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windowshaskellwxhaskell

Screen capture in Haskell?


Is it possible to capture the screen (or a window) using Haskell in a Windows environment? (ie, taking a screenshot every few minutes or so). If so, how would one go about doing this (again, in Haskell, for a Windows environment)?

More info: I'm a beginner to Haskell. A friend wants to cut development costs by having me whip together some programs for his accounting firm, but he insists that I use Haskell. He wants a tool that will allow him to monitor the desktops of different Windows XP workstations. It would likely have to be a client/server type application. He only needs to monitor desktop activity, hence why he doesn't want any of the expensive management software that is already on the market. I have sifted through lots of documentation, and only got as far as finding wxHaskell, but I couldn't find much on capturing the screen, especially for Windows environments.


Solution

  • The Approach Tikhon mentioned is correct. Just to add some code to the answer he gave above

    import Graphics.Win32.Window
    import Graphics.Win32.GDI.Bitmap
    import Graphics.Win32.GDI.HDC
    import Graphics.Win32.GDI.Graphics2D
    
    main = do desktop   <- getDesktopWindow -- Grab the Hwnd of the desktop, GetDC 0, GetDC NULL etc all work too
              hdc       <- getWindowDC (Just desktop) -- Get the dc handle of the desktop
              (x,y,r,b) <- getWindowRect desktop -- Find the size of the desktop so we can know which size the destination bitmap should be
                                                 -- (left, top, right, bottom)
              newDC     <- createCompatibleDC (Just hdc) -- Create a new DC to hold the copied image. It should be compatible with the source DC
              let width  = r - x -- Calculate the width
              let height = b - y -- Calculate the Height
              newBmp    <- createCompatibleBitmap hdc width height -- Create a new Bitmap which is compatible with the newly created DC
              selBmp    <- selectBitmap newDC newBmp -- Select the Bitmap into the DC, drawing on the DC now draws on the bitmap as well
              bitBlt newDC 0 0 width height hdc 0 0 sRCCOPY -- use SRCCOPY to copy the desktop DC into the newDC
              createBMPFile "Foo.bmp" newBmp newDC  -- Write out the new Bitmap file to Foo.bmp
              putStrLn "Bitmap image copied" -- Some debug message
              deleteBitmap selBmp -- Cleanup the selected bitmap
              deleteBitmap newBmp -- Cleanup the new bitmap
              deleteDC newDC      -- Cleanup the DC we created.
    

    This was just quickly put together, but it saves a screenshot of to a file named Foo.bmp. Ps. To whomever wrote the Win32 Library, nicely done :)