Sendmessage help?

Since my other post seems to have gone off-topic, here we go:
I have used this code to find the IM window on trillian:

VB Code:

Option Explicit
'declare API:
Private Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" _
  (ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String) As Long
Private Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias "SendMessageA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As Long, ByVal wParam As Integer, ByVal lParam As Any) As Long
Private Const My_Message As Long = 10001
 
Private Sub Form_Load()
  'Class Name of the window:
  Dim strClassName As String, lhWnd As Long, strclassname2 As String, lhWnd2 As Long
  strClassName = "icoPMsgMSN"
  strclassname2 = "icoPMsgAIM"
  lhWnd = FindWindow(strClassName, vbNullString)
  lhWnd2 = FindWindow(strclassname2, vbNullString)
 
  'if the result is 0, window was not found:
  'If lhWnd = 0 & lhWnd2 = 0 Then
   ' MsgBox "Could not find window..."
   ' Unload Form1
  'Else
    MsgBox "Window found: " & "MSN:" & lhWnd & "AIM:" & lhWnd2
 ' End If

i added SendMessage lhWnd, "Yo", 0&, 0&, <--to send the that window defined as lhwnd, that gives me an error as i assumed, but i need to find the textbox of the window im sending too with spy++, and i dont know what to look for, it gave me a page full of children..

My question is, how can i send a message to a textbox inside of an app, by its classname? the class name im looking for is: icoPMsgMSN <(which i do find)>


BTW im using trillian

thanks in advance :D

For starters I dont have MSN but you can not get a child window handle with just FindWindow alone.
You need FindWindowEx to get any child window handle. Then once you have the correct handle you can do like this...
SendMessage lhWnd, WM_SETTEXT, 2&, ByVal "Yo".

The answers to your questions are in this thread which I know you've visited.

well, first ive never seen that thread, but i did visit another one of your threads that got me this far..
edit**my stupidity, i see my own post on there, although i dont remember it..


added this to a module:

VB Code:

Option Explicit
 
'Functions, constants and types for the hook
Private Declare Function SetWindowsHookEx Lib "user32" Alias "SetWindowsHookExA" ( _
    ByVal idHook As Long, _
    ByVal lpfn As Long, _
    ByVal hmod As Long, _
    ByVal dwThreadId As Long _
) As Long
 
Private Declare Function UnhookWindowsHookEx Lib "user32" ( _
    ByVal hHook As Long _
) As Long
 
Private Declare Function CallNextHookEx Lib "user32" ( _
    ByVal hHook As Long, _
    ByVal ncode As Long, _
    ByVal wParam As Long, _
    lParam As Any _
) As Long
 
Public Const WH_MOUSE_LL = 14
 
Public Type POINTAPI
        x As Long
        y As Long
End Type
 
Public Type MSLLHOOKSTRUCT
    pt As POINTAPI
    mouseData As Long
    flags As Long
    time As Long
    dwExtraInfo As Long
End Type
 
Private hHook As Long
Public IsHooked As Boolean
 
'functions for getting windows properties
Private Declare Function GetWindowText Lib "user32" Alias "GetWindowTextA" ( _
    ByVal hwnd As Long, _
    ByVal lpString As String, _
    ByVal cch As Long _
) As Long
 
Private Declare Function GetClassName Lib "user32" Alias "GetClassNameA" ( _
    ByVal hwnd As Long, _
    ByVal lpClassName As String, _
    ByVal nMaxCount As Long _
) As Long
 
Private Declare Function WindowFromPoint Lib "user32" ( _
    ByVal xPoint As Long, _
    ByVal yPoint As Long _
) As Long
 
Sub GetWindowData(x As Long, y As Long)
 Dim hWndFrm As Long
 Dim lpClassName As String, lpString As String
 lpClassName = Space(100)
 lpString = Space(100)
 'get handle to window
 hWndFrm = WindowFromPoint(CLng(x), CLng(y))
 If hWndFrm = 0 Then Exit Sub
 'get window text (caption)
 Call GetWindowText(hWndFrm, lpString, Len(lpString))
 'get window class name
 Call GetClassName(hWndFrm, lpClassName, Len(lpClassName))
 
