delphi screen capture in global exception

Question

I am working on a component, using Delphi 2006, the component retrieves system information and writes to file. The requirement is such that I have to incorporate a global exception handler in the component, so when the exception occurs it will be caught and my custom message will be shown to the user.

  procedure Tmy.GlobalExceptionHandlerThis(Sender : TObject; E : Exception );
  begin
    //catch the exception and show the message
      TakeScreenShotAndSaveInapplicationFolder;
      MessageDlg('Exception has Occured  , Detail  '+E.Message,mtError,[mbOK],0);
  end;

This works fine but according to the requirement I have to capture the errorscreen shot (This is to find visually the form where the exception popped up)

So I did this, with take screenshot code from delphigeist.com:

procedure TakeScreenShotAndSaveInapplicationFolder;
var
  thisBitmap: TBitmap;
  sDate : string;
begin
  DateSeparator :='_';
  TimeSeparator:='_';
  sDate :=DateTimeToStr(now);
  thisBitmap := TBitmap.Create;
  ScreenshotArea(thisBitmap, Screen.DesktopRect, True);
  thisBitmap.SaveToFile(ExtractFilePath(Application.ExeName)+sDate+'.jpg');
  FreeAndNil(thisBitmap);
end;

Problem:

When the exception occurs, I want to take the screen shot of the message also but with my code the this happens

Can anyone tell me how I can get the screen shot like this? That is along the form get the message

MessageDlg('Exception has Occured, Detail ' + E.Message,mtError,[mbOK],0); is modal, so after the message I can't take the screen shot. And before I can't also, so when can I take the screen shot right when the exception message is displayed?

procedure Tmy.GlobalExceptionHandlerThis(Sender : TObject; E : Exception );
begin
  //catch the exception and show the message
  TakeScreenShotAndSaveInapplicationFolder;
  MessageDlg('Exception has Occured  , Detail  '+E.Message,mtError,[mbOK],0);
  TakeScreenShotAndSaveInapplicationFolder;
end;

Answer 1

Modify this message box (a wrapper around Windows.MessageBox), as follows:

{ TAwMessageBox }

type
  TAwMessageBox = class(TObject)
  private
    FCaption: String;
    FFlags: Cardinal;
    FHookProc: TFarProc;
    FText: String;
    FWndHook: HHOOK;
    function Execute: Integer;
    procedure HookProc(var Message: THookMessage);
  end;

function TAwMessageBox.Execute: Integer;
begin
  try
    try
      FHookProc := MakeHookInstance(HookProc);
      FWndHook := SetWindowsHookEx(WH_CALLWNDPROCRET, FHookProc, 0,
        GetCurrentThreadID);
      Result := Application.MessageBox(PChar(FText), PChar(FCaption), FFlags);
    finally
      if FWndHook <> 0 then
        UnhookWindowsHookEx(FWndHook);
      if FHookProc <> nil then
        FreeHookInstance(FHookProc);
    end;
  except
    Result := 0;
  end;
end;

procedure TAwMessageBox.HookProc(var Message: THookMessage);
var
  Data: PCWPRetStruct;
  Title: array[0..255] of Char;
begin
  with Message do
    if nCode < 0 then
      Result := CallNextHookEx(FWndHook, nCode, wParam, lParam)
    else
      Result := 0;
  if Message.nCode = HC_ACTION then
  begin
    Data := PCWPRetStruct(Message.lParam);
    if (Data.message = WM_ACTIVATE) and (LoWord(Data.wParam) = WA_INACTIVE) then
    begin
      ZeroMemory(@Title, SizeOf(Title));
      GetWindowText(Data.hwnd, @Title, SizeOf(Title));
      if String(Title) = FCaption then
      begin
        TakeScreenShotAndSaveInapplicationFolder;
        UnhookWindowsHookEx(FWndHook);
        FWndHook := 0;
        FreeHookInstance(FHookProc);
        FHookProc := nil;
      end;
    end;
  end;
end;

function MsgBox(const Text: String; Flags: Cardinal;
  const Caption: String): Integer;
begin
  with TAwMessageBox.Create do
  try
    FCaption := Caption;
    FFlags := Flags;
    FText := Text;
    Result := Execute;
  finally
    Free;
  end;
end;

Testing code and screen shot:

procedure TForm1.ApplicationEvents1Exception(Sender: TObject; E: Exception);
begin
  MsgBox('Exception has occured. Details:'#13#10#13#10 + E.Message,
    MB_OK or MB_ICONERROR, 'Error');
end;

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
  raise Exception.Create('Test exception');
end;