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Java Swing based windows desktop application is not detected by AccessibilityInsights

We have developed a Windows based Desktop application using Java Swing and build a exe of it using javapackager available in Java 8.
Now we are trying to automate the testing of it using Karate-Robot but Robot could not detect the fields on the GUI of Application. To further dig we have installed AccessibilityInsights suggested by Karate Community to figure out how to access elements on the GUI but it seems that our application is not getting detcetd in it. See attached screenshot.
Can someone help us on how to fix the application?
Will Java Accessibility Bridge help here? As per documentation https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/11/access/java-accessibility-guide.pdf, Application needs to implement Java Accessibility APIs when it needs to be available to Windows Assistive technologies.
Edit 1: As per https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/misc/access.html, "Because support for the Accessibility API is built into the Swing components, your Swing program will probably work just fine with assistive technologies, even if you do nothing special."

Ashish--
There have been multiple iterations of Windows-based assistive technologies over the years. The current iteration has existed since 2005 and is called UI Automation. This is the technology that is required for OS-provided tools like Magnifier and Narrator. It's also the technology that is required by Accessibility Insights for Windows. From your description, it might also be the technology that is required by Karate-Robot.
Java Accessibility Bridge uses an older iteration of assistive technology that is no longer recognized by OS-provided accessibility tools. It is recognized by some third-party accessibility tools (JAWS and NVDA, for example), but it is not recognized by OS-provided accessibility tools. To the best of my knowledge, Oracle has no plans to support UI Automation in the future. When their docs say that your apps will "work just fine", they're referring to users who rely on these third-party tools.
Accessibility Insights for Windows has made a conscious decision to support only UI Automation, since supporting 2 platforms would make things much more difficult. We chose to go with UI Automation because it is the only technology that is:
Actively supported by the operating system, with new features being regularly added and documented.
Supported by native Windows controls and most actively supported language frameworks.
The technology that we would expect new assistive technology tools to implement first.
I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news on this.
DaveTryon (Accessibility Insights team)

JSP tools for a Ruby/Rails developer?

I am a full time rubyist, really enjoying rails, Sinatra, etc. Currently, however, I find myself working on a Java/TomCat/JSP project.
I was hoping someone could help me find tools, articles, books, and any other resources that will make me more comfortable?
I'm aware that Java is very different from Ruby, and the communities, likewise, are very different. That being said, all of the documentation around Java (that I have found) is a mess, and discovery is very difficult in this community.
Things I'm specifically looking for:
development environment setup tips
logger, logging, colorful output, best practice, etc
library resources and documentation
easy to navigate documentation for Java SE 6
anything you have found that makes your daily life better
Thanks!

If you are joining an existing Java project then you probably want to take a look at the tools already in use and get an existing developer / co-worker to bring you up to speed with them as a first port of call.
Having said that, here are my top tips:
Get comfortable with one of the main Java IDEs. Eclipse (my personal choice), Netbeans or IntelliJ are all excellent and very powerful tools once you get to know them. The refactoring / code navigation tools are probably better than anything you are used to in the Ruby world, they will help you a lot. Java is a lot less painful with a good IDE setup.
Learn Maven - this will take some time investment but it is extremely powerful for automating your dependency management and build process. Once you get it working you will save a huge amount of time on project / build management. Maven also provides automated access to the equivalent of Ruby gems through the various public Maven repositories.
And here are some particularly useful resources:
Java tutorials - good to get an introductory feel for the core Java libraries.
Java 6 API - useful as a reference resource for all the classes and functionality available in core Java (a lot of this is also provided via the IDEs)
JSP Documentation - for the JSP / Java EE aspects

As a little side note don't forget to learn about JSTL and Expression Language.

