WINTASK Develop efficient and reliable Web automation scripts

Version 3.7

AUTOMATION FOR WINDOWS XP, Vista, Windows 7, 2003 and 2008 Server

Published by:

TaskWare 18, alle des Lilas 92150 SURESNES France February 2010

Copyright 1997-2010 TaskWare

WinTask is a trademark of TaskWare.

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CONTENTS
Introduction .......................................................... 6

Recording Mode ..................................................... 8

Why WinTask? .......................................................................................... 6 WinTask Components ................................................................................ 6 TASKEDIT ................................................................................................ 6 TASKCOMP............................................................................................... 6 TASKEXEC ............................................................................................... 7 SPY......................................................................................................... 7 TASKWIZ ................................................................................................. 7 DIALOG BOX EDITOR ................................................................................ 7 Exercise 1 ................................................................................................ 8 Capture/Replay Tool Myths......................................................................... 9 Exercise 2 ................................................................................................ 9 A Simple Automation Script ...................................................................... 10 Exercise 3 .............................................................................................. 13 Terminating a Script ................................................................................ 14 Synchronization when all the pages of the website has the same title ............. 15 Exercise 4 .............................................................................................. 15 Manual Synchronization ........................................................................... 16 Exercise 5 : Text Synchronization .............................................................. 18 Exercise 6 : Synchronization on OCR Text................................................... 20 Exercise 7 : Window Synchronization ......................................................... 26 Synchronization waiting for a PDF file to be fully displayed ............................ 30 Exercise 8 .............................................................................................. 30 Language Functions................................................................................. 33 Variables ............................................................................................... 34 System Variables .................................................................................... 35 Integers ................................................................................................ 35 Strings .................................................................................................. 35 Reals..................................................................................................... 36 Arrays ................................................................................................... 36 Operators .............................................................................................. 36 #IgnoreErrors ........................................................................................ 38 #ActionTimeout ...................................................................................... 38 #UsePageExact....................................................................................... 39 Exercise 9 : Using different Web functions and managing variables ................ 40 Iteration ................................................................................................ 42 Exercise 10 : Iteration for clicking the ith page............................................ 42 Exist() ................................................................................................... 44 Kill() ..................................................................................................... 44 -3-

WinTask Editor .................................................... 13 Synchronization ................................................... 15

WinTask Scripting Language ................................. 33

Web Page Management Functions .......................... 38

Iteration ............................................................. 42

File Functions ...................................................... 44

Web Data Capture Functions ................................. 47

Read() et Write() .................................................................................... 45 ReadExcel et WriteExcel ........................................................................... 45 Exercise 11 : Web data extraction ............................................................. 47 Exercise 12 : Typing constants in a Web form ............................................. 55 Exercise 13 : Typing data read in an Excel file in a Web form......................... 56 Other functions for Web forms automation.................................................. 58 Sub...EndSub ......................................................................................... 60 Converting a Script into a Subroutine......................................................... 60 Exercise 14 : Converting a Script into a Sub................................................ 61 Function...EndFunction............................................................................. 62 Exercise 15 : Full Data Capture Script ........................................................ 64 Compilation errors................................................................................... 76 Execution errors...................................................................................... 76 Trace using MsgBox or MsgFrame .............................................................. 76 Exercise 16 : Trace script execution using MsgBox or MsgFrame .................... 76 Log File ................................................................................................. 77 Exercise 17 : Trace execution using a log file .............................................. 77 Timeout error message on a page loading................................................... 78 ClickHTMLElement does not return an error but does not click ....................... 79 Navigate, a workaround ........................................................................... 79 Incorrect Form Filling............................................................................... 80 HTML object not found ............................................................................. 80 A Table capture does not return the expected data ...................................... 81 Exercise 18 : CONTENT keyword change for a correct capture ....................... 81 Internet Explorer Menu Option not selected ................................................ 88 Option in a menu of a Web page not selected .............................................. 88 Context menu selection does not replay ..................................................... 89 Low level Recording mode when nothing works ........................................... 89 Slow execution ....................................................................................... 91 Capture Wizard cannot capture the desired data .......................................... 91

Automatic Web Form Filling .................................. 55

Subroutines and Functions .................................... 60

Data Capture Script on a "real" Web site ................ 64 Debugging ........................................................... 76

Conclusion ........................................................... 92

APPENDIX A ...................................................................93 APPENDIX B ...................................................................95 APPENDIX C ...................................................................97

WinTask Toolbar ..................................................................................... 93 WinTask Floating Toolbar ......................................................................... 95 Exercises Solutions.................................................................................. 97 Exercise 4, Scriptweb04.src ..................................................................... 97 Exercise 5, Scriptweb05.src ..................................................................... 98 Exercise 9, Scriptweb09a.src ................................................................. 102 Exercise 9, Scriptweb09b.src ................................................................. 103 Exercise 9, Scriptweb09c.src.................................................................. 104 Exercise 9, Scriptweb09d.src ................................................................. 105 Exercise 10, Scriptweb10a.src................................................................ 106 Exercice 10, Scriptweb10b.src................................................................ 107 Exercise 11, Scriptweb11.src ................................................................. 108 Exercice 12, Scriptweb12.src ................................................................. 109 -4-

GLOSSARY ................................................................... 119 Index ......................................................................... 120

Exercise Exercise Exercise Exercise Exercise Exercise

13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18,

Scriptweb13a.src................................................................ Scriptweb14a.src................................................................ Scriptweb15.src ................................................................. Scriptweb16.src ................................................................. Scriptweb17a.src................................................................ Scriptweb18.src .................................................................

110 112 113 115 116 118

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I n t ro d u c t i o n
This manual has been written to give WinTask users a comprehensive resource to create efficient and reliable Web automation scripts. The manual covers the WinTask tool-set, the WinTask script language and the WinTask Application Programming Interface (API). The manual also provides exercises that help to illustrate the capabilities of WinTask and how to avoid common pitfalls. The exercises in this manual use simple demo Web pages on www.wintask.com/demos as automation targets. Once the reader masters the exercises, it should be an easy transition to apply that knowledge to the Web sites that they wish to automate. This manual does not cover pure Windows applications automation this part is covered in another manual that can be downloaded from www.wintask.com/manuals.php.

Why WinTask?
WinTask is a complete automation tool for Windows and Web. It can automate any Windows application or Web page. WinTask is more than just another macro recorder. The automation script can be extended to include standard programming paradigms well beyond a simple repetition of steps. It provides too Capture tools for extracting data from Web pages, and it includes OCR techniques for even capturing text embedded in an image displayed on a Web page. To execute your automation scripts unattended, you can schedule them using Windows built-in Task Scheduler.

WinTask Components
WinTask is composed of several components. Each of the components is fully explained later in the manual. Accompanying exercises illustrate how to use each component.

TASKEDIT
This is the WinTask Integrated Development Editor (IDE) Windows application. With the Editor, the user can record keyboard entries and mouse actions to generate an automation script file. The WinTask Script Language syntax is similar to Microsoft Visual Basic and provides a powerful set of library functions. Script files can be modified through the Editor, compiled, and executed to automate any application. WinTask Script Language files are stored in ASCII format (or Unicode) and have a .SRC extension. The Editor is a multi-pane window, main one showing the script code, the one on the right displays all the functions available in the language (the Language window), the one at the bottom displays results when the script is executed (the Output window). At any time, help on a function can be accessed by double-clicking its name in the Language window.

TASKCOMP
This WinTask component is a command line program that compiles WinTask Script Language files into a file that can be interpreted by the Executor. It can be invoked too through the Editor. The compiler flags any violations of the WinTask Script Language syntax in the script file and reports them to the user (Compilation errors are listed in the Output window). The compiler generates two files with .ROB and .LST -6-

extensions for each script file compiled. The executable script files are created with the .ROB extension and are binary in nature. The .LST files are where the compiler logs errors and warnings along with detailed program statistics. This file is an ASCII file.

TASKEXEC
The WinTask Executor executable interprets compiled WinTask Script Language files and generates the keystrokes and mouse actions that automate a Web or Windows application. Compiled WinTask Script Language files have a .ROB extension. A separate instance of the Executor executes each compiled script file.

SPY
The WinTask Spy component is used to peer into the internal data structures of Web pages to extract the unique identifiers of each HTML object displayed on the Web page. This identifier is called an HTML descriptor and is used by many WinTask functions in order to access the different objects on the page in an object-oriented way instead of just clicking at mouse coordinates.

TASKWIZ
The WinTask Editor provides a recording mode that provides access to a set of Synchronization Wizards and to a Capture wizard. This last one allows to capture data from Web pages and store them into Excel, or into an array for a further use. The Synchronization Wizards are explained in the chapter titled Synchronization.

DIALOG BOX EDITOR

The WinTask Editor provides a dialog box editor that allows the user to develop dialog boxes for display during the execution of automation scripts. Dialog boxes provide the ability to collect information during automation script execution to customize the actions of the script from run to run. Development and invocation of dialog boxes is explained in the chapter titled Dialog Boxes.

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Recording Mode
The quickest way to start automating a Web site or a data extraction is to record your keystrokes and mouse actions into an automation script. The WinTask Editor has a recording mode that performs this function. The automation script can then be saved and replayed at a later date.

Exercise 1
This exercise demonstrates how to record a user session using Web pages as the application to be automated. The Web pages are under www.wintask.com/demos. 1. Launch the WinTask Editor by clicking the Windows Start button, then click All Programs, select WinTask in the list of Programs and double click WinTask. If Your First Script Wizard screen comes up, click Cancel button.

2. 3. 4.

When the WinTask Editor window comes up, click the Record button on the WinTask Toolbar to start Recording Mode. When the Starting Recording Mode dialog box appears, check Internet Explorer checkbox and click the OK button. The Launching Internet Explorer dialog box will appear. Enter www.wintask.com/demos into the Web address field and click the OK button. The Web page titled WinTask Demonstration Pages will open, and WinTask will transform itself into a floating toolbar titled WinTask Toolbar. There will added to the system tray that indicates also be a flashing icon that Recording Mode is active. Click the link Page 2 in the body part of the page.

5.

6.

The Web page titled Page 2 is now displayed. Type WinTask Test in the Your Company field: field and click the link here in the and click here to come back to Home page sentence to come back to the first Web page. Click the Stop Recording button Recording Mode. on the WinTask Floating Toolbar to stop

7. 8.

The WinTask Editor window is restored to its normal size and the recorded automation script is displayed in the text area. Close the Internet Explorer window by clicking the Close icon top right of the Internet Explorer window. at the

9.

10.

on the WinTask toolbar to run the previously Click the Play button recorded script. You are prompted for saving the file, give the name -8-

scriptweb01, and click Save button, you see all your actions replayed. Under Vista, if the Internet Explorer window is not closed when the script has finished replaying, close it manually. 11. From the WinTask Editor, select menu item File/Exit.

Capture/Replay Tool Myths

At first glance, it may appear that any Capture/Replay tool is sufficient to automate a task. It soon becomes apparent that unless the tool is flexible enough to handle a dynamic PC environment, the replay aspects will not meet expectations.

Exercise 2
In this exercise WinTask will be used in a purely Capture/Replay style. It will be shown that generated automation scripts may not always execute successfully ! If you use Internet Explorer 7 or 8, skip this exercise as a direct WinTask function must be used for saving a Web page under IE7 or IE8. 1. Launch the WinTask Editor. If Your First Script Wizard screen comes up, click Cancel button. The title bar should display WinTask [Untitled1]. If not select menu item File/New or click the New icon in the Editor toolbar.

2. 3. 4.

Click the Record button Mode.

on the WinTask Toolbar to start Recording

When the Starting Recording Mode dialog box appears, check Internet Explorer checkbox and click the OK button. The Launching Internet Explorer dialog box will appear. Enter www.wintask.com/demos into the Web address field and click the OK button. The Web page titled WinTask Demonstration Pages will open, and WinTask will transform itself into a floating toolbar titled WinTask Toolbar. Click the link Page 2 in the body part of the page. The Web page titled Page 2 is now displayed. Select menu item File/Save As in Internet Explorer (with Internet Explorer 7 or 8, click the Page icon in the Internet Explorer toolbar and select menu item Save as). Save the Web page under the name test02.htm in the current directory and click the Save button. Click the Stop Recording button Recording Mode. on the WinTask Floating Toolbar to stop

5.

6. 7.

8.

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The WinTask Editor window is restored to its normal size and the recorded automation script is displayed in the text area. Close the Internet Explorer window by clicking the Close icon top right of the Internet Explorer window. at the

10.

11.

on the WinTask Toolbar to replay the actions Click the Play button listed in the script. WinTask will now compile the script before running it. You will be prompted to save the script. Enter the name scriptweb02 when the Save As dialog is displayed. The Compilation results are displayed in the Output window of the Editor and the compiled script starts its execution. Please refrain from moving the mouse or entering any keystrokes as the script is executed. As you watch the WinTask Executor execute the compiled script you will see a repetition of Steps 4 through 7. You will notice that Internet Explorer doesnt save the file and the remains open on the Save As dialog box. After around 30 seconds, an error message is returned by the script. Click the OK button on the error message. Click the No button on the message box presented by the Save As dialog box, select Cancel on the Save As dialog box and close Internet Explorer. Questions for Discussion: What are the causes of the scripts failure to run to completion? How might the script be modified to allow it to run to completion?

12.

13. 14.

When your actions were recorded in the script, file test02.htm did not exist. When the script is replayed, the Internet Explorer Save As dialog detects that a file by the same name exists and prompts the WinTask Executor to confirm that the file is to be overwritten. The script has not been created to handle this situation and so returns an error. Without manual modifications to an automation script, the script will only complete successfully if the PC environment is IN THE SAME STATE as at the time when the script was recorded. Using Exercise 2 as an example, file test02.htm must be deleted prior to the execution of the compiled scriptweb02.src. This can be accomplished by manually deleting the file, defeating the purpose of an automation script, or modifying the script to delete the file if it exists.

A Simple Automation Script

So far we have ignored the contents of the automation script file created during Exercise 1. The following section examines the individual lines stored in scriptweb01.src. The lines from the script file are listed in Italic followed by a short explanation of what action each line performs. Based upon your actions during the recording session, your version of the file may contain additional lines not documented here. The user can view the script file in the WinTask Editor. Placing the cursor on the name of the function call and pressing the F1 key will bring up the WinTask Help System for - 10 -

the function. Descriptions of many WinTask Application Programming Interface functions can be found throughout this manual.

StartBrowser("IE", "www.wintask.com/demos") StartBrowser starts IE (Internet Explorer) as a new process. The second parameter tells which url has to be loaded when Internet Explorer starts. If you use a x64 version of Windows, note that the browser launched by this StartBrowser function is the x32 version of Internet Explorer (the one under C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer directory). UsePage("WinTask Demonstration Pages") UsePage defines the target Web page for all WinTask generated keystrokes and mouse actions. The function will wait for the specified page to be fully loaded up to a timeout value before displaying an error message. The default timeout value is 30 seconds. This line will wait for the page titled WinTask Demonstration Pages to fully load and display. Focus is placed on the Web page. ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= ' Page 2']") ClickHTMLElement clicks the link which is specified in the parameter of the function. The HTML object to click on is described by its HTML descriptor: Recording mode generates automatically the descriptor, which is usually based on the text displayed for the link. ALWAYS use Recording mode to generate the correct HTML descriptor. UsePage("Page 2") This UsePage function call tells that now the target for keystrokes and mouse actions is the Web page titled "Page 2". WriteHTML("INPUT TEXT[NAME= 'company']", "WinTask Test") WriteHTML writes a text in a Web form field. The first parameter of the function specified the name of the field where to write, the second parameter is a string of characters, the text to write in the field.

ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= 'here']") ClickHTMLElement clicks the link which is specified in the parameter of the function. The HTML descriptor used for this link is again based on the text of the link "here".

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Wi n Ta s k E d i t o r
The WinTask Editor provides full IDE capabilities to support the development of automation scripts. The user can record, edit, compile and execute scripts through the user interface of the WinTask Editor. Context sensitive Help on the WinTask Script Language is also available when editing a script: put the cursor under a function name within the script and press F1, the help on that function is displayed. The list of all available functions is displayed in a pane on the right of the main Editor window (press F4 if you don't see it), it is called the Language window. The bottom pane, called Output window, returns the Compilation error if any, and can display results when debugging a script. If multiple scripts are opened, a click on the Tab of the desired script puts the focus on it.

Exercise 3
This exercise demonstrates integration of the WinTask Editor with the WinTask Compiler, the WinTask Executor and the WinTask context sensitive Help. 1. Launch the WinTask Editor. The title bar should display WinTask [Untitled1]. If Your First Script Wizard screen comes up, click Cancel button. If WinTask opens a previously saved script (Ex. scriptweb02.src), close the window by selecting menu item File/Close and click the Open button on the WinTask Toolbar or select menu item File/Open. Open scriptweb01.src. From WinTask, select menu item File/Save As. Enter the name scriptweb03.src when the Save As dialog is displayed. This step prepares for this exercise by changing the script name and keeps the scriptweb01.src available as a reference. In the Editor window, place the cursor at the end of the line which contains the WriteHTML function and press Enter key. Type the following on the blank line : MsgBox(Hello Tester") (Type exactly as listed). Place the cursor at the end of the last line of the script and press Enter key. Type the following on the blank line : MsgBox("Tester: end of script").

