Recording ignores child window in both automatic and manual modes

[isambard-sydney]

Attempting to capture a process from an internally developed Windows application.  The application functions mainly in a child window opened from a parent "frame" window.

Issue is I don't get anything appearing/recording for the child window.

> recording = automatic, target = application, I only see the parent frame and none of the actions in the child are captured

> recording = manual, target = application, I only see the parent frame.  I get a separate captivate step for each manual step recorded in the child window, but the child window is never in visble so just looking at a blank and unchanged parent frame all the time.

> recording = manual, target = screen area, bizarrely same as target=application.  ie even just capturing a screenshot ignores the child window and shows onily the underlying parent frame.

Originally I thought the issue was over how the application was coded.  In that when captivate was set to capture the application for some reason the child window was not registered as part of that application, hence was ignored.  But that does not explain why it does the same even if I choose to capture a screen area.

And to complicate it further, on one of the captures (automatic I think), it DID capture the child window.  But only the first 3 keypresses.  Thereafter nothing was recorded and it "jumped" to the end when the child window was closed.

Anybody experienced something similar?  Any suggestions on what to try/test? 

Machine is running WIndows XP.  Using Captivate7, freshly downloaded today.

[RodWard]

There are some situations and some applications where Captivate cannot detect the screen events to trigger a capture automatically.  You just need to do manual captures by hitting the PrintScreen button (or whatever key you've assiged to manual capture).

[isambard-sydney]

RodWard,

Described above that even using PrintScreen to capture manually did not capture the window. 

ie can see the child window fine on screen, click PrintScreen and Captivate just shows an image of the parent window, with the child window not shown.

In the end I used SnagIt to capture the screens, parent and child.  It has no problem creating an image that matches what actually shows on screen.

[Sivakumar_Nagarajan]

Hi

There is a known limitation (or feature??) in XP platform that "overlay" windows do not get captured using bitblt API.

What are the styles and extended styles you use while creating your child window (CreateWindowEx() or CreateWindow() API)? Do you call SetLayeredWindowAttributes() API as well?

Can you try testing your app & Captivate in Windows 7 or higher? Windows 7 and higer platforms do a "compositing" of overlaid layers as well and this will help Captivate capture the child window.

If none of these help, can you share your app (or a bare bones version of it) which can demonstrate the problem while capturing with Captivate?

Cheers

Siva

[isambard-sydney]

Siva,

Thanks for the reply.  Will try and find a WIn7 machine to test the app on. 

Sadly cannot share the app because pretty commercially sensitive (and very big with hooks in lots of systems).  But what I can share is the comparative outputs of what captivate sees for the application, and what Snagit sees.

[isambard-sydney]

Siva,

Managed to test the app on Windows7.  Made no difference.  Tried multiple approaches (manual capture, automatic capture, full screen, screen area).  Still shows issue where Captivate fails to see windows and content and records without showing the active window(s).

Not an option to change any of the windowing calls as this application is developed on/with Powerbuilder. That underlying environment manages the windowing and its proprietary.

At present it appears the only way to use Captivate with this application is to use a different tool (warming to snagit because it autonumbers image sequences).  I then have to import that image sequence, manually creating a slide for each image, and manually recreate all the interactions after that.

Painful.

[Sivakumar_Nagarajan]

Sad.

Can you please share a sample app (with a parent window and a child window) created using power builder?

I will also try to create the same here and try to investigate. What version of Power Builder are you using?

Cheers

Siva

[Sivakumar_Nagarajan]

Hi

I tried to get a trial installer for Powerbuilder. All links from sybase.com and sap.com are broken (I have tried to signup for membership also). The final URL for the trial download zip file seems to be broken.

I won't be able to do much, unless I can get my hands on some sample MDI app that can demonstrate the problem.

Cheers

Siva