Winappdriver: SendKeys does not unescape double-slash

[HSAR]

Repro steps:
Use Element.SendKeys to enter a string including a single slash, e.g. "foo/bar"

Expected:
WinAppDriver correctly enters foo\bar

Actual:
WinAppDriver enters foo\\bar

[mjcheetham]

@HSAR, is this issue for back-slashes \ or forward-slashes /?

[HSAR]

Backslashes.

[timotiusmargo]

Hi @HSAR,

Can you help me understand why would you expect foo\bar after sending foo/bar?

Windows Application Driver Element.SendKeys API simply send the text verbatim and return in verbatim too without any conversion. Below is sample test case added to our test sample https://github.com/Microsoft/WinAppDriver/blob/v1.0-RC/Tests/WebDriverAPI/ElementSendKeys.cs

```c#
[TestMethod]
public void SendKeysToElement_Slashes()
{
alarmNameTextBox.SendKeys(@"foo/bar foo//bar foobar foo\bar");
Assert.AreEqual(@"foo/bar foo//bar foobar foo\bar", alarmNameTextBox.Text);
}

If you run it on the latest release, you will see that the text is sent without any modification and returned the same way unchanged. Below is the WinAppDriver log showing the text received and the text returned:

==========================================
POST /session/6F52F111-76C9-4B62-B45A-662507C91ED9/element/42.68029020.3.96/value HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/json, image/png
Content-Length: 56
Content-Type: application/json;charset=utf-8
Host: 127.0.0.1:4723

{"value":["foo/bar foo//bar foo\bar foo\\bar"]}

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Length: 63
Content-Type: application/json

{"sessionId":"6F52F111-76C9-4B62-B45A-662507C91ED9","status":0}

==========================================
GET /session/6F52F111-76C9-4B62-B45A-662507C91ED9/element/42.68029020.3.96/text HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/json, image/png
Host: 127.0.0.1:4723

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Length: 116
Content-Type: application/json

{"sessionId":"6F52F111-76C9-4B62-B45A-662507C91ED9","status":0,"value":"foo/bar foo//bar foo\bar foo\\bar"}
```

Can you also share which Appium client (language binding) and WinAppDriver version are you using?

[HSAR]

Hi @timotiusmargo, thanks for getting back to us.

As per the original post - we send foo\bar and get foo\\bar typed. There's no exchange of forward- and back-slashes, merely a doubling-up of backslash. I assume it's because the backslash is escaped for going over the wire, and not correcly unescaped before being typed in.

We are using the C# library, WinAppDriver 0.9-beta, and Appium 1.6.5. Hope this helps.

[timotiusmargo]

Hi @HSAR,

Can you please try the following test cases?

• SendKeysToElement_SymbolsKeys
• SendKeys_SymbolsKeys

In both cases, WinAppDriver v1.0-RC consistently type one single backslash for each backslash inputted in Alarms & Clock new alarm name text box and Notepad edit box. You should also paste the SendKeysToElement_Slashes snippet in the reply above on your setup and validate the result. I precisely got foo\bar typed on the app after sending foo\bar even if it is being transported as foo\\bar in the wire protocol.

Pasting the corresponding WinAppDriver log here would be extremely useful as well to identify where the issue is.

[HSAR]

Hi @timotiusmargo,

Sure thing, thanks for continuing to look into this. In the following two comments are the test cases I ran: firstly in a native C# WinForms app, and secondly in a webview spawned by a library embedded into this app (our actual test case).

Apologies for the cropping of the logs. I'm not sure how much you need, or don't.

[HSAR]

Code executed:
tb.SendKeys("`-=[]\\;',./~!@#$%^&*()_+{}|:\"<>?");

Result in text box:
`-=[]#;',./~!@#$%^&*()_+{}|:"<>?

Screenshot:

Appium log:
https://gist.github.com/HSAR/ab5795f61f9a4c09ea67266ff49cf432

[HSAR]

Code executed:
element.SendKeys("`-=[]\\;',./~!@#$%^&*()_+{}|:\"<>?");

Result in text box:
`-=[]#;',./~!@#$%^&*()_+{}|:"<>?

Screenshot:

Appium log:
https://gist.github.com/HSAR/488c9d94ba03bfc9dd08a2b454368c0d

[HSAR]

Although that's not the behaviour I previously saw, it's clear that backslashes are not being typed properly.

[mjcheetham]

Interesting that the "\" ("\\" in the code to escape) in was being typed as "#".
Perhaps this is an issue with different keyboard layouts?

[mjcheetham]

@HSAR, what happens if you try and send keys with "£"?

[HSAR]

Doesn't seem to be keyboard-specific.

Code executed:
tb.SendKeys("abcd \\\\ \\£ £ ££");

Result in text box:
abcd ## #£ £ ££

Screenshot:

Appium log:

