Select an item out of a combo box with a vbscript - vbscript

I am writing a few tests in vbscript for an application that I am working on, and I need to select one option out of several in a combo box. Does anyone know how to do this? The way I am currently "selecting" the option is
Browser("main_browser").Page("main_page").WebEdit("teams").Set "Thunder"
This will make this field equal to "Thunder", but the application does not recognize this as the "Thunder" choice in my combobox, merely a string with the value "Thunder" that has been injected, so to speak.
By the way, I am using quick test pro as an environment.

Are you sure the combo box is a real combo box (a SELECT HTML tag)?
When QTP sees a select tag it identifies it as a WebList and not as a WebEdit as you listed. Then you can perform WebList.Select which does a native selection (and not Set). It could be that you don't have a read HTML combo-box, instead you have an edit-box that simulates a combo-box and then .Set just sets the text.
If you are unable to recognise the control as a WebEdit you will have to examine the HTML to see what event causes the selection of the field to change and use WebEdit.FireEvent in order to simulate a human's interaction.

Related

UIPath Robot won't type into a text box, clear selector. Clicking separately and sending hotkeys also does not work

I've tried nearly anything, The "Type Into" activity won't print plain text into the text box let alone a held variable. The textbox element in question is the update work items comment box in the acme-test website from the Level 3 RPA developer course. I am able to type into the box manually and the robot is able to find it (the cursor moves to the centre of the text box and the program continues). I've tried quite a lot, including using a click activity and then sending the string as hotkeys.
Most probably the issue is related to your selectors. Since you are on level 3 RPA developer course I assume you are using Reframework for the task and I believe because of comprehensive error handling capabilities of this template your application just continuous with the next item instead of crashing when it can't find the element.
To solve the selector issues I usually do the following:
Use partial selectors instead of full selectors
Use wildcards for dynamic parts of your selectors (* for replacing any number of characters, ? for replacing exactly 1 character)
You can also store the page you are working on in a Uipath.Core.Browser type variable to eliminate the need of reselecting browser.
Also keep in mind that if you have used basic recorder functionality of UI path it generates full selectors.

Positioning mouse cursor on another Application's List item entry based on its text value

I want to do an automation using Excel VBA. First of all I am not sure if its possible so I need to explain the problem first.
I would launch an application which has a list of reports , that one can run by right clicking on any of these and selecting an entry from the popup menu caled say "Run this report". The problem is the report names are displayed in a listbox.
There are so many entries I only need to run a few of them based on their names.
To achieve this I thought about placing the mouse cursor on the text displaying the appropriate report name and then trigger the right click event. These can be done using Windows APIs.
The challenge I am facing is how to hover my mouse on any particular list item based on its display text.
I can enumerate all the windows controls based on the handle of the application's window, but is it possible to get the location of any item on the screen based on the text displayed on list item.

Ajax-like appearing/disappearing elements in Access 2010 web database project

I'm trying to have a feature to allow users choose two different methods of cost calculation: either they can enter a yearly cost breakdown on a datasheet (2010: $10,000, 2011: $12,000, etc) or they can enter a flat yearly cost multiplied by the number of years they select.
If I were developing another kind of web application, I'd have radio buttons to select two different options. One option would display the datasheet, and the other option would display two text fields to enter values into. However, I understand that you can't have radio buttons in Access 2010 web databases. Also, is it possible to make elements appear and disappear based on a combo box selection?
If not, perhaps I could have two different combo box options: "enter yearly cost breakdown"
or "enter flat yearly cost," which open the correct respective forms as pop-ups.
So, 1) can I have Ajax-like appearing and disappearing elements as triggered by a combo box (or ideally, radio buttons), and 2) if not, can anyone think of another clever way of doing it?
Sure, you get a nice effect by using a tab control. You can place controls and even a sub form on that tab control.
So, you build a screen like this:
Then, simple set the visible property of the second tab = No. This will hide the tab (don't change this until you built the page since it will hide it! (use property sheet to hide/un-hide during development).
Now, add some code to the after update event of the list box. Like this:
In the above, I have named the tabs PYear and PFlat.
The result is this (this is a animated gif I inserted):
Of course, you really probably could just dump the whole "list box" selection, and use a screen like this with the tabs (tabs are good UI, and users tend to grasp them quick):
So, you can hide a "set" of controls, and it really far less work and hassle then writing a bunch of JaveScript anyway. As noted, the "set" of controls you drop into each of the tabs can be sub forms, and also that of continues forms. So, the "hiding" as a set does work well in this case. I did have some format issues and found that I had to "start out" with the 2nd tab dispaled first (the first one being hidden). As noted, the listbox selecting is nice, but one could likly just go with using tabs in the first place.

How can I make a console-like textbox?

I am making a program called "BasicSys". It is a BASIC System simulator that uses a textbox for the console. So far I have everything working great but I need to have the text box act like a command prompt window. It needs to be able to ask for input and retreive the value without allowing the user to modify anything outside of the prompt space (the space where the user should only be able to type is after a ":" or a ">"). Some feilds are password feilds that require either no echoing or having the chartacters replaced by *'s. Is it possible to make a console out of a textbox?
P.S. I also want to know if there are any small BASIC v2 compilers for Win32 so BasicSys can compile and run BASIC programs.
Depending on how realistic you want it to be you can use the API to open a real console window and interact with it. There are many examples available that you can find by searching such as this one. My suggestion though would be to fake it with a multi-line textbox. It would not be very tricky. Set an index every time you draw the prompt, then as long as the cursor is positioned after the index the textbox is read / write. If the user scrolls backwards make the textbox read only. It should be fairly simple using the KeyDown event and setting the ReadOnly property True / False to get a passable "command" window.

Hide or Disable? In this example and in general

I have the following set of controls.
Scenario 1:
If you select one of the first 3 radio buttons and click enter, focus will jump to the Passport Number text box. If the user selects "Other", the "Other, Please Specify" textbox is enabled and, for convenience, screen focus (the cursor is moved) to that textbox.
Scenario 2:
The "specify Other" text box is hidden until the user clicks on the Other Radio button. Upon doing so, the textbox is made visible and the cursor is placed in this textbox.
Which scenario do you feel is a better approach? Perhaps you have another variation? Please state your reasoning.
I would also appreciate it if you could make a generalized statement as to when hiding is better than disabling or vice versa, but I am also interested in this particular example.
Thanks.
Afetrthought: Perhaps, in the 2nd example, the "Please Specify" text would only appear after the user has selected the 'Other' radio button.
I find that changing the UI by hiding/showing controls can be quite jarring and confusing to the user. Go with option 1 and enable the textbox when the appropriate radio button is checked.
My initial impression is that number 1 is neater.
it allows for a clear design of the GUI (there wouldnt be inexplicable empty spaces in the input screen)
it makes the colon after the `(Please Specify)" request meaningful.
The only time I advocate hiding UI elements is when it improves the UI. If it's just 'different' rather than 'measurably better', don't do it.
Users may be put off by the fact that the "other" option seems to require that you specify something, yet the UI gives no clue that you can do that.
I would consider number 2... Hiding the text box will make it easier for the majority of people to run their eye down the page (each horizontal line creates a barrier for the eye). When someone selects 'other' a text box could fade in with the words 'please specify' in the box. The form will seem to respond to the users input.

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