How can I get to the value of my WPF UserControl DependencyProperty from UI Automation Framework?

Question

Hi, I'm having trouble getting access to my WPF UserControl DependencyProperty values through the UI Automation Framework.

I've used James McCaffreys article in MSDN as a starting point (Automating IO Tests in WPF Applications, MSDN March 2009), but I can only see properties etc in standard controls such as buttons.

I'm assuming there's some Automation interface I have to implement on my UserControl, but what and how?

I can already see my control fine e.g. in UISpy, but I can't see the dependency properties within it. Here's what my usercontrol looks like currently in UISpy:

AutomationElement General Accessibility AccessKey: "" AcceleratorKey: "" IsKeyboardFocusable: "False" LabeledBy: "(null)" HelpText: "Switches 48v Phantom Power On/Off (for Mic inputs only)."

State IsEnabled: "True" HasKeyboardFocus: "False"

Identification ClassName: "" ControlType: "ControlType.Custom" Culture: "(null)" AutomationId: "V48SwL" LocalizedControlType: "custom" Name: "" ProcessId: "5684 (VirtualSix)" RuntimeId: "7 5684 40026340" IsPassword: "False" IsControlElement: "True" IsContentElement: "True"

Visibility BoundingRectangle: "(140, 457, 31, 20)" ClickablePoint: "155,467" IsOffscreen: "False"

ControlPatterns

Answer 1

There's no way of getting arbitrary Dependency Property values from UI Automation: you can only get AutomationProperty values.

This forum post says that in the new version of the UIAutomation API there is a way of adding your own custom AutomationProperties, but that version of UIA isn't supported by WPF yet.

A suggested workaround is to bind the Dependency Property your are interested in to the AutomationProperties.ItemStatus attached property: this will then be available in AutomationElement.Current.ItemStatus.