[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] ==========================================
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] POST /wd/hub/session/873FEDC8-7546-4A6D-A7F2-8B7C670DA3B8/element/42.18291608/value HTTP/1.1
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] Accept: */*
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] Connection: keep-alive
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] Content-Length: 36
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] Content-Type: application/json
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] Host: 127.0.0.1:4724
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] User-Agent: appium
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT]
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] {"value":["abcd \\\\ \\£ £ ££"]}
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] HTTP/1.1 200 OK
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] Content-Length: 63
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] Content-Type: application/json
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT]
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] {"sessionId":"873FEDC8-7546-4A6D-A7F2-8B7C670DA3B8","status":0}
[debug] [JSONWP Proxy] Got response with status 200: {"sessionId":"873FEDC8-7546-4A6D-A7F2-8B7C670DA3B8","status":0}
[JSONWP Proxy] Replacing sessionId 873FEDC8-7546-4A6D-A7F2-8B7C670DA3B8 with 86dd05b1-4c77-4bf2-a585-0a0b93be7850
[HTTP] <-- POST /wd/hub/session/86dd05b1-4c77-4bf2-a585-0a0b93be7850/element/42.18291608/value 200 1346 ms - 63
[HTTP] --> GET /wd/hub/session/86dd05b1-4c77-4bf2-a585-0a0b93be7850/element/42.18291608/text {}
[MJSONWP] Driver proxy active, passing request on via HTTP proxy
[debug] [JSONWP Proxy] Proxying [GET /wd/hub/session/86dd05b1-4c77-4bf2-a585-0a0b93be7850/element/42.18291608/text] to [GET http://127.0.0.1:4724/wd/hub/session/873FEDC8-7546-4A6D-A7F2-8B7C670DA3B8/element/42.18291608/text] with body: {}

[timotiusmargo]

Hi @HSAR,

What keyboard layout do you have selected on your test machine? Current Windows Application Driver only supports the standard US keyboard layout.

[HSAR]

@timotiusmargo I am in the UK and use a UK keyboard. I executed the tests on my local PC, which is using the UK layout.

I'm not sure that this has anything to do with the issue above, though. As demonstrated in the previous comment, it can type the GBP symbol perfectly fine (as it should).

I'll switch to the US keyboard layout and attempt to repro.

[HSAR]

Aha - it doesn't repro with the US keyboard.

Code executed:
tb.SendKeys("`-=[]\\;',./~!@#$%^&*()_+{}|:\"<>? abcd \\\\ \\£ £ ££");

Result in text box:
`-=[]\;',./~!@#$%^&*()_+{}|:"<>? abcd \\ \£ £ ££

Screenshot:

[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] ==========================================
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] POST /wd/hub/session/ED30BC1A-AB0F-4808-BC6D-53A3BAE5731D/element/42.22875568/value HTTP/1.1
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] Accept: */*
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] Connection: keep-alive
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] Content-Length: 71
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] Content-Type: application/json
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] Host: 127.0.0.1:4724
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] User-Agent: appium
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT]
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] {"value":["`-=[]\\;',./~!@#$%^&*()_+{}|:\"<>? abcd \\\\ \\£ £ ££"]}
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] HTTP/1.1 200 OK
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] Content-Length: 63
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] Content-Type: application/json
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT]
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] {"sessionId":"ED30BC1A-AB0F-4808-BC6D-53A3BAE5731D","status":0}
[debug] [JSONWP Proxy] Got response with status 200: {"sessionId":"ED30BC1A-AB0F-4808-BC6D-53A3BAE5731D","status":0}
[JSONWP Proxy] Replacing sessionId ED30BC1A-AB0F-4808-BC6D-53A3BAE5731D with 5e3505f1-b586-4519-b83f-69a8760f4d3f
[HTTP] <-- POST /wd/hub/session/5e3505f1-b586-4519-b83f-69a8760f4d3f/element/42.22875568/value 200 3627 ms - 63
[HTTP] --> GET /wd/hub/session/5e3505f1-b586-4519-b83f-69a8760f4d3f/element/42.22875568/text {}
[MJSONWP] Driver proxy active, passing request on via HTTP proxy
[debug] [JSONWP Proxy] Proxying [GET /wd/hub/session/5e3505f1-b586-4519-b83f-69a8760f4d3f/element/42.22875568/text] to [GET http://127.0.0.1:4724/wd/hub/session/ED30BC1A-AB0F-4808-BC6D-53A3BAE5731D/element/42.22875568/text] with body: {}
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT]
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT]
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] ==========================================
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] GET /wd/hub/session/ED30BC1A-AB0F-4808-BC6D-53A3BAE5731D/element/42.22875568/text HTTP/1.1
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] Accept: */*
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] Connection: keep-alive
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] Content-Type: application/json
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] Host: 127.0.0.1:4724
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] User-Agent: appium
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT]
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT]
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] HTTP/1.1 200 OK
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] Content-Length: 131
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] Content-Type: application/json
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT]
[WinAppDriver] [STDOUT] {"sessionId":"ED30BC1A-AB0F-4808-BC6D-53A3BAE5731D","status":0,"value":"`-=[]\\;',./~!@#$%^&*()_+{}|:\"<>? abcd \\\\ \\£ £ ££"}
[debug] [JSONWP Proxy] Got response with status 200: "{\"sessionId\":\"ED30BC1A-AB0F-4808-BC6D-53A3BAE5731D\",\"status\":0,\"value\":\"`-=[]\\\\;',./~!@#$%^&*()_+{}|:\\\"<>? abcd \\\\\\\\ \\\\£ £ ££\"}"

[timotiusmargo]

Yes at the moment only standard US keyboard is supported. We can update you if this changes in the future. Thanks for bringing up all the details! 👍

[HSAR]

Following up a feature request as a result of this - it would be very handy if WinAppDriver could switch the device into en-US keyboard layout at the start, and (possibly) switch back to the pre-test keyboard layout at the end.

[Arlorean]

I just had the same problem, being UK based. I was trying to send a path name to a file open dialog and all I got were '#' characters instead of '\' characters in the path name.
Is there an easy way to change keyboard for the session?