2.

3. 4. 5.

6. 7.

Click the Play button

to replay the script.

The WinTask Compiler will detect the error and writes several error messages to the Output window of the Editor. Review the errors and double click the first error. The cursor will be moved to the point of the error in the Edit window containing scriptweb03.src. Note that the WinTask Status Bar displays the line and column numbers of the cursor location at the bottomright of the window. - 13 -

8.

At the very beginning of the line which returns an error, insert the character ' (single quote). The line is now commented and its color becomes green. Note too that the functions names are colored in blue. Now place the cursor at the beginning of the first line in the script. Select menu item Edit/Replace. Use the Replace dialog box to replace the word Tester by the word Developer everywhere in the script.

9.

10.

to replay the script. Script execution goes to its Click the Play button end and a dialog box Developer: end of the script is displayed. Click OK button. Come back to the WinTask Editor window and delete the character ' at the line where you have inserted it. Place the cursor under the word MsgBox, and press F1 to invoke the context sensitive help for MsgBox. Review the help page on MsgBox, correct the syntax of the MsgBox line in the script to avoid the compilation error. Note the text color change when the syntax becomes correct. Close the help window. Click the Play button to replay the script. Click the OK button when the first dialog box appears. Click again the OK button when Developer: end of the script is displayed. Close manually all the Internet Explorer windows.

11.

12.

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14.

Terminating a Script
There are times when you may want to terminate an actively running automation script. This can be accomplished by simultaneously pressing the Ctrl+Shift+Pause keys. The script stops when the current line under execution has finished processing.

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S y n c h ro n i z a t i o n
When the WinTask Executor replays a Web automation script, it needs to wait for the page to be fully loaded before it can execute the next action. In the previous exercises you had to wait for the page titled Page 2 fully loaded before you could enter text into the form field. Task automation cannot be realized without synchronization between actions. WinTask accomplishes synchronization through functions that automatically wait for Web objects fully loaded and ready to receive actions. The UsePage function provides automatic synchronization by waiting for a Web page to load and become ready when the next action must be done in that page. WinTask will report an error after reaching an internal timeout value (default timeout is 30 seconds) if the page is unavailable. The ClickHTMLElement, WriteHTML, functions wait too until the specified HTML object is there and ready before processing the action (click on a link, typing in a form field,). At times, the automatic synchronization through the UsePage function is not enough, and the user must manually add synchronization to the automation script. This chapter gives examples on sample Web pages under www.wintask.com/demos, where a manual synchronization must be added.

Synchronization when all the pages of the website has the same title

Exercise 4
This exercise demonstrates how to add a manual synchronization when all the pages of the website have the same title. Appendix C contains the solution for this exercise. 1. Launch the WinTask Editor. The title bar should display WinTask [Untitled1]. If Your First Script Wizard screen comes up, click Cancel button. If WinTask opens a previously saved script (Ex. scriptweb03.src), close the window by selecting menu item File/Close and click the New button on the WinTask Toolbar or select menu item File/New.

2. 3. 4.

Click the Record button

to start Recording Mode.

When the Starting Recording Mode dialog box appears, check Internet Explorer checkbox and click the OK button. The Launching Internet Explorer dialog box will appear. Enter www.wintask.com/demos/identicalpage1.htm into the Web address field and click the OK button. - 15 -

5.

The Web page titled Page Title will open, and WinTask will transform itself into a floating toolbar titled WinTask Toolbar. Click the link here in the Click here to go to the next page with the same title sentence. Click the link previous page in the Come back to the previous page sentence. The previous page with the same title loads, type My name in the Your Name field and click in the Your Company field without typing anything. Close the Internet Explorer window by clicking the Close icon top right of the Internet Explorer window. Click the Stop Recording button Recording Mode. at the

6. 7.

8.

9. 10.

on the WinTask Floating Toolbar to stop

The WinTask Editor window is restored to its normal size and the recorded automation script is displayed in the text area.

11.

on the WinTask Toolbar to replay the actions Click the Play button listed in the script. WinTask will now compile the script before running it. You will be prompted to save the script. Enter the name scriptweb04 when the Save As dialog is displayed. The Compilation results are displayed in the Output window of the Editor and the compiled script starts its execution. The script as generated by Recording mode has little chance to run smoothly because the UsePage functions are not generated automatically if the next page has the same title as the previous one. Add manually the UsePage lines at the correct places to ensure a correct synchronization.

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on the WinTask Toolbar to replay again the Click the Play button actions listed in the script. It should now replay correctly.

Manual Synchronization
WinTask includes manual synchronization methods which can be added during a Recording session if the UsePage function or ClickHTMLElement, WriteHTML, functions are not enough to ensure a smooth synchronization. A wizard is available to generate and insert automation script snippets to handle each synchronization method. When invoking a synchronization wizard from the WinTask Editor, the generated script is inserted into the active script window at the current cursor position. If invoked during Recording Mode, the synchronization lines are automatically included at that point in the recording process. The WinTask Help System provides additional details on how to use each wizard. See Appendix A for screen shots of the WinTask Toolbar buttons that invoke each wizard. - 16 -

See Appendix B for screen shots of the WinTask Floating Toolbar and the buttons that invoke each synchronization wizard during Recording Mode. Text Synchronization This synchronization waits until a pre-defined text string appears somewhere in the Internet Explorer window. Such a synchronization must be used if a Web page displays a tree on the left frame, and when an item is clicked, a new text is displayed in the main frame of the Internet Explorer window: the page has the same title before or after the click on the tree item and UsePage cannot synchronize by itself. If the main frame includes HTML objects which are different depending on which item in the tree has been clicked, and if the script uses some of these objects, the manual synchronization is not needed because the ClickHTMLElement, WriteHTML, . Functions wait until the specified object is there. The text displayed in an Internet Explorer window can be a non-standard Windows text and so WinTask will not "see" it. In this case, you need to use the Synchronization on OCR Text. The Text Synchronization wizard can be accessed through the WinTask Editor Insert/Synchronization/On Text menu item. Synchronization on OCR Text This synchronization waits until a pre-defined text string displayed within an image. This synchronization method is used in the same circumstances than Synchronization on Text and if the displayed text is not seen by WinTask. The OCR engine takes some time to transform the captured image in a text, it can take from several tenth of seconds till 3 seconds. So use this method only if the synchronization cannot be done through a UsePage, or ClickHTMLElement, WriteHTML, . The OCR Text Synchronization wizard can be accessed through the WinTask Editor Insert/Synchronization/On OCR Text menu item. Bitmap Synchronization This synchronization waits until a pre-defined image appears somewhere in the Internet Explorer window. One area where this type of synchronization may be useful is waiting for a Flash web page to load (if you need to click icons without any text on a Flash page, the OCR text synchronization cannot apply and so only a bitamp synchronization is possible). The bitmap generated by the synchronization wizard relies on the screen resolution, so if the script runs on another PC with another screen resolution, it will fail, so use Bitmap Synchronization only when no other method is possible. The Image Synchronization wizard can be accessed through the WinTask Editor Insert/Synchronization/On Image menu item. Window Synchronization This synchronization waits until a new window is displayed or becomes active or disappears. A user may use this type of synchronization to wait until the download of a file from a web site has finished. The Window Synchronization wizard can be accessed through the WinTask Editor Insert/Synchronization/On Window menu item.

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Time Synchronization It is the most simple synchronization : it waits until a specified amount of time has expired. The time interval can be set to hundredths of a second (tick unit), seconds, minutes, hours, days. Time synchronization has to be used for example on Ajax forms where the content of a field is not the same depending what the user has selected in the previous field. A small time interval must then be added to be sure that the field has enough time to be populated by the values depending on the previous selection in the form. The Time Delay Synchronization wizard can be accessed through the WinTask Editor Insert/Synchronization/On Time Delay menu item.

Date/Hour Synchronization This synchronization waits until a specified date and time. This Synchronization method is rarely used as it is more efficient to use WinTask Scheduler to run a script every day at the same time for example. The Date/Hour Synchronization wizard can be accessed through the WinTask Editor Insert/Synchronization/On Date/Hour menu item.

Keyboard, Menu, Mouse Wait They are not used in a Web automation script.

Exercise 5 : Text Synchronization

This exercise demonstrates how to invoke and use the Text Synchronization wizard while recording an automation script, to wait that a page is fully loaded and then display a message. Appendix C contains the solution for this exercise. If Internet Explorer is in Protected Mode or UAC is ON, Text Synchronization is not possible within an Internet Explorer window for security reasons, so skip to Exercise 6. 1. Launch the WinTask Editor. The title bar should display WinTask [Untitled1]. If Your First Script Wizard screen comes up, click Cancel button. If WinTask opens a previously saved script (Ex. scriptweb04.src), close the window by selecting menu item File/Close and click the New button on the WinTask Toolbar or select menu item File/New.

2. 3. 4.

Click the Record button

to start Recording Mode.

When the Starting Recording Mode dialog box appears, check Internet Explorer checkbox and click the OK button. The Launching Internet Explorer dialog box will appear. Enter www.wintask.com/demos/identicalpage1.htm into the Web address field and click the OK button. The Web page titled Page Title will open, and WinTask will transform itself into a floating toolbar titled WinTask Toolbar. Click the link here in the Click here to go to the next page with the same title sentence. The Web page titled Page Title loads, it has the same title as the previous one and you need to be sure that the text within the page has finished to load before capturing it.

5.

6.

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7.

Invoke the Text Synchronization wizard by clicking the Text Synchronization button on the WinTask Floating Toolbar. Recording mode is suspended.

8.

Click the Capture button on the Text Synchronization wizard. The wizard will be hidden and the cursor will change to a crosshair.

9.

Use a drag box to capture the text A text synchronization in the body part of the Internet Explorer window. On some PCs, you can receive an error message telling that the text cannot be captured, in this case go directly to exercise 6 about OCR Text Synchronization. Uncheck Only in this area. Click the Insert and Resume button. As now you are sure the text has finished loading, you can for example capture it. Capture functions are detailed later in this manual, so for this exercise, the script will just click a new link. Close the Internet Explorer window. Click the Stop Recording button on the WinTask Floating Toolbar to stop Recording Mode.

10. 11.

12. 13.

The Text Synchronization wizard inserted the following lines of script into the recorded automation script: Pause until Text("A text synchronization") InWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|Internet Explorer_Server|Page Title - |1",1) - 19 -

PauseFalse MsgBox("'Wait for' at line " + #ErrorLine$ + " has failed !") End EndPause The preceding lines of script instruct WinTask to pause execution of the automation script until the text string A text synchronization appears in Internet Explorer window. Once the text appears, execution of the script continues following the EndPause statement. WinTask will wait up to 120 seconds for the text to appear in IE window before executing the error handling script between the PauseFalse and EndPause statements. The user may wish to override the default wait value of 120 seconds to 10 seconds by modifying the first line of the script slightly as shown below. Also note that the error message presented to the user has been changed from a generic automation script error to a system specific error. Pause 10 secs until Text("A text synchronization") InWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|Internet Explorer_Server|Page Title - |1",1) PauseFalse MsgBox("The text in Other page did not load successfully") End EndPause

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To be sure that the Text Synchronization did work, add the line msgbox("The text is now displayed") just after the line EndPause.

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on the WinTask Toolbar to replay the actions Click the Play button listed in the script. WinTask will now compile the script before running it. You will be prompted to save the script. Enter the name scriptweb05 when the Save As dialog is displayed. The Compilation results are displayed in the Output window of the Editor and the compiled script starts its execution. The text is seen in the Web page, the dialog box is displayed, click the OK button.

If the text to look for is within an icon, the text cannot be "seen" by the Text Synchronization wizard. The OCR Text Synchronization method has to be used, it is explained in the next exercise.

Exercise 6 : Synchronization on OCR Text

This exercise automatizes the same actions as in the previous exercise but this time, a synchronization on OCR text is used to wait until the page has finished loading. Appendix C contains the solution for this exercise. 1. Launch the WinTask Editor. The title bar should display WinTask [Untitled1]. If Your First Script Wizard screen comes up, click Cancel button. If WinTask opens a previously saved script (Ex. scriptweb05.src), close the window by selecting menu item File/Close and click the New button on the WinTask Toolbar or select menu item File/New. Click the Record button to start Recording Mode. - 20 -

2.

3. 4.

When the Starting Recording Mode dialog box appears, check Internet Explorer checkbox and click the OK button. The Launching Internet Explorer dialog box will appear. Enter www.wintask.com/demos/identicalpage1.htm into the Web address field and click the OK button. The Web page titled Page Title will open, and WinTask will transform itself into a floating toolbar titled WinTask Toolbar. Click the link here in the Click here to go to the next page with the same title sentence. The Web page titled Page Title loads, it has the same title as the previous one and you need to be sure that the text has finished to load before capturing it. Invoke the OCR Text Synchronization wizard by clicking the OCR Text Synchronization button is suspended. , on the WinTask Floating Toolbar. Recording mode

5.

6.

7.

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8.

The Select the OCR engine field allows to choose the OCR engine; choose either the WinTask native OCR engine or the one delivered with Office 2003 or Office 2007, engine called MODI (Microsoft Office Document Imaging). The MODI OCR engine is more accurate but you need to have one of those Office versions. Click the Capture button on the OCR Text Synchronization wizard. wizard will be hidden and the cursor will change to a crosshair. The

9. 10.

Use a drag box to capture the text A text synchronization in the body part of the Internet Explorer window. The captured text is now displayed in the Text field of the OCR Text Synchronization dialog box.

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11.

Select some characters which are correctly recognized by the OCR engine (using MODI, the text is perfectly recognized, using WinTask OCR engine, some characters can be incorrect). Take only text word. Select text word, copy it, and paste it into the next field Copy from the "Text" field . The OCR Text Synchronization dialog box now looks like:

12.

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13. 14. 15. 16.

Click Check button to verify that at replay the text will be recognized correctly. The message OCR text recognized correctly should be displayed. Click Insert and Resume button. Recording mode resumes. Click the link previous page in the Come back to previous page sentence and then close the Internet Explorer window. Click the Stop Recording button on the WinTask Floating Toolbar to stop Recording Mode.

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The OCR Text Synchronization wizard inserted the following lines of script into the recorded automation script: ret = UseOCREngine(1) Pause Until TextOCR("text") InWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|Internet Explorer_Server|Page Title - |1",2) InArea(159,234,33,154) PauseFalse MsgBox("'Wait for' at line " + #ErrorLine$ + " has failed !") End EndPause The preceding lines of script instruct WinTask to pause execution of the automation script until the text string How recognized by the OCR engine appears in Internet Explorer window. Once the text appears, execution of the script continues following the EndPause statement. WinTask will wait up to 120 seconds for the text to appear in IE window before executing the error handling script between the PauseFalse and EndPause statements. The user may wish to override the default wait value of 120 seconds to 20 seconds by modifying the first line of the script slightly as shown below. Also note that the error message presented to the user has been changed from a generic automation script error to a system specific error: ret = UseOCREngine(1) Pause 20 secs Until TextOCR("text") InWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|Internet Explorer_Server|Page Title - |1",2) InArea(159,234,33,154) PauseFalse MsgBox("The page took more than 20 seconds to load!") End EndPause

17.

To be sure that the Text Synchronization did work, add the line msgbox("The text is now displayed") just after the line EndPause.

18.

on the WinTask Toolbar to replay the actions Click the Play button listed in the script. WinTask will now compile the script before running it. You will be prompted to save the script. Enter the name scriptweb06 when the Save As dialog is displayed. The Compilation results are displayed in the Output window of the Editor and the compiled script starts its execution. The text is seen in the Web page, the dialog box is displayed, click the OK button.

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Exercise 7 : Window Synchronization

This exercise demonstrates how to invoke and use the Window Synchronization wizard while recording an automation script, to wait until a File download from a Web page has finished before opening it. Appendix C contains the solution for this exercise. 1. Launch the WinTask Editor. The title bar should display WinTask [Untitled1]. If Your First Script Wizard screen comes up, click Cancel button. If WinTask opens a previously saved script (Ex. scriptweb06.src), close the window by selecting menu item File/Close and click the New button on the WinTask Toolbar or select menu item File/New. Click the Record button to start Recording Mode. When the Starting Recording Mode dialog box appears, check Internet Explorer checkbox and click the OK button. The Launching Internet Explorer dialog box will appear. Enter www.wintask.com/demos into the Web address field and click the OK button. The page titled WinTask Demonstration Pages will open, and WinTask will transform itself into a floating toolbar titled WinTask Toolbar. Click the link File in the page. A dialog box File Download will open. Click Save button. The Save As dialog box is displayed. In the filename field, type the file name under which the file has to be saved. In order the script replays correctly whatever current path is, type a filename including the full path, so for example type c:\program files\wintask\scripts\test.test (if you use a Windows x64 type c:\program files (x86)\wintask\scripts\test.test). Do not automatize a path change using mouse clicks as it will be relative to the current path ALWAYS use an absolute path. Click the Save button. The script must wait until the Download complete window appears before in the WinTask toolbar. going on. Click the window synchronization icon Window synchronization wizard will open and Recording mode is suspended.

