I have a windows application, where I am using send keys to navigate from one window to another. My send key sequence is like activating another window with in my app, and sending key strokes to that window. But the key strokes I am sending is getting updated in the same window where I am activating the other window.
But after few key strokes it is going to the other window. Seems like synchonization issue with send keys. Is there a way to specify the operation of the current send key is finished, before sending the next sendkey.
I have found sendkeys to be nothing but unreliable. Try the input simulator instead.
Have you tried using SendKeys.SendWait. This will wait until the key was sent and the action processed before carying on.
Since the windows are in your own application, why not provide set of functions to carry out the actions rather than using SendKeys. Functions can create the window once the windows in created and active which you can detect by handling the Activated event, you can then use SendKeys to send key strokes to the new window, if you really need to, otherwise again have functions on the window class that you can call to carry out the operations that the key strokes would induce. You could probably define a common interface that your windows implement to facilitate this interaction.
Related
I'm trying to write an application that can reliably send key presses to another application.
The second app has a text field which opens when 9 is pressed.
Text can then be typed and then the text field is closed when Enter is pressed.
If I use SendKeys to try to do this the field does not open if I send 9, but if the field is already open my tool can send text ok, but then it does not close if I send an Enter.
I'm guessing this is because a lower-level interaction with the keyboard driver or similar is being used.
Is there a reliable way I can simulate actual keyboard input to the application from another C# app?
I have found a few potential solutions online but these are generally incomplete with either missing references etc. or missing code elsewhere.
I will continue to search and I will post the solution here if I find it!
is it an option to invoke on screen keyboard provided by os. your app, calling app will loose or cant track the key events, however if you open your second application and invove osk.exe, then the purpose of robust keyboard sending keys to an app could be fullfilled.
I explained this here
EDIT: ignoring on screen keyboard
You can try using RegisterHotKey to open the textpad on a specific sequence of key(s) and persist the handle in a instance variable. On the sequence of second hot key(s) you can close the textpad (you already know the handle)
there is a video explaining this
I'm using the Window's API RegisterHotKey function to run a macro when the F2 key is pressed while a specific application is open and focused.
The problem is, this is stopping the F2 key from working for other applications, such as Excel.
How can I prevent RegisterHotKey from stopping the default action?
I have a system tray application that uses the HotKeyManager class from this answer to register hotkeys. When a specific key is pressed (for example, F2), I use the Windows API to check if a closed-source application is open and focused, and if so send it a series of SendKeys.
From what I understand, you want your global hotkey to work only when one or more selected apps are focused. Can't you simply SendKeys the intercepted strokes if you determine that an incompatible app is in the foreground?
For example,
if (IsSpecificWindowFocused())
{
// Do work
}
else
{
// Resend the key to whatever window is current
SendKeys.Send("{F2}");
}
RegisterHotKey is global, so it is going to trap all of those keystrokes (in other words, I don't believe it is possible to do exactly what you ask).
However, this thread
Global Keyboard Hooks (C#)
talks about creating a keyboard message filter, which is (I believe) more like what you are going for.
To clarify:
RegisterHotKey is going to be best for things like tray apps and anywhere else where you want an OS wide keyboard short cut that doesn't rely on the app being in focus.
Application.AddMessageFilter() is what you want when you want consistent handling of a particular keystroke, but only when your app already has focus.
A way to do what you're describing and still stay in .NET would be to monitor what processes are running on the OS and only enable the global hook when your app is running.
My app (in C#) need to interface with a USB bar-code scanner, which is basically working like a keyboard. It inputs the bar-code with an enter key at the end.
The app need to be work even when it's at background, so I am using low level keyboard hook to get and filter the bar-code out in the global key events. This part is already working.
Here is my problem: I don't want other apps to get the keyboard(scanner) inputs if it is a bar-code. And the normal key events should not be interfered. In one word, block the key events selectively. Is this possible?
My app is in C#, but I have no problem with C++ or more native solutions as long as it's easy to integrate in C#.
Thanks.
Additional Information：
The whole idea is working at background, even when it's not active. It watches the global key events stream and spot the bar-code sequence (already implemented with Hook). And most importantly, it do NOT interfere with normal keyboard events nor other applications' operation. That's why I cannot block all the key events or make it top-most.
I already can get the bar-code. I need to prevent other applications from getting the bar-code.
At the end of your keyboard hook you would call CallNextHookEx to execute next hook in the chain.
I would suggest that put some unique signature as a preamble for your barcode so that your keyboard hook procedure can detect it as a valid barcode input from your scanner. Now, when you get this data, just skip the call to 'CallNextHookEx' so that the chain will be discontinued and other programs won't get your barcode. Otherwise - call 'CallNextHookEx' so the chain can continue.
Note: This is my theory, I have never tried the exact same thing myself. I have however, written hooks in C++ and C#.
Check this project out
http://globalmousekeyhook.codeplex.com/
It is in C# as well so will make your coding easier. Sounds like all you need is to hook up the global key press event and suppress it by setting the Handled value or something similar.
Is it possible to utilize the sendInput function on windows that currently do not have focus, and maybe through the use of multithreading, sendinput to multiple minimized windows at the same time, or send input to one window while you're working on another window?
I'd like to do something like this in c#
thanks in advance.
You can only use SendInput to send input to the HWND with keyboard focus. Furthermore the window must be attached to the calling thread's message queue, so one cannot simply SetFocus either.
You'll need to get the window's thread id with GetProcessIdOfThread.
When you have the thread id you can use the AttachThreadInput function to attach your thread to the other threads input processing.
After all this you can probably use SetFocus and SendInput.
You'll probably want to detach your thread when you've sent your input.
To get access to these method you'll have to use P/Invoke for C# or C++/CLI. PInvoke.net is very handy as a reference. It will be a small chore importing all those functions, but when you are done you should be able to send input to whatever "window" you want.
Also as a side note, I'm not sure if you are aware of this, but in pure Win32 everything is regarded as a window, even a button. If you are unlucky you may have to send the input to the handle of the text control belonging to the notepad application.
That is not possible with SendInput. What you probably want to do is find the messages that were sent to the window by the OS when that particular event was performed then emulate them. You can use Spy++ to attach to the target window and perform your event. Then use SendMessage() and PostMessage() to reproduce the messages that were generated by your event. This will work fine for notepad.
If you do use this method, note that you need to send messages to notepad's child window which you can find with FindWindowEx() with a classname of "edit". For example to type text you could try WM_KEYDOWN. You should note that this method is not necessarily reliable:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2005/05/30/423202.aspx
I want to send an Application Key Presses, To Automate some stuff that has to be done repeatedly and So I don't always have to cramp my fingers.
In C#, it's nice to use SendKeys.Send(), but this won't work because the Application doesn't take Windows Messages. SendKeys.SendWait() does nothing at all.
How would I STILL Simulate the Keyboard events?
Come To Think of It, I was going to use some P/Invoke to simulate Mouse Events too, but If it takes no messages, How Can I get around that?
EDIT - I can use mouse and keyboard to interact with the program, I just cannot manipulate it with Windows Messages sent from my own Code.
Have you tried AutoIt?
Is it a console app? If so, maybe you should be SendKeys'ing to the command shell instance it is running in.