Is it possible to Serialize a UITestControl (when using Coded UI)?

Question

Let me start by saying that currently I am not using the record and playback features of Coded UI, nor am I using the UIMap features. I am trying to speed up the performance of my Coded UI tests (specifically finding the controls) and I had the idea of saving the controls to a XML file to use later (that way I am only searching through the controls that I need instead of the controls on the window).

Serialization is something that I came across in the past (but never used). My overall idea is that I can find the controls, serialize them to an XML file, then de-serialize them on every run after that, hopefully making it so that I can only need to search through a limited amount of controls (in a faster manner).

Any assistance would be helpful.

Thanks

Answer 1

I think that that will not work. The values contain dynamic data such as window handles (or similar values) that relate to specific instances of the UI controls. This can be inferred from the sort of errors that are often found when developing tests. Errors such as stale handle, or FailedToPerformActionOnBlockedControlException.