Find a windows control using partial NameProperty in windows automation

Question

I'm trying to identify a windows static text control using a partial NameProperty. Here's the code I have:

// Get a reference to the window
AutomationElement epoWindow = AutomationElement.RootElement.FindFirst(TreeScope.Children, new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ClassNameProperty, "MsiDialog"));
// Get a reference to the control
AutomationElement epoControl = epoWindow.FindFirst(TreeScope.Descendants, new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.NameProperty, controlText));

I currently need the full controlText string for this to work but I'd like to search for a part of that string and return any controls found. How do I do this? Thanks, John

Answer 1

You can iterate on a child collection with the prefefined TrueCondition, like this:

  foreach(AutomationElement child in epoWindow.FindAll(TreeScope.Subtree, Condition.TrueCondition))
  {
      if (child.Current.Name.Contains("whatever"))
      {
          // do something
      }
  }

PS: You want to carefully choose the TreeScope if you don't want to kill the performance of your app (if it has a big children hierarchy) or wait indefinitely...