How to automate test the website inside some windows desktop app?

Question

I have this question: I found there are web test automation tools such as selenium, but they are designed for testing website in the browsers such as ie/firefox/google chrome...

What if the website is inside some windows desktop app?

For example, if there is an desktop app(some software like MSN or ICQ), then it has some website inside the their window,(maybe a popup window with some news inside it or a popup window shows your email-box), user could perform some actions on the website(such as read email, browse the title of news..I mean, user could click these websites which are displayed inside a window. the window is pops up from the desktop app and is not a ie/ff/chrome window). Is it possible to do automate testing against these kinds of software?

Answer 1

Coded UI tests, part of Microsoft Visual Studio, can test applications and also web pages. So depending on exactly how the web page is embedded within the application Coded UI may be suitable.

The Supported Configurations page shows which application implementation technologies and which browsers are supported by Coded UI. One of the challenges of Coded UI is "custom controls", they have to be written to support the MSAA or UIA interfaces otherwise Coded UI will not be able to access them. If the browser in your application is embedded using a custom control then check with the author or the supplier for Coded UI (ie MSAA or UIA) support.