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PreFab UI Browser vs. Apple's Accessibility Inspector
How are the two applications different?
Short Answer #1: Accessibility Inspector (formerly known as UI Element Inspector) is a bit like the Finder's Get Info window: it shows information about a single user interface element at a time, namely, the one currently under the mouse. UI Browser is more like the Finder itself: it shows the entire hierarchy of elements, whether or not they are currently visible, using the familiar multi-column browser view, plus additional drawers and windows where appropriate. UI Browser also offers the hot key "Get Info" approach, and UI Browser 2.0 adds a Screen Reader with enhanced features, giving you the best of both worlds.
Short Answer #2: UI Browser offers everything Accessibility Inspector offers, plus a lot more. UI Browser 2.0 fills the last gap: a Screen Reader with enhanced features. Click the Switch to Screen Reader button, and a screen reader window slowly fades in while the other UI Browser windows fade out to get out of the Screen Reader's way. Click the Screen Reader's Auto Motive mode button, and the window turns semi-transparent and automatically moves out of the way when you move the mouse over a target application's UI element on the screen. Command-click the Screen Reader's Find in Browser button, and UI Browser's main browser window fades back into view, with the UI element that was under the mouse selected and ready for you to explore. You can set a variety of preferences to refine the Screen Reader's behavior to suit your working habits.
Short Answer #3: UI Browser offers many features that don't exist at all in Accessibility Inspector. For example, UI Browser lets you explore UI elements that have been "destroyed" in the target application, such as windows that have been closed.
Short Answer #4: Try them both and see for yourself! Apple's free utility is included with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger (you have to install the Tiger Developer Tools). If it does everything you need, you can skip the rest of this page—but we don't think that's very likely. We've been using Accessibility Inspector internally for comparison since it was first made available to developers, and we much prefer UI Browser!
Long Answer: Here are several features that are unique to UI Browser.
- Browse any application's UI in UI Browser's main browser window without switching to the target application and without navigating its actual user interface on the screen.
- Use hot keys to get information about the UI element under the mouse, optionally bringing UI Browser to the front.
- New in UI Browser 2.0, switch to an enhanced Screen Reader to see all of the actions, attributes and notifications supported by the UI element currently under the mouse, in real time as you move the mouse around on the screen.
- View the selected element's name and AppleScript index number as part of a simplified outline of the target application's user interface element hierarchy.
- View the UI element as an AppleScript reference, edit it as desired, then copy/paste or drag/drop to your favorite script editor. (See screenshot below.)
- Register for live "notifications" from target applications or specific user interface elements in target applications. Notifications are logged to a floating window in real time as the target application changes state.
- Use specially designed tools to set modifiable properties of a target application's user interface elements from within UI Browser (and optionally receive real-time notifications when they take effect). For example, text areas in a target application can be edited within a UI Browser text window with the full power of Mac OS X text editing: split window, cut-and-paste, drag-and-drop, and undo-redo.
- Send keystrokes with virtual modifier keys, for example, to execute the target application's menu items and buttons via keyboard shortcuts (and optionally receive real-time notifications when they take effect).
- Use any of UI Browser's windows either as globally floating palettes so they are always available while working with a target application, or as normal windows so that none of the target application is hidden when it's brought to the front. Switch between the floating and normal states on the fly by clicking a button!
- View and print a formatted report listing the selected element's path and all of its actions, attributes and notifications at once to help you write more complicated scripts.
- Saving the best for last: generate AppleScript scripts, with options to put them on the clipboard and/or send them directly to Script Editor, Script Debugger or Smile.
Updated on December 22, 2006. Send questions or comments to 
support@prefabsoftware.com.
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