 With Form1
  .txthandle = Hex(hWndFrm)
  .txtCaption = lpString
  .txtClassName = lpClassName
 End With
End Sub
 
Public Sub SetMouseHook()
    If IsHooked Then
        MsgBox "Don't hook the MOUSE_LL hook twice or you'll be sorry."
    Else
        'This has to be set up as a system-wide hook
        hHook = SetWindowsHookEx(WH_MOUSE_LL, AddressOf MouseProc, App.hInstance, 0)
        IsHooked = True
    End If
End Sub
 
Public Sub RemoveMouseHook()
    Dim temp As Long
    temp = UnhookWindowsHookEx(hHook)
    IsHooked = False
End Sub
 
 
Public Function MouseProc(ByVal uCode As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, lParam As MSLLHOOKSTRUCT) As Long
    If uCode >= 0 Then
        Call GetWindowData(lParam.pt.x, lParam.pt.y)
    End If
                MouseProc = CallNextHookEx(hHook, uCode, wParam, lParam)
End Function

Added this to a form:

VB Code:

Option Explicit
 
'Always on top stuff
Private Const HWND_TOPMOST = -1
Private Const SWP_NOSIZE = &H1
Private Const SWP_NOMOVE = &H2
Private Const SWP_NOACTIVATE = &H10
Private Const SWP_SHOWWINDOW = &H40
 
Private Declare Sub SetWindowPos Lib "user32" ( _
    ByVal hwnd As Long, _
    ByVal hWndInsertAfter As Long, _
    ByVal x As Long, _
    ByVal y As Long, _
    ByVal cx As Long, _
    ByVal cy As Long, _
    ByVal wFlags As Long _
)
 
Private Sub cmdStart_Click()
'make window always on top
 SetWindowPos Me.hwnd, HWND_TOPMOST, 0, 0, 0, 0, SWP_NOACTIVATE Or _
    SWP_SHOWWINDOW Or SWP_NOMOVE Or SWP_NOSIZE
 'set the system-wide low level mouse hook
 Call SetMouseHook
End Sub
 
Private Sub Form_QueryUnload(Cancel As Integer, UnloadMode As Integer)
 Call RemoveMouseHook
End Sub

But nothing happends, the textboxs say text1, text2, and text3 no matter what i do. i am positive ive set nothing wrong.

I have a joke:
Q: How many I.T. administrators does it take to changes a light bulb?
A: It works for me...

OK, I won't give the typical IT response :)

Let's check:
Are you using VB 6?
Did you put the module code in a module and the form code in a form?
Did you compile the code to check for errors?
Option Explicit everywhere?
did you press the cmdStart button?
If the answers to all these is yes, yes, yes, yes, yes
check to see if your mouse hook is working...
put a debug.print statement in there
Let me know

yes to all, lemme check out that print stuff

VB Code:

Public Sub SetMouseHook()
    If IsHooked Then
        MsgBox "Don't hook the MOUSE_LL hook twice or you'll be sorry."
    Else
        'This has to be set up as a system-wide hook
        hHook = SetWindowsHookEx(WH_MOUSE_LL, AddressOf MouseProc, App.hInstance, 0)
        IsHooked = True
        MsgBox "hello"
    End If
End Sub

No messagebox hello after clicking cmdstart

edit2**
figured it out, after my computer crashed i forgot to rename command1 to cmdstart.shoot. sorry for your time.

in txthandle it says: 1049E
ib txtcaption & txtclassname it says "trillian display"

btw, the txthandle changes for each msg, so if i open up 2 im windows, the textboxes will have different handles..how can i do this, if they handles change?<the only thing that stays the same is icoPMsgAIM, or icoPMsgMSN, <--thats the main one, its the parent is it called? is this still doable still?

So far so bad,

What is return value, hHook?

VB Code:

hHook = SetWindowsHookEx(WH_MOUSE_LL, AddressOf MouseProc, App.hInstance, 0)

94438373 is value of Hhook

Can you think of anything you did that might prevent the mouse messages from being received by your App?

