Getting actual automation pattern knowing only ProgrammaticName

Question

Hello

as it stated in MSDN I'm getting the supported automation patterns for the automation element via GetSupportedPatterns function, but it returns me a list of AutomationPattern objects, which have a property called ProgrammaticName, that contains the concrete type of a pattern as string like "InvokePatternIdentifiers.Pattern". I want to use a particular pattern for the element but I don't know the actual type as I have it only in general form (in AutomationPattern). Is there any way to get the actual InvokePattern object from this AutomationPattern object knowing only the ProgrammaticName property?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

I have implemented my own method for this purpose using a big switch operator. This solves my problem, but maybe there is another solution?

		public object GetActualAutomationPattern(AutomationElement element, AutomationPattern pattern)
		{
			switch (pattern.ProgrammaticName)
			{
				case "DockPatternIdentifiers.Pattern":
					return element.GetCurrentPattern(DockPattern.Pattern) as DockPattern;
				case "ExpandCollapsePatternIdentifiers.Pattern":
					return element.GetCurrentPattern(ExpandCollapsePattern.Pattern) as ExpandCollapsePattern;
				case "GridPatternIdentifiers.Pattern":
					return element.GetCurrentPattern(GridPattern.Pattern) as GridPattern;
				case "GridItemPatternIdentifiers.Pattern":
					return element.GetCurrentPattern(GridItemPattern.Pattern) as GridItemPattern;
				case "InvokePatternIdentifiers.Pattern":
					return element.GetCurrentPattern(InvokePattern.Pattern) as InvokePattern;
				case "MultipleViewPatternIdentifiers.Pattern":
					return element.GetCurrentPattern(MultipleViewPattern.Pattern) as MultipleViewPattern;
				case "RangeValuePatternIdentifiers.Pattern":
					return element.GetCurrentPattern(RangeValuePattern.Pattern) as RangeValuePattern;
				case "ScrollPatternIdentifiers.Pattern":
					return element.GetCurrentPattern(ScrollPattern.Pattern) as ScrollPattern;
				case "ScrollItemPatternIdentifiers.Pattern":
					return element.GetCurrentPattern(ScrollItemPattern.Pattern) as ScrollItemPattern;
				case "SelectionPatternIdentifiers.Pattern":
					return element.GetCurrentPattern(SelectionPattern.Pattern) as SelectionPattern;
				case "SelectionItemPatternIdentifiers.Pattern":
					return element.GetCurrentPattern(SelectionItemPattern.Pattern) as SelectionItemPattern;
				case "TablePatternIdentifiers.Pattern":
					return element.GetCurrentPattern(TablePattern.Pattern) as TablePattern;
				case "TableItemPatternIdentifiers.Pattern":
					return element.GetCurrentPattern(TableItemPattern.Pattern) as TableItemPattern;
				case "TogglePatternIdentifiers.Pattern":
					return element.GetCurrentPattern(TogglePattern.Pattern) as TogglePattern;
				case "TransformPatternIdentifiers.Pattern":
					return element.GetCurrentPattern(TransformPattern.Pattern) as TransformPattern;
				case "ValuePatternIdentifiers.Pattern":
					return element.GetCurrentPattern(ValuePattern.Pattern) as ValuePattern;
				case "WindowPatternIdentifiers.Pattern":
					return element.GetCurrentPattern(WindowPattern.Pattern) as WindowPattern;
				default:
					return pattern;
			}
		}

the pattern is the required AutomationPattern object that needs to being tested and the element is that AutomationElement from which I have got that pattern