Passing text to another application (RESOLVED)

I am attempting to write an program which will send text to another application. The other application contains a textbox. In this case I am trying to write a poetry reader for a chat group - to save having to enter each line manually.
questions is - how do I find the running application - and how do i find and enter text into the textbox....
I am relatively new to VB - and am trying to teach myself - but this has me stumped. =/
thanks in advance

thanks to the FAQ by "The Hobo" I have solved the first problem - I have managed to find the find window HWND - (not sure how to use it yet - but hope to real fast.)

Hi !

If You Know The Name Of Active Window You Can Find Hwnd Of It ! With These Codes !

'---------------------------------------
Private Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String) As Long

Private sub cmdFind_click()
Dim Handle as Long

' For Exm : Handle=FindWindow(Class Here , Name Here) {You Can Find Class With API SPY Or Spy++ And Find Name That Wrote Top Of Windows}

Handle=FindWindow("Calculator",vbNullString)
MSGBOX (Handle)

End Sub

;)

old hex thanks - that works a real treat - i have found the window classname now - which makes things easier as the caption is ever changing - i also found the textbox classname - but have no idea how to implement the idea i have of transferring text from a vb program to the text input window of the chat client

VB Code:

Private Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias "SendMessageA" ( _
     ByVal hwnd As Long, _
     ByVal wMsg As Long, _
     ByVal wParam As Long, _
     ByVal lParam As String) As Long
Private Const WM_SETTEXT As Long = &HC
 
SendMessage hwndTextBox, WM_SETTEXT, 0&, "MY String"

thanx ami - I think this one is going to take some working on =/ - guess you cant just "dive in at the deep end" - i really needed this too - thought it would be soooo simple - lol - welp - I guess simple is relative =)

I am a little behind in this. I can find the handle and I understand how to use the SendMessage. My problem is getting the textbox handle.

I am in a different situation, I think. What I am trying to do is send the text message to a window that is for a terminal emulator. I don't think it is windows based and therefore may not have a textbox as such. What I would like to do is just send the string of characters to where the cursor is currently positioned in that window.
Using the "Notepad", when I sent the message to the handle of the window it was sent to the caption. I also have an idea for a work around if it is not possible to send the text as described.

So my questions are:
1. Is it possible, and how can you send a message to where the cursor is in the window.

2. If that is not possible then how can I send a CTRL V to the window so that I can paste from the clipboard. I think I can get the information to the clipboard.

Craig
One step above an Expert Novice

Quote:

---

Originally posted by amitabh

VB Code:

Private Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias "SendMessageA" ( _
     ByVal hwnd As Long, _
     ByVal wMsg As Long, _
     ByVal wParam As Long, _
     ByVal lParam As String) As Long
Private Const WM_SETTEXT As Long = &HC
 
SendMessage hwndTextBox, WM_SETTEXT, 0&, "MY String"

---

ok i used this and managed to update the window caption - are there any special variable names I need to use to find the object that I am after - in this case - a textbox?

Do you have Spy++? If yes, then find out the class name of the textbox. After that, use this code to find the handle to the text box.

VB Code:

Private Declare Function FindWindowEx Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowExA" _
(ByVal hWndParent As Long, ByVal hWndChildAfter As Long, ByVal lpszClassName As String, _
ByVal lpszWindowCaption As String) As Long
 
Dim hwndTxtBox As Long
    hwndTxtBox = FindWindowEx("<Window handle>", 0&, "<text box class name>", vbNullString)

This assumes that you have only one text box, other wise you might try replacing the vbNullString with whatever is in the textbox.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by amitabh
Do you have Spy++? If yes, then find out the class name of the textbox. After that, use this code to find the handle to the text box.

VB Code:

Private Declare Function FindWindowEx Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowExA" _
(ByVal hWndParent As Long, ByVal hWndChildAfter As Long, ByVal lpszClassName As String, _
ByVal lpszWindowCaption As String) As Long
 
Dim hwndTxtBox As Long
    hwndTxtBox = FindWindowEx("<Window handle>", 0&, "<text box class name>", vbNullString)

This assumes that you have only one text box, other wise you might try replacing the vbNullString with whatever is in the textbox.

---

Thank You so much amitabh this works perfectly - I was up till 4am looking for just this piece of information - I appreciate your help very much =)

Anytime;) :D