nvaccess / nvda-microsoft-ui-uiautomation

Build microsoft-ui-uiautomation to be used by NVDA.

nvda-microsoft-ui-uiautomation

Creates NVDAs binary dependencies on the microsoft-ui-uiautomation library.

Builds the open source Microsoft-UI-UIAutomation Remote Operations library from https://github.com/microsoft/microsoft-ui-uiautomation.

This library contains both a low-level winrt API, and a higher-level pure C++ API. Once built, the following outputs are copied and committed to the main-out branch.

The outputs:

• lib directory:
  • microsoft.ui.uiAutomation[.dll .lib .dll.manifest]: The shared libraries containing the low-level winrt implementation. To use in other code, link against the .lib, and load the included .manifest file into an activation context and activate it.
  • UiaOperationAbstraction.lib: A static library containing runtime code for the higher-level pure C++ API. This should be linked into any compiled executable or library that needs to use the higher-level C++ API.
• include directory:
  • UIAOperationAbstraction directory: All public headers for the high-level C++ API.
  • winrt directory: The generated C++/winrt language bindings of the low-level API, required by the high-level C++ API headers.

Clone

Ensure submodules are cloned. The microsoft-ui-uiautomation repository is a submodule.

Generate outputs

Use powershell:

• mkdir out Create an output directory.
• ./build.ps1 -OutDir build Build the libraries.
• ./copyFiles.ps1 -RepoRoot "./" -BuildDir "build" -DestDir "out" Generate complete structure.

Notes on generate.yml workflow

Directories:

• source: tracks main
• out: tracks main-out
• build: binary output from building source
• Headers are copied from source to out
• Binaries are copied from build to out
• Changes in out are added/commited to the main-out branch.

Notes about branches

Two branches are used to minimize the checkout cost when building NVDA. The main-out branch intentionally does not have any submodules, avoiding unnecessary cloning. This branch intended to contain only the files required to use the built MS-UI-UIA library. The main branch contains the submodule dependency.