Attach to running IE instance without watir?

ruby-talk
1

Hi all,

I've done the Google thing for several days and I'm hitting a blank.
I'm wondering if there's a way to attach to a running IE process (on
Windows) by using win32ole alone. I can do it with watir, ie =
Watir::IE.attach(:url, url), but I may need to do this on platforms that
don't have watir installed.

Thanks in advance for any pointers,
Geoff

···

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2

Hi,

it's certainly possible. In programming ruby you'llfind an example how
to attach to running excel. Then you'll need to find out Explorer's
API - it shouldn't be that hard (see MSDN etc.)

···

On 1/16/07, Geoff Cheshire <gtc@cheshirelaw.com> wrote:

Hi all,

I've done the Google thing for several days and I'm hitting a blank.
I'm wondering if there's a way to attach to a running IE process (on
Windows) by using win32ole alone. I can do it with watir, ie =
Watir::IE.attach(:url, url), but I may need to do this on platforms that
don't have watir installed.

Thanks in advance for any pointers,
Geoff

3

From looking at the Watir source, it appears that attach calls attach_init,
which calls a method called attach_browser_window. That method calls _find.
You can look at the implementaion here:
http://svn.openqa.org/fisheye/browse/watir/trunk/watir/watir.rb?r=trunk

Since you don't want to depend on Watir, it looks like you may need to
reimplement some of its functionality.

Thanks,

Nate

···

On 1/16/07, Geoff Cheshire <gtc@cheshirelaw.com> wrote:

Hi all,

I've done the Google thing for several days and I'm hitting a blank.
I'm wondering if there's a way to attach to a running IE process (on
Windows) by using win32ole alone. I can do it with watir, ie =
Watir::IE.attach(:url, url), but I may need to do this on platforms that
don't have watir installed.

Thanks in advance for any pointers,
Geoff

--
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/\.

4

Geoff Cheshire wrote:

I've done the Google thing for several days and I'm hitting a blank.
I'm wondering if there's a way to attach to a running IE process (on
Windows) by using win32ole alone. I can do it with watir, ie =
Watir::IE.attach(:url, url), but I may need to do this on platforms that
don't have watir installed.

The Watir code uses win32ole to implement Watir::IE.attach. Have you
looked at it? It's open source and the latest code is in the repository
on OpenQA.org.

Bret

5

Geoff Cheshire wrote:

Hi all,

I've done the Google thing for several days and I'm hitting a blank.
I'm wondering if there's a way to attach to a running IE process (on
Windows) by using win32ole alone. I can do it with watir, ie =
Watir::IE.attach(:url, url), but I may need to do this on platforms that
don't have watir installed.

Thanks in advance for any pointers,
Geoff

--
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/\.

IE objects are included in the Windows collection of the Shell object,
so you could do something like the following (code not tested):

shell = WIN32OLE.new('Shell.Application')
shell.Windows.each do | window |
    if window.Document.Title == 'Your Title Here'
       ie = window
    end
end

Mully

6

David Mullet wrote:

IE objects are included in the Windows collection of the Shell object,
so you could do something like the following (code not tested):

Excellent -- I'll give it a go! Thanks everyone for your help. I've
been wading trough the watir source (oh man, that was a bad pun), but
it's nice to have a small snippet like that to get me started.

Thanks again, and I'll post back if I get it working. (I'm working on a
preview in browser command for the e Text Editor, which uses TextMate
bundles--but Windows doesn't have AppleScript so I'm rewriting those
commands in ruby.)

-Geoff

···

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7

David Mullet wrote:

shell = WIN32OLE.new('Shell.Application')
shell.Windows.each do | window |

Do you how I'd look for the URL instead of window.Document.Title? I'm
guaranteed to have a file name (with full path), but may not know the
title. Or could you point me to the docs where I could find all the
methods and properties? (I found them from IE, but not for
Shell.Application.)

Thanks again!
Geoff

···

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8

Geoff Cheshire wrote:

David Mullet wrote:

> shell = WIN32OLE.new('Shell.Application')
> shell.Windows.each do | window |

Do you how I'd look for the URL instead of window.Document.Title? I'm
guaranteed to have a file name (with full path), but may not know the
title. Or could you point me to the docs where I could find all the
methods and properties? (I found them from IE, but not for
Shell.Application.)

Thanks again!
Geoff

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Each item in the the shell's Windows collection is an actual
InternetExplorer object, so once you get to that object you will
utilize the standard IE object's properties and methods:

ie.LocationUrl
ie.LocationName

Here's some IE object docs:

Mully

9

shell = WIN32OLE.new('Shell.Application')
puts shell.ole_methods

···

On Jan 17, 12:27 pm, Geoff Cheshire <g...@cheshirelaw.com> wrote:

Or could you point me to the docs where I could find all the
methods and properties? (I found them from IE, but not for
Shell.Application.)

10

David Mullet wrote:

Each item in the the shell's Windows collection is an actual
InternetExplorer object, so once you get to that object you will
utilize the standard IE object's properties and methods:

ie.LocationUrl
ie.LocationName

Here's some IE object docs:

Microsoft Learn: Build skills that open doors in your career

That's it! window.LocationUrl was the ticket.

Thanks for your help!

-Geoff

···

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