Name: jk109818 Date: 03/05/2002


FULL PRODUCT VERSION :
java version "1.4.0"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.4.0-b92)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.4.0-b92, mixed mode)

FULL OPERATING SYSTEM VERSION :

Windows NT Version 4.0

ADDITIONAL OPERATING SYSTEMS :

(All, missing feature)

EXTRA RELEVANT SYSTEM CONFIGURATION :
None relevant.

A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM :
The java.awt.Robot class should provide more support for
input interation.

Currently it supports the most essential features of moving
the mouse and the keyboard, which may suffice in a
controlled environment, but are inadequate for more
complicated interactions in a windowing environment such as
a 'screen-scraping' another GUI.

The main problem is that, in a Windowing environment there
is no way to know where an application will be located on
the screen. This means that your automation steps may not
work properly.

For a basic upgrade that would provide a lot of increased
functionality I would like to suggest the following
enhancements:
1. The ability to get a list of windows.
2. The ability to switch to one of those windows.
3. The ability to either perform operations relative to a
window, or to determine the base coordinates of the window
so that you can do the relative calculation yourself.

The above are basic features that can be found in
automation tools and are needed in the Robot.


For a more robust upgrade perhaps it would work better by
adding a new class like WindowingEnvironment, that would be
used in conjunction with the Robot. Its purpose would be to
allow you to determine the state of the windowing system,
while the Robot allows you to interact with it. It might
be similar to the way the PrintService API does for
printers. You could get information such as:
1. The list of windows.
2. Any information that can possibly be gathered about the
location of the 'focus' and the data underneath it.
3. Other things that are known from the user perspective.

Now I recognize that it is hard to make something like this
generic for so many platforms, but then printers are all
different too, even some basic enhancements that would
allow interaction with the system would go a long way.

This bug can be reproduced always.
(Review ID: 139866)
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