What is AutoIt ?

2. What is AutoIt? • AutoIt is a scripting language • The purpose of AutoIt is to automate tasks • Only available in Windows • Language syntax similar to that of Visual BASIC • Provides extensive general scripting to manipulate and manage the Windows GUI

3. Creating , running and compiling a Script in AutoIt • Create a file with the .au3 extension • With AutoIt installed, right click on your file in Windows Explorer, and select Compile or Run • Compiled scripts are standalone .exe applications

4. Features and Limitations Does not Support • Threads • Instead, use a mechanism called Adlib, which runs periodically but not concurrently • Object oriented design • The Goto keyword • Type checking • Error handling Supports • Arrays • Functions • Conditional Logic • If… Then… Else • Select … Case • Switch … Case • Loops • For...Next • While...WEnd • Do...Until • For...In...Next • Pointers (called Handles) • Static Variables • Extensive String manipulations • Regular Expressions • Extensive GUIcreation/manipulation • COM support • Many libraries of User Defined Functions (UDFs)

5. Non-Native UDF Libraries

6. Syntax - Comments • Line comments precede text with a ; • Block comments start with #cs or #comments-start and end with #ce or #comments-end directives

7. Syntax – Declaring Variables • Variables begin with $, may contain numbers, letters, or underscores _

8. Syntax – If statement • Conditional Statements and loops may be nested

9. Syntax – For Loop • Conditional Statements and loops may be nested

10. Datatypes • Single loosely typed datatype called Variant. • A variant can contain numeric, string or Boolean data and decides how to use the data depending on the situation it is being used in. For example, if you try to: • Multiplytwo variants they will be treated as numbers • Concatenate(join) two variants they will be treated as strings • Logical operations on two variants, they will be treated as Boolean.

11. Datatypes

12. Cool native functions of AutoIt • — Simulates a mouse click on a control to a specific x, y. (run->calc) • — Responds to a user pressing a specific key on the keyboard by executing a function (cd tray example) • — Get and put text from/to your clipboard (like ctrl+c and ctrl+c) • This is a clever way to get output and send input to a script

13. Typical example uses of AutoIt • Automate the task of installing Win-Rar • Creating a bot to play a game that requires certain action on different situations (like Diablo II, Snake, or text based RPG games) • Creating advanced keyboard or mouse macros • Automating specific tasks that would otherwise require manual execution (gcb) • Parse text on the fly using ClipGet (saves you a step of pasting it into another program)

14. A few example scripts from the AutoIt Forum • WebCamas BarCode Reader- Use your webcam to read barcodes. • Morse Code Generator- Generate morse code by tapping your spacebar! • Weather desktop widget - Standalone updating weather widget for desktop. • Obfuscator – Make your protected scripts harder to read. • Facebook Farmville automation – Script to automate playing Farmville. • 30 Day Trial– A sub-component that may be added to your script to control distribution of your script. • Mouse repel - Keep computer mouse away from an area.

15. History of AutoIt • AutoIt was created by Jonathan Bennett • Created for the purpose of reliably configuring thousands of new computers in 1999 • AutoIt was rewritten with community support to its current version, v3 • Now includes features such as: • Creating GUIs • Extensive String functions • Many Libraries of User Defined Functions (UDFs)

16. Here’s a little demonstration. • While I’m preparing the demo of PixelSearch and MouseMove, any questions?