Click in specified place without moving mouse error

Question

So I have been looking for multiple ways to perform a "click" without actually moving the mouse. After hours of searching, I came upon these two pages: ctypes mouse_events and https://schurpf.com/python-mouse-control/ where there's some code that can apparently perform a click without moving the mouse. The code seems to come from the same person, but https://schurpf.com/python-mouse-control/ seems more up to date with the "Added functions". I tried fixing it for a while but didn't get anywhere and am stuck with the following script

import win32gui, win32api, win32con, ctypes

class Mouse:
    """It simulates the mouse"""
    MOUSEEVENTF_MOVE = 0x0001 # mouse move
    MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTDOWN = 0x0002 # left button down
    MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTUP = 0x0004 # left button up
    MOUSEEVENTF_RIGHTDOWN = 0x0008 # right button down
    MOUSEEVENTF_RIGHTUP = 0x0010 # right button up
    MOUSEEVENTF_MIDDLEDOWN = 0x0020 # middle button down
    MOUSEEVENTF_MIDDLEUP = 0x0040 # middle button up
    MOUSEEVENTF_WHEEL = 0x0800 # wheel button rolled
    MOUSEEVENTF_ABSOLUTE = 0x8000 # absolute move
    SM_CXSCREEN = 0
    SM_CYSCREEN = 1

    def _do_event(self, flags, x_pos, y_pos, data, extra_info):
        """generate a mouse event"""
        x_calc = 65536 * x_pos / ctypes.windll.user32.GetSystemMetrics(self.SM_CXSCREEN) + 1
        y_calc = 65536 * y_pos / ctypes.windll.user32.GetSystemMetrics(self.SM_CYSCREEN) + 1
        return ctypes.windll.user32.mouse_event(flags, x_calc, y_calc, data, extra_info)

    def _get_button_value(self, button_name, button_up=False):
        """convert the name of the button into the corresponding value"""
        buttons = 0
        if button_name.find("right") >= 0:
            buttons = self.MOUSEEVENTF_RIGHTDOWN
        if button_name.find("left") >= 0:
            buttons = buttons + self.MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTDOWN
        if button_name.find("middle") >= 0:
            buttons = buttons + self.MOUSEEVENTF_MIDDLEDOWN
        if button_up:
            buttons = buttons << 1
        return buttons

    def move_mouse(self, pos):
        """move the mouse to the specified coordinates"""
        (x, y) = pos
        old_pos = self.get_position()
        x =  x if (x != -1) else old_pos[0]
        y =  y if (y != -1) else old_pos[1]
        self._do_event(self.MOUSEEVENTF_MOVE + self.MOUSEEVENTF_ABSOLUTE, x, y, 0, 0)

    def press_button(self, pos=(-1, -1), button_name="left", button_up=False):
        """push a button of the mouse"""
        self.move_mouse(pos)
        self._do_event(self.get_button_value(button_name, button_up), 0, 0, 0, 0)

    def click(self, pos=(-1, -1), button_name= "left"):
        """Click at the specified placed"""
##        self.move_mouse(pos)
        self._do_event(self._get_button_value(button_name, False)+self._get_button_value(button_name, True), 0, 0, 0, 0)

    def double_click (self, pos=(-1, -1), button_name="left"):
        """Double click at the specifed placed"""
        for i in xrange(2):
            self.click(pos, button_name)

    def get_position(self):
        """get mouse position"""
        return win32api.GetCursorPos()
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#Added functions
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    def invisible_click(self,pos=(-1, -1), button_name="left"):
        """Click in specified place without moving mouse"""
        xcur,ycur = win32gui.GetCursorPos()
        ctypes.windll.user32.SetCursorPos(pos[0],pos[1])
        self.click(pos,button_name)
        ctypes.windll.user32.SetCursorPos(xcur,ycur)

    def invisible_click_rel(self,handle,pos, button_name="left"):
        """Click in window coordinates without moving mouse"""
        #get window info
        xleft, ytop, xright, ybottom = win32gui.GetWindowRect(handle)

        xcur,ycur = win32gui.GetCursorPos()

        ctypes.windll.user32.SetCursorPos(pos[0]+xleft,pos[1]+ytop)
        self.click((pos[0]+xleft,pos[1]+ytop),button_name)
        ctypes.windll.user32.SetCursorPos(xcur,ycur)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    p = (500,500)
    print (win32gui.GetForegroundWindow())
    mouse = Mouse()
    mouse.invisible_click(p)

What I am trying to do is trigger the invisible_click function of the Mouse class so that it performs an "invisible click" at position 500,500.

The error I am getting with the code above is

File "C:\Users\MyName\Desktop\test1del\Future.py", line 21, in _do_event
    return ctypes.windll.user32.mouse_event(flags, x_calc, y_calc, data, extra_info)
ctypes.ArgumentError: argument 2: <class 'TypeError'>: Don't know how to convert parameter 2

Sorry if it's something obvious that I am missing, I would really appreciate the help! Thanks for reading

For that to work, the intended target application needs to be in the foreground. While you may accomplish the goal of not actually moving the mouse cursor, it is still a disruptive operation to bring the target window into the foreground. The correct way to automate a UI is to use [UI Automation](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/winauto/entry-uiauto-win32). — IInspectable, May 19 '20 at 09:32

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered May 19 '20 at 01:45

File "C:\Users\MyName\Desktop\test1del\Future.py", line 21, in _do_event return ctypes.windll.user32.mouse_event(flags, x_calc, y_calc, data, extra_info) ctypes.ArgumentError: argument 2: : Don't know how to convert parameter 2

This error message indicate that parameters x_calc and y_calc passed in function mouse_event have wrong type. They are float but unsigned int required .

Try the following code:

import math
#...
    x_calc = math.floor(65536 * x_pos / ctypes.windll.user32.GetSystemMetrics(self.SM_CXSCREEN) + 1)
    y_calc = math.floor(65536 * y_pos / ctypes.windll.user32.GetSystemMetrics(self.SM_CYSCREEN) + 1)

Note: mouse_event function has been superseded. Use SendInput instead.

Click in specified place without moving mouse error

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