first of all you are on the right road to discover how elegant Java EE is. since you adressed various topics i will divide my answer into different parts :
Development environment:
Without further talk i will advise you to directly go and pick your eclipse Java EE Juno (last release) version, however if you'd like to have a look at other IDEs you can either check NetBeans 7.2 (last release) or IntelliJIDEA 11.2 Ultimate (last release i know of and that I have). Basically Eclipse has tons of plugins and features and backed up by a very great, large and passionate community.
[ i personally tried NetBeans, and IntellijIDEA, but felt more comfortable with Eclipse because of its look, features, cool color theme etc]
For JSP and HTML, CSS ,JS stuff, i however recommend the great IDE of Jetbrains Webstorm it has zen coding as well as many many other things like fast auto completion and support for many frameworks.
Lastly, pick up Sublime Text 2 as a text editor for quick edits or to just check a source file, it has a very beautiful layout and support for many languages as well as tons of plugins.
Ressources and documentations :
All the Java API specifications are available for offline viewing for free in Oracle's website and come packaged with the various SDK that are available there.
The easy to navigate documentation :
Eclipse IDE makes it very easy to attach JavaDoc and Source to the different jar files that make up a JDK, that said, your learning and coding experience will be greatly increased once you've set that up.So when you type Connection for example in IDE, you can simple hold Ctrl command then right click on it and the source code of the class implementation would be opened in a different tab. yes yes it's the power of the open source world :)
Concerning tips and tricks :
I'll recommend you use //TODO comments as Eclipse has support for them and you can setup your own TODO comments in settings, also you can use TASK comments, you've Mylyn too to manage your bugs, tasks either locally or connect to your favorite bug and issue tracker through a connector since many connectors are available for such purpose. Add to this list the possibility to configure bookmarks to help you manage your source files when they become full of lines.
About Tomcat:
Well if your goal is to make Java EE applications that do not require the advanced features of the Java EE specification, then you can use the sweet Tomcat, it's easy to use and configure and a well known web container.
However if that's not the case, and you wanna specialize in Java and spend lots of time to try to understand the ins and outs of this huge specification, you are likely to need a certified Application Server that supports all Java EE components. There are lot of them available, but since you asked for advise and I am here giving my modest suggestions I would advise you to pick the GlassFish Application Server, it's Open Source, and once you install it on Eclipse IDE for example, it will be bundled with both Java EE 5 and Java EE 6 API doc. This means no time to be wasted on browsing different tools and tabs, you will have everything grouped inside your Eclipse IDE so that you are 100% on the tasks at hand.
p.s: if you've any more questions please feel free to ping me.
Any good tip or trick :
Have fun with Java, because you will be learning everyday something new :)
p.s: i didn't mention any framework, because by the time you get used to Java EE you will be in position to pick the one that suits your needs. Also forgot to mention JUnit (Testing Framework) and a great eclipse plugin EClemma for code coverage (much better than Cobertura/eCobertura and easier to use), and of course you can try Maven as the other post mentioned, or try Apache Ant as build tool.

If you're coming from a Rails background, I'd be prepared for some initial frustration. Setting up projects in an IDE can be time consuming, and generally it's going to be more painful to get things like a basic web+app server up and running using Tomcat than using Ruby.
For a REPL, I would recommend Groovy (and indeed it comes pre-installed on Intellij) but you can also use BeanShell. Grails, or groovy on rails, is probably the closest thing we have to a Rails-like environment.
As others have said, with Java, using an IDE is really best. I like Intellij IDEA, but eclipse and NetBeans are also good.
For build and dependency management, Maven is probably as close as we have to standard, although I have heard nice things about Gradle.
There are entirely too many logging frameworks in java, use whatever your project currently uses, probably log4j or SLF4J. learn how to change log levels across the board, and also at a package level.
In terms of libraries, Google's Guava makes my life better on a daily basis.
The best "tips, tricks and general best practices" book on java is Josh Bloch's Effective Java. For documentation, the Javadoc is the authoritative source. Learn to read and write good javadocs.
For Test Driven Development, jUnit is probably the most widely used library, a very popular library is mockito, which also happens to be my favorite.

Javascript/CSS/HTML/Java IDE?

So here we go. I want to choose between Aptana, Eclipse, and Netbeans. I want a sort of all inclusive program as I try out these different languages to see what I want to try out. I have VS for my C/C++. So do any of these support HTML, CSS, Javascript, and Java? I think it's netbeans but I'm not sure.
Also, what is the best paid app for Javascript? Is dreamweaver any good?

