pywinauto 0.6.5 invalid window handle problem

My scripts got broken after updating from 0.6.4 to 0.6.5. Error thrown when using type_keys on a not focused element while automating an application with focus problems.

pywintypes.error: (1400, ‘GetWindowRect’, ‘Invalid window handle.’).

The program I automate made with Delphi. The program has a problem of getting focus after not having focus. So clicking a button in this application requires clicking twice if it didn’t had focus initially.

Detailed focus problem: When I try to get focus of the Delphi application, there will be no foreground application having focus for a very brief moment until getting focused. Used this program: http://www.happydroid.com/focus

1284:C:\Windows\explorer.exe | Thu Aug 09 12:24:18 2018

No foreground application | Thu Aug 09 12:24:19 2018

9840:C:\Program Files (x86)\Intellio Video System\Intellio Client 4\RCClient.exe | Thu Aug 09 12:24:20 2018

So I use win32 backend, type_keys (AFAIK SendKeys requires focus) and click (AFAIK click_input requires focus).

The release notes only talks about

Fix .set_focus() for “uia” backend including minimized window case (issue #443).

while I think I’m having this problem because one of the changes in hwndwrapper (https://github.com/pywinauto/pywinauto/commit/960682d0abd7db4efb8e129e4599fd47a4b5e5bd#diff-03fd5a827c53b158f63e6e8c518d9809)

I’m looking for your answer. And thank you for making pywinauto 😃

Relevant example code that fails everytime in 0.6.5 and works flawlessly in 0.6.4:

import pywinauto
APP = pywinauto.Application(backend="win32").start("RCClient.exe")
elem = APP.MainForm
elem.type_keys("%{TAB}") # everything fine here
elem.type_keys("%{TAB}") # error

Full log:

12:02:20.461 ERROR   scenario          Test                @124 Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\oliver.horvath\PycharmProjects\autoivs\scenario.py", line 113, in Test
    RESULT = func()  # Teszt eset futtatása
  File "C:\Users\oliver.horvath\PycharmProjects\autoivs\scenarios\teszt.py", line 276, in Github2_9988
    log.info(ivs.APP.MainForm.control_type())
  File "C:\Users\oliver.horvath\venv\autoivspackages\lib\site-packages\pywinauto\application.py", line 368, in __getattribute__
    ctrls = self.__resolve_control(self.criteria)
  File "C:\Users\oliver.horvath\venv\autoivspackages\lib\site-packages\pywinauto\application.py", line 246, in __resolve_control
    criteria)
  File "C:\Users\oliver.horvath\venv\autoivspackages\lib\site-packages\pywinauto\timings.py", line 431, in wait_until_passes
    func_val = func(*args, **kwargs)
  File "C:\Users\oliver.horvath\venv\autoivspackages\lib\site-packages\pywinauto\application.py", line 191, in __get_ctrl
    dialog = self.backend.generic_wrapper_class(findwindows.find_element(**criteria[0]))
  File "C:\Users\oliver.horvath\venv\autoivspackages\lib\site-packages\pywinauto\findwindows.py", line 84, in find_element
    elements = find_elements(**kwargs)
  File "C:\Users\oliver.horvath\venv\autoivspackages\lib\site-packages\pywinauto\findwindows.py", line 303, in find_elements
    elements = findbestmatch.find_best_control_matches(best_match, wrapped_elems)
  File "C:\Users\oliver.horvath\venv\autoivspackages\lib\site-packages\pywinauto\findbestmatch.py", line 494, in find_best_control_matches
    name_control_map = build_unique_dict(controls)
  File "C:\Users\oliver.horvath\venv\autoivspackages\lib\site-packages\pywinauto\findbestmatch.py", line 473, in build_unique_dict
    ctrl_names = get_control_names(ctrl, controls, text_ctrls)
  File "C:\Users\oliver.horvath\venv\autoivspackages\lib\site-packages\pywinauto\findbestmatch.py", line 320, in get_control_names
    non_text_names = get_non_text_control_name(control, allcontrols, textcontrols)
  File "C:\Users\oliver.horvath\venv\autoivspackages\lib\site-packages\pywinauto\findbestmatch.py", line 219, in get_non_text_control_name
    ctrl_r = ctrl.rectangle()
  File "C:\Users\oliver.horvath\venv\autoivspackages\lib\site-packages\pywinauto\base_wrapper.py", line 337, in rectangle
    return self.element_info.rectangle
  File "C:\Users\oliver.horvath\venv\autoivspackages\lib\site-packages\pywinauto\win32_element_info.py", line 181, in rectangle
    return handleprops.rectangle(self.handle)
  File "C:\Users\oliver.horvath\venv\autoivspackages\lib\site-packages\pywinauto\handleprops.py", line 207, in rectangle
    return win32structures.RECT(*win32gui.GetWindowRect(handle))
pywintypes.error: (1400, 'GetWindowRect', 'Érvénytelen ablakleíró.')

[meshuggahtas]

Thanks, .type_keys("something", set_foreground=False) does solves my problem!

And I can verify that my problem is directly connected with focus using enough time.sleep() to have focus on the automated app.

I don’t know if I have other problems related to this (focus problem not originating from pywinauto) but will report it back if I found any. (So you can close this issue if you want).

[vasily-v-ryabov]

Filed #593 for this feature request.