2. 3. 4.

5.

6. 7.

8.

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9.

Click Spy button, the cursor will change to a crosshair. Move this cursor on the title Download Complete (if the window is not yet displayed, wait until the file has finished downloading). Click this window title. The Window Synchronization dialog box comes back to focus.

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10.

Check the Exists checkbox as the synchronization must wait until the window exists. Check the Exact name match checkbox to force the exact recognition of this Download complete window. Check Ignore instance checkbox to make the script work whatever Internet Explorer windows are opened when the script is replayed. The Window Synchronization waits for a maximum of 120 seconds that the window exists before reporting an error if the window does not come up. If the file download takes more than 120 seconds, change the value by checking Use this time frame checkbox and type 150 for example. Check too the Exists checkbox as the synchronization must wait until the window exists.

11.

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12. 13. 14.

Click Insert and Resume button. Recording mode resumes. Click the Close button of the Download complete window. Close the Internet Explorer window by clicking the close icon on the top right .

15.

Click the Stop Recording button on the WinTask Floating Toolbar to stop Recording Mode.

The Window Synchronization wizard inserted the following lines of script into the recorded automation script: Pause 150 secs Until WinStatus (Exists, Exact) InWindowAnyInstance("IEXPLORE.EXE|#32770|Download complete") PauseFalse MsgBox("'Wait for' at line " + #ErrorLine$ + " has failed !") End EndPause

16.

on the WinTask Toolbar to replay the actions Click the Play button listed in the script. WinTask will now compile the script before running it. You will be prompted to save the script. Enter the name scriptweb07 when the - 29 -

Save As dialog is displayed. The Compilation results are displayed in the Output window of the Editor and the compiled script starts its execution. The script execution fails. Why ? 17. Add at the end of the script the function deleting the file which already exists using WinTask Kill function. Use WinTask help to find the correct syntax for this function.

Synchronization waiting for a PDF file to be fully displayed

Exercise 8
This exercise deals with the case where the script downloads a PDF file from a Web site and has to wait until it is fully displayed before using it. Appendix C contains the solution for this exercise. 1. Launch the WinTask Editor. The title bar should display WinTask [Untitled1]. If Your First Script Wizard screen comes up, click Cancel button. If WinTask opens a previously saved script (Ex. scriptweb07.src), close the window by selecting menu item File/Close and click the New button on the WinTask Toolbar or select menu item File/New Click the Record button to start Recording Mode. When the Starting Recording Mode dialog box appears, check Internet Explorer checkbox and click the OK button. The Launching Internet Explorer dialog box will appear. Enter www.wintask.com/manuals.php into the Web address field and click the OK button. The page titled WinTask Manuals will open, and WinTask will transform itself into a floating toolbar titled WinTask Toolbar. Click the link Tutorial in the body part of the page. The Tutorial book is displayed, tutorial.pdf. Before recording any action in the Acrobat Reader window, the script must wait until all the book is displayed. The easiest synchronization is a Time Synchronization, adding a fixed pause, waiting enough seconds to be sure that the book is fully loaded. A more elaborate synchronization would be an OCR Text Synchronization waiting for a text within the window telling that the pdf file has finished loading. Invoke the Time Synchronization wizard by clicking the Time

2. 3. 4.

5.

6.

7.

Synchronization button Mode will be paused.

on the WinTask Floating Toolbar.

Recording

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8.

Change the default time delay of 10 seconds to 60 seconds.

9. 10. 11. 12.

And click the Insert and Resume button. Recording Mode will become active again. Come back to the page listing all the available WinTask books by clicking the Back icon in the Internet Explorer toolbar. The page titled WinTask Manuals is displayed again. Close the Internet Explorer window by clicking the close icon on the top right .

13.

Click the Stop Recording button on the WinTask Floating Toolbar to stop Recording Mode.

The Time Synchronization wizard inserted the following line of script into the recorded automation script: Pause 60 secs 18. on the WinTask Toolbar to replay the actions Click the Play button listed in the script. WinTask will now compile the script before running it. You will be prompted to save the script. Enter the name scriptweb08 when the Save As dialog is displayed. The Compilation results are displayed in the - 31 -

Output window of the Editor and the compiled script starts its execution. The script execution fails. Why ? TIP: Recording mode generates this line when you record the click on the Back icon in the Internet Explorer window. ChooseItem(ToolBar, "|1", "Back", single, left ) But the Back icon is not referred the same way depending on the Internet Explorer version. So if you need to replay the script on different versions of Internet Explorer, instead of the ChooseItem line, use the keyboard shortcut for Back, which is Alt+Backspace. The ChooseItem line must be replaced by: SendKeys("<Alt <Backspace>>") Note the space between Alt and <.

This section has described the WinTask Synchronization wizards and presented how to use some of them. The remaining wizards are similar in use and should prove to be intuitive to the user familiar with the other wizards.

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Wi n Ta s k S c r i p t i n g L a n g u a g e
The WinTask Scripting Language has a program structure similar to Microsoft Visual BasicTM and other scripting languages. WinTask automation scripts must be structured correctly to avoid compiler errors. WinTask scripts are composed of three distinct sections. The first section is reserved for data arrays, the second for user-defined functions and subroutines, and the final section for the main program. Other features of the script language include variables, integers and strings, arrays of integers and arrays of strings. Automation scripts generated during Recording Mode fall into the category of main program script. The user can wrap repetitive blocks of script in functions or subroutines that can then be called from other function/subroutines or the main program.

Language Functions
Functions support one or more input parameters and a single return value. Both are optional. If a function has input parameters, they follow the function name as a comma separated list enclosed in parenthesis. Constant strings passed to functions must be enclosed in double quotes (Ex: "qwerty"). Functions that return a string must have a function name which ends with $. Functions that return an integer CANNOT have a function name which ends with $. Below is an example: StartBrowser("IE", "www.wintask.com",3)

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The Insert Statement dialog can be invoked by clicking the Language button on the WinTask Toolbar. The Insert Statement dialog presents all of the predefined functions and system variables available in the WinTask Scripting Language in a tree structure. Clicking an item in the list labeled with a plus sign will expand that item. Expanded items, designated by a minus sign, can be collapsed by clicking the item. Double clicking any other item will invoke the context sensitive help or a wizard for the selected function or system variable. A right click on a statement displays a context menu. If you check Show wizard checkbox, a double click on a statement displays a dialog box where you can type directly the parameters for this function. In the Language list, all the Web functions are under the chapter Web functions.

The Insert Statement dialog provides an easy way to drill down into the help system to locate the function(s) that can fine-tune your script. Please take a few minutes to search the WinTask Help System to learn more about the available functions.

Variables
The WinTask Scripting Language supports variables that allow commonly used values to be stored in memory for later use by the compiled script as it executes. Using variables is as easy as specifying the name of the variable and assigning a value. Except for arrays, variables do not need to be declared before use. Consider the following line of script: Read("file.txt", line$, crlf) The Read function will open the file file.txt and reads the first line of the file into a string variable named line$. The script can then extract the desired information from the string contained in the line$ variable. As with Functions that return a string, string - 34 -

variable names must end with the $ character. It should be noted that this line of script is self-sufficient and is not dependent on any other line of script. Another example demonstrating the use of variables: url$ = "http://www.wintask.com" StartBrowser("IE",url$) StartBrowser("IE","http://www.wintask.com") The first two lines are equivalent to the third line of script. At first it seems easier to just use the third line of script instead of the first two lines. However if the script needs to make numerous references to the Web url http://www.wintask.com, the first two lines are the better choice. Succeeding references to http://www.wintask.com can be replaced with the string variable url$.

System Variables
WinTask uses a set of system variables that define the default behavior of the Executor when executing an automation script. For example, if a Web page loads slowly, the script can compensate by modifying the appropriate system variable to modify the default behavior to wait for a longer period of time before reporting an error. All system variables start with the # character. See the WinTask Help System for further details on the available system variables and the appropriate values to modify the default behavior of the Executor. The following is an example of a system variable: #IgnoreErrors = 1

Integers
Integer values in the WinTask Scripting Language range from 2,147,483,648 to +2,147,483,647 inclusive. Integer variable names cannot end with the $ character.

Strings
Strings can contain any number of characters. Empty strings (zero length) are also valid. An empty string is "", a string with just a space is " ". String variable names must end with the $ character. The following is an example of a string being assigned to a string variable: Greeting$ = "Hello, how are you?"

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Reals
Real values are not supported in WinTask. They have to be stored as strings and Add$, Divide$, Multiply$, Subtract$ functions allow operations on reals. Here is an example: Real1$ = "135.46" Real2$ = "-10.46" Result$=Add$(Real1$,Real2$) Msgbox(Result$)

Arrays
One dimension arrays are supported in WinTask. They have to be declared at the very beginning of the script using the Dim function. The maximum size of an array is 65535. The first element of an array starts at index 0. Here is an example declaring an integer array of 1001 elements: Dim Data(1000) Here is an example declaring a string array of 1001 elements: Dim Data$(1000)

Operators
The WinTask Scripting Language supports assignment, arithmetic operators, logical operators and a string concatenation operator. Operators take an argument on either side and can be combined into longer combinations. Logical operators are used in conjunction with conditional statements such as If, While and Repeat. Most of the operators are listed below with sample usage. See the WinTask Help System for a comprehensive list. = Assignment: Assign one value to a variable count = 38 name$ = John Q. Public + Arithmetic Addition rows = lines + 7 - Arithmetic Subtraction Profit = Gross - Expenses * Arithmetic Multiplication Fingers = Hands * 5 / Arithmetic Division Hours = Days / 24 = Logical Equal To If (employees = 15) Then ... Endif

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<>

Logical Not Equal To If (employees <> 15) Then ... Endif

< Logical Less Than While (employees < 15) ... Wend <= Logical Less Than or Equal To If (employees <= 15) Then ... Endif

> Logical Greater Than Repeat ... Until (employees > 15) >= AND OR Logical Greater Than or Equal To If (employees >= 15) Then ... Endif Logical AND If (employees = 15) AND (desks < 10) Then ... Endif Logical OR If (employees <> desks) OR (employees <> computers) Then ... Endif

+ String Concatenation FullName$ = FirstName$ + LastName$ Title$ = President and CEO + FullName$

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We b P a g e M a n a g e m e n t F u n c t i o n s
The WinTask Script Language contains several mechanisms to control the behavior of the WinTask Executor when attempting to locate and identify Web pages within the browser at run-time. Several of the more important system variables and functions are described in this chapter.

#IgnoreErrors
The #IgnoreErrors system variable controls how run-time errors are handled during the execution of a function in an automation script. By default the variable is set to 0 which terminates the script and displays an error message whenever the WinTask Executor encounters an error. Setting the variable equal to 1 allows execution to continue if the function fails. In this circumstance, the function returns an error code that can be tested by the script and the appropriate action taken. The following block of code illustrates how the #IgnoreErrors system variable may be used: #IgnoreErrors = 1 ret = StartBrowser("IE","www.wintask.com") If (ret = 0) Then MsgBox("WinTask Web site has been launched successfully ") Else MsgBox("Could not load WinTask Web site!) Endif #IgnoreErrors = 0 The above code will display a message after attempting launch to www.wintask.com. The message that is displayed depends upon the value returned by the StartBrowser function.

#ActionTimeout
The #ActionTimeout system variable controls how long the WinTask Executor will wait before reporting a run-time error when selecting a Web page, clicking a link, typing in a form field. The variable can be used to shorten or lengthen the amount of time waited before reporting an error. The default value is 30 seconds. The following block of code illustrates how the #ActionTimeout system variable may be used: StartBrowser("IE", "www.wintask.com/demos") UsePage("WinTask Demonstration Pages") ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= 'Page 2']") #ActionTimeout = 5 - 38 -

#IgnoreErrors = 1 ret=UsePage("Page 2") If (ret = 0) Then MsgBox("Page 2 did load in less than 5 secs") Else MsgBox("Buy a faster PC!") Endif #ActionTimeout = 30 UsePage functions returns an error if the specified page is not found after 5 seconds. To avoid that script execution stops in case the page does not load within 5 seconds, note the use of #IgnoreErrors=1. The return code of UsePage is then tested and the displayed message depends on the value of the return code.

#UsePageExact
The #UsePageExact system variable controls the way a page is found at replay. Consider those two lines: UsePage("WinTask Welcome!") UsePage("WinTask - Form") At replay, the two lines look for a page starting with WinTask word. The default behavior of WinTask at replay is to look for a page which title is exactly the same as the one specified in the UsePage line. If an exact match is not found, an approached match starts : the rightmost characters of the page title are truncated until at least the first character of the page matches the first character of the page specified in the UsePage function. If even the first character does not match, an error is reported. This way of finding a Web page can be changed using the #UsePageExact system variable and assigning it to 1. If a line #UsePageExact = 1 is encountered in the script, the next pages are found only if their title is exactly the same as the one specified in the UsePage line. To come back to the default value, insert the line #UsePageExact = 0. Then for the next UsePage functions, the approached way of finding pages will be used (which is the default behavior). TIP: The approached search can slow down a bit the script execution. If a page title varies from one execution to another, but its first characters are always the same, you can truncate in the UsePage line the rightmost characters which are changing. In our example, the line : UsePage("WinTask - ), will find the page at replay whatever word Welcome or Form is behind the WinTask word. If different pages of the same Web site are displayed simultaneously and if the page titles begin all by the same characters, the approached search can lead to a wrong page identification at replay. In this case, force #UsePageExact to 1. - 39 -

TIP:

Exercise 9 : Using different Web functions and managing variables

This exercise is a programming exercise demonstrating the use of different Web functions and variables. Appendix C contains the solution for this exercise. 1. Go manually to the c:\program files\wintask\scripts directory (or under c:\program files (x86)\wintask\scripts if you use a Windows x64 version) and delete the test.test file if it exists. Launch the WinTask Editor. The title bar should display WinTask [Untitled1]. If Your First Script Wizard screen comes up, click Cancel button. Click the New button on the WinTask Toolbar or select menu item File/New if Untitled1 is not displayed. Click the Record button to start Recording Mode. When the Starting Recording Mode dialog box appears, check Internet Explorer checkbox and click the OK button. The Launching Internet Explorer dialog box will appear. Enter www.wintask.com/demos into the Web address field and click the OK button. The page titled WinTask Demonstration Pages will open, and WinTask will transform itself into a floating toolbar titled WinTask Toolbar. Click the link File in the page. A dialog box File Download will open. Click Save button. The Save As dialog box is displayed. In the filename field, type the file name under which the file has to be saved. In order the script replays correctly whatever current path is, type a filename including the full path, so for example type c:\program files\wintask\scripts\test.test (if you use a x64 Windows, the wintask folder is under c:\program files (x86)). Do not automatize a path change using mouse clicks as it will be relative to the current path ALWAYS use an absolute path. Click the Save button. The script must now wait until the Download complete window appears. Insert a Window synchronization as seen in Exercise 7. Click Insert and Resume button on the Window Synchronization wizard screen. Recording mode resumes. Click Close button. Close the Internet Explorer window by clicking the Close icon top right of the Internet Explorer window. Click the Stop Recording button Recording Mode. at the

2.

3.

4.

5.

6. 7.

8. 9.

10.

11. 12.

on the WinTask Floating Toolbar to stop

WinTask Editor window comes back to focus, modify the generated script in order to replace the filename "c:\program files\wintask\scripts\test.test by a variable named filename$. At the beginning of the script, initialize this variable with the value "c:\program files\wintask\scripts\test.test".

13.

on the WinTask Toolbar to replay the actions Click the Play button listed in the script. WinTask will now compile the script before running it. You - 40 -

will be prompted to save the script. Enter the name scriptweb09a when the Save As dialog is displayed. The Compilation results are displayed in the Output window of the Editor and the compiled script starts its execution. 14. 15. Script execution does not go to its end because the test.test file already exists. Click the OK button on the message box displaying the error message. Modify the script to automatize the click on the Yes button in the Save as dialog box : in the WinTask Editor window, move the cursor just after the line Click(Button,"&Save") and click the Record icon in the WinTask toolbar. Check Nothing and click the OK button. While you are in Recording mode, click the Yes button and stop Recording mode. Add an IfEndIf block in order to click the Yes button only if the Save as window appears. Use for that the ExistW function. Save the modified script under the scriptweb09b name, and start its execution clicking the Play icon. Now delete the ExistW line, assign the system variable #IgnoreErrors to 1, and test the return code of the UseWindow function which looks for the window named Save as. Modify the If block in order to test now the return code of the UseWindow line in this If structure and click Yes button only if the UseWindow succeeds. Save the modified script under the scriptweb09c name. Start its execution. In the first line of the script where the filename$ variable is assigned to "c:\program files\wintask\test.test, modify so the variable will take now the value "c:\program files\wintask\demo09d.test. (or under Windows x64 "c:\program files (x86)\wintask\demo09d.test). Save the modified script under the scriptweb09d name. Start its execution. Questions for Discussion: the technique used at step 19 takes more time to execute than the one in step 17. However, which system variable could be used to detect the UseWindow failing faster?

