Automating Flash Program with Python using Pywinauto

Question

I am trying to send a couple basic text commands to a flash program running in Firefox on Windows 7, but I am unable to get pywinauto working for me.

Right now, I have just been able to accomplish the very basic task of connecting to Firefox plugin-container by directing it to the path using the following code:

from pywinauto import application
app = application.Application()
app.connect_(path = r"c:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\plugin-container.exe")

The next step seems to be something to the effect of:

app.plugin-container.Edit.TypeKeys('Text')

However, I can't reference the plugin-container window using '.plugin-container', or any combination of those words. I have tried adding a title variable to the connect_() function and I have tried everything I can think of to find out how to type the command.

The example I am basing this off of is the notepad sample:

from pywinauto import application
app.start_(ur"notepad.exe")
app.Notepad.Edit.TypeKeys(u"{END}{ENTER}SendText d\xf6\xe9s "
        u"s\xfcpp\xf4rt \xe0cce\xf1ted characters!!!", with_spaces = True)

It doesn't matter to me if I use pywinauto or Firefox. If it is any easier to do this using a different module or Internet Explorer, I'm on board for whatever accomplishes the task. I am using Python version 2.7.2 and would prefer it over any version changes.

Any help at all is appreciated. I am pretty lost in all this.

Answer 1

As the author of pywinauto - I think you are going to have a hard time. pywinauto only really helps with standard windows controls, and I don't think that flash controls are implemented as standard windows controls (Buttons, Edit boxes, etc).

OFf the top of my head - I would think Sikuli may be a better starting point (http://sikuli.org/). Another option may be 'http://code.google.com/p/flash-selenium/' - I just googled for "automating flash input" - and it turned up in one of the first articles I clicked.

Thanks for trying pywinauto - I just don't think it is best suited for Flash automation.