Aptana, Eclipse, and Netbeans all support HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Java.
Aptana is actually Eclipse under the covers with what looks like better support for web applications.
I have used Eclipse extensively and found that it was sufficient for my Java web development work.
Recently I have switched to using IntelliJ IDEA after using their JavaScript IDE - Webstorm. IntelliJ IDEA is a full-featured IDE with great support for various languages and frameworks. Webstorm (as far as I can tell) is a cut-down version of IntelliJ IDEA specifically focused on JavaScript development.
The great thing about IntelliJ IDEA and Webstorm is their support for mixed languages. That is, if you have HTML, CSS, and Javascript all in one file, it understands it all and highlights, and formats, the code for you properly. Another great feature are the code inspections which analyse your code for errors and common mistakes - this is a great feature.
Both IntelliJ IDEA and Webstorm are paid applications, but you can try them out for free for 30 days.
I would highly recommend trying out IntelliJ IDEA and/or Webstorm.

Eclipse is a develpoers best friend. Every language leave for .NET, but it's MEANT for Java, and the others. And NEVER buy an app to develop, it becomes a crutch.
And Eclipse has a million and a half plug-ins that can become super useful... just found this LESS CSS compiler that runs on file save... epic!

Depends on what you're doing but every place I've worked for prefers Eclipse over anything else, may just be industry standard but I get along with Eclipse very well. One thing that stands out it's modularity and the ability to find a plugin for any specific technology. I have used Netbeans in the past and it's not bad - perhaps the biggest advantage, at least when I was using it, was the built-in GUI builder specific to Swing applications but I suppose it's a matter of preference in the end. I believe both have support for the technologies that you mentioned although I haven't encountered Aptana before.

Aptana is actually Eclipse, bundled directly with highlighters for CSS, HTML, JS and adds additional very handy functionality. But you just as well could use eclipse and download all the plugins via the plugin manager and you'd have the experience of pornific-java developement, as well as porntastic javascript/html/css possibilities.
I'd recommend Aptana, unless you really need Java, then I'd do the Eclipse+Plugins attempt.

There are Eclipse builds for everything and is widely used. Netbeans is more for (you guessed it) web development, but I find a lot of people find it easier to use. Eclipse confuses people when they start using it. They both do HTML, JavaScript and CSS pretty well.

Which flavor of eclipse to download in order to start developing with GWT?

I am new to the world of Java and web programming. Never wrote a single line of javascript and my knowledge of HTML is pretty basic. Although, I am very experienced with .NET, so I guess transition to Java should not be a revolution.
Anyway, I wish to learn GWT and for that I want to work on Eclipse (I have Mac at home, so no Visual Studio).
Now, there are a dozen different download flavors of Eclipse, so my question is - which one best suits my needs?
Thanks.
P.S.
This is probably not a factor in the decision, but I will need Visual Studio keyboard bindings. I want to believe that no matter which flavor I install, I will be able to change the keyboard bindings later.

You should be fine with any version of Eclipse. Eclipse is extremely modular so it's only really a case of ensuring you have the correct plugins installed.
I'd recommend:
Start with the Eclipse IDE for Java Developers as a base install. This has everything you need for Java (i.e. the Java Development Tools, stndard editor features, source code control etc.)
Then install the GWT plugin for Eclipse
After that you should be good to go. If you find you need more plugins later, you can easily add them.
I also know both .NET and Java, and you should not have have much difficulty making the transition - it's really just a case of learning a few slightly different conventions, APIs and ways of doing things.
With regards to the keyboard bindings, I've never really changed from the default settings myself but they are completely customizable so I'm sure you can get it set up how you want. You might want to look at the answers to this question, which give you a few options (apparently you can download the full set of bindings, or install the C++ plugin which includes them).

I would probably start by installing Eclipse for Java EE developers and then the GWT plugin. It will cause less dependencies to be installed and you will get some things installed that you will probably want to start using later. But regardless of whether you are using that or the Java developer-version you should not have any major problems.

What are good InstallAnywhere replacements for installing a Java EE application?