16. 17. 18.

19. 20.

21. 22.

This exercise illustrates that there is usually more than one way to solve a run-time problem. Any task that is to be automated will present its own unique challenges. With some experience, the correct solution will become readily apparent.

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Iteration
The WinTask Scripting Language provides two mechanisms to repetitively execute the same block of script. The While/Wend construct is used to execute the block of script zero or more times. The Repeat/Until construct executes the block one or more times.

Iteration
The following sample script illustrates the syntax for the While/Wend and the Repeat/Until statements. Start = 0 End = 10 Index = Start While (Index < End) Functions and/or other code to be executed repetitively Index = Index + 1 Wend Start = 0 End = 10 Index = Start Repeat Functions and/or other code to be executed repetitively Index = Index + 1 Until (Index >= End) In both cases, the start and end points for the loops are set to zero and ten respectively. The code in both constructs will be executed ten times. Notice that the Boolean expressions are different in the two constructs yet they achieve the same result.

Exercise 10 : Iteration for clicking the ith page

This programming exercise demonstrates how a script can be modified to repeat a block of script several times. Recording mode is first used to generate the block of lines to iterate, then you will be asked to modify the generated script based upon WinTask iteration features. Appendix C contains the solution for this exercise. 1. Launch the WinTask Editor. The title bar should display WinTask [Untitled1]. If Your First Script Wizard screen comes up, click Cancel button. Click the New button on the WinTask Toolbar or select menu item File/New if Untitled1 is not displayed. Click the Record button to start Recording Mode. When the Starting Recording Mode dialog box appears, check Internet Explorer checkbox and click the OK button. - 42 -

2.

3.

The Launching Internet Explorer dialog box will appear. Enter www.wintask.com/demos/page-iteration1.htm into the Web address field and click the OK button. The page titled Page Iteration 1 will display. In the right part of the Internet Explorer window, you can see the links to go to the pages 2, 3, 4,. In this exercise, you will write a script which displays the pages 1 to 7. Click the 2 link. The page titled Page Iteration 2 will display. Click here link in the Click here to load Page iteration 1 sentence. The page titled Page Iteration 1 is displayed again. Close the Internet Explorer window by clicking the Close icon top right of the Internet Explorer window. Click the Stop Recording button Recording Mode. at the

4.

5.

6.

7. 8.

on the WinTask Floating Toolbar to stop

In the WinTask Editor window, modify the script and use the While/Wend construction to click links from 2 to 7. Two lines have to be modified to take into account the floating index, not 2 any more but i iterating from 2 to 7: ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= '2']") UsePage("Page Iteration 2")

TIP:

Use the string concatenation operator (+) to construct the string to be written as parameter for the ClickHTMLElement and UsePage functions. As the index i is an integer, use the Str$ function to convert the integer to a string before concatenating with the + sign. Save the modified script under the scriptweb10a name. Start its execution. You should see the script click the 2 page number, go to page 2, then click the Home page link, display page 1, then click the 3 page number, and so on. At the beginning of the script, insert the line #UsePageExact=1. Why this line is important for a reliable replay of the script? Modify the script to replace the Repeat/Until block by a While/Wend block. Save the modified script under the scriptweb10b name. Start its execution.

9.

10. 11. 12.

After completing this exercise, you will be able update a script to execute repetitive tasks without copying the same block of code numerous times.

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File Functions
The WinTask Script Language provides several functions that perform read and write operations in text files, Excel files, XML files and INI files. Several of the more important file functions used in Web automation scripts are described in this chapter. Additional file functions and specific details on the functions described in this chapter can be found by double-clicking the File management instructions chapter in the Language window of the WinTask Editor (the window on the right, if the window is not displayed, press F4 to display it).

Exist()
The Exist function is used to determine whether a particular file exists on the computer at run-time. The function accepts a full pathname, a UNC (Universal Naming Convention), or a file from the current working directory. The function returns a value that can be used in conjunction with conditional statements. Use this function to avoid run-time errors due to files that cant be located. The following block of code illustrates how the Exist function may be used: FileName$ = "C:\Program Files\WinTask\Help\WinTask.chm" ret = Exist(FileName$) If ret = 1 Then Shell("hh.exe " + Chr$(34) + FileName$ + Chr$(34)) Else MsgBox("Cannot find file: " + FileName$) Endif TIP: The filename passed to the Exist function should not be surrounded by double quotes (Chr$(34)) as required by the Shell function. The quotes should not be supplied even if the filename contains embedded spaces.

Kill()
The Kill function is used to permanently remove a file from the computer at run-time. The function accepts a full pathname, a UNC, or a file from the current working directory. The function returns a value that can be used in conjunction with conditional statements. The following block of code illustrates the Kill function, note the use of #IgnoreErrors=1 to avoid a runtime error if the file does not exist when Kill is invoked:

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FileName$ = "C:\Temp\SomeUselessFile.txt" #IgnoreErrors=1 ret = Kill(FileName$) If ret = 0 Then MsgBox("File: " + FileName$ + " has been deleted.") Else MsgBox("Cannot delete file: " + FileName$) Endif #IgnoreErrors=0

Read() et Write()
The Read function is used to read the contents of a text file from the computers file system. The Write function is used to write data in a text file. Those functions are not described in this book because Web automation scripts do not use them usually but instead use ReadExcel and WriteExcel. Read and Write functions are described in the WinTask book for Windows automation.

ReadExcel et WriteExcel
The WinTask Script Language provides two functions that interface to Microsoft ExcelTM allowing the script developer to read and write Excel formatted files (.XLS or .XLSX for Excel 2007). The function accepts a full pathname, a UNC, or a file from the current working directory. Microsoft Excel must be installed for these functions to execute properly The ReadExcel function is used to read a block of consecutive cells from an Excel spreadsheet file. The cells read from the spreadsheet must be either in the same row or the same column. The spreadsheet can be open in Excel when reading from the Excel file. The WriteExcel function is used to write a block of consecutive cells to an Excel spreadsheet file. The cells written to the spreadsheet must be either in the same row or the same column. The spreadsheet cannot be open in Excel when writing to the Excel file. The function cannot create an Excel spreadsheet file and as such is restricted to modifying existing files (WinTask includes the CreateExcelFile function to create a new Excel file). The two functions have the following syntax: ret = ReadExcel(ExcelFileName$, CellRangeDesc$, CellStrArray$()) ret = WriteExcel(ExcelFileName$, CellRangeDesc$, CellStrArray$()) The ExcelFileName$ parameter specifies the name of the Excel spreadsheet file. The CellRangeDesc$ parameter specifies which cells are to be read or written. The string passed to the function is composed of two parts: a sheet descriptor and a cell - 45 -

descriptor separated by an exclamation (Ex. "Sheet1!A9:F9"). The sheet descriptor can be omitted if the spreadsheet only contains one sheet. The string Expenses!B3:B5 will read the cells in column B, rows 3 through 5 on the sheet labeled Expenses. The string D8:H8 will read the cells in row 8, columns D through H on the first sheet regardless of its name. The CellStrArray$() parameter specifies a string array which is to receive or supply the cell data. The cell data is stored in consecutive locations in the array starting at location 0. The string array must be declared at the beginning of the script using the DIM statement.

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We b D a t a C a p t u re F u n c t i o n s
The CaptureHTML and CaptureTableHTML WinTask functions allow to capture data from a Web page. The Capture Wizard can be used to extract easily data from a Web page and store them in an Excel file. Following exercise illustrates the capture process.

Exercise 11 : Web data extraction

This programming exercise demonstrates how to extract data from a Web page and store them in an Excel file. Appendix C contains the solution for this exercise. 1. Launch the WinTask Editor. The title bar should display WinTask [Untitled1]. If Your First Script Wizard screen comes up, click Cancel button. Click the New button on the WinTask Toolbar or select menu item File/New if Untitled1 is not displayed. Click the Record button to start Recording Mode. When the Starting Recording Mode dialog box appears, check Internet Explorer checkbox and click the OK button. The Launching Internet Explorer dialog box will appear. Enter www.wintask.com/demos/data.htm into the Web address field and click the OK button. The page titled Capture Data from a Web Table is displayed. The script has to capture the content of the three columns, Name, Email and Phone, and then write the extracted data in three columns of an Excel file. on the WinTask Floating Toolbar to call the Click the Capture button Capture Wizard. Recording mode is suspended.

2.

3.

4.

5.

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6. 7.

Click Spy button in the Capture Wizard dialog box. The mouse cursor becomes an hourglass. Move the mouse cursor above the table to capture, a black rectangle surrounds the table when the mouse is on it. Click and the captured data are now displayed in the Capture Wizard dialog box.

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8.

Click Next button. The Specify the HTML element where the data to be captured are dialog box is displayed. Just click Next button. The Select the data you want to capture dialog box is now displayed.

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9.

Select C1 to C3 columns using the mouse.

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10.

Click Next button. The Specify where to copy the captured data is displayed. By default, the data are copied to Excel, so just click the Next button.

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11.

The Specify the Excel file where to copy the extracted data dialog box is displayed. In the Excel file field, type an Excel filename, including the full path, for example c:\program files\wintask\scripts\data.xls (or xlsx extension if Excel 2007 is used if the Excel file does not exist, it will be created).

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12. 13. 14.

Click Paste into the script button. Recording mode resumes. Close the Internet Explorer window. Click the Stop Recording button Recording Mode. on the WinTask Floating Toolbar to stop

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The Capture Wizard has written 3 lines at the beginning of the script: Dim tabcell_2$(100) Dim tabcell_1$(100) Dim tabcell_0$(100) Those 3 Dim lines declare the string arrays which will be used later in the script to store the captured data. One array stores one column (WinTask supports one dimension array, not multi-dimension). The names generated are generic names, you can change the names to reflect the name of the captured data (for example Dim Name$(100) instead of Dim tabcell_0$(100)). The Capture Wizard has generated too the Capture lines: ret = CaptureTableHTML("TABLE[CONTENT='Name']", "R1C1:R6C1", tabcell_0$()) ret = WriteExcel("c:\program files\wintask\scripts\data.xls", "Sheet1!A1:A6", tabcell_0$()) ret = CaptureTableHTML("TABLE[CONTENT='Name']", "R1C2:R6C2", tabcell_1$()) ret = WriteExcel("c:\program files\wintask\scripts\data.xls", "Sheet1!B1:B6", tabcell_1$()) ret = CaptureTableHTML("TABLE[CONTENT='Name']", "R1C3:R6C3", tabcell_2$()) ret = WriteExcel("c:\program files\wintask\scripts\data.xls", "Sheet1!C1:C6", tabcell_2$()) It is 3 times the same structure to capture 3 columns. The CaptureTableHTML line captures the Web Table specified by the label of the first column, "TABLE[CONTENT='Nom']", captures cells R1C1 to R6C1, so column C1 (first column) and 6 lines and stores those data in the string array named tabcell_0$() declared before using the Dim statement. The ret= at the beginning of the line returns an integer giving the number of data extracted and the number of data written to Excel.

15.

on the WinTask Toolbar to replay the actions Click the Play button listed in the script. WinTask will now compile the script before running it. You will be prompted to save the script. Enter the name scriptweb11 when the Save As dialog is displayed. The Compilation results are displayed in the Output window of the Editor and the compiled script starts its execution. Open the c:\program files\wintask\scripts\data.xlsx Excel file. You can see the automatically extracted data.

16.

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A u t o m a t i c We b F o r m F i l l i n g
Data entry in a Web form can be automatized by a WinTask script generated by Recording mode. The different fields of the form are specified by their individual HTML descriptor generated automatically by Recording mode. If you want to know more about how is built such an HTML descriptor, look in the help for the sentence HTML Descriptor. Data entry automation in a Web form becomes very efficient when an iteration is used along an external data file : the script reads one record in the file, types the data in the different fields of the form, clicks the Submit button and processes the next record. The external data file is usually an Excel file. The next two exercises demonstrates how to create such an automatic data entry process, first using Recording mode to create a script typing constants in a Web form, second to modify the previous template adding the iteration and the use of an external file instead of typing constants.

Exercise 12 : Typing constants in a Web form

This programming exercise demonstrates how to type automatically constants in a Web form. Appendix C contains the solution for this exercise. 1. Launch the WinTask Editor. The title bar should display WinTask [Untitled1]. If Your First Script Wizard screen comes up, click Cancel button. Click the New button on the WinTask Toolbar or select menu item File/New if Untitled1 is not displayed. Click the Record button to start Recording Mode. When the Starting Recording Mode dialog box appears, check Internet Explorer checkbox and click the OK button. The Launching Internet Explorer dialog box will appear. Enter www.wintask.com/demos into the Web address field and click the OK button. The page titled WinTask Demonstration Pages is displayed. Click the Form link in the page. The page WinTask Form is displayed. In the Name field, type SMITH ; in the E-mail field, type smith@wintask.com ; in the Phone field, type 820123456 and finally click the Clear button. Close the Internet Explorer window. Click the Stop Recording button Recording Mode. - 55 on the WinTask Floating Toolbar to stop

2.

3.

4. 5.

6. 7.

The generated script, even simple, has three parts which are always there in a script automatizing data entry. The first part launches the Web site and navigates to the page where the form is displayed. The second part fills the form. The last part exits the site (typically a logout before closing Internet Explorer). In this exercise, the second part uses the WriteHTML function to type cosntant data: WriteHTML("INPUT TEXT[NAME= 'name']", "SMITH") WriteHTML("INPUT TEXT[NAME= 'email']", "smith@wintask.com") WriteHTML("INPUT TEXT[NAME= 'phone']", "820123456") The three lines have the same structure, the first parameter of the WriteHTML function specified the HTML descriptor for the field where to type, so for example "INPUT TEXT[NAME= 'name']" for the field which internal HTML name is name. The second parameter is the data, a string, to type in the field, for example "SMITH". The line just after: ClickHTMLElement("INPUT RESET[VALUE= 'Clear']") automatizes the click on the Clear button. Again, all those lines are generated automatically by Recording mode and you don't have to understand the precise syntax for the HTML descriptors.

8.

on the WinTask Toolbar to replay the actions Click the Play button listed in the script. WinTask will now compile the script before running it. You will be prompted to save the script. Enter the name scriptweb12 when the Save As dialog is displayed. The Compilation results are displayed in the Output window of the Editor and the compiled script starts its execution. The Web site opens, the form page is displayed, the three fields are filled fast, the Clear button is clicked and Internet Explorer is closed.

9.

Exercise 13 : Typing data read in an Excel file in a Web form

This programming exercise demonstrates how to modify the script written in Exercise 12 in order to fill the form with the data read in the Excel file created by the Web extraction process used in Exercise 11. Arrays and an iteration are used. As usual, Appendix C contains the solution for this exercise.

1.

Launch the WinTask Editor. The title bar should display WinTask [Untitled1]. If Your First Script Wizard screen comes up, click Cancel button. If the script scriptweb12 script is displayed, go to step 3. If not, select the File/Close All menu item. Click the Open button scriptweb12.src file. on the WinTask Toolbar and open the

2.

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3.

In the WinTask Editor window, select the File/Save as menu item. In the Save as dialog box, save under the scriptweb13a.src. This step allows to keep scriptweb12.src script as it was at the end of the exercise 12. Before launching the Web site, the script must read the data in the Excel file and populate three arrays witht those data. The first array is named Name$, the second Email$ and the third Phone$. At the very beginning of the script, add the three DIM lines to declare the 3 arrays. Just after those DIM lines, add the assignment of a variable filename$ containing the Excel filename to read:

4.

5. 6.

filename$= "c:\program files\wintask\scripts\data.xls" If you use Excel 2007, the line is: filename$= "c:\program files\wintask\scripts\data.xlsx" If you use a x64 Windows and Excel 2007, the line is: filename$= "c:\program files (x86)\wintask\scripts\data.xlsx" 7. Add then the three ReadExcel lines reading each column of the Excel file and populating the corresponding array. Note that the first line of the Excel file contains the column labels which must not be sent to the Web form, so read from A2 and not from A1. The first ReadExcel line is then:

ReadExcel(filename$,"A2:A6",name$()) 8. After the three ReadExcel lines, the loop must be inserted and the second parameter of each WriteHTML line must be replaced by the array element to type in the corresponding field. As the first element of an array starts at index, the loop starts at index i=0. Start the loop structure by while i < 5 as there are 5 elements from 0 to 4 in each array (a condition to end the loop without knowing the size of the array is seen at the end of this exercise). In the WriteHTML lines, replace the constant by the element i of the array. For example, WriteHTML("INPUT TEXT[NAME= 'name']", "SMITH") becomes WriteHTML("INPUT TEXT[NAME= 'name']", name$(i)) 12. 13. After you have modified the three WriteHTML lines, add after ClickHTMLElement line the incrementation of the index i, so i = i + 1 the

9. 10.

