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.
