I am trying to do automated testing of my application via UI Automation (mainly using TestStack.White to provide a friendly interface; it uses System.Windows.Automation as a back-end). I have a table with ~200 rows that I need to test the values of (actually I only want to test the first and last couple rows). I have discovered that using COM-interop UIAutomationCore by itself, I can enumerate the rows in a fraction of a second, but only when I don't use White or System.Windows.Automation. As soon as System.Windows.Automation initializes, future UI Automation actions to enumerate rows are slow:
First COM run: it took 0.04 seconds to get 102 rows!
First System.Windows.Automation run: it took 7.18 seconds to get 102 rows!
Second COM run: it took 7.87 seconds to get 102 rows!
I created a simple WinForms test application (TableTest.exe to verify that it was System.Windows.Automation and not something to do with my application:
static void Main()
{
Application.EnableVisualStyles();
Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
var form = new Form() { Text = "TableTest", WindowState = FormWindowState.Maximized };
var dgv = new DataGridView() { Name = "DGV", Dock = DockStyle.Fill, AutoSizeColumnsMode = DataGridViewAutoSizeColumnsMode.Fill };
dgv.Columns.Add("i", "i");
dgv.Columns.Add("2i", "2i");
dgv.Columns.Add("i^2", "i^2");
dgv.Columns.Add("i^i", "i^i");
for (int i = 0; i < 100; ++i)
dgv.Rows.Add(i, i * 2, i * i, Math.Pow(i, i));
form.Controls.Add(dgv);
Application.Run(form);
}
Then I created another test app to test the first one. It works as either a console app or a WinForms app. First I test with COM automation, then with System.Windows.Automation, then again with COM automation. As you can see from the output I quoted above, the first block executes very quickly, the next two blocks execute excruciatingly slowly. If I comment out the System.Windows.Automation block code then both COM blocks execute quickly.
using UIA = Interop.UIAutomationCore;
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var process = System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("TableTest.exe");
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(500);
var uia = new UIA.CUIAutomation();
var rootCom = uia.GetRootElement();
var windowCom = rootCom.FindFirst(UIA.TreeScope.TreeScope_Children, uia.CreatePropertyCondition(UIA.UIA_PropertyIds.UIA_NamePropertyId, "TableTest"));
var dgvCom = windowCom.FindFirst(UIA.TreeScope.TreeScope_Descendants, uia.CreatePropertyCondition(UIA.UIA_PropertyIds.UIA_AutomationIdPropertyId, "DGV"));
var start = DateTime.Now;
var rowCount = dgvCom.FindAll(UIA.TreeScope.TreeScope_Children, uia.CreatePropertyCondition(UIA.UIA_PropertyIds.UIA_ControlTypePropertyId, UIA.UIA_ControlTypeIds.UIA_CustomControlTypeId)).Length;
var elapsed = (DateTime.Now - start).TotalSeconds;
Console.WriteLine(String.Format("It took {0} seconds to get {1} rows!", elapsed.ToString("f2"), rowCount));
process.Kill();
process = System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("TableTest.exe");
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(500);
var root = AutomationElement.RootElement;
var window = root.FindFirst(TreeScope.Children, new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.NameProperty, "TableTest"));
var dgv = window.FindFirst(TreeScope.Descendants, new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.AutomationIdProperty, "DGV"));
start = DateTime.Now;
rowCount = dgv.FindAll(TreeScope.Children, new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.Custom)).Count;
elapsed = (DateTime.Now - start).TotalSeconds;
Console.WriteLine(String.Format("It took {0} seconds to get {1} rows!", elapsed.ToString("f2"), rowCount));
process.Kill();
process = System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("TableTest.exe");
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(500);
uia = new UIA.CUIAutomation();
rootCom = uia.GetRootElement();
windowCom = rootCom.FindFirst(UIA.TreeScope.TreeScope_Children, uia.CreatePropertyCondition(UIA.UIA_PropertyIds.UIA_NamePropertyId, "TableTest"));
dgvCom = windowCom.FindFirst(UIA.TreeScope.TreeScope_Descendants, uia.CreatePropertyCondition(UIA.UIA_PropertyIds.UIA_AutomationIdPropertyId, "DGV"));
start = DateTime.Now;
rowCount = dgvCom.FindAll(UIA.TreeScope.TreeScope_Children, uia.CreatePropertyCondition(UIA.UIA_PropertyIds.UIA_ControlTypePropertyId, UIA.UIA_ControlTypeIds.UIA_CustomControlTypeId)).Length;
elapsed = (DateTime.Now - start).TotalSeconds;
Console.WriteLine(String.Format("It took {0} seconds to get {1} rows!", elapsed.ToString("f2"), rowCount));
process.Kill();
}
What the heck is System.Windows.Automation doing that kills the performance of UI Automation? I've looked at the White source code and I don't see anything obvious. I can't profile System.Windows.Automation itself because I can't find any PDB for it. I'm not very familiar with UI Automation so maybe it'll be obvious to someone else. The White is: 0.13.0.0 and I'm testing on 64-bit Windows 7.
System.Windows.Automationand discovered that the problem is there, not in White (which usesSystem.Windows.Automationrather than the COM interface). I.e. when usingSystem.Windows.Automation, the first row enumeration is as slow as the second. Maybe that helps narrow things down? – Hash