Use Windows Automation to find and invoke a button that has no ancestors

Question

We are trying to automate a click of the following button in the Lync interface. The problem is that we cannot reliably click it. Sometimes it works; other times it doesn't. What we are trying to accomplish is to open the Lync options window.

Here are some parts of the problem:

• we are using the System.Windows.Automation namespace for UI automation.
• usually we call AutomationElement.FindFirst to get UI element
• this doesn't work for the button, because the button's menu does NOT have any ancestor
• so, we use the TreeWalker to walk all descendants of AutomomationElement.RootElement
• using the TreeWalker, we sometimes find a match, but oddly and unpredictably we sometimes don't
• using Inspect.exe we can see that the button's "Context" menu does not have any ancestors

How can we reliably find and click the button?

From Inspect.exe

How found:  Selected from tree...
Name:   ""
ControlType:    UIA_MenuItemControlTypeId (0xC35B)
LocalizedControlType:   "menu item"
ProcessId:  0
IsControlElement:   true
IsContentElement:   true
ProviderDescription:    "[pid:3084,hwnd:0x0 Annotation:Microsoft: Annotation Proxy (unmanaged:UIAutomationCore.dll); Main(parent link):Microsoft: MSAA Proxy (unmanaged:UIAutomationCore.dll)]"
IsPeripheral:   [Not supported]
LiveSettingProperty:    [Not supported]
FlowsFrom:  [Not supported]
OptimizeForVisualContent:   [Not supported]
Annotation.AnnotationAuthor:    [Not supported]
Annotation.AnnotationTypeId:    [Not supported]
Annotation.Author:  [Not supported]
Annotation.DateTime:    [Not supported]
Annotation.Target:  [Not supported]
Drag.DropEffect:    [Not supported]
Drag.DropEffects:   [Not supported]
Drag.GrabbedItems:  [Not supported]
Drag.IsGrabbed: [Not supported]
DropTarget.DropTargetEffect:    [Not supported]
DropTarget.DropTargetEffects:   [Not supported]
LegacyIAccessible.ChildId:  3
LegacyIAccessible.Name: ""
ObjectModel.UnderlyingObjectModel:  [Error: calling getter for this property: hr=0x80070057 - The parameter is incorrect.]
SpreadsheetItem.AnnotationObjects:  [Not supported]
SpreadsheetItem.AnnotationTypes:    [Not supported]
SpreadsheetItem.Formula:    [Not supported]
Style.ExtendedProperties:   [Not supported]
Style.FillColor:    [Not supported]
Style.FillPatternColor: [Not supported]
Style.FillPatternStyle: [Not supported]
Style.Shape:    [Not supported]
Style.StyleId:  [Not supported]
Style.StyleName:    [Not supported]
Transform2.CanZoom: [Not supported]
Transform2.ZoomLevel:   [Not supported]
Transform2.ZoomMinimum: [Not supported]
Transform2.ZoomMaximum: [Not supported]
IsAnnotationPatternAvailable:   [Not supported]
IsDragPatternAvailable: [Not supported]
IsDockPatternAvailable: false
IsDropTargetPatternAvailable:   [Not supported]
IsExpandCollapsePatternAvailable:   false
IsGridItemPatternAvailable: false
IsGridPatternAvailable: false
IsInvokePatternAvailable:   false
IsItemContainerPatternAvailable:    false
IsLegacyIAccessiblePatternAvailable:    true
IsMultipleViewPatternAvailable: false
IsObjectModelPatternAvailable:  [Not supported]
IsRangeValuePatternAvailable:   false
IsScrollItemPatternAvailable:   false
IsScrollPatternAvailable:   false
IsSelectionItemPatternAvailable:    false
IsSelectionPatternAvailable:    false
IsSpreadsheetItemPatternAvailable:  [Not supported]
IsSpreadsheetPatternAvailable:  [Not supported]
IsStylesPatternAvailable:   [Not supported]
IsSynchronizedInputPatternAvailable:    false
IsTableItemPatternAvailable:    false
IsTablePatternAvailable:    false
IsTextChildPatternAvailable:    [Not supported]
IsTextEditPatternAvailable: [Not supported]
IsTextPatternAvailable: false
IsTextPattern2Available:    [Not supported]
IsTogglePatternAvailable:   false
IsTransformPatternAvailable:    false
IsTransform2PatternAvailable:   [Not supported]
IsValuePatternAvailable:    false
IsVirtualizedItemPatternAvailable:  false
IsWindowPatternAvailable:   false
FirstChild: [null]
LastChild:  [null]
Next:   [null]
Previous:   [null]
Other Props:    Object has no additional properties
Children:   [Error: calling getter for this property: hr=0x80004005 - Unspecified error]
Ancestors:  "Context" menu
    "Context" window
    [ No Parent ]

Answer 1

How about opening the drop down menu via UIA and then using SendKeys to send Alt-D ("%d")?