Connecting to an already running application

Troubleshooting
#1

Hi,

I’m trying to determine if an application is already open when my bot runs and then connect to that window rather than try to open another process.

I can get the application PID using ‘Process Exists’ from the RPA.Desktop.OperatingSystem library, but when I try to use ‘Connect By PID’ from the RPA.Desktop.Windows library I get a warning telling me that the library is deprecated and to use RPA.Windows. However, when I try to do that it seems ‘Connect By PID’ hasn’t been migrated to that library.

Does anyone know how I can use ‘Connect By PID’ now? Or know of an alternative way I can detect if an application is running and then connect to it?

Thanks.

#2

You can use List Windows and Control Window to achieve this.

*** Settings ***
Library     String
Library     RPA.Windows


*** Tasks ***
Run Examples
    ${calc_is_running}=    Set Variable    ${False}
    ${windows}=    List Windows
    FOR    ${window}    IN    @{windows}
       IF    "${window}[title]" == "Calculator"
       ${calc_is_running}=    Set Variable    ${True}
       BREAK
       END
    END
    IF    not ${calc_is_running}    Windows Run    calc.exe
    Control Window    name:Calculator
    Click    id:clearButton
    Send Keys    keys=96+4=
    ${result}=    Get Attribute    id:CalculatorResults    Name
    Log To Console    ${res
3 Likes
#3

Excellent, thanks @linkraivo that’s really helpful!