NAME

aadigger - Navigates tree of Accessible Objects

SYNOPSIS

aaDigger is a utility with which you can "drill down" through the hierarchy of Active Accessibility objects. The Desktop is at the root of the tree.

Use aaDigger when writing Active Accessibility scripts. aaDigger helps you figure out how to make your scripts relate to the "real world" on your computer's screen.

C:\>aadigger

aaDigger - Traverse window hierarchy

Windows shown as: role:name {state,(location),id,hwnd}
Commands:
  99      - expand window by number (specify number from the list)
  ..      - go 'up' one level, to parent of current window
  /regexp - find children matching regexp
  tree    - display children hierarchically
  all     - expand list to include invisible children
=== window  Desktop

0+ client:Desktop {,(0,0,1024,768),id=0,0001000c}
? 0

=== client  Desktop

0+ window:(undef) {sizeable,(-2,715,1028,55),id=0,00020042}
1+ window:emacs: aadigger.pl {sizeable+moveable+focusable,(65,27,825,663),id=0,00270324}
?

Windows and Clients

Using aaDigger, you will note that objects whose role is 'window', generally have children in roles 'client' and 'title bar', among others. (The 'client' area is where applications do their creative work.)

Accordingly, when you run aaDigger and it starts off at the Desktop-window, your first drill-down takes you to the Desktop-client. Within the Desktop-client, you will find the windows for your applications -- as well as the system tray.

aaDigger Commands

aaDigger is command-driven. You type in a command when aaDigger displays its prompt:

?

Drill down by object-number

Type the number of an object (as shown in aaDigger's object list) to "drill down" and observe the children of that object.

The object that defines the context of the list is shown with the following attributes. (Most objects do not define any of these.)

Description
Value
Help
DefaultAction
KeyboardShortcut

The children are shown in the form

role:name {state,(location),id,hwnd}

You can find more about all of these object traits in the Active Accessibility documentation.

role, e.g., 'window', 'client', 'title bar', reflects the Active Accessibility object taxonomy and supplants the Win32 notion of "window class".

name is how the object identifies itself. Some objects steal the name of their parent or of a certain child. Others change their name dynamically to reflect what the user is doing. Some objects have no name.

state is a set of state-bits, such as sizeable+moveable+focusable.

location is the (left, top, width, height) of the object. The origin (0,0) is at the screen's upper left.

hwnd is the result of calling WindowFromAccessibleObject. Not all accessible objects correspond to ``windows'' in the HWND sense.

Up (..)

Move from a child object to its parent.

Search (/regexp)

Recursively find all children whose name matches the regexp.

Tree

Shows the object's children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc.

All (Show hidden objects)

Expands the scope of the numbered object list so it includes objects that do have the 'invisible' state bit.

``All'' is not sticky. Next time you navigate (using a number or ..), you will once more see only the visible objects.

cpanm Win32::ActAcc

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Win32::ActAcc