I would make a tools like Google toolbar translate function, but it is for desktop.
What i want to do is
highlight the text in any application (word,pdf,live messenger etc) , and translate by google translate api ,return as a tool tips.
I have search msdn about monitoring text, i only found using copy&paste and monitoring clipboard to tick the event.
so, any idea about that?
thanks you.
A starting point would be to get a reference to the current foreground window. The code below will get the currently selected window and the title of that window:
[ DllImport("user32.dll") ]
static extern int GetForegroundWindow();
[ DllImport("user32.dll") ]
static extern int GetWindowText(int hWnd, StringBuilder text, int count);
private void GetActiveWindow()
{
const int nChars = 256;
int handle = 0;
StringBuilder Buff = new StringBuilder(nChars);
handle = GetForegroundWindow();
if ( GetWindowText(handle, Buff, nChars) > 0 )
{
this.captionWindowLabel.Text = Buff.ToString();
this.IDWindowLabel.Text = handle.ToString();
}
}
You could run this code within a timer: i.e give the user 10 seconds to select a window.
I am not sure how you would retrieve selected text within a window, but I will look into it for you.
I think you'll need to start by getting the handle of any window that is activated when your program is active. My guess is you need to look into InteropServices here to do this.
Using Windows API.
It sounds like you need to have your code intercept any window handle of any process, this is where it gets a bit complex as you have to ensure you do have access permissions to access another process.
Speaking of which, I do not think it is a good idea as you could end up crashing another process by poking around under the hood in regards to the winapi calls to trap the text selection event, not too mention the fact that you would have to determine if the process has any text selected. The best direction I can give is this...an article was written on how to spy on a process on CodeProject here, this can be a step in the right direction, bear in mind that the code used was for the .NET 1.0 framework.
Hope this helps and good luck in your coding,
Best regards,
Tom.
Related
I have an AHK script (below) which sends various commands to the Spotify desktop app globally while in the background to perform various actions, however I play an MMO which has an always running anti-cheat which shuts the game down when it detects AHK because people can use it for macros, etc.
; "CTRL + Alt + UP" Increase the volume.
^!Up::
DetectHiddenWindows, On
WinGet, winInfo, List, ahk_exe Spotify.exe
Loop, %winInfo%
{
thisID := winInfo%A_Index%
ControlFocus , , ahk_id %thisID%
ControlSend, , ^{up}, ahk_id %thisID%
}
return
The anti-cheat does not detect/care about C# programs/applications so I'm porting over the code to C# and have found a way to send commands to the Spotify application to perform a majority of the stuff I wanted via SendMessage:
private const int WM_KEYDOWN = 0x0100;
private const int WM_KEYUP = 0x0101; //Tried using these to no avail
private const int WM_KEYSYS = 0x0104;
private const int WM_ACTIVATEAPP = 0x001C;
var proc = Process.GetProcessesByName("Spotify").FirstOrDefault(p => !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(p.MainWindowTitle));
IntPtr hwnd = proc.MainWindowHandle;
SendMessage(hwnd, 0x0319, (IntPtr)0, (IntPtr)917504);
This command would play/pause the current song as that is what the final number (917504) corresponds to. Spotify also provides command codes for volume up/down, however they affect the entire volume of my PC, not just spotify which is obviously not what I want.
I've tried literally hundreds of combinations of PostMessage and SendMessage and I simply cannot figure out how to send the keys 'Ctrl' + 'Up' to make the volume increase (and vice versa for decrease). while in the background. I don't want the window to be brought to the foreground, etc.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
I also mentioned the AHK script because from my digging I think the ControlSend function is ran from this point in the source code https://github.com/Lexikos/AutoHotkey_L/blob/90b5c2ac3208c38b9488a72fc3e6e4f9cf20b276/source/keyboard_mouse.cpp#L135 , however I don't understand C/C++ enough to be able to figure out how to override the functions that require the window focus, etc.
Maybe think about compiling your AHK script to an exe: It might not be blocked this way. And you would have no effort to transfer your AHK solution.
ShowWindowAsync won't work in all case. It works when I try it with notepad, task managger, or visual studio, it's just do the job, restore them when they minimized, but when I try it with windows explorer or another external process, it won't work. In all case, the GetProcessesByName find them, just won't come back from minimized.
