Feature request - limited expressiveness of default query language

[ondrejhanslik]

I am evaluating Frank for the purposes to rewrite some UIAutomation tests to be more robust and I noticed that some use cases cannot be expressed because the query language is not expressive enough.

Simple examples:

1. I want to get all subviews of a view. Not all views in that view, only the direct subviews.

   Use case: I am trying to get section headers from a UITableView ("table")
   Possible solution: Apart from "view: " filter, add a "subview:" filter.

2. The "index" filter relies on subview ordering which is not reliable (especially in UIScrollView when the ordering can change due to optimizations or UITableView where cells are dynamicaly added/removed), so it can be used only to list elements but not to access a specific element.

   Possible solution: Add sorting filters (e.g. UIAutomation sorts elements by their accessibility frame origin).

3. Impossible to access modal (presented) controllers, they are added as another "view" in the hierarchy.

   Use case: when a modal controller is displayed, I want to access elements inside it.
   Possible solution: Add a specific filter to access elements inside a modal controller.
   Current workaround: Tampering with ""view:'UIDropShadowView'"

4. Impossible to access popovers.

   Use case: Popovers are a major use case for all iPad application.
   Possible solution: Add a specific filter to access elements inside a popover.
   Current workaround: Tampering with "view:'_UIPopoverView'"