Loop - Windows

Declaration

<AMLOOP ACTIVITY="windows" RESULTVARIABLE="text" 
ALLOWHIDDEN="YES/NO" INCLUDE="text" EXCLUDE="text" 
WINDOWHANDLEVARIABLE="text" 
RESULTDATASET="text" SORT="text (options)">

Description: Loops through all of the Windows that are currently open on the system. The variable specified is updated with the current window title. With each successive loop, the next window title is retrieved. The loop ends after the window title of all the open windows have been retrieved or when a Break is encountered.

Practical Usage

Ideally used to perform operations on more than one window that is open on the system.

General Parameters

Property	Type	Required	Default	Markup	Description
Store window title in variable	Text	Yes	(Empty)	RESULTVARIABLE="varname"	The name of an existing variable to be populated with the current window title upon each successive loop.
Include hidden windows	Yes/No	No	No	ALLOWHIDDEN="yes"	If set to YES, invisible (or hidden) windows will be included in the loop results.

Advanced Parameters

Property	Type	Required	Default	Markup	Description
Include Window(s)	Text	No	(Empty)	INCLUDE="*Explorer"	If enabled, indicates a wildcard mask to designate the titles of windows to be included in the loop. Supported wildcard characters are the asterisk (*), which represents zero or more characters in a string of characters and question mark (?), which typically represents any one character. For example, if *Internet Explorer was specified, the loop would only include window titles ending with the text "Internet Explorer".
Exclude Window(s)	Text	No	(Empty)	EXCLUDE="*Explorer"	Specifies a wildcard mask to designate the titles of the windows to be excluded from the loop. Supported wildcard characters are the asterisk (*), which represents zero or more characters in a string of characters and question mark (?), which typically represents any one character. For example, if *Internet Explorer was specified, the loop would include all window titles except those ending with the text "Internet Explorer".
Store window handle in variable	Text	No	Disabled	WINDOWHANDLEVARIABLE="Var1"	If enabled, indicates the name of the variable that should be populated with the current window handle upon each successive loop. This parameter is disabled by default.
Create and populate dataset	Text	No	Disabled	RESULTDATASET="theDataset"	If enabled, indicates the name of a dataset to be created and populated with data about each window being looped. In addition to the standard dataset fields, this dataset contains specific action specific fields entered below under Datasets. This parameter is disabled by default.
List presorting	Text (options)	No	None	SORT="none" SORT="ascending" SORT="descending"	Specifies whether a sort order should be applied to the window titles before loop begins. The available options are: Do not sort list (default) - No sorting will be performed. Sort the list in ascending alphabetical order - Sorting will be in alphabetical order from A-Z. Sort the list in descending alphabetical order - Sorting will be in reverse alphabetical order from Z-A.

Description tab - A custom description can be provided on the Description tab to convey additional information or share special notes about a task step.

Error Causes tab - Specify how this step should behave upon the occurrence of an error. (Refer to Task Builder > Error Causes Tab for details.)

On Error tab - Specify what AWE should do if this step encounters an error as defined on the Error Causes tab. (Refer to Task Builder > On Error Tab for details.)

Datasets

A dataset is a multiple column, multiple row container object. For example, in a SQL Query action, the fields contained within the created dataset are determined by the query that was executed. For example if the following query is executed:

SELECT firstname, lastname, company from customer where city='Los Angeles';

Then the following dataset would be generated (where datasetname specifies the name of the dataset):

datasetname.firstname

datasetname.lastname

datasetname.company

A record (row) is created for each record (row) that is retrieved from the server. To access this data use the Loop Dataset Action to loop through the records, inside the loop you can extract the data from the field of your choice (from the current record) by using an embedded expression such as the one that follows:

%datasetname.firstname%

or you could combine two fields together like this:

%datasetname.firstname + " " + datasetname.lastname%

Embedded Expressions such as these can be used in any parameter in any action. So, to display the data in a message box the AML code would look like this:

<AMMESSAGEBOX MESSAGETEXT="%datasetname.firstname%" 
WINDOWTITLE="The firstname of the current record is">

At runtime the text %datasetname.firstname% is replaced by the contents of the subject of the current record.

This action creates a dataset with the following fields (assuming the name of the dataset is theDataset):

Name	Data Type	Return Value
theDataset.Title	Text	Returns the window title.
theDataset.Handle	Number	Returns the window handle.
theDataset.Class	Text	Returns the window class.

There are standard fields included in every dataset. The table below describesthese fields (assuming the name of the dataset istheDataset):

Name	Data Type	Return Value
theDataset.CurrentRow	Number	The current row that will be accessed in the dataset by an expression that does not contain a specific row index.
theDataset.TotalRows	Number	The total number of rows in the dataset
theDataset.TotalColumns	Number	The total number of columns (not including the static columns) in the dataset.
theDataset.ExecutionDate	Date	The date and time the dataset was created and populated
theDataset.RowsAffected	Number	The number of rows affected by an update.
theDataset.SQLQuery	Text	The SQL Query that was used to generate this dataset (If a SQL Query was not used, this value is empty).
theDataset.Datasource	Text	The datasource used for the SQL Query, if applicable.
theDataset.ColumnNames	Text	A comma-delimited list of the column names in the dataset

Variables and Expressions

All text fields allow the use of expressions, which can be entered by surrounding the expression in percentage signs (Example: %myVariable% or %Left('Text',2)%). To help construct these expressions, you can open Expression Builder from these fields by clicking theInsert expression/variablebutton or pressingF2.

More on variables
More on expressions
More on the Expression Builder

Example

The sample AML code below can be copied and pasted directly into the Steps panel of the Task Builder.

Sample Task 1: Loop Windows action used to loop all open windows in alphabetical order excluding windows that contain the text Internet Explorer in its title. A message box is displayed during each successful iteration displaying the title of the current window.

<AMVARIABLE NAME="theTitle"></AMVARIABLE>
<AMLOOP TYPE="WINDOWS" RESULTVARIABLE="theTitle" 
EXCLUDE="*Internet Explorer*" SORT="ascending">
<AMMESSAGEBOX>A Window titled &quot;%theTitle%&quot; 
is currently open.</AMMESSAGEBOX>
</AMLOOP>

Sample Task 2:  Loop Windows and close all windows that contain the text Internet Explorer in its title.

<AMVARIABLE NAME="theTitle"></AMVARIABLE>
<AMLOOP TYPE="WINDOWS" RESULTVARIABLE="theTitle" 
INCLUDE="*Internet Explorer*" SORT="ascending">
<AMWINDOWCLOSE WINDOWTITLE="%theTitle%" />
</AMLOOP>