Phantom Automated Solutions Forum

Unfortunately, Phantom never really dealt with command-line applications. It could be that in the 1990's you used an application called Phantom for Windows (which is made by a different company). Sorry for any confusion. Our Phantom was designed specifically for GUI automation, which is why GetText returns only the DOS window title.

You *can* automate console windows using Phantom, but it takes a little scripting. Basically, you enter the command using TypeKeys, and then select the text using the console window menu, copy it to the clipboard, retrieve it and then you can parse the result. An example of this is below:

# Define the window
window w;
w.Tag = "C:\\WINDOWS\\*"; # Any window with C:\WINDOWS in its title... you may have to change this for your window
w.Class = "*";

# Activate the window
w.SetActive();

# This automates the selection 'Edit->Select All' from the console window
w.TypeKeys("<ALT-SPACE>es");

# This copies it to the clipboard
w.TypeKeys("<ENTER>");

# This retrieves the clipboard text and displays it
string s = GetClipboardText();
disp(s);

# This is how you would enter the 'dir' command
w.TypeKeys("dir<ENTER>");

The s string contains (in my case):
Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

U:\>