the top companies in software testing and automation, including Tricentis, Keysight, Applitools, and BrowserStack, as sponsors and partners, helping them connect with the right audience in the automation testing space.

Follow him on LinkedIn or check out more at TestGuild.com.

  1. Pingback: [BLOCKED BY STBV] Testing Bits – 7/20/14 – 7/26/14 | Testing Curator Blog

  2. I followed all the steps.But for the pop up window with Ok and cancel buttons,automation id is nill.what to do with this issue?

  3. Hi,

    Thanks for good information, could you please share me UISPY tool? I am not able to download from ur site? facing error as permission denied..

    Thanks & Regards
    Srinath K

  7. Hi Joe ,,,
    Nice posting on windows Pop-Ups, can we have any other methods for windows Pop-ups like you said ” AutoIt ”, we find only this method for automating window Pop-Ups , can you share any other methods for windows
    Pop-Ups.( where selenium webdriver can handle )

    thanks
    Reddy

  8. Hi,

    Thanks for the info. I appreciate your efforts for sharing this useful info. I have implemented the code in the same fashion & I was able to interact with the dialog. But my test case also needs to interact with a .ini file. On trying to use iniWrite or iniRead to read & write into the .ini file an exception is thrown. I googled but I didn’t get any solution. Am stuck now & am unable to proceed further without getting a solution for this issue. Please help me. Your help would be highly appreciated.

    AutoItX x = new AutoItX();
    x.iniRead(“F:\\Simulator\\DeviceSimulatorV0.8\\DefaultSimulator.ini”, “DefaultSimulator”, “Addr”, “”);
    //String fileName = “\\DefaultSimulator.ini”;
    //x.iniWrite(fileName, “UDP ADDRESS”, “Addr”, “54.244.118.62”);

    Trying to use iniWrite, this is the exception:
    FAILED: calc
    com.jacob.com.ComFailException: Can’t map name to dispid: IniWrite
    at com.jacob.com.Dispatch.invokev(Native Method)
    at com.jacob.com.Dispatch.invokev(Dispatch.java:625)
    at com.jacob.com.Dispatch.callN(Dispatch.java:453)
    at com.jacob.activeX.ActiveXComponent.invoke(ActiveXComponent.java:476)
    at autoitx4java.AutoItX.iniWrite(AutoItX.java:349)
    at autoIt.CalcTest.calc(CalcTest.java:53)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:497)
    at org.testng.internal.MethodInvocationHelper.invokeMethod(MethodInvocationHelper.java:85)
    at org.testng.internal.Invoker.invokeMethod(Invoker.java:648)
    at org.testng.internal.Invoker.invokeTestMethod(Invoker.java:834)
    at org.testng.internal.Invoker.invokeTestMethods(Invoker.java:1142)
    at org.testng.internal.TestMethodWorker.invokeTestMethods(TestMethodWorker.java:124)
    at org.testng.internal.TestMethodWorker.run(TestMethodWorker.java:108)
    at org.testng.TestRunner.privateRun(TestRunner.java:771)
    at org.testng.TestRunner.run(TestRunner.java:621)
    at org.testng.SuiteRunner.runTest(SuiteRunner.java:357)
    at org.testng.SuiteRunner.runSequentially(SuiteRunner.java:352)
    at org.testng.SuiteRunner.privateRun(SuiteRunner.java:310)
    at org.testng.SuiteRunner.run(SuiteRunner.java:259)
    at org.testng.SuiteRunnerWorker.runSuite(SuiteRunnerWorker.java:52)
    at org.testng.SuiteRunnerWorker.run(SuiteRunnerWorker.java:86)
    at org.testng.TestNG.runSuitesSequentially(TestNG.java:1176)
    at org.testng.TestNG.runSuitesLocally(TestNG.java:1101)
    at org.testng.TestNG.run(TestNG.java:1009)
    at org.testng.remote.RemoteTestNG.run(RemoteTestNG.java:111)
    at org.testng.remote.RemoteTestNG.initAndRun(RemoteTestNG.java:204)
    at org.testng.remote.RemoteTestNG.main(RemoteTestNG.java:175)

    Trying to use iniRead, this is the exception:
    FAILED: calc
    com.jacob.com.ComFailException: Can’t map name to dispid: IniRead
    at com.jacob.com.Dispatch.invokev(Native Method)
    at com.jacob.com.Dispatch.invokev(Dispatch.java:625)
    at com.jacob.com.Dispatch.callN(Dispatch.java:453)
    at com.jacob.activeX.ActiveXComponent.invoke(ActiveXComponent.java:476)
    at autoitx4java.AutoItX.iniRead(AutoItX.java:331)
    at autoIt.CalcTest.calc(CalcTest.java:49)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:497)
    at org.testng.internal.MethodInvocationHelper.invokeMethod(MethodInvocationHelper.java:85)
    at org.testng.internal.Invoker.invokeMethod(Invoker.java:648)
    at org.testng.internal.Invoker.invokeTestMethod(Invoker.java:834)
    at org.testng.internal.Invoker.invokeTestMethods(Invoker.java:1142)
    at org.testng.internal.TestMethodWorker.invokeTestMethods(TestMethodWorker.java:124)
    at org.testng.internal.TestMethodWorker.run(TestMethodWorker.java:108)
    at org.testng.TestRunner.privateRun(TestRunner.java:771)
    at org.testng.TestRunner.run(TestRunner.java:621)
    at org.testng.SuiteRunner.runTest(SuiteRunner.java:357)
    at org.testng.SuiteRunner.runSequentially(SuiteRunner.java:352)
    at org.testng.SuiteRunner.privateRun(SuiteRunner.java:310)
    at org.testng.SuiteRunner.run(SuiteRunner.java:259)
    at org.testng.SuiteRunnerWorker.runSuite(SuiteRunnerWorker.java:52)
    at org.testng.SuiteRunnerWorker.run(SuiteRunnerWorker.java:86)
    at org.testng.TestNG.runSuitesSequentially(TestNG.java:1176)
    at org.testng.TestNG.runSuitesLocally(TestNG.java:1101)
    at org.testng.TestNG.run(TestNG.java:1009)
    at org.testng.remote.RemoteTestNG.run(RemoteTestNG.java:111)
    at org.testng.remote.RemoteTestNG.initAndRun(RemoteTestNG.java:204)
    at org.testng.remote.RemoteTestNG.main(RemoteTestNG.java:175)

  9. After clicking “Cancel” button to close my Windows popup, i try to find an element on the browser page and get an error “Unable to find element on closed window”. Any recommendations?

    Thanks a lot Joe for all of your knowledge sharing.

  13. Thanks for this, it was very useful. Can you provide any insight into utilizing AutoIt on a Selenium GRID set up?

Comments are closed.

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