Can This Be Automated With C# (Or Another Language)?

I have to do a tedious manual process at work using a third party application. The task mainly involves selecting items with the mouse, entering a few numbers, and then clicking a few more times to generate a report. The items that are selected and the numbers that are entered are based on what's in an Excel document.

I'm wondering if there is a coding language that will allow me to automate this task, and I figured I should consult with experts before going on a wild goose chase. A few notes: This is on Windows, and I won't be able to modify the third party application at all. I'll basically have to take the software as it is and create an application that interacts with it, assuming that's possible.

Lastly...and this is my biggest concern, part of the process involves clicking items on a list. If you take a look at the attached screenshot, you'll see an item called "TVGN" highlighted (the full list has more codes, of course). I do this manually by just reading my Excel document and clicking the corresponding item within the program. Would I have any way of identifying that "TVGN" item using code? For instance, I know that you can send mouseclicks with C#, but where I send the mouseclicks depends on being able to read "TVGN" within the computer program.

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.

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Look at Active Accessibility or UIAutomation in msdn.

Thanks. Will the issue I mentioned (see the screenshot) be a problem? I can't modify that third-party application I mentioned, and I doubt I'll be able to get in touch with its developers. Will that pose a problem for Active Accessibility or UI Automation?

I'd look at the mfg's website to see if they have any API or SDK for the software. If it's a spreadsheet using Excel, it shouldn't be a problem.

Well, the spreadsheet would list the items that need to be found within the program. So, the spreadsheet would say "TVGN", and I'd like to write C# code that would read the spreadsheet, then access the third party application and find "TVGN" on its list, shown in the screenshot (and so on for other items in the spreadsheet).

If I can't get access to an API or SDK, will this still be doable?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kestefon

Thanks. Will the issue I mentioned (see the screenshot) be a problem? I can't modify that third-party application I mentioned, and I doubt I'll be able to get in touch with its developers. Will that pose a problem for Active Accessibility or UI Automation?

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I don't know. Download the Active Accessibility SDK http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/downl....aspx?id=21596.

Then use the AccExplorer32 tool to see if it will identity the rows and/or cells. If it can, then you can use aa to read the data. If it can't, you are out of luck.