PInvokeFunctions class
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern bool ShowWindowAsync(HandleRef hWnd, int nCmdShow);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern bool SetForegroundWindow(IntPtr WindowHandle);
Method
public static void FocusProcess(string procName)
{
Process[] objProcesses = Process.GetProcessesByName(procName);
if (objProcesses.Length > 0)
{
IntPtr hWnd = IntPtr.Zero;
hWnd = objProcesses[0].MainWindowHandle;
PInvokeFunctions.ShowWindowAsync(new HandleRef(null, hWnd), Constants.PInvokeConstants.SW_RESTORE); // SW_RESTORE = 9
PInvokeFunctions.SetForegroundWindow(hWnd);
}
}
What you want is actually not possible. You are trying to find the 'main window' of a process and that is an non-existing concept. The topic is discussed at length here: There can be more than one (or zero): Converting a process to a window
When you try to explain this to people, you sometimes get stuck in the Why won't you answer my question? cycle.
"I have a thread ID. How do I get the corresponding window?"
You can use the EnumThreadWindows function to get all the windows on the thread.
"Yes, I know about EnumThreadWindows, but how do I get the window that I want?"
Well, you haven't said what you wanted yet.
"I want the window that corresponds to the thread."
But which one? How will you decide among all the windows?
"That's what I'm asking you!"
But you haven't yet described what you want.
"I want the window corresponding to the thread. Why won't you answer my question?"
Note that saying, "I am looking for the top-level unowned window" is a step forward, but it still doesn't uniquely identify a window. There can be multiple top-level unowned windows in a process. For example, Explorer typically has lots of top-level unowned windows. There's the desktop, the taskbar, your open folder windows, and property sheets. If you ask for "the" top-level unowned window of Explorer, which one do you want?
And then Raymond ads the coup de grâce:
Perhaps people are getting the idea that there is a way to uniquely specify "the" window for a process because the System.Diagnostics.Process object has a property called MainWindowHandle. The documentation for that property doesn't do anything to dispel the notion, either. I have no idea how that property decides among multiple top-level unowned windows.
So, as you see, you need to unask the question. What you want is fundamentally incorrect, since there is no 'main' window for a process like Chrome (remember, all modern browsers isolate browsing tabs in their own process). If you followed the discussion above, you'll know what to do.
Ok I have an app named Sharknadoo that I created,what this app does it reads the value from a combobox from 1 to whatever number and creates that number of textboxes in the right of it.
Now let us presume I do not have the code for this sharknadoo app just the app installed on my desktop.My question is how can I send my listbox.items from "My amazing app" to the sharknadoo textboxes? Presuming I have the same number of items in my listbox as I have textboxes in my other app.I am sorry but I really want to learn how to do this ,someone told me it is possible to achieve but I have no idea on how to achieve it was thinking about using coordinates or something like that,but from what I understood you can even hang on to the fact that the sharknadoo app is using textboxes without even having access to its source code.Thank you in advance friends :D.
Process[] processes = Process.GetProcessesByName("Sharknadoo.exe");
int i = 0;
foreach (Process p in processes)
{
IntPtr windowHandle = p.MainWindowHandle;
string item = listBox1.Items[i].ToString();
listBox1.Items.Add(item);
i++;
}
I realize the logic of my code is not good but it's all I could come up with.
This answer follows similar logic to your code, but instead simulates keyboard strokes and relies on using TAB to navigate boxes, but it should work in your case.
First add some code that we will use later to grab a link to your Sharknadoo application:
// Get a handle to an application window.
[DllImport("USER32.DLL", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
public static extern IntPtr FindWindow(string lpClassName, string lpWindowName);
// Activate an application window.
[DllImport("USER32.DLL")]
public static extern bool SetForegroundWindow(IntPtr hWnd);
Now assuming you have not touched anything in the app (Very dangerous assumption, it would be better to launch Sharknadoo from your code before doing any of this), the tab index should be at 0 so we can do something like the following when you click the "Send to Sharknadoo" button:
// Send a your array of names to the Sharknadoo application.
public void sendToSharknadoo(String[] detailsToSend)
{
// Get a handle to the Sharknadoo application. The window class
// and window name can be obtained from Sharknadoo using the
// Spy++ tool.
IntPtr windowHandle = FindWindow("SharknadooFrame","Sharknadoo");
// Verify that Sharknadoo is a running process.
if (windowHandle == IntPtr.Zero)
{
MessageBox.Show("Sharknadoo is not running.");
return;
}
// Make Sharknadoo the foreground application and set the number
// of text boxes for your info
SetForegroundWindow(windowHandle);
// Get to first box
SendKeys.SendWait("{TAB}");
// enter number of boxes
SendKeys.SendWait("{DOWN}");
SendKeys.SendWait((string)detailsToSend.Length);
// Now enter your details into each of those boxes
foreach (String s in detailsToSend)
{
// Get next textbox box
SendKeys.SendWait("{TAB}");
// enter text into box
SendKeys.SendWait(s);
}
}
With any luck that will do the trick. However you will probably need to mess with the order a bit put some checks in place.
