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Capture Windows Objects using the Windows Spy Utility in Katalon Studio

This guide shows you how to capture Windows objects with the Windows spy utility.

Important:
  • Katalon Studio version 7.0 onwards.
  • WinAppDriver is running on the test machine. To learn how to set up and run WinAppDriver, see: Set up WinAppDriver.

To use the utility, first you need to open the Spy Windows Objects dialog. From the main toolbar, click on the Spy Windows Objects icon.

Spy Windows Objects dialog

The Spy Windows Objects dialog is displayed as below:

Spy Windows Objects dialog

Configure the Windows spy utility

To configure the utility, in the Configurations section, specify the following fields:

  • Configuration: the WinAppDriver URL and desired capabilities.

  • Application File: the absolute path to the Windows executable file (*.exe) of the testing machine. For Windows users, click on the Browse... button to locate the application file.

For example, we provide the IP address to the remote Windows machine and the path to Notepad executable as the AUT.

CONFIGURATIONS section

Note:

For Universal Windows Platform (UWP) applications, the executable file should be:

  • ApplicationID, if the application is published on the Microsoft store.

  • PackageFamilyName!Application ID, if the application is still in development.

Capture Windows objects

To capture Windows objects, follow these steps:

  1. Start the connection to the WinAppDriver by clicking on the Start button.

    Start button

    You can see the opened window of the executed AUT in the Screen View section:

    Screen View section

    All available objects on the window are displayed in the All Objects section. You can verify an object by clicking on it; the utility highlights the object with a green border in Screen View.

    Highlighted object in the Screen View

  2. Add the captured objects. Select the objects you want to capture by checking on the checkbox on the left.

    The selected objects are displayed in the Captured Objects section.

    Added object in the Captured Objects section

  3. To save the captured objects, click on the Add to Object Repository button. In the opened dialog, select your desired folder, then click OK.

    Add to Object Repository

    The captured objects are added to the selected folder in the Object Repository.

    Added objects in the Object Repository

  4. To end the capturing session, click on the OK button at the bottom of the dialog.

Tip:

While spying, recording, or executing a test on a desktop application:

  • Do not lock the screen of the testing machine

  • Do not run multiple instances of the AUT simultaneously.