Which (commercial or free) installer tool would you recommend to replace InstallAnywhere as the installer for a Java EE application? What do you specifically like about it, and what are its downsides?
Some requirements:
Must support running custom Java code as part of installation procedure
Must support Windows, including latest 64-bit versions like Windows Server 2008; support for other target operating systems is a plus
Must be able to install a bundled application server (such as Resin or Tomcat) as a service on Windows
Must support basic stuff like copying and moving files around, editing configuration files, extracting ZIPs, etc.
(Must support bundling a specific version of JRE; at the very least by including a ZIP to be extracted)
Edit: a few more points:
Preferably does not depend on a preinstalled JRE (or any other 3rd party runtime environment or library) on target machine; in other words, can produce an independent Windows .exe (or .msi)
The tool should preferably be cross-platform so that installer development can be done on Linux, Windows, or Mac.
Should preferably have a decent GUI for putting the installer together. Once that is done, however, it must be possible to skip the GUI and make installer building part of automated build process.

In this case, unfortunately, SO didn't tell us much that we didn't know already (and indeed the tool we ultimately chose was not mentioned in any answer). However, I'm posting our experiences here, as they might be helpful to others later on.
We (quickly) evaluated the following installer tools, mostly by looking at their websites and browsing for other information on the web: Actual Installer, Advanced Installer, BitRock InstallBuilder, Inno Setup, Install Creator, Installer VISE for Windows, InstallShield, install4j, IzPack, NSIS, openInstaller, Scriptlogic MSI Studio, Smart Install Maker, Symantec Wise Installation Studio, and WiX.
We screened out most of them early on, and ended up shortlisting two options for closer evaluation: BitRock InstallBuilder and install4j. For these tools, we downloaded evaluation versions and did some prototyping, to see if the things that are most important to us are really supported, and how easy or hard it is to get things working.
Both of the options were good in many things (and both seemed good alternatives to InstallAnywhere):
They produce completely native and pretty Windows .exe installers that are
easy to customise with your own graphics etc.
Both tools could easily be automated so that installer building is triggered from Ant. (With install4j it literally took me just five minutes to learn it and then implement it.)
Both companies seem to have good support (well, at least for prospects evaluating their products ;-) Especially from BitRock we got very quick replies.
In the following things install4j seemed better than BitRock for our needs (many of these are subjective, of course, so YMMV):
install4j definitely has better support for running custom Java code - it can be done at any point during the installation, and regardless of whether there's any preinstalled JRE on the system.
BitRock uses a more hard-coded sequence of installation steps while install4j is more flexible. In install4j, adding custom screens and forms (with or without custom Java code), asking user for input, etc., can be done at any point, before or after installing any files.
Also some basic things like defining the filesets that are to be copied to the target system, and adding an installation step to replace certain strings in configuration files seemed somewhat easier in install4j.
install4j has better support for JRE bundling
When creating installers on Linux, the look & feel of install4j IDE was nicer (more "native") than that of BitRock
(install4j's licensing options were better for us - we strongly preferred a couple of floating licenses to named licenses for all developers or an expensive "site license")
So ultimately we went with install4j. Here are some more details on why it was impressive:
Its IDE, where you put the installer together, is very simple and easy to use - I could figure out how to do most things I wanted quickly, even without looking at documentation. And when I did have to check something in the documentation (e.g. how to refer to installer variables; how to get started writing custom Java code against the install4j API), it didn't take long to find what I needed.
You can completely customise the screens and actions during the installation procedure, and also add custom screens and actions (coded against their Java API) at any point. This was important to us because we need to reuse existing custom Java code from the old InstallAnywhere installer.
In some small details, install4j seems ideal for Java developers. For example, if you want to add a validation script to check some user input, you can code that very quickly in the install4j IDE itself, using plain old Java, with coding assistance resembling that of IntelliJ IDEA.
We deemed the cost of install4j floating licenses reasonable, considering how good the tool is (and downright bargain compared to the inflated pricing of InstallAnywhere...)
In short, it seemed like the best installer tool available for deploying Java applications.

