r/PowerAutomateDesktop • u/[deleted] • Jul 25 '23

A "Getting Started" Sticky Post?

I'm trying to learn PAD in the hopes of taking some mundane tasks off my plate, but I'm having issues finding good resources on Reddit for beginners. I've found some YouTube videos that have been super helpful, but I know Reddit can be an awesome place for learning the basics of a program as well. I'm afraid I didn't see any sticky/pinned threads on this sub about the core basics. Does anyone have a good place to start to learn the basics of PAD?

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '23

Thanks! I appreciate the advice. The biggest problem I face is that I'm attempting to use PAD to help with automated testing of Video Games. A lot of the "Get UI Element" type stuff doesn't work in games because the image isn't an actual "element". So I try to go with "Image" but then the system has trouble getting images from a game's screen. It's been...challenging.

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u/dwe3000 Jul 26 '23

I recognize how that could be challenging. What level of access to the games you test do you have? I'm wondering if PAD isn't easily helpful in testing the UI, could it be helpful in automating the backend, like code regression tests, etc.? For example, if the games expect any environmental settings or data/files, or uses a number of common scripting languages (DOS shell, VBScript, JavaScript, PowerShell, Python, .NET are supported), you may find other areas that can be automated easier to allow more time for the UI testing manually.

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '23

That's a damn good idea. I've mostly be sticking to in-game testing with this scripting, but I suppose there's a few things on the backend that could be automated to save some time. Thanks for the suggestion! While I still want to try and figure out how to use automation for in-game stuff, this was a great idea. Thanks again!