Feedback: Sending keystrokes with SendInput

[Michael Mattias]

> Would it be possible to find that handle by enumerating windows

As long as you have your WinAPI reference open today, why don't you turn to the pages where GetWindowThreadProcessID() and OpenProcess() are described?

[Eddy Van Esch]

..why don't you turn to the pages where GetWindowThreadProcessID() and OpenProcess() are described?

I did exactly that and those indeed seem like the functions required. Thanks !

Kind regards

[Michael Mattias]

Oops, I thought one of my demos showed WaitForInputIdle... but it doesn't.

[Gary Beene]

Hi Eddy!
I was giving your code a try, but I'm not getting any results.

I opened a small PB app that has nothing but an edit control. Then I started your app on my Win7 PC, and pressed Ctrl J. When I keep typing, nothing appears.

What should I be seeing?

I also tried opening 2 instances of the app as well. Same results.

Likewise I opened Notepad and then pressed Ctrl-J. Nothing.

Can you give me some guidance?

[Eddy Van Esch]

Hi Eddy!
I was giving your code a try, but I'm not getting any results.
What should I be seeing?

If you have Notepad open and it has focus, pressing CTRL J should paste the following 4 lines of text in Notepad:

First line
next line
PowerBASIC
éééé

Pressing CTRL K should bring up an inputbox asking to enter some text. Pressing enter closes the inputbox and pastes the entered text in the active text window (Notepad).

I just tried in Win XP and Win 7 and works fine here.
Maybe the hotkey combinations CTRL J and CTRL K are already used on your system by another application?
Try replacing DlgProc of my little demo program by this DlgProc.
When you run the program, you have 9 seconds to make sure Notepad (or another text window) has focus.
It will paste the lines of text without you having to do anything.

'-------------------------------------------------------------------------
CALLBACK FUNCTION DlgProc
    STATIC nAtom()  AS DWORD
    LOCAL  sText    AS STRING
    LOCAL  iRet     AS LONG
    LOCAL  iCount   AS LONG
   
    SELECT CASE CBMSG
        CASE %WM_INITDIALOG
        
            SLEEP 9000   'Make sure Notepad has focus before this time has elapsed...
            WaitForNoKeys  'use this to wait for user to let go of keys (so our keys dont end up as ctrl keys)
            SendString "First-{BACKSPACE} line{ENTER}next line{ENTER}"
            SendString "Pooo{BACKSPACE}{BACKSPACE}werBASIC{ENTER}" 
            SendString "éééé{ENTER}"
                 
END FUNCTION

Kind regards

[Gary Beene]

Thanks Eddy,
I'll be away from my desk for a bit (tennis match) but will look at it again when I return.

[Roberto Porcar]

Im thinking about how to send the keystrokes to the previous focused window (i want to do a toolbar and i wish to send the keystrokes to the notepad).

One choice is send this string "{ALT_D}{TAB}{ALT_U}" with a small delay, and start sending the keystrokes, like this:

          WaitForNoKeys  'use this to wait for user to let go of keys (so our keys dont end up as ctrl keys)
          SendString "{ALT_D}{TAB}{ALT_U}"
          SLEEP 100
          SendString "Hello World{ENTER}"

is there some elegant way to do this?

i post an image for clarify, sorry my english.

still no code, this is a mockup (no real windows injured during my tests)


PD: another question, should i translate REDIM nAtom(1:2) to REDIM nAtom(2) OR (1 TO 2) to compile with pb 10.3?

    STATIC nAtom()  AS DWORD
    LOCAL  sText    AS STRING
    LOCAL  iRet     AS LONG
    LOCAL  iCount   AS LONG

    SELECT CASE CBMSG
        CASE %WM_INITDIALOG
            iRet = TIMER
            REDIM nAtom(1:2)  ' HERE I GET A COMPILER ERROR
            nAtom(1) = GLOBALADDATOM ("SendInput_demo2" + STR$(iRet + 1))
            nAtom(2) = GLOBALADDATOM ("SendInput_demo2" + STR$(iRet + 2))
            REGISTERHOTKEY CBHNDL, nAtom(1), 2, ASC("Y") ' Ctrl-J
            REGISTERHOTKEY CBHNDL, nAtom(2), 2, ASC("K") ' Ctrl-K

[Eddy Van Esch]

Roberto,

In this link:

http://www.powerbasic.com/support/pbforums/showthread.php?t=24488&highlight=SendKeys.inc

Look for function 'AppActivate'. It allows you to specify a window caption name to make that window receive focus.

Kind regards

[S Stamp]

if you know the window title ( or a subset of the window title) of the target window to receive the keystrokes, then Eddy right that the best way to activate the target window is the of the API. ( note that if you have two windows of the same name, then the API will activate the one that was most recently active... which is the behavior that we want).

Here is a post with another sample program for activating the target window and then sending keystrokes to it

http://www.powerbasic.com/support/pbforums/showthread.php?t=40652

But if the program needs to be more flexible to send keystrokes to the previous active window regardless of that window's title, then the only solution that I found is to first send keystrokes to alt-tab to that window, allowing nominal sleep, and then send the rest of the keystrokes... just like you proposed.

[Roberto Porcar]

Thanks for the replies.

I would to show the last active window (i know this can give me problems because some text editors change the name of the title when the file is modified and not saved).

'Compilable Example:
#COMPILER PBWIN 10
#COMPILE EXE
#DIM ALL
%Unicode=1 : %IDC_Button = 500
#INCLUDE "win32api.inc"

%ID_Timer1 = 500

GLOBAL hDlg,hFound AS DWORD, szText AS WSTRINGZ * %MAX_PATH, temp AS WSTRINGZ * %MAX_PATH

GLOBAL hForeground AS DWORD


FUNCTION PBMAIN() AS LONG
   hForeground = GetForegroundWindow()
   DIALOG NEW PIXELS, 0, "Get Last Active Window",300,300,420,100,%WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW TO hDlg
   CONTROL ADD LABEL, hDlg, 205, "Start", 5, 50, 400, 15, %SS_LEFT
   CONTROL ADD BUTTON, hDlg, %IDC_Button, "Check now!", 10,10,120,20
   DIALOG SHOW MODAL hDlg CALL DlgProc
END FUNCTION

CALLBACK FUNCTION DlgProc() AS LONG
   SELECT CASE CB.MSG

      CASE %WM_INITDIALOG
         SetTimer(CB.HNDL, %ID_Timer1, 500, BYVAL %NULL)   'uses callback messages

      CASE %WM_TIMER
         IF CB.WPARAM = %ID_Timer1 THEN
               hForeground = GetForegroundWindow()
               GetWindowText(hForeground, temp, SIZEOF(szText))
               IF temp <> "Get Last Active Window" THEN
                 szText = temp
               END IF
               CONTROL SET TEXT hDlg, 205, szText
         END IF

      CASE %WM_COMMAND
         IF CB.CTL = %IDC_Button AND CB.CTLMSG = %BN_CLICKED THEN
             GetWindowText(hForeground, szText, SIZEOF(szText))
             'msgbox szText
             CONTROL SET TEXT hDlg, 205, szText
         END IF
   END SELECT
END FUNCTION

this code its all that i get until now, based on a Gary sample. ill try to see first if the last focused window exists and if not found ill try to sendkeys to the "alt+tab" window.

But, whats the best choice to know about some window was focused? i have to set a timer and check at some fast intervals or there is some api?

feel free to atack my code... this is my first PB project.