UI Connectors provides another method for accessing native controls in an application, so you can build automations when a translator is not available.

Pega Robot Studio provides a platform for automating the controls of almost any technology. Pega ’s translator library makes most controls immediately accessible for automation. Translators are custom objects that communicate with native controls and expose the controls’ functionality to Pega Robot Studio.

If no translator is available for a control, the ability to work with the control in a solution is limited. Prior to version 8.0.1053, this situation required the Pega Robot Studio development team to build a custom translator. These development efforts often took weeks or even months.

Version 8.0.1053 and later builds provide ways to access native controls without using translators. The technique introduced in this version uses reflection. Many popular software technologies, such as .NET and Java, provide a form of reflection that allows the capabilities of an object to be inspected and invoked at runtime. This provides the framework for Pega Robot Studio to communicate with these native controls without the need for custom translators

• Support and limitations

  The UI Connector framework in Pega Robot Studio version 8.0.1053 and later support .NET and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) applications.

• Terms used

  To create UI Connectors, you need to understand the components involved and the terminology that is used to describe them.

• Exploring native control capabilities

  Use the Native Control Explorer option to inspect the properties, methods, and events of a native control.

• Discovering members

  Discovering members is a way to expose simple properties, methods, and events (members) of a native control.

• Creating UI connectors

  Interrogated controls that appear as base controls can be good candidates for UI Connectors.

• Re-creating a control as the correct type

  Re-create the control using the selected target interface to update the status from a base control to the correct type.

• Implementing UI connectors

  Implement and test the generated UI Connector code to ensure it works in your automation.

• Simple and complex types

  To work with the NativeControl property, you need to understand the difference between simple and complex types.

• Learning advanced automation techniques