Accessibility Inspector does show the currently selected UI element hierarchy, but only in a collapsible outline view UI Browser shows you an outline view and the more comprehensive browser view that gives the utility its name. Accessibility Inspector remains more like the Finder's Get Info window: it is primarily a screen reader that displays information about a single User Interface element at a time, namely, the one currently under the mouse. Short Answer #1: UI Browser is like the Finder itself: it is primarily a browser that displays the entire hierarchy of elements, using a familiar multi-column browser view so you can browse from element to element and see parents, children and their siblings up and down the currently selected hierarchy all at once. UI Browser will help you to add GUI Scripting to your suite of automated testing tools.
Even if your use case is focused solely on the Accessibility API, you should consider UI Browser, because GUI Scripting is itself a useful tool for testing any application's Accessibility implementation. And if you are a scripter, you will find that UI Browser covers both aspects of the GUI Scripting experience-GUI Scripting terminology and the UI element hierarchy-in a single tool. But we believe that UI Browser is a much more usable utility, with a broader and more encompassing view of its domain. If Apple's Accessibility Inspector does everything you need, by all means use it. UI Browser encompasses a much broader range of functionality than Accessibility Inspector, which is strictly a tool for exploring the Accessibility API. UI Browser surpasses Accessibility Inspector, however, by making use of both the System Events Processes Suite and the Accessibility API. System Events is based on the same Accessibility API that UI Browser and Apple's Accessibility Inspector use. It relies on the Processes Suite of Apple's System Events application to exercise the AppleScript terminology that can control other applications even if they are not scriptable themselves.
GUI Scripting enables AppleScript scripts to read and manipulate the graphical user interface elements of any standard Mac application. UI Browser even provides the AppleScript index numbers of UI elements in the hierarchy-something that Accessibility Inspector cannot do-so that your scripts can use the index reference form when you prefer it over the name reference form or when UI element names are unavailable. UI Browser also generates working GUI Scripting AppleScript statements for you, placing them automatically in any standard AppleScript editor you choose. With UI Browser, you can view the AppleScript terms that reference UI elements and their attributes, actions and notifications in the context of a target application's UI element hierarchy. Only UI Browser helps you to explore, test and perform GUI Scripting on the Mac. One area in which UI Browser still provides essential features that are not available at all in Accessibility Inspector is AppleScript and its GUI Scripting technology. It still remains primarily a screen reader, however, focused on the UI element currently under the cursor, whereas UI Browser is both a screen reader and a more Finder-like browser that lets you view and control the overall UI element hierarchy as well as individual UI elements. In some respects it has caught up with UI Browser in terms of its coverage of the Accessibility API and its ability to inspect and manipulate the UI element hierarchy of other running applications.
Accessibility Inspector can also be used without launching Xcode, for example, by adding it to the Dock.Īccessibility Inspector 5 is significantly improved over previous versions, with expanded capabilities and a new user interface. Accessibility Inspector can be launched from Xcode by choosing Xcode > Open Developer Tool > Accessibility Inspector.
Xcode is available as a free download on the Mac App Store, and Accessibility Inspector is located inside the Xcode application package. Apple released the latest version, Accessibility Inspector 5, with Xcode 8 when it released macOS Sierra 10.12 on September 20, 2016. Apple's Accessibility InspectorĪpple has long offered Accessibility Inspector-formerly known as UI Element Inspector-as one of the developer tools associated with Xcode. Read on to learn our views on the differences between them. Both utilities are powerful tools for exploring the nature and extent of other applications' support for Apple's Accessibility technology. UI Browser is unique in its realm-with one exception: Apple's free Accessibility Inspector.