WatiN LogonDialogHandlers not working correctly in Windows 7

Question

I have recently updated to Windows 7, VS2010 and IE8. We have an automation suite running tests against IE using WatiN. These tests require the logon dialog handler to be used in order to log different AD Users into the IE Browser.

This works perfectly when using Windows XP and IE8, but now using Windows 7 has resulted in the Windows Security dialog box no longer being recognised, the dialogue box is just being ignored. This is the method being used to startup the browser:

        public static Browser StartBrowser(string url, string username, string password)
        {
            Browser browser = new IE();
            WatiN.Core.DialogHandlers.LogonDialogHandler ldh = new WatiN.Core.DialogHandlers.LogonDialogHandler(username, password);
            browser.DialogWatcher.Add(ldh);
            browser.GoTo(url);
            return browser;
        }

any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated...

Answer 1

Since nobody answered your question, I will, but unfortunately without ready solution.

I don't have Windows 7 to try at this moment, but it seems that WatiN's LogonDialogHandler is not compatible with Windows 7, so you have to write your own DialogHandler. The simplest way is to inherit from BaseDialogHandler. You can look at the source code of existing dialog handlers in WatiN. I made my self very simple and not universal one for handling certificate dialog. WinSpy++ can be very useful during implementation.

Answer 2

We have eventually solved this issue by using the Windows Automation 3.0 API to pick up the dialogue box and handle the logging in. This was done as follows:

1. Fire up an IE process and assign it to an AutomationElement
2. You now have the ability to traverse through the child elements of the IEFrame, picking up the username and password Edit fields.
3. Then send the username and password

Once the browser has been authenticated we then attach it to a WatiN IE browser object. The code follows below:

        public static Browser LoginToBrowser(string UserName, string Password, string URL)
    {

        AutomationElement element = StartApplication("IEXPLORE.EXE", URL);
        Thread.Sleep(2000);
        string t = element.Current.ClassName.ToString();

             Condition conditions = new AndCondition(new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.IsEnabledProperty, true),
                                        new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.Window));
            Condition List_condition = new AndCondition(new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.IsEnabledProperty, true),
                                            new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.ListItem));
            Condition Edit_condition = new AndCondition(new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.IsEnabledProperty, true),
                                        new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.Edit));
            Condition button_conditions = new AndCondition(new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.IsEnabledProperty, true),
                                         new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.Button));

        AutomationElementCollection c = element.FindAll(TreeScope.Children, conditions);
        foreach (AutomationElement child in c)
        {
            if (child.Current.ClassName.ToString() == "#32770")
            {
                //find the list
                AutomationElementCollection lists = child.FindAll(TreeScope.Children, List_condition);
                // find the buttons
                AutomationElementCollection buttons = child.FindAll(TreeScope.Children, button_conditions);

                foreach (AutomationElement list in lists)
                {
                    if (list.Current.ClassName.ToString() == "UserTile")
                    {
                        AutomationElementCollection edits = list.FindAll(TreeScope.Children, Edit_condition);
                        foreach (AutomationElement edit in edits)
                        {
                            if (edit.Current.Name.Contains("User name"))
                            {
                                edit.SetFocus();
                                //send the user name
                            }
                            if (edit.Current.Name.Contains("Password"))
                            {
                                edit.SetFocus();
                                //send the password
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
                foreach (AutomationElement button in buttons)
                {
                    if (button.Current.AutomationId == "SubmitButton")
                    {
                        //click the button 
                        break;
                    }
                }
            }            
        }
        return IE.AttachToIE(Find.By("hwnd", element.Current.NativeWindowHandle.ToString()), 30) ;
    }

We did use a tool called UI Spy to examine the Windows UI. If you run it against XP and Win7 you can clearly see how the structure of the Windows Security dialogue box has changed between the 2 OS's.

Answer 3

If you set whatever process is running your watin to run as administrator in Windows 7, the DialogHandlers work just fine.

Answer 4

For whatever reason the code Clint posted had comments instead of entering the username, password and submitting, and referenced an undefined method, but is otherwise OK. Here's some completed (and working) code:

    public static Browser Win7Login(string username, string password, string URL) {
        Process ieProcess = Process.Start("iexplore.exe", URL);
        ieProcess.WaitForInputIdle();

        Thread.Sleep(2000);

        AutomationElement ieWindow = AutomationElement.FromHandle(ieProcess.MainWindowHandle);
        string t = ieWindow.Current.ClassName.ToString();

        Condition conditions = new AndCondition(new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.IsEnabledProperty, true),
                                   new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.Window));
        Condition List_condition = new AndCondition(new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.IsEnabledProperty, true),
                                        new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.ListItem));
        Condition Edit_condition = new AndCondition(new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.IsEnabledProperty, true),
                                    new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.Edit));
        Condition button_conditions = new AndCondition(new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.IsEnabledProperty, true),
                                     new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.Button));

        AutomationElementCollection c = ieWindow.FindAll(TreeScope.Children, conditions);
        foreach (AutomationElement child in c) {
            if (child.Current.ClassName.ToString() == "#32770") {
                // find the list
                AutomationElementCollection lists = child.FindAll(TreeScope.Children, List_condition);
                // find the buttons
                AutomationElementCollection buttons = child.FindAll(TreeScope.Children, button_conditions);

                foreach (AutomationElement list in lists) {
                    if (list.Current.ClassName.ToString() == "UserTile") {
                        AutomationElementCollection edits = list.FindAll(TreeScope.Children, Edit_condition);
                        foreach (AutomationElement edit in edits) {
                            if (edit.Current.Name.Contains("User name")) {
                                edit.SetFocus();
                                ValuePattern usernamePattern = edit.GetCurrentPattern(ValuePattern.Pattern) as ValuePattern;
                                usernamePattern.SetValue(username);
                            }
                            if (edit.Current.Name.Contains("Password")) {
                                edit.SetFocus();
                                ValuePattern passwordPattern = edit.GetCurrentPattern(ValuePattern.Pattern) as ValuePattern;
                                passwordPattern.SetValue(password);
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
                foreach (AutomationElement button in buttons) {
                    if (button.Current.AutomationId == "SubmitButton") {
                        InvokePattern submitPattern = button.GetCurrentPattern(InvokePattern.Pattern) as InvokePattern;
                        submitPattern.Invoke();
                        break;
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        return IE.AttachTo<IE>(Find.By("hwnd", ieWindow.Current.NativeWindowHandle.ToString()), 30);
    }