We created BitRock InstallBuilder, a crossplatform installation tool after some frustrating experiences with InstallAnywhere and specially its cousin (now defunct) InstallShield MP. More than half of our clients use our tool to package Java-based software but the tool is native, not Java-based. That means we have a number of advantages such as native look and feel (incl. Vista, GTK, Qt, etc.) and no need to do self-extraction previous to installation (faster startup, less space requirements) to mention a couple. To answer your specific questions:
Supports calling Java code as part of the installation at multiple points in time (such as when a certain page is displayed, files being copied, at uninstall time, etc.). The code is not compiled in the installer, but it can be called externally and the result used in the installer. If you are more specific about which kind of code that you need I can provide specific sample code. We have a lot of built-in actions for functionality that needs to be manually added to other installers, so you may not need to write that code in the first place!
We support all versions of Windows, including 64bit and Windows 2008 (multiple customers have certified on those platforms using our installers)
We support bundled applications servers, including Tomcat, Resin, JBoss and others. Take a look at BitNami for examples of such stacks that we have created.
We support copying and moving files, substituting values in config files, unpacking files and most other common installation functionality. One of our principles is that the installer should provide built-in support for common installation actions and have an easy, clean interface for invoking external code that is specific to a client's product.
We support bundling JREs, as you mention is often enough just to bundle the JRE directory and setting the appropriate value for JAVA_HOME in the launching scripts
You can take a look at some of our customers such as MySQL, Samsung, Motorola, GitHub, etc. InstallBuilder is a commercial product, but we offer free licenses for open source projects and discounts for small business and microISVs.

Just want to add that my company has used InstallAnywhere for about 6 years but we have decided to move on. The reason is two fold.
First of all their pricing is absolute highway robbery and the licensing is severely restrictive compared to direct competitors like INstall4J and BitRock.
My other problem with InstallAnywhere is the product is only minimally maintained. I have been using the product for 6-7 years through many different versions and bugs are rarely fixed and you surely can't expect new features. Essentially all you can expect is that they will add support for the new version of windows/mac as it comes out. Their support charges are quite pricey, but I have never had a support request actually implemented. When I first bought the product I believe it was from a company called ZeroG who were focused solely on this product. They actually maintained and improved the product. Back then it was the only real ticket and they were leaps and bounds above the competition.
Then it was acquired by Macrovision and then Flexera. Ever since ZeroG sold the product it has been an ancillary product for the owning company and the focus on it has been poor. It seems like it was bought more to complete a suite of products rather than because the company actually wanted to maintain the product.
Word of caution, evaluate these products carefully because you can become tied to them. We would have left the product sooner, but we put so much effort into not just the installer, but setting up an automatic update scheme based on the features/limitation of the product that it is expensive to leave the product because of the labor investment to reproduce this in a new product.
Just my take, but I wouldn't recommend InstallAnywhere.

I can vouch for izPack. It's Ant-based so you can package up an Ant install in it, and that Ant install can contain custom tasks, and/or scripts written within your Ant build.xml (e.g. using Groovy, Beanshell or any BSF-enabled scripting language). So it'll cover your customisable requirement.
I've used it in the past for all the above - unzipping/services/custom code. It's multi-platform, although I can't vouch for that specific instance above (64bit Windows). But if it runs Java, you should be fine.
The one headache is the JRE. You'd obviously require some JRE to run this. However I think you should be able to pack up and execute a specific JRE installation within izPack.

Currently we are using GetDown to handle distribution of our swing applications. We use Tomcat to distribute updates and GetDown to download those updates. It's really flexible and powerful, and much better than java WebStart and because it produces check sum for changes it saves bandwith and downloads just changed files.
A good tutorial : http://www.hascode.com/2012/05/creating-updatable-java-applications-using-getdown-and-the-getdown-maven-plugin/
Project website : https://github.com/threerings/getdown

Deployment in an multi-platform environment is always a big source of troubles. It think that the optimum solution would target the creation of native packages for all platforms, like RPM, DEB or MSI ... the ones that could be installed unattended also.
Developers should work on making the application self-healing and run without installation.
Doing so will payoff in minimize the deployment efforts.
I know this is not quite a solution as you where asking but sometimes you may get better results this way.
Remember that you'll get free updating service on Linux if you follow these.
I still hope Microsoft will add something similar to MSI (and that would not require you to register at them). Meanwhile for Windows you can take a look at Google Updater just released as open source - http://code.google.com/p/omaha/
They released a similar product for Mac OS http://code.google.com/p/update-engine/ but sad that they didn't think about creating one product from these two.

