what i need to do is that I need to control another application installed on the same machine using my custom application. For example if i needed to use the standard windows calculator I would simply send the input events to the calculator. I have used some code snippets to make this possible and I have now triggered both mouse and keyboard events. but the problem is that i can be sure that the keyboard event will hit the target application because it has the process handle. but i cannot be sure about the mouse. and also if the target application goes into background, i cannot initiate mouse clicks on it. I need help to find a way to make sure that the mouse click is done on the application only.
I need to send mouse co-ordinates and click as well. for example "sendMouseClick("Notepad", 100, 400); which will send a click to Notepad, even though it stays minimized.
IMPORTANT NOTE
A similar question is answered previously but that is in reference to first finding the state of the other application and then sending the inputs either keyboard or mouse, what i need to do is to send an application a set of instructions that must work whether the application is in foreground or not. For "The other Guys":: if you dont want to help or cant help, thats okay but please do know that i havent stolen the question or anything. I simply want to achieve this task in C#.
The code I have to simulate keyboard key Press is:
using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;
namespace SimulateKeyPress
{
partial class Form1 : Form
{
private Button button1 = new Button();
private Button button2 = new Button();
private Button button3 = new Button();
[STAThread]
public static void Main()
{
Application.EnableVisualStyles();
Application.Run(new Form1());
}
public Form1()
{
button1.Location = new Point(10, 10);
button1.TabIndex = 1;
button1.Text = "Click to automate Calculator";
button1.AutoSize = true;
button1.Click += new EventHandler(button1_Click);
button2.Location = new Point(150, 140);
button2.TabIndex = 0;
button2.Text = "Click to Exit Calculator";
button2.AutoSize = true;
button2.Location = new Point(80, 80);
button2.TabIndex = 2;
button2.Text = "Click to Run Calculator";
button2.AutoSize = true;
button2.Click += new EventHandler(button2_Click);
this.DoubleClick += new EventHandler(Form1_DoubleClick);
this.Controls.Add(button1);
this.Controls.Add(button2);
// this.Controls.Add(button3);
}
// 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);
// Send a series of key presses to the Calculator application.
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// Get a handle to the Calculator application. The window class
// and window name were obtained using the Spy++ tool.
IntPtr calculatorHandle = FindWindow("CalcFrame", "Calculator");
//Process firstProc = new Process();
//firstProc.StartInfo.FileName = "calc.exe";
//firstProc.EnableRaisingEvents = true;
//firstProc.Start();
// Verify that Calculator is a running process.
if (calculatorHandle == IntPtr.Zero)
{
MessageBox.Show("Calculator is not running.");
return;
}
// Make Calculator the foreground application and send it
// a set of calculations.
SetForegroundWindow(calculatorHandle);
SendKeys.SendWait("1024");
SendKeys.SendWait("*");
SendKeys.SendWait("32");
SendKeys.SendWait("=");
}
private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("calc.exe");
}
private void button3_Click(object sender,EventArgs e)
{
Process [] proc =Process.GetProcessesByName("Calculator");
proc[0].Kill();
}
// Send a key to the button when the user double-clicks anywhere
// on the form.
private void Form1_DoubleClick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// Send the enter key to the button, which raises the click
// event for the button. This works because the tab stop of
// the button is 0.
SendKeys.Send("{ENTER}");
}
}
}
the previous help on stack overflow, msdn and other sites provides the code to simulate a mouse click in the same application. But i need to send mouse hits to another application.
Maybe this could help you
The task
...
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
namespace yournamespace
{
public partial class yourclassname
{
[DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
public static extern void mouse_event(uint dwFlags, uint dx, uint dy, uint cButtons, uint dwExtraInfo);
private const int MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTDOWN = 0x02;
private const int MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTUP = 0x04;
private const int MOUSEEVENTF_RIGHTDOWN = 0x08;
private const int MOUSEEVENTF_RIGHTUP = 0x10;
int X = Cursor.Position.X;
int Y = Cursor.Position.Y;
mouse_event(MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTDOWN | MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTUP, X, Y, 0, 0);
}
}
Things are a bit harder in WPF
double mousePointX;
double mousePointY;
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
[return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
static extern bool GetCursorPos(out POINT lpPoint);
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
public struct POINT
{
public int X;
public int Y;
public POINT(int x, int y)
{
this.X = x;
this.Y = y;
}
}
private void WritePoint(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
POINT p;
if (GetCursorPos(out p))
{
System.Console.WriteLine(Convert.ToString(p.X) + ";" + Convert.ToString(p.Y));
}
}
[DllImport("User32.dll")]
static extern IntPtr GetDC(IntPtr hwnd);
[DllImport("gdi32.dll")]
static extern int GetDeviceCaps(IntPtr hdc, int nIndex);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern bool ReleaseDC(IntPtr hWnd, IntPtr hDC);
private Point ConvertPixelsToUnits(int x, int y)
{
// get the system DPI
IntPtr dDC = GetDC(IntPtr.Zero); // Get desktop DC
int dpi = GetDeviceCaps(dDC, 88);
bool rv = ReleaseDC(IntPtr.Zero, dDC);
// WPF's physical unit size is calculated by taking the
// "Device-Independant Unit Size" (always 1/96)
// and scaling it by the system DPI
double physicalUnitSize = (1d / 96d) * (double)dpi;
Point wpfUnits = new Point(physicalUnitSize * (double)x,
physicalUnitSize * (double)y);
return wpfUnits;
}
private void WriteMouseCoordinatesInWPFUnits()
{
POINT p;
if (GetCursorPos(out p))
{
Point wpfPoint = ConvertPixelsToUnits(p.X, p.Y);
System.Console.WriteLine(Convert.ToString(wpfPoint.X) + ";" + Convert.ToString(wpfPoint.Y));
mousePointY = wpfPoint.Y;
mousePointX = wpfPoint.X
}
}
Now the most important part of the code
[DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
public static extern void mouse_event(uint dwFlags, uint dx, uint dy, uint cButtons, uint dwExtraInfo);
private const int MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTDOWN = 0x02;
private const int MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTUP = 0x04;
private const int MOUSEEVENTF_RIGHTDOWN = 0x08;
private const int MOUSEEVENTF_RIGHTUP = 0x10;
...
mouse_event(MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTDOWN | MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTUP, Convert.ToUInt32(mousePointX), Convert.ToUInt32(mousePointY), 0, 0);
...