UIA

class UIA {

Caution

This class requires correctly set KSA.ini values. Please read the KSA wiki to learn more and set those values before proceeding.
It also requires the user to correctly set their Premiere version within settingsGUI(). Further instructions below.

This library is a wrapper for the UIAutomation framework, which can be used to automate windows that normally might be difficult or impossible to automate with AHK. This library is a third party library and is maintained by Descolada.

Tip

To learn more about this library specifically, check out the repo: https://github.com/Descolada/UIA-v2/wiki

This library is currently included within the repo to enhance our abilities within Premiere Pro BUT with the addition of this tool comes a few caviates, including the potential removal of a more plug and play experience.

---

class Premiere_UIA {

The class file itself (located ..\lib\Classes\Editors\Premiere_UIA.ahk) contains code required to systematically parse a json file (located ..\Support Files\UIA\values.ini) and turns each value for the currently set Premiere version into a class variable that other scripts can initialise and call on.

Caution

For this system to work, the correct Premiere Pro version MUST be set in settingsGUI().
While Startup.adobeVerOverride() should set this value for you, that both assumes the user is calling that function in their own scripts and only properly works if the user only has one year version of Premiere installed. If either of those scenarios aren't the case the user will NEED to set both the Year and Version values manually within settingsGUI(). It is best to double check these values if the user is encountering any issues.
Ensure you reload all scripts once any changes have been made.
Once this value is correctly set and the user has selected Save & Exit it is recommended to restart all scripts for these changes to take effect.

Once the correct version has been set, anytime the class is initialised it will check the values.ini file for the appropriate coordinates. If coordinates aren't set for the currently selected version, it will attempt to set them as long as Premiere is open.

Tip

This process to automatically set the values can also be called apon at anytime by calling premUIA_Values(false).__setNewVal() (or by right clicking on My Scripts.ahk and selecting Set Prem_UIA values).
However it is recommended the user reloads all open scripts after calling this function for the changes to properly take effect.

These UIA coordinates are then stored in the values.ini file (located ..\Support Files\UIA\values.ini) and will look something like this;

{
  "v24":{
    "effectsControl":"YY",
    "effectsPanel":"YuY",
    "programMon":"YrYYY",
    "timeline":"YwY",
    "tools":"YtY"
  },
  "v24_2_1":{
    "effectsControl":"YYY",
    "effectsPanel":"YuYY",
    "programMon":"YrYY",
    "timeline":"YwYY",
    "tools":"YtYY"
  },
}

In the example shown we have data for versions 24.0 and 24.2.1 of Premiere.
If the user were to then open version 24.3 of Premiere and attempted to continue as usual, the class would automatically fall back to version 24.0 data (NOT v24.2.1) and as such may enounter a broken experience until new values are set.
If the user were to instead open version 25.0 the class would automatically attempt to set new data.

Once values have been set in the ini file, the user can then initialise the class in their code by using;

premUIA := premUIA_Values()
...
; premUIA.effectsControl == "YYY"

Important

While the script will attempt to automatically set its data values, either when a version/base version isn't already set, or if the user calls premUIA_Values(false).__setNewVal(); it's important to note that this implementation is still rather rudimentary and is achieved by focusing the required Premiere panel and retrieving the UIA value of the current focused panel. As such, if a panel isn't already open, you may run into situations where the panel doesn't open fast enough for the script to grab its data.
If any panels aren't required for your workflow, consider removing the entries from the windowHotkeys Map found inside premUIA_Values().__setNewVal()

Known Quirks

While using this library to interact with Premiere is far more reliable and incredibly faster compared to using keyboard shortcuts and inbuilt ahk functions, it unfortuntely doesn't come without its quirks (that are usually Premieres fault more than anything). Here I will list any odd quirks I encounter alongside any potential ways to avoid the issue;

• These UIA values appear to change from version to version of Premiere, as well as change depending on what your window layout within Premiere is (and as such may require constant readjustment if the user ever changes their window layout, or if Premiere decides to change things from one day to the next).
• Depending on window layout, attempting to focus some panels more than once may result in an unrelated panel opening/stealing focus. As an example, in v23.5 of Premiere with a certain layout, attempting to highlight some panels multiple times would pull up the Capture panel. This issue was unintentially mitigated shortly after experiencing it as I changed my window layout (for unrelated reasons). If you experience this issue, you may need to either adjust your window layout, or dig into some of the function code and ensure the window is only being focused once.

How to manually retrieve these UIA strings

If calling premUIA_Values(false).__setNewVal() or selecting Set Prem_UIA values in My Scripts.ahk's tray menu isn't working as expected, the user can manually set these values.
Once premiere is open, run the ..\lib\Other\UIA\UIA.ahk script to get presented with a GUI. (also open the values.ini file located ..\Support Files\UIA\values.ini)

Click the Start Capturing (F1) button in the bottom left corner. Then hover over a panel within Premiere until you see a blue outline around it. Once the correct panel is highlighted, wait until the UIA Tree column on the right side of the GUI gets populated with data.
Once it populates, press Esc. Then in the bottom left of the GUI you should see:

You can either manually copy this variable, or right click on it and click Copy UIA Path as shown here:

Then place that value in the correct version json object (either the version of premiere you're currently using, eg. v24_1 or just the base object v24 as long as there isn't a property in a version above it that overrides it). Once completed save the file, restart all scripts to confirm your changes.

Warning

Be careful when adding JSON values to not forget any " or ,!
If any are missing you may run into some rather annoying issues.