11.

End the loop by the Wend line. This line must be before the line CloseWindow which closes the Internet Explorer window.

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14. 15.

Click the Play button on the WinTask Toolbar to replay the actions listed in the script. WinTask will now compile the script before running it. The Web site opens, the form page is displayed, the three fields are filled fast, the Clear button is clicked, the next three data are filled, the Clear button is clicked and so on. At the end, Internet Explorer is closed. In the WinTask Editor window, select File/Save as menu item. In the Save as dialog box, save as the current script unde the name scriptweb13b. Replace the condion while i < 5 for exiting the loop by a condition which exits the loop if name$(i) is empty (an empty string is ""). Run the new version of the script.

16. 17. 18.

Other functions for Web forms automation

Web Forms can display listboxes and the automation script must be able to select an item in the list. The SelectHTMLItem function selects an item in a list displayed on a Web page. For example, on the Form page, this line: SelectHTMLItem("SELECT[NAME= 'subject']", "Future enhancement") selects "Future enhancement" from the HTML list named HTML subject.

The SelectedHTMLItem$ returns the item in the list which has been selected. On the same Form page, here is an example: Selected_value$=SelectedHTMLItem$("SELECT[NAME= 'subject']") The content of the variable selected_value$ is the item in the list named subject which has been selected.

The ListHTMLItem$ function returns the nth item in the specified list. Numerotation starts at 0. On the Form page, this line: list_value$=ListHTMLItem$("SELECT[NAME= 'subject']",3) returns in list_value$ the content of the 4th item of the list for the HTML list named subject.

The CheckedHTML function returns the status of a radio button or checkbox. This line tests if the Urgent request checkbox is checked or not in the Form page: status=CheckedHTML("INPUT CHECKBOX[NAME= 'contactsoon']") The integer variable statut contains 1 if the checkbox named contactsoon (HTML name for the Urgent request checkbox) is checked, 0 if not. - 58 -

The GetHTMLEditText function captures the content of a form field. Here is an example on the WinTask Form page to capture the content of the field named Name. GetHTMLEditText("INPUT TEXT[NAME= 'name']", a$) The string variable a$ contains the text displayed in the field name.

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S u b ro u t i n e s a n d F u n c t i o n s
This chapter involves programming skills. It explains how to create structured automation scripts. The WinTask Script Language provides many pre-defined functions that make the job of automating a task much easier. As one becomes more proficient with the language, they will undoubtedly recognize that similar functionality is repeated over and over when scripts are being written. The WinTask Script Language supports Subroutines and Functions that allow the script developer to consolidate common functionality. Coding Best Practices recommend the use of Subroutines and Functions to promote code reuse and to make automation script development more efficient.

Sub...EndSub
The syntax for the Sub, ExitSub and EndSub statements is as follows: Sub <sub_name>([<param1>[, <param2>] ...]) <statements> ExitSub <statements> EndSub At a minimum, a Subroutine consists of a block of script statements surrounded by the Sub and EndSub statements. The ExitSub statement is typically used in conjunction with a conditional statement to leave the Subroutine before reaching the EndSub statement. The name of the Subroutine is specified by <sub_name> and should be both descriptive and unique. Subroutines can also accept optional parameters, as designated by <param1>, which the Subroutine can perform operations on. The name of each parameter is a valid variable until the EndSub statement. Strings passed to the Subroutine should end with the $ character. TIP: Make sure the parameter names are different from any variables used elsewhere in the script. Since variables are global in scope (unless you use LOCAL statement), defining a parameter with the same name as a variable can lead to confusion as to which one (variable or parameter) is being referenced in the Subroutine. Make sure the Subroutine appears in the script file before attempting to invoke it.

TIP:

Converting a Script into a Subroutine

Any collection of script statements can be wrapped into a Subroutine that can be used several times during the automation of an application or task. The actual effort requires no more than a little planning to decide the scope of the Subroutine, its input

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parameters, adding the Sub and EndSub statements, and finally invoking the Subroutine with the appropriate parameters.

Exercise 14 : Converting a Script into a Sub

This exercise creates a script which downloads Web images. Then the script is converted to a Sub. A new function SavePictureAs is used in this exercise. Appendix C contains the solution for this exercise.

1.

Launch the WinTask Editor. The title bar should display WinTask [Untitled1]. If Your First Script Wizard screen comes up, click Cancel button. Click the New button on the WinTask Toolbar or select menu item File/New if Untitled1 is not displayed. Click the Record button to start Recording Mode. When the Starting Recording Mode dialog box appears, check Internet Explorer checkbox and click the OK button. The Launching Internet Explorer dialog box will appear. Enter www.chambre-portbail.fr into the Web address field and click the OK button. The Welcome page will display. Click the Photos link in the left menu. Click the first photo and click the third photo. Close the Internet Explorer window. Click the Stop Recording button Toolbar to stop Recording Mode. on the WinTask Floating

2.

3.

4. 5.

6.

Two ClickHTMLElement lines have been generated for the click on the two photos. In order to save those photos on disk, you need to replace the ClickHTMLElement function by the SavePictureAs line. The SavePictureAs function uses as second parameter the name of the folder under which the image is saved, and as third parameter, the name of the file under which the image is saved. In this exercise, you will save the images under the directory c:\test, so if this folder does not exist, create manually the folder C:\test. Modify then the two ClickHTMLElement lines:

7.

ClickHTMLElement("IMG[SRC= 'http://www.chambre-portbail.fr/images/e']") ClickHTMLElement("IMG[SRC= 'http://www.chambre-portbail.fr/images/s']") By SavePictureAs("IMG[SRC= 'http://www.chambreportbail.fr/images/e']","c:\test","outside") SavePictureAs("IMG[SRC= 'http://www.chambreportbail.fr/images/s']","c:\test","room")

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8.

Click the Play button on the WinTask Toolbar to replay the actions listed in the script. Save the script uinder the name scriptweb14a. If the Output window displays compilation errors, correct them and Run again. Open manually the c:\test folder to check that the two images have been correctly saved. The script can now be modified to call a Sub using three parameteres, the HTML descriptor of the image to download, the name of the folder where to save the image, the name of the file under which the image has to be saved. The Sub looks like: Sub download_image(descriptor$, folder$, file$) UsePage("Chambre d'htes entre Lessay et PortBail") SavePictureAs(descriptor$, folder$, file$) EndSub

9. 10.

11.

12.

Modify the script by including at the begining of the script the lines for the Sub and then in the middle of the script change the SavePictureAs lines by a call to the Sub. In the WinTask Editor window, select the File/Save As menu option. In the Save as dialog box, save the current script under the name scriptweb14b.

13.

14.

on the WinTask Toolbar to replay the actions Click the Play button listed in the script. Check the two saved images in c:\test folder.

Functions are similar to Subroutines with the exception that Functions return a result to the calling script statement:

Function...EndFunction
The syntax for the Function, ExitFunction and EndFunction statements is as follows: Function <function_name>([<param1>[, <param2>] ...]) <statements> <function_name> = <value> ExitFunction <statements> EndFunction A Function consists of a block of script statements surrounded by the Function and EndFunction statements and the assignment of a return value to the Functions - 62 -

name. The name of the Function is specified by <function_name> and should be both descriptive and unique. By default a Function returns an integer value. A Function can return a string by appending the $ character to the end of the Function name. The ExitFunction statement is typically used in conjunction with a conditional statement to leave the Function before reaching the EndFunction statement. If the script developer decides to use the ExitFunction statement, an assignment to <function_name> must precede the ExitFunction statement. Functions can also accept optional parameters, as designated by <param1>, which the Function can perform operations on. The name of each parameter is a valid variable until the EndFunction statement. Strings passed to the Function should end with the $ character. TIP: Make sure the parameter names are different from any variables used elsewhere in the script. Since variables are global in scope, defining a parameter with the same name as a variable can lead to confusion as to which one (variable or parameter) is being referenced in the Function. TIP: Make sure the Function appears in the script file before attempting to invoke it. TIP: Failure to set the Function name equal to a value returns 0 to the calling script statement. An empty string is returned if the Function returns a string but a value was not assigned to the Function name. An example of a Function and its invocation follows: Function Absolute_diff(Integer1, Integer2) If (Integer1 = Integer2) Then Absolute_diff = 0 ExitFunction Endif If (Integer1 > Integer2) Then Absolute_diff = integer1 - integer2 Else Absolute_diff = Integer2 - Integer1 Endif EndFunction Main Program TestValue = 89 Result = Absolute_diff(TestValue, 123)

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D a t a C a p t u re S c r i p t o n a " re a l " We b s i t e

In this chapter, the information presented in this document is put all together to create a full Data Capture Script on a real web site. The techniques used in this chapter can be used for capturing any data on a Web site where the data are on multiple pages. Before writing the script, you need to familiarize with the Web site and understand what are the data to capture. So manually load in your browser this Web url: http://www.donaldson.com/en/index.html and click Part Search/Cross Reference link. The Cross Reference Search page loads and in Item # first field, type 145* and click Search button. The next page displays a first table of results. The five columns of the table will be captured. Then by clicking Next page link, the next data are displayed. The script has to capture the five columns of the table for each results page, the last page is seen as the last because the Next Page button does not exist on this page. The script writes the captured data into an Excel file, which has five columns. You must then think about the script structure: five arrays are needed to capture the five columns, so five Dim lines will be at the very beginning of the script. The main part launches the url and submits the request (clicking the first link, typing 145* and clicking Search button). This 145* value could be too a variable, so the script could work for any value to search. Two steps then are repetitive : the capture of the data displayed on one page and the write to Excel. As the creation of this script is a bit long, the code added at each step will be written in italics. Appendix C contains the solution for this exercise, the script at its last stage ready for execution.

Exercise 15 : Full Data Capture Script

1. Launch the WinTask Editor. The title bar should display WinTask [Untitled1]. If Your First Script Wizard screen comes up, click Cancel button. Click the New button on the WinTask Toolbar or select menu item File/New if Untitled1 is not displayed. Click the Record button to start Recording Mode. When the Starting Recording Mode dialog box appears, check Internet Explorer checkbox and click the OK button. The Launching Internet Explorer dialog box will appear. Enter http://www.donaldson.com/en/index.html into the Web address field

2.

3.

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and click the OK button. The Donaldson Company main page is displayed, click the Part Search/Cross Reference link. 4. 5. The page titled eCatalog Cross Reference Search is displayed. Type 145* in the Item# first field and click the Search button. Stop Recording mode, the script looks like:

StartBrowser("IE", "http://www.donaldson.com/en/index.html") UsePage("Donaldson Company, Inc. - Americas Region - English") ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= 'Part Search/Cross Re']") UsePage ("eCatalog - Cross Reference Search") WriteHTML("INPUT TEXT[NAME= 'part_0']", "145*") ClickHTMLElement("INPUT SUBMIT[VALUE= 'Search']") 6. 7. In the WinTask main window, select File/Save as. box, save the script under the name scriptweb15. In the Save as dialog

Verify that the text cursor in the Editor window is after the last line of code and start again the Recording mode by selecting Start/Recording menu option. In the floating WinTask toolbar, click the Capture mode is suspended. icon. Recording

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8. 9.

Click Spy button in the Capture wizard screen. Move the mouse cursor on the table to capture: place it on the label of the first column of the table (Search term), you see a black line surrounding a rectangle around the table. Click the left mouse button, the captured data are now displayed in the Capture Wizard screen.

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10.

Click Next button. On the Specify the HTML element where the data to be captured are dialog box, just click the Next button. The Select the data you want to capture dialog box is displayed.

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11.

As the capture must be done for each page and the label of the columns do not have to be captured for each page, select columns C1 to C5 but without selecting the R1 line.

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12.

Click Next button. The Specify where to copy the captured data is displayed. As the default is to copy them into Excel, just click Next button.

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x 13. The Specify the Excel file where to copy the extracted data dialog box is displayed. In the Excel file field, type an Excel filename, for example reference.xlsx. The file will be created in the folder where the script is saved. Or write the full path, for example, c:\program files\wintask\scripts\reference.xlsx (if the Excel file does not exist, it is automatically created). As the first line of the Excel file will contain the column headers, type A2 in the Cell starting at field to write the data starting at column A and line 2.

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14. 15. 16.

Click Paste into the script button. Recording mode resumes. Click the Next page link on the Web page. Stop Recording mode by clicking the first icon of the WinTask floating toolbar. Recording mode has generated all those lines:

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Dim Dim Dim Dim Dim

tabcell_4$(100) tabcell_3$(100) tabcell_2$(100) tabcell_1$(100) tabcell_0$(100)

StartBrowser("IE","http://www.donaldson.com/en/index.html") UsePage("Donaldson Company, Inc. - Americas Region - English") ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= 'Part Search/Cross Re']") UsePage("eCatalog - Cross Reference Search") WriteHTML("INPUT TEXT [NAME= 'part_0']", "145*") ClickHTMLElement("INPUT SUBMIT[VALUE= 'Search']") UsePage("eCatalog - Cross Reference Search") ret = CaptureTableHTML("TABLE[CONTENT='Search Term']", "R2C1:R11C1", tabcell_0$()) ret = WriteExcel("reference.xlsx", "Sheet1!A2:A11", tabcell_0$()) UsePage("Donaldson eCatalog - Cross Reference Search ") ret = CaptureTableHTML("TABLE[CONTENT='Search Term']", "R2C2:R11C2", tabcell_1$()) ret = WriteExcel("reference.xlsx", "Sheet1!B2:B11", tabcell_1$()) UsePage("eCatalog - Cross Reference Search ") ret = CaptureTableHTML("TABLE[CONTENT='Search Term']", "R2C3:R11C3", tabcell_2$()) ret = WriteExcel("reference.xlsx", "Sheet1!C2:C11", tabcell_2$()) UsePage("Donaldson eCatalog - Cross Reference Search ") ret = CaptureTableHTML("TABLE[CONTENT='Search Term']", "R2C4:R11C4", tabcell_3$()) ret = WriteExcel("reference.xlsx", "Sheet1!D2:D11", tabcell_3$()) UsePage("Donaldson eCatalog - Cross Reference Search ") ret = CaptureTableHTML("TABLE[CONTENT='Search Term']", "R2C5:R11C5", tabcell_3$()) ret = WriteExcel("reference.xlsx", "Sheet1!E2:E11", tabcell_4$()) Five arrays have been declared at the beginning of the script where the data of each column will be stored. Then each column is captured(CaptureTableHTML line) and its content is written to the corresponding column of the Excel file (WriteExcel line). 17. Click Play icon in the WinTask toolbar. If the Output window displays compilation errors, correct them and click Play again. Open the Excel file reference.xls to check the capture. Simplify the script to delete the useless UsePage lines and make it more readable by changing the tabcell_x$ array names by more meaningful names.

18.

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Dim Dim Dim Dim Dim

searchterm$(100) description$ (100) mfrname$ (100) mfritem$ (100) dciitem$ (100)

19.

Check that the changes are correct : click the Play icon in the WinTask toolbar. If the Output window displays compilation errors, correct them and click Play again. Open the Excel file reference.xlsx to check the capture. As the script must repeat the capture and the writing a couple of times, convert the Capture part in a Sub called capture_one_page and the Write part in another Sub called write_result. Use a variable for the Excel file, for example excelfile$.

20.

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Dim Dim Dim Dim Dim

searchterm$ (100) description$ (100) mfrname$ (100) mfritem$ (100) dciitem$ (100)

Function capture_one_page() UsePage("eCatalog - Cross Reference Search ") CaptureTableHTML("TABLE[CONTENT='Search Term']", searchterm$()) CaptureTableHTML("TABLE[CONTENT='Search Term']", mfritem$()) CaptureTableHTML("TABLE[CONTENT='Search Term']", mfrname$()) CaptureTableHTML("TABLE[CONTENT='Search Term']", CaptureTableHTML("TABLE[CONTENT='Search Term']", description$()) EndFunction Function write_result() WriteExcel(excelfile$, "A2:A11", searchterm$()) WriteExcel(excelfile$,"B2:B11", mfritem$()) WriteExcel(excelfile$,"C2:C11", mfrname$()) WriteExcel(excelfile$,"D2:D11", dciitem$()) WriteExcel(excelfile$,"E2:E11",description$()) EndFunction excelfile$="reference.xlsx"

"R2C1:R11C1", "R2C2:R11C2", "R2C3:R11C3", "R2C4:R11C4", dciitem$()) "R2C5:R11C5",

StartBrowser("IE","http://www.donaldson.com/en/index.html") UsePage("Donaldson Company, Inc. - Americas Region - English") ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= 'Part Search/Cross Re']") UsePage("eCatalog - Cross Reference Search") WriteHTML("INPUT TEXT [NAME= 'part_0']", "145*") ClickHTMLElement("INPUT SUBMIT[VALUE= 'Search']") capture_one_page() write_result()

21.

