Load specific app modules for apps hosted by wwahost.exe

[nvaccessAuto]

Reported by jteh on 2014-10-23 07:35
wwahost.exe hosts many Windows Store apps (though it seems some do have their own executables). To allow for application specific customisation, we should identify the specific application in the app module name.

I think we can use GetApplicationUserModelId (in kernel32) for this purpose. This includes a "!" character, so we'll need to check whether Python will cope with this and replace if not.
Blocked by #4360
Blocking #4259

[nvaccessAuto]

Comment 1 by jteh on 2014-10-23 07:36
GetApplicationUserModelId in MSDN

[nvaccessAuto]

Comment 4 by nvdakor on 2015-01-02 09:46
Hi,
Looking at how to work on this...
It turns out wwahost.exe is similar to javaw - uses command-line arguments to decide which app to host. If you try the following in Python Console (after obtaining the PID for the app in question):

import appModuleHandler
x = appModuleHandler.getWmiProcessInfo(PID)x.CommandLine

The argument of interest is:

-ServerName:appName.wwa```
For apps such as Calendar, a unique name will be shown, with some showing app.wwa (such as Bing Weather). However, wwa names can change, so it's not quite reliable, but at least getting the wwa name via command-line is possible (for those who don't know, there exists a ticket that requests locating names of apps hosted by wwahost); if I can figure out how to read buffer in Python, I'll do some research on the application model function and getting the package info (if it works, should this be added to winKernel?).
For OS, I put Windows 8, as wwahost (and WinRT in general) is available on Windows 8 and higher (including 8.1). Thanks.

[nvaccessAuto]

Comment 5 by nvdakor on 2015-01-02 10:41
Hi Jamie,
At least on Cygwin, when I attempt to import a module with exclamation point in the middle of the name, I get a syntax error. Also, GetApplicationUserModelId does return the name of the app when I test this against Bing News, Weather, Mail and others.
Since the function itself returns a buffer and might be used in many Windows Store apps, should this be part of winKernel? If so, I'm willing to create a branch that adds this function (by the way, OpenProcess is defined twice in winKernel).
Thanks.

[nvaccessAuto]

Comment 6 by jteh (in reply to comment 5) on 2015-01-06 07:41
Replying to nvdakor:

At least on Cygwin, when I attempt to import a module with exclamation point in the middle of the name, I get a syntax error.

What about when you do it via __import__ (which is how NVDA does it for app modules)?

Since the function itself returns a buffer and might be used in many Windows Store apps, should this be part of winKernel?

I'd probably just call it directly in the wwahost app module, as I don't think we'll need to call it elsewhere.

[LeonarddeR]

cc @josephsl

[josephsl]

Hi,

This issue mainly affects Windows 8.x, as Windows 10 do come with apps which have their own executables. Note that appPath property from another pull request might help out if needed.

Thanks.

[josephsl]

Hi,

Import test: test fails - files with an exclamation mark in the middle of the name isn't imported.

I'd go for command line version (see the example code fragment above), as it can be passed onto app module handler string replacement patch. I'll send a pull request soon.

Thanks.

[josephsl]

Hi,

An unexpected case showed up on Windows 10: The Twitter PWA (progressive web app) that is hosted inside WWAHost.exe. If PWA's are hosted inside wwahost, then this boosts priority of this issue, as more PWA's may show up on Microsoft Store.

Thanks.

[josephsl]

Hi,

Actually, GetApplicationUserModelId is way faster than command line method, validating @jcsteh's hunch.

Thanks.

[josephsl]

Hi,

PR #9119 has a side effect: the application role workaround for WWAHost breaks, meaning browse mode will be enforced. This means we may need to add a special case for this in IAccessible/MSHTML, or re-examine the app role strategy.

Thanks.