This is a detailed WinAutomation, the most powerful Tool to Automate Windows applications, review tutorial.
There are plenty of tools available in the market for automating Windows applications and WinAutomation Tool is one of the most powerful tools which can be used, though it is not an open-source tool. Any task can be performed effortlessly using this tool.
Tools like WinAutomation can reduce the tasks which are repeatedly done on one’s computer.
Let’s discuss more and take a look at some interesting facts on how this tool can really help a real-time user.
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This is a 2-part series:
Tutorial #1: Automating Windows Applications using WinAutomation (this tutorial)
Tutorial #2: How to Use WinAutomation Tool to Automate Windows Application
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This tutorial will educate you about each and every aspect of the WinAutomation tool including its step-by-step download and configuration instructions, features, editions, etc., in a brief manner for your easy understanding.
What You Will Learn:
Why is Automation Required?
The main reasons for automating an application are:
- Time-saving
- Reduces human intervention.
- Can perform repetitive tasks.
The above mentioned are the major reasons which define why automating an application is very important. Whether it is a mobile application or a web application or a windows application.
What is a Windows Application?
Any program or application that can be run on a Windows machine, whether it is WIN7 or WIN10 is known to be a windows application.
For Example – A calculator in a windows machine is a windows application.
Any third-party applications which can be installed on a windows machine are also known as windows applications.
Example: Firefox etc.
What is a WinAutomation Tool?
WinAutomation (website) is a powerful and easy-to-use Windows-based software tool for building Software Robots. These Software Robots will automate all your desktop and web-based tasks with zero effort.
This tool is used on the windows machine to automate repetitive tasks.
This tool can create an excel file, read the data in the excel file and write the data in the same excel file. It can create files, delete copies, etc. on a windows machine on its own. It can almost operate the whole windows environment on its own.
This tool can also be used to automate web applications, but in this tutorial, you will see how it works with a windows application. It can fill web forms, extract data and transfer the same data from one application to another.
If the desired task is not completed successfully by this tool, then it will send you an automated email. You can instruct it to make a decision as you would just do.
All the tasks or issues can be dealt with easily by the WinAutomation tool just like how a human does.
Which applications can be automated using WinAutomation Tool?
This tool automates:
- Windows Application
- Web Application
The environment required to run this tool
*IMP*: This tool does not support WinXP.
Supporting client operating systems
- Windows 7
- Windows Vista
- Windows 10
- Windows 8 or 8.1
Supporting Server operating systems
- Windows 2008
- Windows 2012
- Windows 2016
Various Editions of WinAutomation Tool
There are three different editions of WinAutoamation Tool.
#1) Basic Edition
The name itself describes that it has only a few basic features that are offered to the user, like basic actions, basic triggers, etc.
The basic edition has a very less number of features provided when compared to the other editions.
#2) Professional Edition
The Professional edition contains more additional and interesting features than the Basic edition.
There are many features available, a few of the notable ones are listed below:
- Autologin – It is a feature that will log in or unlock the workstation before running a Robot.
- Error Handling – Error Handling in Robots that allows performing a specific action upon the failure of a Robot.
- Maximum Running Time – Robots are given a Maximum running time which allows the user to set himself a maximum running time for a robot.
- Secure Screen Feature –Increases the security for the Robots which are scheduled to run, this particular option will turn the screen color while the robot is running.
- Robot Compiler – This allows the user to compile any robot into a stand-alone robot, here we can run the .exe file on other computers as well.
#3) Professional Plus Edition
It contains all the features of the Professional Edition and a few more additional ones which are not present in the professional edition, which will be discussed later in the upcoming tutorials.
Step by Step Installation Guide
Given below are the step-by-step instructions on how to download, install and run the WinAutomation Tool. This is the major and important part of the tutorial.
Installing WinAutomation is not complicated as many other tools in the Market.
1) Unlike many other tools, WinAutomation does not allow you to download the software straight away from their website.
2) First, you need to download the Trial Version of WinAutoamtion which is a 30-day free trial. As discussed earlier there are different Editions of this tool.
3) WinAutomation download from this page
Once you click on the link above, it will redirect you to the download page as shown below where you need to Enter all the details and click on the “Download your 30-days Trial” button at the bottom
4) Once you click on the “Download your 30-days Trial” button you will get a confirmation email from the WinAutomation Team and the link to download the free trial in the same Email as shown below.
5) Once you click on the above link, it will ask you to save the “WinAutomationSetup.exe”
6) Click on the save option.
You have successfully downloaded the free version of this tool.
Now let’s go through the installation process of the WinAutomation Software.
#1) Double click on WinAutomationSetip.exe.
#2) Click on Next, on the wizard, as shown below.
#3) Select the checkbox for terms and conditions and click on next as shown below.
#4) Click Next again to select the desired destination folder, change it as per your wish.
#5) Click on Next again as shown below.
#6) Configure this tool on your computer by clicking on Next again.
#7) It will finish installing the tool and the below screen will appear. Click on Finish.
That’s it. Installation of WinAutomation Tool is successfully completed on your machine.
Next, we will see the steps to run and use the free version of this tool.
1) Click on the WinAutomation Console icon to open the Tool.
2) Below shown console window will be displayed with the pop-up asking for “I want to evaluate WinAutomation” and “I have a license key” options.
As it is a trial version and you want to evaluate it, select the option “I want to evaluate WinAutomation” and click on proceed button.
3) Once you click on proceed, below pop up will be displayed and click on Continue Evaluation.
Now you are ready to use the free version of this tool for an evaluation period of 30 days.
Before creating a sample Robot, let us discuss briefly the key features of this tool.
Prominent Features
WinAutomation includes numerous powerful features that make it the ideal tool for automating your repetitive tasks. Though we have discussed a few of the features already in this tutorial. We will have a look at the remaining features.
The most notable features include:
Supports Variables – Yes you read that right, like many other tools this tool has the support for variables.
What is a Variable?
A Variable is a named container that stores value and refers to a memory location.
- Supports Datatypes – Datatype is nothing but the type of data that can be assigned to a variable.
- You can Monitor the status of a Real-Time Robot.
- Can perform dynamic debugging while the Robot is running.
- Debugger – Can debug the tasks while it is running.
- You can schedule tasks and the robot will execute them while you are away.
- Few actions are predefined which helps in building the Robot a bit easier.
- Can build automation robots using Visual Job editor with the help of Drag and Drop.
- Record the interaction of the user, mouse, and keyboard actions to Automate tasks easily using Macro Reader.
- Various type of triggers, lets you monitor your system. For Example, when a file is created/modified etc.
- UI Automation technology that allows direct handling of different controls within a window.
- Fill and submit web forms automatically with the local data.
- For certain complex scenarios, various logic can be included and automated accordingly.
Let’s discuss the above tutorial in brief with a few pointers.
Tool Specifications
Types of Testing can be performed using this tool:
- Black box testing.
- Functional Testing.
- Regression Testing
Operating Systems: Windows
Input Data: Microsoft Excel
Technologies Supported:
- Database
- MS SQL
Conclusion
WinAutomation Tool is the most powerful tool for automating desktop applications and web applications with not much effort.
It is a user-friendly tool, which you can automate easily by capturing images, all the images are stored in a Repository. Result Presentation is just made easily understandable to the user. Its Macro reader feature sets the computer on Auto-pilot mode.
In this tutorial, we discussed how to download and configure the WinAutomation Tool along with some of its prime features.
In part-2 of this series, we will discuss how to get started with the tool and create a simple robot and run the test cases along with a few examples and some advanced topics.
=> Read Next WinAutomation Part 2 Tutorial