using C# and UI Automation to grab contents of unk

In the image below there is an area, which has an unknown (custom) class. That's not a Grid or a Table.

I need to be able:

to select Rows in this area
to grab a Value from each cell

The problem is since that's not a common type element - I have no idea how to google this problem or solve it myself. So far the code is following:

Process[] proc = Process.GetProcessesByName("programname");
AutomationElement window = AutomationElement.FromHandle(proc [0].MainWindowHandle);
PropertyCondition xEllist2 = new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ClassNameProperty, "CustomListClass", PropertyConditionFlags.IgnoreCase);
AutomationElement targetElement = window.FindFirst(TreeScope.Children, xEllist2);

I've already tried to threat this Area as a textbox, as a grid, as a combobox, but nothing solved my problem so far. Does anybody have any advice how to grab data from this area and iterate through rows?

EDIT: sorry I've made a wrong assumption. Actually, the header(column 1, column 2, column 3) and the "lower half" of this area are different control-types!!

Thanks to Wininspector I was able to dig more information regarding these control types:

The header has following properties: HeaderControl 0x056407DC (90441692) Atom: #43288 0xFFFFFFFF (-1)
and the lower half has these: ListControl 0x056408A4 (90441892) Atom: #43288 0x02A6FDA0 (44498336)

The code that I've showed earlier - retrieved the "List" element only, so here is the update:

Process[] proc = Process.GetProcessesByName("programname");
AutomationElement window = AutomationElement.FromHandle(proc [0].MainWindowHandle);
//getting the header
PropertyCondition xEllist3 = new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ClassNameProperty, "CustomHeaderClass", PropertyConditionFlags.IgnoreCase);
AutomationElement headerEl = XElAE.FindFirst(TreeScope.Children, xEllist3);
//getting the list
PropertyCondition xEllist2 = new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ClassNameProperty, "CustomListClass", PropertyConditionFlags.IgnoreCase);
AutomationElement targetElement = window.FindFirst(TreeScope.Children, xEllist2);

After giving it a further thought I've tried to get all column names:

AutomationElementCollection headerLines = headerEl.FindAll(TreeScope.Children, new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.HeaderItem));
string headertest = headerLines[0].GetCurrentPropertyValue(AutomationElement.NameProperty) as string;
textBox2.AppendText("Header 1: " + headertest + Environment.NewLine);

Unfortunately in debug mode element count in "headerLines" is 0 so the program throws an error.

Edit 2: Thanks to the answer below - I've installed Unmanaged UI Automation, which holds better possibilities than the default UIA. http://uiacomwrapper.codeplex.com/ How do you use the legacy pattern to grab data from unknown control-type?

if((bool)datagrid.GetCurrentPropertyValue(AutomationElementIdentifiers.IsLegacyIAccessiblePatternAvailableProperty))
{
var pattern = ((LegacyIAccessiblePattern)datagrid.GetCurrentPattern(LegacyIAccessiblePattern.Pattern));
var state = pattern.Current.State;
}

Edit 3. IUIAutoamtion approach (non-working as of now)

        _automation = new CUIAutomation();
        cacheRequest = _automation.CreateCacheRequest();
        cacheRequest.AddPattern(UiaConstants.UIA_LegacyIAccessiblePatternId);
        cacheRequest.AddProperty(UiaConstants.UIA_LegacyIAccessibleNamePropertyId);
        cacheRequest.TreeFilter = _automation.ContentViewCondition;
        trueCondition = _automation.CreateTrueCondition();


        Process[] ps = Process.GetProcessesByName("program");
        IntPtr hwnd = ps[0].MainWindowHandle;
        IUIAutomationElement elementMailAppWindow = _automation.ElementFromHandle(hwnd);


        List<IntPtr> ls = new List<IntPtr>();

        ls = GetChildWindows(hwnd);

        foreach (var child in ls)
        {
            IUIAutomationElement iuiae = _automation.ElementFromHandle(child);
            if (iuiae.CurrentClassName == "CustomListClass")
            {
                var outerArayOfStuff = iuiae.FindAllBuildCache(interop.UIAutomationCore.TreeScope.TreeScope_Children, trueCondition, cacheRequest.Clone());
                var outerArayOfStuff2 = iuiae.FindAll(interop.UIAutomationCore.TreeScope.TreeScope_Children, trueCondition);

                var countOuter = outerArayOfStuff.Length;
                var countOuter2 = outerArayOfStuff2.Length;

                var uiAutomationElement = outerArayOfStuff.GetElement(0); // error
                var uiAutomationElement2 = outerArayOfStuff2.GetElement(0); // error
    //...
    //I've erased what's followed next because the code isn't working even now..
              }
        }

The code was implemented thanks to this issue:

Read cell Items from data grid in SysListView32 of another application using C#

As the result:

countOuter and countOuter2 lengths = 0
impossible to select elements (rows from list)
impossible to get ANY value
nothing is working

You might want to try using the core UI automation classes. It requires that you import the dll to use it in C#. Add this to your pre-build event (or do it just once, etc):

"%PROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\bin\tlbimp.exe" %windir%\system32\UIAutomationCore.dll /out:..\interop.UIAutomationCore.dll"

You can then use the IUIAutomationLegacyIAccessiblePattern.

Get the constants that you need for the calls from:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1\Include\UIAutomationClient.h

I am able to read Infragistics Ultragrids this way.

If that is too painful, try using MSAA. I used this project as a starting point with MSAA before converting to all UIA Core: MSSA Sample Code

----- Edited on 6/25/12 ------

I would definitely say that finding the proper 'identifiers' is the most painful part of using the MS UIAutomation stuff. What has helped me very much is to create a simple form application that I can use as 'location recorder'. Essentially, all you need are two things:

a way to hold focus even when you are off of your form's window Holding focus
a call to ElementFromPoint() using the x,y coordinates of where the mouse is. There is an implementation of this in the CUIAutomation class.

I use the CTRL button to tell my app to grab the mouse coordinates (System.Windows.Forms.Cursor.Position). I then get the element from the point and recursively get the element's parent until I reach the the desktop.

        var desktop = auto.GetRootElement();
        var walker = GetRawTreeWalker();
        while (true)
        {
            element = walker.GetParentElement(element);
            if (auto.CompareElements(desktop, element) == 1){ break;}
        }

----- edit on 6/26/12 -----

Once you can recursively find automation identifiers and/or names, you can rather easily modify the code here: http://blog.functionalfun.net/2009/06/introduction-to-ui-automation-with.html to be used with the Core UI Automation classes. This will allow you to build up a string as you recurse which can be used to identify a control nested in an application with an XPath style syntax.