You can try the SetupBuilder Gradle Plugin to create a native *.msi installer with a simple Gradle build script.
It is free.
Supports 32 bit and 64 bit Windows. Also Linux and OSX.
Bundle the Java VM under Windows and OSX, does not required a preinstalled Java VM.
Can run Java Code before or after the installation.
Can create a windows service/daemon.
Has not a GUI but use Gradle. If you already use Gradle as build script language then it is very easy.

you may be interested in launch4j

Jonik, thanks for posting such detailed feedback of your experience. I wanted to write a follow up answer, since you raise some good points.
After certain base requirements are met (which unfortunately InstallAnywhere does not any more) there are not really 'bad' or 'good' tools, but rather tools that are better suited for some projects. It seems you studied carefully all options and install4j will work better for your project. This is probably a good choice, since you have an existing Java codebase from your previous installer that you want to reuse (though I would like to think some of that code would not be necessary with InstallBuilder :)
Regarding InstallBuilder, we support customizing the screen sequence using the <insertBefore> tag (we probably should better document this). It is also straightforward to bundle a JRE (just including the java/ folder in most cases) but I think your criticism is valid: since this is a common task we should do a better job at documenting / making it accessible though the GUI, including drag-and-drop in all supported platforms. We already have in our roadmap improving the GUI in the areas you mention. The funny thing is that a lot of our customers find the XML format so easy to use that they prefer editing it using their programming editors (as if they were editing HTML)
Finally, regarding licensing, our current model does not require purchasing additional licenses if those extra programmers will just be building the installers (not designing them) or purchasing extra licenses for build or continuous integration machines. In any case, a couple of floating licenses for install4j are more expensive than a full Enterprise Site license for BitRock:)
Thanks again for the feedback

I recommend having a look at cmInstall, which can be found at
http://sourceforge.net/projects/cminstall/
It meets almost all your requirements and it's open source. Plus I'm one its developers :).
[yes] Must support running custom Java code as part of installation procedure
[yes] Must support Windows, including latest 64-bit versions like Windows Server 2008; support for other target operating systems is a plus
[can be easily done by using 3rd party libs- e.g.:Tanuki Software] Must be able to install a bundled application server (such as Resin or Tomcat) as a service on Windows
[yes]Must support basic stuff like copying and moving files around, editing configuration files, extracting ZIPs, etc.
[yes - or you can programatically download & unzip it ]Must support bundling a specific version of JRE; at the very least by including a ZIP to be extracted
6.[no - it needs jdk 1.6 installed, support for .exe or .msi is planned for future]Preferably does not depend on a preinstalled JRE (or any other 3rd party runtime environment or library) on target machine; in other words, can produce an independent Windows .exe (or .msi)
[yes] The tool should preferably be cross-platform so that installer development can be done on Linux, Windows, or Mac.
7.[no - the cminstall framework is "developer based" - but easy to use.Just read the tutorials from http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=250019&package_id=305489 and see how easy it is to build an installer!] Should preferably have a decent GUI for putting the installer together. Once that is done, however, it must be possible to skip the GUI and make installer building part of automated build process.

I have also reveiwed few of the open source multi platform installers. Here is my comment:
BitRock InstallBuilder: Only Great for free and open source developers as it gives free license for use in open source projects.
InstallJammer: Good free and open source multi platform installer. Only one concern that as soon as one downloads the executable build from InstallJammer, the anti-virus program will immediately delete it. Somehow files built from InstallJammer are being caught as False Positives. You will have to work a bit more security certificate before publishing.
Izpack: Good free and open source multi platform installer. It may be a bit cumbersome for people not used to with ant. May be great when used with GUI front-ends like PackJacket.

I've seen several people recommend IzPack, but I honestly don't know if it meets your requirements. It's at least free :)

Sun offers an open source installer:
OpenInstaller
I'm sure that all your requested features are supported.
But it seems for me a little too hard to configure.
But guess what: It has not only a GUI but also a (pseudo-graphic) CLI.
Nice screenshots and info here.