Can't get tab title from WPF TabControl when using custom TabItem template

In my WPF application, I’m using a TabControl with a custom style for the TabItems (the buttons you click to switch tabs). When I use this custom style, I’m unable to access the TextBox element to test what text the TabItem is displaying.

For example, here is the XAML code for my TabControl:

<TabControl TabStripPlacement="Left" Background="{x:Null}" ItemsSource="{Binding Tabs}" SelectedIndex="0">
    <TabControl.Resources>
        <Style TargetType="TabItem">
            <Setter Property="Template">
                <Setter.Value>
                    <ControlTemplate>
                        <TextBlock Text="{Binding Key}" />
                    </ControlTemplate>
                </Setter.Value>
            </Setter>
        </Style>
    </TabControl.Resources>
    <TabControl.ContentTemplate>
        <DataTemplate>
            <ContentPresenter Content="{Binding Value}" />
        </DataTemplate>
    </TabControl.ContentTemplate>
</TabControl>

When I run my app and use the Inspect tool, I can view the TextBlock inside the TabItem. But when I try to get this element through the Appium test framework, it doesn’t exist.

I thought anything visible through Inspect should be available to test, so I guess this is a bug. I have a test project to demonstrate, if you want to see it let me know how/where to upload it.

[donbymathieu]

@craigbrown this is blocking us as well. Really wanted this architecture (WinAppDriver - Selenium in xUnit tests) to work but I can’t get past this issue. Exact same problems for me. I’ve tried two different versions of WinAppDriver but it just won’t see anything inside my derived button control, which gets its content from a style which sets the ContentTemplate (with textblocks and stuff that I can’t see). Everything is seen in inspect just fine. I’ve tried reloading the driver (switching back to the running window in a new session), I’ve tried reloading the button, I’ve tried hovering the mouse over the button before reloading it (FindElement). I also wrote a customer AutomationPeer to make sure the children are added to the list returned by GetChildrenCore (they are and the GetChildrenCore is being called) but the return from the GetElements on the custom button just returns the single Element for the custom button, none of those children.

[donbymathieu]

@craigbrown this is blocking us as well. Really wanted this architecture (WinAppDriver - Selenium in xUnit tests) to work but I can’t get past this issue. Exact same problems for me. I’ve tried two different versions of WinAppDriver but it just won’t see anything inside my derived button control, which gets its content from a style which sets the ContentTemplate (with textblocks and stuff that I can’t see). Everything is seen in inspect just fine. I’ve tried reloading the driver (switching back to the running window in a new session), I’ve tried reloading the button, I’ve tried hovering the mouse over the button before reloading it (FindElement). I also wrote a customer AutomationPeer to make sure the children are added to the list returned by GetChildrenCore (they are and the GetChildrenCore is being called) but the return from the GetElements on the custom button just returns the single Element for the custom button, none of those children.

I’m attaching a sample wpf project that has a single button with a style. You can see the textblock that says ON or OFF in inspect, but can’t see it within the button elements in WinAppDriver. This is slightly different than your issues but I’m guessing they are related. I attached this project in another issue specifically about buttons as well winappdriverbug.zip .