As usual, check that the changes are working : click the Play icon in the WinTask toolbar. If the Output window displays compilation errors, correct them and click Play again. Open the Excel file reference.xlsx to check the capture. If there are multiple pages for displaying the results, you have now to add the loop for capturing the data on all the pages. The condition to exit the loop is that the Next page button is not anymore displayed on the current page. Testing if this button is there or not is made by the use of the ExistHTMLElement function. If ExistHTMLElement("INPUT SUBMIT[VALUE= 'Next page']") equals 1, the button exists on the page. So include in the script the loop repeatuntil with the exiting condition. As the script must click the Next page button if the button exists, a good programming technique is to use - 74 -

22.

exit=0 repeat capture_one_page() write_result() If existhtmlelement("INPUT SUBMIT[VALUE= 'Next page']") = 1 then ClickHTMLElement("INPUT SUBMIT[VALUE= 'Next page']") Else Exit=1 EndIf until exit = 1 23. As usual, check that the changes are working : click the Play icon in the WinTask toolbar. If the Output window displays compilation errors, correct them and click Play again. Open the Excel file reference.xls to check the capture. You see that the Excel file is incorrect. At each iteration, in the write_result Sub, the WriteExcel lines always write the data from the line 2 to the line 21, and so delete the previously captured data for the previous page. The start line where to write the new captured data has to be stored. Modify the write_result Sub to use a new variable line_number. Appendix C gives the solution.

24.

At this point you should be able to use Recording mode to create a template script and enhance it using WinTask language to automate a complex process.

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Debugging

Compilation errors
When you run a script (SRC file), it is first compiled. In case of compilation errors, those are listed in the Output window of the Editor (if the Output window is not displayed, select menu item View/Output window to display it). Double clicking an error line puts the cursor in the main window of the Editor on the line which is in error for an easy correction. Remember the order of statements within a script: Dim statements first, Sub and Functions second, and a call to a function within another one needs the declaration of the called function before, Main program last. Included scripts must respect this structure. Include statement: Include "tools.src"

Execution errors

Trace using MsgBox or MsgFrame

Exercise 16 : Trace script execution using MsgBox or MsgFrame

1. 2. 3. Launch the WinTask Editor. The title bar should display WinTask [Untitled1]. If WinTask opens a previously saved script, close the window. Click the Open button scriptweb10a.src script. on the WinTask toolbar and open the

From WinTask, select menu item File/Save As. Enter the name script16 when the Save As dialog is displayed. This step prepares for this exercise by changing the script name and keeps the script10a.src available as a reference.

Lets suppose now that we have trouble with which value has i index. Insert in the script first a Msgbox function for displaying i index for each iteration. Play. Then change Msgbox function by a MsgFrame function (see MsgFrame help). Play.

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TIP:

Note that Msgbox displays the value and prompts for an OK while MsgFrame just displays the value. So Msgbox takes the focus and stops script execution.

Log File
It is possible to request that each line during execution is logged in a log file. This option is in menu item Configure/Run:

Full log generates a log file that each script line logged. Limited log writes in the log only the Comment function lines encountered within the script.

Exercise 17 : Trace execution using a log file

1. Launch the WinTask Editor. If the scriptweb16.src is not displayed in the Editor window, click the Open icon on WinTask toolbar and open the scriptweb16.src file. Configure the execution to generate a full log file (select Configure/Run menu option) and launch the execution (click the Play icon on the WinTask toolbar). Open the log file (select the File/Open Log menu option) see the different lines in this full log file. Close the log file. In the Editor window, replace the msgbox or msgframe line by this line Comment ("Index i equals:"+str$(i)). Save the modified script under the name scriptweb17a (File/Save as menu option).

2.

3. 4. 5.

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6. 7. 8. 9.

Configure the execution to generate a limited log file (Configure/Run menu option). Click Play icon in the WinTask toolbar. If the Output window displays compilation errors, correct them and click Play again. Open the log file (select the File/Open Log menu option) see the different lines in this limited log file. Close the log file. In the Editor window, select again the Configure/Run menu option and uncheck the Log checkbox and click the OK button. Next executions will not anymore generate log files.

Creation of your own log procedure: You can write yourself your own log Sub; here is an example: sub log(msg_log$) local buffer$ buffer$=Date$()+", "+hour$()+":"+min$()+":"+sec$()+" --> "+msg_log$ write(file_log$,buffer$,CRLF) endsub Using the script done in exercise 17, integrate this Sub in the script, and replace the COMMENT line by a call to this proc. Add a line to assign the log_file$ variable to a file with a txt extension. Save the script as scriptweb17b and Play. Open the txt file which has been generated.

Timeout error message on a page loading

If this error message pops up when a StartBrowser line runs, two possible reasons: The Web page takes more time than the default value to load (the default maximum time allowed to a page to load is 30 seconds). You can change this timeout by inserting above the StartBrowser line the line #ActionTimeout=60 (the timeout becomes then 60 seconds). If the other pages of the Web site load faster, you can come back to the default timeout value by inserting the line #ActionTimeout=30 just after the StartBrowser line. StartBrowser includes an automatic synchronization and the next line in the script can be run only if the url has finished to load. If a Security Alert window or a Credentials window pops up, such a window prevents the url to load before you exit the window. To avoid this behavior, use the Shell function instead of the StartBrowser function. Such a Shell line can be generated automatically by starting Recording mode, and in the "What do you want to start before recording" dialog box, you leave checked An application and click OK button, and in the next dialog box, in the Program field, you click Browse button to look for IEXPLORE.EXE (the exe for Internet Explorer) and in the Parameters field, you type the url you want to launch. If this error message pops up when a UsePage is executed, do not close manually the page in error and compare the its title to the title which is in the UsePage line. Ajust - 78 -

the title to reflect the correct page title. Another reason can be that the page has not finished loading within the 30 seconds timeout value which is the default. Use then #ActionTimeout to specify a longer timeout. Another possible reason is that at replay, the page which should have loaded did not due to the previous action not replayed correctly. See ClickHTMLElement does not return an error but does not click paragraph below.

ClickHTMLElement does not return an error but does not click

That's a "visual" error : at replay, you see the mouse clicking somewhere but it's not at the place it should. Then the next UsePage fails as the click has not be done correctly. Three possible reasons: The click is done but not precisely on the small link. Use the optional parameters of ClickHTMLElement to force the click at the correct place: ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= ' Free Downloads']", left, 5, 5) Clicks the HTML object named Free Downloads but with a small shift of 5 pixels to the left and up. The click is done at totally a different place as expected. That means that the HTML descriptor used in the ClickHTMLElement refers to an object which is not the expected one. Modify the HTML descriptor using Spy tool and the Change Proposed CONTENT button. The HTML object position is not fully stable even when the page has finished loading. To force an additional synchronization, use the #HTMLPosRetry system variable. See the Incorrect form filling paragraph below.

Navigate, a workaround
The Navigate function can replace a ClickHTMLElement on a link. Ar replay, Navigate goes directly to the specified url and includes an automatic synchronization. For example, on www.wintask.com, if you record a click on Buy Now link, it generates the line: ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= 'Buy Now']") And this click opens the page titled Buy Wintask. You can replace the ClickHTMLElement line by a direct navigation to the page Buy - 79 -

Wintask: Navigate("http://www.wintask.com/buy-wintask.php")

Incorrect Form Filling

No error is reported when executing a WriteHTML line, but you see that the fiel dis not correctly filled. This happens when the HTML object position is not yet stable even when the page has finished loading. To force an additional synchronization for this specific object, use the #HTMLPosRetry system variable. With this variable at a value different from its default value at 0, the position of the object is verified once or several times before writing into it.

HTML object not found

Those errors happen when replaying actions on a page already loaded. Two possible reasons to not find an HTML object when replaying a line which uses an HTML descriptor as parameter (ClickHTMLElement, WriteHTML, CaptureHTML, CaptureTableHTML, GetHTMLEditText, OverHTMLElement, ) : it can be a synchronization problem, the object to use is not yet displayed on the page or the specified object uses an HTML descriptor which is not the same as the one it has when you recorded the action (the HTML descriptor has changed). To understand where the error comes from and correct, follow those steps: 1. 2. 3. Play the script. When the execution stops and an error message is displayed, click the OK button in the error dialog box but do not close the Internet Explorer window. If you can see that the page is not fully loaded, the HTML object has not beed found due to a synchronization problem. Correct using the tips given above at Timeout error message paragraph. If the Web page is the correct one and is fully loaded, the HTML descriptor is perhaps not the correct one. Restore the WinTask Editor window and create a new script. Start Recording mode. On the "What do you want to start before recording" dialog box, check the Nothing button and click the OK button. On the Web page where the HTML object is displayed, click the object which creates the error. Stop Recording mode, a small script has been generated with jsut the step where the problem occurs. Manually come back to the page where the small script must find the object. - 80 -

4.

5. 6. 7.

8. 9.

Play the small script, give a name when prompted and you see the action replayed. If the small script replays without any error, compare the HTML descriptor as it is in the small script and the one in the script where the execution error occurs. If they are different, modify in the script in error. If they are the same, include in the script in error an additional synchronization to wait until the HTML object to use is displayed.

A Table capture does not return the expected data

The Capture functions use the content of the HTML object to capture to identify the data to capture. It is the CONTENT keyword : for example, the capture of a text displayed in a paragraph has this syntax if the first word of the paragraph is 2010: CaptureHTML("P[CONTENT='2010']",captured_text$) So the HTML descriptor for paragraphs or tables rely on the first word of the paragraph or the table. But sometimes, this word is not enough to identify uniquely the HTML object or this word varies on the displayed page. The following exercise demonstrates how to modify the CONTENT keyword content to be sure that the script at replay captures the correct data. Appendix C contains the solution for this exercise.

Exercise 18 : CONTENT keyword change for a correct capture

1. Launch the WinTask Editor. The title bar should display WinTask [Untitled1]. If WinTask opens a previously saved script, close the script and click New icon on WinTask toolbar. Click the Record button to start Recording Mode. When the Starting Recording Mode dialog box appears, check Internet Explorer checkbox and click the OK button. In the Web address field, type www.wintask.com/demos/page-news.htm and click the OK button. The page titled News Page will display. This page simulates a News page with different paragraphs and the text of the news varies along the day. The script must capture the different news which are displayed. on the WinTask Floating Toolbar to call the Click the Capture button Capture Wizard. Recording mode is suspended.

2.

3.

4.

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5. 6.

Click Spy button. The mouse cursor changes its shape. Move the mouse cursor on the table to capture, starting at 13/05/2010. A black rectangle surrounds the text of the paragraph when the mouse cursor is above it. Click once, the captured data are displayed in the Capture Wizard dialog box.

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7.

Click Next button. The Specify the HTML element where the data to be captured are is displayed and shows an HTML descriptor using the first word of the paragraph to capture, "P[CONTENT='13']".

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8.

The descriptor using the CONTENT keyword uses the 13 value, day for the news to capture. The content will be incorrect the next day, so you need to change the descriptor. Click the Change proposed content button.

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9.

You must choose in the captured text a string of characters which does not change when the news change. One word which does not change except every year is the year string. So use this word for the CONTENT keyword : using the mouse, copy 2010 from the Captured text field and paste it in the Change proposed content field. The Validate button becomes active.

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10.

Click the Validate button to verify that the selected CONTENT is correct t o identify uniquely the paragraph to capture. The Descriptor field contains now the new descriptor.

11.

Click the OK button. You come back to the "Specify the HTML element where the data to be captured are" and the HTML descriptor field reflects the change made in the previous step.

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12.

Click the Next button, the next dialog box displays the captured data, click Next button to take the 2 columns. In Specify where to copy the captured data dialog box, check Array checkbox and click Next button. Finally on the next dialog box, click the Paste into the script button. Stop Recording mode, the Editor window comes back to focus and you can see the lines generated by the Capture Wizard : UsePage("News Page") ret = CaptureTableHTML("TABLE[CONTENT='2010']", "R1C1:R3C1", tabcell_0$()

13.

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ret = CaptureTableHTML("TABLE[CONTENT='2010']", "R1C2:R3C2", tabcell_1$()

The first UsePage line waits until the page is fully loaded before starting the capture. The next two line capture the text of the two columns of the news table and store it in two arrays. Replace the array names by dateday$ and textnews$ for more meaningful names. 14. 15. 16. 17. Close the Internet Explorer window. Stop Recording mode. Add at the end of the script two msgbox lines for displaying the content of the first value of the two arrays. Click the Play icon on the WinTask Editor window. Save the script under the name scriptweb18. The captured values are displayed in two successive dialog boxes. Year 2010 is used in CONTENT, so the script will not work anymore in 2011! You can use the Year$ function to find automatically the current year. The CaptureHTML line becomes: = CaptureTableHTML("TABLE[CONTENT='"+Year$()+"']", dateday$() "R1C1:R3C1",

TIP:

ret

Internet Explorer Menu Option not selected

At replay, a ChooseMenu line for selecting a menu option does not select the specified option. This can happen on context menu options. You can use instead the keyboard shortcuts: For example in notepad, the File/Save menu can be automatized using: UseWindow("NOTEPAD.EXE|Notepad|Untitled - Notepad") SendKeys("<Alt f>",Noactivate) pause 5 ticks SendKeys("s",NoActivate) Note the small Pause line between the selection of the Alt+f keyboard shorcut and the s for Save : it gives a small time to the menu File to open.

Option in a menu of a Web page not selected

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More and more Web pages include "over" menus : the options below a main menu option are displayed only when the mouse is above the main menu option. The OverHTMLElement WinTask function automatizes this mouse over the option. To record such a mouse over, press once the Shift key and click the main menu option for the menu you want to expand. Here is an example where the Company main menu expands its menu of options, and Contact us option is then clicked OverHTMLElement("DIV[OUTERTEXT= 'Company']") ClickHTMLElement("DIV[OUTERTEXT= 'Contact Us']") The Recording mode can generate several OverHTMLElement identical lines if you press Shift key for a while. Delete manually all the generated lines to keep only one.

Context menu selection does not replay

WinTask includes SaveTargetAs and SavePictureAs functions which have to be used isntead of Save Target as and Save image as context menu options. Exercise 14 showed how to use SavePictureAs. The SaveTargetAs function is used the same way.

Low level Recording mode when nothing works

With this other way to record, the actions are recorded as mouse clicks not any more as objects. Use only for a short time just when needed Configure by selecting menu item Configure/Recording.

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Example, menu File/Open recorded in normal way versus recording in Low level: Shell("notepad",1) UseWindow("NOTEPAD.EXE|Notepad|Untitled - Notepad",1) ChooseMenu(Normal,"&File|&Open... Ctrl+O") UseWindow("NOTEPAD.EXE|#32770|Open",1) Click(Button,"Cancel") CloseWindow("NOTEPAD.EXE|Notepad|Untitled - Notepad",1) In Low level: Shell("notepad",1) UseWindow("NOTEPAD.EXE|Notepad|Untitled - Notepad",1) ClickMouse(Left,Down,30,51) ClickMouse(Left,Up,30,51) ClickMouse(Left,Down,22,93) ClickMouse(Left,Up,22,93) UseWindow("NOTEPAD.EXE|Button|Cancel",1, NoActivate) ClickMouse(Left,Down,72,19) ClickMouse(Left,Up,72,19) UseWindow("NOTEPAD.EXE|Notepad|Untitled - Notepad",1) ClickMouse(Left,Down,530,16) ClickMouse(Left,Up,530,16)

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Slow execution

A script written for Internet Explorer 6 replays slower when run with Internet Explorer 7 or 8. It is because the Internet Explorer window names are not the same for those two versions of Internet Explorer. For example, to close the Internet Explorer window for a WinTask Web page, the line under IE6 is: CloseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|IEFrame|WinTask - Microsoft Internet Explorer",1) Under IE7 or IE8, the line is: CloseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|IEFrame|WinTask Windows Internet Explorer",1) At replay, WinTask looks first for a window with the exact same window name and after 3 secs (default value related to #ActionTimeout system variable) starts to truncate the window name by its rightmost part. If you truncate manually the window name to accept any IE name, such as: "IEXPLORE.EXE|IEFrame|WinTask, the window will be immediately found: CloseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|IEFrame|WinTask",1) You can apply the same technique if a UseWindow line replays slowly. Two other system variables can be used for speeding up execution: #HTMLPosRetry #ExecuteDelay See help on those variables.