Note: if you want a faster more aggressive approach that should execute before the user can interfere then try SendKeys.Send() instead of SendKeys.SendWait()
Source:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms171548(v=vs.110).aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.sendkeys(v=vs.110).aspx
Additional Stack Overflow questions like this one:
Insert text into the textbox of another application
I am trying to figure out how I can make my C# application to send keys to another application window, without focusing on it.
I have a list of words and 3 notepads files.
Imagine I have all 3 notepad windows opened in order, and my program would take the first word in the listbox and write it in the first Notepad window. The second word in the second Notepad window and third one in the third Notepad window. Then start over and continue.
So I want it to post 1 word in each and continue like that over and over.
But I only figured out how to do it with 1 notepad window (while having it active).
int i = 0;
i = listBox1.SelectedIndex;
i = i + 1;
if (i > listBox1.Items.Count - 1)
i = 0;
listBox1.SelectedIndex = i;
string message = listBox1.SelectedItem.ToString();
SendKeys.Send(message);
SendKeys.Send("{ENTER}");
This would require me to first focus on the notepad window, start the timer and then keep focus on the notepad window. It would then just loop through the list and type the word (1 on each line). And it works fine. But I want to be able to do it on 3 windows.
And then I need to get the window title somehow, not the process name.
I would have 3 processes called Notepad then.
But if they are named Note1, Note2, Note3 how would I do that?
I need help to make some kind of list of what programs to write to:
listofprograms = ["Note1", "Note2", "Note3"];
And it would find the application windows opened with those names,
then somehow write the text into those windows.
Could anyone help me out? Haven't found anything about this so far and trust me I've looked around!
Unfortunately there is no great way to do this. SendKeys is a really simple and desirable API but it only applies to the active window. There is no way to make it work on an inactive window nor is there an API with the same ease of access that works on inactive windows.
Generally when people run up against this problem they have to go one of two routes
Physically active the apps you want to send the keys to one at a time
Drop down to a much lower level of SendMessage or PostMessage to send keyboard events
The second option is generally more reliable but harder to implement.
SendKeys is not made for this type of functionality. To do what you're looking for, you're going to need to use some Win32 API calls in your code. See How to send text to Notepad in C#/Win32? for reference.
If you're looking for a way to send keys to an application, using SendKeys.Send(keys) is an option, but you need to bring the window to the top via the SetForegroundWindow API.
So, if you continue using your approach, you could use FindWindow, SetForegroundWindow to force the Notepad windows to be activated and focused, so that you could send the keys.
[DllImportAttribute("User32.dll")]
private static extern int FindWindow(String ClassName, String WindowName);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
private static extern IntPtr SetForegroundWindow(int hWnd);
public int Activate(int hWnd)
{
if (hWnd > 0) {
SetForegroundWindow(hWnd);
return hWnd;
}
else {
return -1;
}
}
public int GetWindowHwnd(string className, string windowName) {
int hwnd = 0;
string cls = className == string.Empty ? null : className;
string win = windowName == string.Empty ? null : windowName;
hwnd = FindWindow(cls , win );
return hwnd;
}
Although there is also another solution, which could help you out. Here all Notepad processes are handled:
How to send text to Notepad in C#/Win32?
With some adaptions it should work for your case, too (basically you would iterate and loop through the notepad instances found and place a word in each instance).
You might also want to take a look at the following information about FindWindow:
http://www.pinvoke.net/default.aspx/user32.findwindow
SetKeyboardState:
http://www.pinvoke.net/default.aspx/user32/SetKeyboardState.html
As well as SendMessage:
http://www.pinvoke.net/default.aspx/coredll/SendMessage.html
You should find some useful hints in the examples and descriptions.
I'm opening Outlookelements with the shown Code (scroll down; C# Code). Sometimes the elements don't come to front so you first have to select them. Any idea how to do this? I thought about the handle and doing this by hand.
Other idea's?
Thanks Thomas
MAPIFolder objFolder = new ApplicationClass().GetNamespace("MAPI").GetDefaultFolder(OlDefaultFolders.olFolderNotes);
foreach (NoteItem note in objFolder.Items)
note.Display(false);
If you are calling from another app you will have to handle the Hwnd, you can do this via Win API calls or you can use Redemption's SafeInspector which which has an Handle property.
Here is a link how to get the hWnd via WinApi http://theflaker.com.ar/blog/?p=10