Capture Wizard cannot capture the desired data

If for whatever reason, the Capture Wizard cannot suit your capture need, you can still use the GetPageSource$ function to retrieve all the source of the HTML page, and then using the ExtractBetween$ function, you extract only the part you are interested in. If the page contains frames, you can use the GetFramesource$ function.

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Conclusion
With those few examples, you were able to see the extraordinary flexibility of WinTask to automatize any task on Web sites. We showed too the usual tips to create scripts replaying reliably. Keep in mind that the script must be independant of the environment which can change from one execution to another (the file exists or not, the current folder has changed, This book did not address the specific WinTask functions for pure Windows applications. You can download the book for Windows automation from our web site http://www.wintask.com/wintaskbook.pdf Feel free to post your remarks on this book at info@wintask.com.

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APPENDIX A
WinTask Toolbar
The WinTask Toolbar offers the following functionality. The toolbar and button images present the large buttons.

New Script Window. Open a new automation script window. Open Script File. Open an existing automation script file and load into a new window. Save Script File. Save the contents of the active automation script window to a file. Start Spy Tool. Launch the Spy tool. Start Capture Tool. Launch the Capture tool. Start Recording Mode. Record the users keyboard, menu, and mouse actions and record them in the active automation script window. Compile and Execute. Compile the automation script in the active window and replay. Text Synchronization. Invokes the Text Synchronization wizard. the generated script into the active automation script window. Insert

OCR Text Synchronization. Invokes the OCR Text Synchronization wizard. Insert the generated script into the active automation script window. Image Synchronization. Invokes the Image Synchronization wizard. Insert the generated script into the active automation script window. Window Synchronization. Invokes the Window Synchronization wizard. Insert the generated script into the active automation script window. Date/Hour Synchronization. Invokes the Date/Hour Synchronization wizard. Insert the generated script into the active automation script window.

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Keyboard Synchronization. Invokes the Wait for Keyboard Action Synchronization wizard. Insert the generated script into the active automation script window. Menu Synchronization. Invokes the Wait for Menu Action Synchronization wizard. Insert the generated script into the active automation script window. Mouse Synchronization. Invokes the Wait for Mouse Click Action Synchronization wizard. Insert the generated script into the active automation script window. Language List. Open the Insert Language dialog to insert WinTask Script Language statements into the active automation script window. Start Scheduler Tool. Launch the Scheduler tool to execute an automation script at a specified time (Scheduler is not available under Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 2008).

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APPENDIX B
WinTask Floating Toolbar
During Recording Mode, WinTask converts itself into a floating toolbar. offers the following functionality while in Recording Mode: The toolbar

Stop Recording Mode. Restores the WinTask Editor. Start Spy Tool. Launches the Spy tool. Start Capture Wizard. Invokes the Capture wizard. Insert the generated lines into the automation script being recorded. Text Synchronization. Invokes the Text Synchronization wizard. Insert the generated lines into the automation script being recorded. OCR Text Synchronization. Invokes the OCT Text Synchronization wizard. Insert the generated lines into the automation script being recorded. Image Synchronization. Invokes the Image Synchronization wizard. Insert the generated lines into the automation script being recorded. Window Synchronization. Invokes the Window Synchronization wizard. Insert the generated lines into the automation script being recorded. Time Synchronization. Invokes the Time Synchronization wizard. Insert the generated lines into the automation script being recorded. Date/Hour Synchronization. Invokes the Date and Time Synchronization wizard. Insert the generated lines into the automation script being recorded. Keyboard Synchronization. Invokes the Wait for Keyboard Action Synchronization wizard. Insert the generated lines into the automation script being recorded. Menu Synchronization. Invokes the Wait for Menu Action Synchronization wizard. Insert the generated lines into the automation script being recorded.

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Mouse Synchronization. Invokes the Wait for Mouse Click Action Synchronization wizard. Insert the generated lines into the automation script being recorded. Insert Lines. Opens the Insert Lines in to Script dialog in which the user can insert lines directly into the automation script being recorded.

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APPENDIX C
Exercises Solutions
The solutions to the programming exercises are provided below.

Exercise 4, Scriptweb04.src
'================================================================ ' Scriptweb04 ' ' WinTask Manual Version 3.7 ' Copyright 1997-2010 TaskWare January 2010 ' ' Exercise 4 ' ' The UsePage functions have been added manually to force the wait until the new page is loaded even when all the pages have the same title. '================================================================ StartBrowser("IE", "www.wintask.com/demos/identicalpage1.htm") UsePage("Page Title") ClickHTMLElement ("A[INNERTEXT= 'here']") ' UsePage added there : the script waits until the page Page Title is fully loaded. UsePage("Page Title") ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= 'previous page']") ' UsePage added there : the script waits until the page WinTask Same Title Page is fully loaded. UsePage("Page title") WriteHTML("INPUT TEXT[NAME= 'name']", "My name") CloseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|IEFrame|Page Title - Windows Internet Explorer",1)

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Exercise 5, Scriptweb05.src
'================================================================ ' Scriptweb05 ' ' WinTask Manual Version 3.7 ' Copyright 1997-2010 TaskWare January 2010 ' ' Exercise 5 Needs UAC Off, if not go directly to Exercise 6. ' ' Text synchronization needed when all the pages have the same title, and the page to wait for does not containt any HTML object to synchronize on. '================================================================ StartBrowser("IE", "www.wintask.com/demos/identicalpage1.htm") UsePage("Page Title ") ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= 'here']") Pause 10 secs until Text("A text synchronization") InWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|Internet Explorer_Server|Page Title - |1",1) PauseFalse MsgBox("The text in Other page did not load successfully") End EndPause msgbox("The text is now displayed ")

CloseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|IEFrame|Page Title - Windows Internet Explorer",1) .

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Exercise 6, Scriptweb06.src
'================================================================ ' Scriptweb06 ' ' WinTask Manual Version 3.7 ' Copyright 1997-2010 TaskWare June 2010 ' ' Exercise 6 ' ' OCR Text synchronization needed when all the pages have the same title, and the page to wait for does not contain any HTML object to synchronize on. '================================================================ StartBrowser("IE", "www.wintask.com/demos/identicalpage1.htm") UsePage("Page Title ") ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= 'here']") ' If you use WinTask OCR engine, the next line is UseOCREngine(2) Ret=UseOCREngine(1) Pause 20 secs until TextOCR("text") InWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|Internet Explorer_Server|Page Title - |1",2) InArea(159,234,33,154) PauseFalse MsgBox("The page took more than 20 seconds to load!") End EndPause msgbox("The text is now displayed") ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= 'previous page']") CloseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|IEFrame|Page Title - Windows Internet Explorer",1)

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Exercise 7 Scriptweb07.src
'================================================================ ' Scriptweb07 ' ' WinTask Manual Version 3.7 ' Copyright 1997-2010 TaskWare January 2010 ' ' Exercise 7 ' ' Window synchronization to wait until a File Download is complete. '================================================================ StartBrowser("IE", "www.wintask.com/demos") UsePage("WinTask Demonstration Pages") ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= 'File']") ' This line is added manually to delete the file which has already been saved ' during the Recording session. Kill("c:\program files\wintask\scripts\test.test") ' The last number 3 in the line below is the instance number of the IEXPLORE.EXE window. ' To make the script independant of this instance, replace 2 by topinstance(), such as 'UseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|#32770|File Download Security warning",topinstance()) UseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|#32770|File Download Security warning",2) Click(Button,"&Save") UseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|FloatNotifySink|Save As|1",1) WriteCombo("1","c:\program files\wintask\scripts\test.test") UseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|#32770|Save as",1) Click(Button,"&Save")

Pause 150 secs until WinStatus(Exists,Exact) InWindowAnyInstance("IEXPLORE.EXE|#32770|Download complete") PauseFalse MsgBox("'Wait for' at line " + #ErrorLine$ + " has failed !") End EndPause 'See remark above for replacing the 2 by topinstance() UseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|#32770|Download complete",2) Click(Button,"Close") 'CloseBrowser function closes any Internet Explorer window. CloseBrowser()

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Exercise 8 Scriptweb08.src
'================================================================ ' Scriptweb08 ' ' WinTask Manual Version 3.7 ' Copyright 1997-2010 TaskWare January 2010 ' ' Absolute Pause '================================================================ StartBrowser("IE", "www.wintask.com/manuals.php") UsePage("WinTask Manuals") ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= 'Tutorial']") Pause 60 secs 'The window name below varies from one version of Windows to another. Take the one generated by Recording mode. UseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|TravelBand|http://www.wintask.com/tutorial.pdf Windows Internet Explorer|1",1) ChooseItem(ToolBar, "|1", "Back", single, left ) CloseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|IEFrame|WinTask",1)

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Exercise 9, Scriptweb09a.src
'================================================================ ' Scriptweb09a ' ' WinTask Manual Version 3.7 ' Copyright 1997-2010 TaskWare January 2010 ' ' Exercise 9, part 1 ' ' This script uses a variable to type a file name. '================================================================ ' This string variable is used lated in the script to type ' the name of the file in the Save as dialog box filename$="c:\program files\wintask\scripts\test.test" StartBrowser("IE", "www.wintask.com/demos") UsePage("WinTask Demonstration Pages") ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= 'File']") UseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|#32770|File Download",2) Click(Button,"&Save") ' The filename$ variable filename$ replaces the name of the file in the WriteCombo function. UseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|FloatNotifySink|Save As|1",1) WriteCombo("1",filename$) UseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|#32770|Save as",1) Click(Button,"&Save") Pause until WinStatus(Exists, Exact) InWindowAnyInstance("IEXPLORE.EXE|#32770|Download complete") PauseFalse MsgBox("'Wait for' at line " + #ErrorLine$ + " has failed !") End EndPause UseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|#32770|Download complete",2) Click(Button,"Close") CloseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|IEFrame|WinTask",1)

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Exercise 9, Scriptweb09b.src
'================================================================ ' Scriptweb09b ' ' WinTask Manual Version 3.7 ' Copyright 1997-2010 TaskWare January 2010 ' ' Exercise 9, part 2 ' ' This script introduces a condition and used the ExistW function ' to test if a window exists and click in it only if the window is there. '================================================================ ' This string variable is used lated in the script to type ' the name of the file in the Save as dialog box filename$="c:\program files\wintask\scripts\test.test" StartBrowser("IE", "www.wintask.com/demos") UsePage("WinTask Demonstration Pages") ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= 'File']") UseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|#32770|File Download",2) Click(Button,"&Save") ' The filename$ variable filename$ replaces the name of the file in the WriteCombo function. UseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|FloatNotifySink|Save As|1",1) WriteCombo("1",filename$) UseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|#32770|Save as",1) Click(Button,"&Save") ' Test if the Save As window asking if the file has to be replaced or not ' is displayed. Add a small Pause line to give time to the window to appear Pause 1 If ExistW("IEXPLORE.EXE|#32770|Confirm Save As") = 1 then UseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|#32770|Confirm Save As") Click(Button,"&Yes") Endif

Pause until WinStatus(Exists, Exact) InWindowAnyInstance("IEXPLORE.EXE|#32770|Download complete") PauseFalse MsgBox("'Wait for' at line " + #ErrorLine$ + " has failed !") End EndPause UseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|#32770|Download complete",2) Click(Button,"Close") CloseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|IEFrame|WinTask",1)

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Exercise 9, Scriptweb09c.src
'================================================================ ' Scriptweb09c ' ' WinTask Manual Version 3.7 ' Copyright 1997-2010 TaskWare January 2010 ' ' Exercise 9, part 3 ' ' This script uses a condition based on the return code of a UseWindow function, ' to test if the Save as dialog box is there. #IgnoreErrors=1 is used to avoid ' that script execution stops if the window is not found by UseWindow. '================================================================ ' This string variable is used lated in the script to type ' the name of the file in the Save as dialog box filename$="c:\program files\wintask\scripts\test.test" StartBrowser("IE", "www.wintask.com/demos") UsePage("WinTask Demonstration Pages") ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= 'File']") UseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|#32770|File Download",2) Click(Button,"&Save") ' The filename$ variable filename$ replaces the name of the file in the WriteCombo function. UseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|FloatNotifySink|Save As|1",1) WriteCombo("1",filename$) UseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|#32770|Save as",1) Click(Button,"&Save") ' #IgnoreErrors is set up to 1, so if the window specified in the UseWindow function 'is not found, the script execution still goes on. 'Then the return code of UseWindow is tested in order to click the Yes button 'only if the window is found. #IgnoreErrors = 1 Pause 1 Ret=UseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|#32770|Save as",1) If ret = 0 Then Click(Button,"&Yes") Endif ' Restore the default error management. #IgnoreErrors = 0 Pause until WinStatus(Exists,Exact) InWindowAnyInstance("IEXPLORE.EXE|#32770|Download complete") PauseFalse MsgBox("'Wait for' at line " + #ErrorLine$ + " has failed !") End EndPause UseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|#32770|Download complete",2) Click(Button,"Close") CloseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|IEFrame|WinTask",1)

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Exercise 9, Scriptweb09d.src
' '================================================================ ' Scriptweb09d ' ' WinTask Manual Version 3.7 ' Copyright 1997-2010 TaskWare January 2010 ' ' Exercise 9, part 4 ' ' Same script as the one above but the name of the file is changed. '================================================================ ' This string variable is used lated in the script to type ' the name of the file in the Save as dialog box filename$="c:\program files\wintask\scripts\demo09d.test" StartBrowser("IE", "www.wintask.com/demos") UsePage("WinTask Demonstration Pages") ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= 'File']") UseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|#32770|File Download",2) Click(Button,"&Save") ' The filename$ variable filename$ replaces the name of the file in the WriteCombo function. UseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|FloatNotifySink|Save As|1",1) WriteCombo("1",filename$) UseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|#32770|Save as",1) Click(Button,"&Save") ' #IgnoreErrors is set up to 1, so if the window specified in the UseWindow function ' is not found, the script execution still goes on. ' Then the return code of UseWindow is tested in order to click the Yes button ' only if the window is found. #IgnoreErrors = 1 Ret=UseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|#32770|Save as",1) If ret = 0 Then Click(Button,"&Yes") Endif ' Restore the default error management. #IgnoreErrors = 0 Pause until WinStatus(Exists, Exact) InWindowAnyInstance("IEXPLORE.EXE|#32770|Download complete") PauseFalse MsgBox("'Wait for' at line " + #ErrorLine$ + " has failed !") End EndPause UseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|#32770|Download complete",2) Click(Button,"Close") CloseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|IEFrame|WinTask",1)

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Exercise 10, Scriptweb10a.src

'================================================================ ' Scriptweb10a ' ' WinTask Manual Version 3.7 ' Copyright 1997-2010 TaskWare January 2010 ' ' Exercise 10, part 1 ' ' This script uses a loop to click the n page numbers ' and load each of them. '================================================================ StartBrowser("IE", "www.wintask.com/demos/page-iteration1.htm") i=2 While i <= 7 UsePage("Page Iteration 1") ' The string speciying the HTML descriptor for each page must follow this syntax: ' the string starts with A[INNERTEXT= ' text between " character as it is a string, ' then concatenate with str$(i), the index i which is an integer is converted to ' a string using str$ function ' The string ends with '] those two characters are surrounded again by " as it is a string. ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= '"+str$(i)+"']") ' The page title changes from one page to another, so again the concatenation is used. UsePage("Page Iteration "+str$(i)) ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= 'here']") i=i+1 Wend CloseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|IEFrame|Page Iteration 1 - Windows Internet Explorer",1)

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Exercice 10, Scriptweb10b.src

'================================================================ ' Scriptweb10b ' ' WinTask Manual Version 3.7 ' Copyright 1997-2010 TaskWare January 2010 ' ' Exercise 10, part 2 ' ' This script uses a loop to click the n page numbers ' and load each of them. '================================================================ ' As all the page titles start with the same characters WinTask Page Itration, ' it's better to force #UsePageExact=1 to ensuire a correct synchronization by the UsePage function. #UsePageExact = 1 StartBrowser("IE", "www.wintask.com/demos/page-iteration1.htm") i=2 repeat ' The string speciying the HTML descriptor for each page must follow this syntax: ' the string starts with A[INNERTEXT= ' text between " character as it is a string, ' then concatenate with str$(i), the index i which is an integer is converted to ' a string using str$ function ' The string ends with '] those two characters are surrounded again by " as it is a string. ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= '"+str$(i)+"']") ' The page title changes from one page to another, so again the concatenation is used. UsePage("Page Iteration "+str$(i)) ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= 'here']") i=i+1 until i = 8 CloseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|IEFrame|Page Iteration 1 - Windows Internet Explorer",1)

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Exercise 11, Scriptweb11.src

'================================================================ ' Scriptweb11 ' ' WinTask Manual Version 3.7 ' Copyright 1997-2010 TaskWare January 2010 ' ' Exercise 11 ' ' This script captures data displayed in a Table on a Web page. '================================================================ Dim tabcell_2$(100) Dim tabcell_1$(100) Dim tabcell_0$(100) StartBrowser("IE", "www.wintask.com/demos/data.htm") UsePage("Capture Data from a Web Table ") ret = CaptureTableHTML("TABLE[CONTENT='Name']", "R1C1:R6C1", tabcell_0$()) ret = WriteExcel("c:\program files\wintask\scripts\data.xlsx", "Sheet1!A1:A6", tabcell_0$()) ret = CaptureTableHTML("TABLE[CONTENT='Name']", "R1C2:R6C2", tabcell_1$()) ret = WriteExcel("c:\program files\wintask\scripts\data.xlsx", "Sheet1!B1:B6", tabcell_1$()) ret = CaptureTableHTML("TABLE[CONTENT='Name']", "R1C3:R6C3", tabcell_2$()) ret = WriteExcel("c:\program files\wintask\scripts\data.xlsx", "Sheet1!C1:C6", tabcell_2$()) CloseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|IEFrame Capture Data from a Web Table - Windows Internet Explorer",1)

'================================================================ ' The same script with meaningful names for the arrays '================================================================ Dim phone$(100) Dim email$(100) Dim name$(100) StartBrowser("IE", "www.wintask.com/demos/data.htm") UsePage("Capture Data from a Web Table") ret = CaptureTableHTML("TABLE[CONTENT='Name']", "R1C1:R6C1", name$()) ret = WriteExcel("c:\program files\wintask\scripts\data.xlsx", "Sheet1!A1:A6", name$()) ret = CaptureTableHTML("TABLE[CONTENT='Name']", "R1C2:R6C2", email$()) ret = WriteExcel("c:\program files\wintask\scripts\data.xlsx", "Sheet1!B1:B6", email$()) ret = CaptureTableHTML("TABLE[CONTENT='Name']", "R1C3:R6C3", phone$()) ret = WriteExcel("c:\program files\wintask\scripts\data.xlsx", "Sheet1!C1:C6", phone$()) CloseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|IEFrame|Capture Data from a Web Table - Windows Internet Explorer",1)

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Exercise 12, Scriptweb12.src

'================================================================ ' Scriptweb12 ' ' WinTask Manual Version 3.7 ' Copyright 1997-2010 TaskWare January 2010 ' ' Exercise 12 ' ' This script types data in a Web form. '================================================================ StartBrowser("IE", "www.wintask.com/demos") UsePage("WinTask Demonstration Pages") ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= 'Form']") UsePage("Form") WriteHTML("INPUT TEXT[NAME= 'name']", "SMITH") WriteHTML("INPUT TEXT [NAME= 'email']", "smith@wintask.com") WriteHTML("INPUT TEXT [NAME= 'phone']", "820123456") ClickHTMLElement("INPUT RESET[VALUE= 'Clear'] ") CloseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|IEFrame|Form - Windows Internet Explorer",1)

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Exercise 13, Scriptweb13a.src

'================================================================ ' Scriptweb13a ' ' WinTask Manual Version 3.7 ' Copyright 1997-2010 TaskWare January 2010 ' ' Exercise 13, part 1 ' ' This script reads data from an Excel file and ' types them in a Web form using a loop. '================================================================ Dim name$(10) Dim email$(10) Dim phone$(10) filename$="c:\program files\wintask\scripts\data.xlsx" ReadExcel(filename$,"A2:A6",name$()) ReadExcel(filename$,"B2:B6",email$()) ReadExcel(filename$,"C2:C6",phone$()) StartBrowser("IE", "www.wintask.com/demos") UsePage("WinTask Demonstration Pages") ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= 'Form']") i=0 While i < 5 UsePage("Form") WriteHTML("INPUT TEXT[NAME= 'name']", name$(i)) WriteHTML("INPUT TEXT[NAME= 'email']", email$(i)) WriteHTML("INPUT TEXT[NAME= 'phone']", phone$(i)) ClickHTMLElement("INPUT RESET[VALUE= 'Clear']") i= i + 1 Wend CloseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|IEFrame|Form - Windows Internet Explorer",1)

'================================================================ ' Scriptweb13b ' ' WinTask Manual Version 3.7 ' Copyright 1997-2010 TaskWare January 2010 ' ' Exercise 13, part 2 ' ' This script reads data from an Excel file and ' types them in a Web form using a loop until there is no more data in the Excel file. '================================================================ ' To be able to process a maximum of 100 data for each column, the size of the arrays is increased Dim name$(100) Dim email$(100) Dim phone$(100) filename$="c:\program files\wintask\scripts\data.xlsx" ReadExcel(filename$,"A2:A100",name$())

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ReadExcel(filename$,"B2:B100",email$()) ReadExcel(filename$,"C2:C100",phone$()) StartBrowser("IE", "www.wintask.com/demos") UsePage("WinTask Demonstration Pages") ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= 'Form']") i=0 ' While name$(i) is not empty, the loop goes on. While name$(i) <> "" UsePage("Form") WriteHTML("INPUT TEXT[NAME= 'name']", name$(i)) WriteHTML("INPUT TEXT[NAME= 'email']", email$(i)) WriteHTML("INPUT TEXT[NAME= 'phone']", phone$(i)) ClickHTMLElement("INPUT RESET[VALUE= 'Clear']") i= i + 1 Wend CloseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|IEFrame|Form - Windows Internet Explorer",1)

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Exercise 14, Scriptweb14a.src

'================================================================ ' Scriptweb14a ' ' WinTask Manual Version 3.7 ' Copyright 1997-2010 TaskWare January 2010 ' ' Exercise 14, part 1 ' ' This script downloads images from a Web site and ' saves them on hard disk. '================================================================ StartBrowser("IE", "www.chambre-portbail.fr") UsePage("Chambre d'htes entre Lessay et PortBail") ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= 'Photos']") UsePage("Chambre d'htes entre Lessay et PortBail") 'Clickhtmlelement line generated by Recording mode. 'The HTML descriptor generated automatically is used as first parameter of SavePictureAs 'ClickHTMLElement("IMG[SRC= 'http://www.chambre-portbail.fr/images/e']") SavePictureAs("IMG[SRC= 'http://www.chambre-portbail.fr/images/e']","c:\test","outside") 'ClickHTMLElement("IMG[SRC= 'http://www.chambre-portbail.fr/images/s']") SavePictureAs("IMG[SRC= 'http://www.chambre-portbail.fr/images/s']","c:\test","room") CloseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|IEFrame|Chambre d'htes entre Lessay et PortBail - Windows Internet Explorer",1)

'================================================================ ' Scriptweb14b ' ' WinTask Manual Version 3.7 ' Copyright 1997-2009 TaskWare January 2010 ' ' Exercise 14, part 2 ' ' The actions for downloading the images are put into a Sub. '================================================================ Sub download_image(descriptor$,folder$, file$) UsePage("Chambre d'htes entre Lessay et PortBail") SavePictureAs(descriptor$,folder$,file$) EndSub StartBrowser("IE", "www.chambre-portbail.fr") UsePage("Chambre d'htes entre Lessay et PortBail") ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= 'Photos']") download_image("IMG[SRC= 'http://www.chambre-portbail.fr/images/e']","c:\test","outside") download_image("IMG[SRC= 'http://www.chambre-portbail.fr/images/s']","c:\test","room") CloseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|IEFrame|Chambre d'htes entre Lessay et PortBail - Windows Internet Explorer",1)

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Exercise 15, Scriptweb15.src

'================================================================ ' Script15 ' ' WinTask Manual Version 3.7 ' Copyright 1997-2010 TaskWare January 2010 ' ' Exercise 15 ' ' This script puts together different parts of a Web capture full project. '================================================================ Dim searchterm$(100) Dim description$(100) Dim mfrname$(100) Dim mfritem$(100) Dim dciitem$(100) '================================================================ function capture_one_page() 'Re-initialization of the arrays to have empty arrays at each iteration. searchterm$()="" description$()="" mfrname$()="" mfritem$()="" dciitem$()="" UsePage("eCatalog - Cross Reference Search ") CaptureTableHTML("TABLE[CONTENT='Search Term']", "R2C1:R11C1", searchterm$()) CaptureTableHTML("TABLE[CONTENT='Search Term']", "R2C2:R11C2", mfritem$()) CaptureTableHTML("TABLE[CONTENT='Search Term']", "R2C3:R11C3", mfrname$()) CaptureTableHTML("TABLE[CONTENT='Search Term']", "R2C4:R11C4", dciitem$()) CaptureTableHTML("TABLE[CONTENT='Search Term']", "R2C5:R11C5", description$()) EndFunction Function write_result() 'Data are written 20 by 20 as the captured table has 20 lines. 'In a more complex capture process, it's possible to add a parameter to the Function. 'to write n lines instead of this constant 20. 'The str$ function converts the integer variable line_number in a string which 'is concatenated using the + sign. WriteExcel(excelfile$,"A"+str$(line_number)+":A"+str$(line_number+20),searchterm$()) WriteExcel(excelfile$,"B"+str$(line_number)+":B"+str$(line_number+20),mfritem$()) WriteExcel(excelfile$,"C"+str$(line_number)+":C"+str$(line_number+20),mfrname$()) WriteExcel(excelfile$,"D"+str$(line_number)+":D"+str$(line_number+20),dciitem$()) WriteExcel(excelfile$,"E"+str$(line_number)+":E"+str$(line_number+20),description$()) line_number=line_number+20 EndFunction

'================================================================ ' Main Program '================================================================ 'Variables initialization. line_number=2 excelfile$="reference.xlsx"

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StartBrowser("IE", "http://www.donaldson.com/en/index.html") UsePage("Donaldson Company, Inc. - Americas Region - English") ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= 'Part Search/Cross Re']") UsePage("eCatalog - Cross Reference Search") WriteHTML("INPUT TEXT[NAME= 'part_0']", "145*") ClickHTMLElement("INPUT SUBMIT[VALUE= 'Search']") exit=0 repeat capture_one_page() write_result() If existhtmlelement("INPUT SUBMIT[VALUE= 'Next page']") = 1 then ClickHTMLElement("INPUT SUBMIT[VALUE= 'Next page']") Else exit=1 EndIf until exit = 1

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Exercise 16, Scriptweb16.src

'================================================================ ' Scriptweb16 ' ' WinTask Manual Version 3.7 ' Copyright 1997-2010 TaskWare January 2010 ' ' This script demonstrates the difference between msgbox and msgframe to display a variable. '================================================================ StartBrowser("IE", "www.wintask.com/demos/page-iteration1.htm") i=2 While i <= 7 UsePage("Page Iteration 1") msgbox("lndex i equals: "+str$(i)) ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= '"+str$(i)+"']") UsePage("Page Iteration "+str$(i)) ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= 'here']") i=i+1 Wend CloseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|IEFrame|Page Iteration 1 - Windows Internet Explorer",1) '================================================================ ' The same script with msgframe. '================================================================ StartBrowser("IE", "www.wintask.com/demos/page-iteration1.htm") i=2 While i <= 7 UsePage("Page Iteration 1") msgframe("lndex i equals: "+str$(i),1) ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= '"+str$(i)+"']") UsePage("Page Iteration "+str$(i)) ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= 'here']") i=i+1 Wend CloseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|IEFrame|Page Iteration 1 - Windows Internet Explorer",1)

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Exercise 17, Scriptweb17a.src

'================================================================ ' Scriptweb17a ' ' WinTask Manual Version 3.7 ' Copyright 1997-2010 TaskWare January 2010 ' ' This script generates a limited log file ' where only the Comment lines are written in the log file. '================================================================ StartBrowser("IE", "www.wintask.com/demos/page-iteration1.htm") i=2 While i <= 7 UsePage("Page Iteration 1") Comment("lndex i equals: "+str$(i)) ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= '"+str$(i)+"']") UsePage("Page Iteration "+str$(i)) ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= 'here']") i=i+1 Wend CloseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|IEFrame|Page Iteration 1 - Windows Internet Explorer",1)

'================================================================ ' Scriptweb17b ' ' WinTask Manual Version 3.7 ' Copyright 1997-2010 TaskWare January 2010 ' ' This script creates a log file by calling a Sub defined by the programmer. '================================================================ sub log(msg_log$) local buffer$ buffer$=Date$()+", "+hour$()+":"+min$()+":"+sec$()+" --> "+msg_log$ write(log_file$,buffer$,CRLF) endsub log_file$="C:\test\script17blog.txt" StartBrowser("IE", "www.wintask.com/demos/page-iteration1.htm") i=2 While i <= 7 UsePage("Page Iteration 1") log("lndex i equals: "+str$(i)) ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= '"+str$(i)+"']") UsePage("Page Iteration "+str$(i)) ClickHTMLElement("A[INNERTEXT= 'here']") i=i+1

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Wend CloseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|IEFrame|Page Iteration 1 - Windows Internet Explorer",1)

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Exercise 18, Scriptweb18.src

'================================================================ ' Scriptweb18 ' ' WinTask Manual Version 3.7 ' Copyright 1997-2010 TaskWare January 2010 ' ' This script demonstrates the use of the CONTENT keyword. '================================================================ Dim dateday$(100) Dim textnews$(100) StartBrowser("IE", "www.wintask.com/demos/page-news.htm") UsePage("News Page") ret = CaptureTableHTML("TABLE[CONTENT='2010']", "R1C1:R3C1", dateday$()) ret = CaptureTableHTML("TABLE[CONTENT='2010']", "R1C2:R3C2", textnews$())

CloseWindow("IEXPLORE.EXE|IEFrame|News Page - Windows Internet Explorer",1) msgbox(dateday$(0)) msgbox(textnews$(0))

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GLOSSARY
Compiler: The WinTask program that reads a source script file and transforms its instructions into a form that can be executed. WinTask automation scripts can be compiled by hitting the Play button or selecting the Start/Run menu item before the Executor can execute them. Dialog Box: A window displayed by a program to gather information from the user in order to perform a task. Dialog Boxes occasionally are used to provide task status to the user. Editor: The WinTask program that serves as the focal point for the development, compilation and execution of automation scripts. The Editor provides access to Recording mode, the Synchronization wizards and other tools which aid in the creation and maintenance of automation scripts. Executor (TaskExec): The WinTask program that interprets the automation instructions in a .ROB file. Double-clicking a file with a .ROB extension will invoke the WinTask Executor and begin executing the compiled automation script. HTML Descriptor: A unique identifier for any HTML object displayed on a Web page. It includes the HTML tag and any meaningful text. Log: A file that documents the execution and result of script statements during the execution of an automation script. The log file can be reviewed to determine why a particular script failed to run to completion. Macro: (See Script). Recording Mode: An operational mode of the WinTask Editor that records a users keyboard and mouse actions as script statements. Recording mode allows the user to rapidly develop automation scripts. .ROB: Files with a .ROB extension are created by the WinTask Compiler when compiling an automation script file. The WinTask Executor reads and executes the instructions contained in a .ROB file. Script: A collection of WinTask language script statements, which when compiled and executed, automate an application or process. WinTask script files use the .SRC extension. Spy: The WinTask program tool that determines the internal Windows Name, a control name, or an HTML descriptor. This tool is needed to distinguish between the numerous elements that may populate the Windows desktop. Window Name: The unique identifier of a window displayed on desktop, usually the text found in the title bar. The Window Name typically consists of the program name and the name of the document is has open. WinTask uses the Window Name to distinguish between the numerous windows that may populate the desktop. WinTask Floating Toolbar: A small toolbar displayed during Recording mode. The toolbar provides access to the WinTask Editor functions that the user may need during a recording session. The toolbar provides access to the Spy tool, the Synchronization wizards and a Stop button

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Index
#ActionTimeout ........................................... 36 #IgnoreErrors............................................... 36 #UseExact...................................................... 37 Arrays .............................................................. 34 Compilation Errors ...................................... 74 Compiler TaskComp..................................................... 6 Dialog box Editor ........................................... 7 Editor TaskEdit......................................................... 6 Execution Errors .......................................... 74 Executor TaskExec ....................................................... 7 Exist() .............................................................. 42 Forms automation....................................... 56 Function/ExitFunction/EndFunction...... 60 Include ............................................................... 74 Integers .......................................................... 33 Iteration (Loop) ........................................... 40 Kill().................................................................. 42 Language Functions ................................... 31 Operators........................................................ 34 Read().............................................................. 43 ReadExcel ....................................................... 43 Real numbers................................................ 34 Repeat/Until .................................................. 40 Spy...................................................................... 7 Strings ............................................................. 33 Sub/ExitSub/EndSub.................................. 58 Synchronisation - Time...................................... 17 Synchronization ............................................. 7 Synchronization Date/Hour ............................ 17 Synchronization - Image .................................... 16 Synchronization OCR Text............................. 16 Synchronization - Text....................................... 16 Synchronization - Window ................................ 16 System Variables......................................... 33 Terminating a Script................................... 13 Variables ......................................................... 32 Wait for an action............................................... 17 While/Wend ................................................... 40 WriteExcel ...................................................... 43

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