Do you have any other hooks installed, or is your App subclassed?

Ive uploaded my project files..you can see exactly what i did, im not sure how to answer your question, all i did was follow that link you sent me

Downloaded your project
Ran it on My computer (XP pro)
Worked as it should.

I don't know why it doesn't work on your computer :cry:

it does work, i just dont know what to do with the values ive gotten. Im not sure what to input in the sendmessage function..

also, how will this work, if the class is always the same ("icoPMsgMSN"), and the textbox is always the same, but the handle isnt the same?

thx for all your help

Aaaahh...! I need an icon for pulling out my hair.

OK, now that that is cleared up. Now that you have the values for classname and caption you can get the handle to the window you want to send the message to.

Define these functions:

VB Code:

Option Explicit
Public Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" ( _
ByVal lpClassName As String, _
ByVal lpWindowName As String _
) As Long
 
Public Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias "SendMessageA" ( _
ByVal hwnd As Long, _
ByVal wMsg As Long, _
ByVal wParam As Long, _
lParam As Any _
) As Long
 
Public Declare Function FindWindowEx Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowExA" ( _
ByVal hWnd1 As Long, _
ByVal hWnd2 As Long, _
ByVal lpsz1 As String, _
ByVal lpsz2 As String _
) As Long

Assuming the program you want to send the message to is running. You can get the handle to the text box you want
here are the variables: set them to the values you know

VB Code:

Dim hWndFrm As Long
 Dim hWndtxtBox As Long
 Dim strCaptionFrm As String
 Dim strClassNameTxtBox As String
 Dim strCaptionTxtBox As String

Now get the handle

VB Code:

hWndFrm = FindWindow(vbNullString, strCaptionFrm)
 hWndtxtBox = FindWindowEx(hWndFrm, 0, strClassNameTxtBox, strCaptionTxtBox)

Now you can send the message; for example

VB Code:

Call SendMessage(hWndtxtBox, WM_NULL, 0, 0)

VB Code:

Option Explicit
'Always on top stuff
Private Const HWND_TOPMOST = -1
Private Const SWP_NOSIZE = &H1
Private Const SWP_NOMOVE = &H2
Private Const SWP_NOACTIVATE = &H10
Private Const SWP_SHOWWINDOW = &H40
 
Private Declare Sub SetWindowPos Lib "user32" ( _
    ByVal hwnd As Long, _
    ByVal hWndInsertAfter As Long, _
    ByVal x As Long, _
    ByVal y As Long, _
    ByVal cx As Long, _
    ByVal cy As Long, _
    ByVal wFlags As Long _
)
Private Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" ( _
ByVal lpClassName As String, _
ByVal lpWindowName As String _
) As Long
 
Private Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias "SendMessageA" ( _
ByVal hwnd As Long, _
ByVal wMsg As Long, _
ByVal wParam As Long, _
lParam As Any _
) As Long
 
Private Declare Function FindWindowEx Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowExA" ( _
ByVal hWnd1 As Long, _
ByVal hWnd2 As Long, _
ByVal lpsz1 As String, _
ByVal lpsz2 As String _
) As Long
Dim hWndFrm As Long
Dim hWndtxtBox As Long
 Dim strCaptionFrm As String
 Dim strClassNameTxtBox As String
 Dim strCaptionTxtBox As String
 
Private Sub cmdStart_Click()
'make window always on top
 SetWindowPos Me.hwnd, HWND_TOPMOST, 0, 0, 0, 0, SWP_NOACTIVATE Or _
    SWP_SHOWWINDOW Or SWP_NOMOVE Or SWP_NOSIZE
 'set the system-wide low level mouse hook
 Call SetMouseHook
 hWndFrm = FindWindow(vbNullString, strCaptionFrm)
 hWndtxtBox = FindWindowEx(hWndFrm, 0, strClassNameTxtBox, strCaptionTxtBox)
End Sub
 
 
Private Sub Form_Load()
strCaptionFrm = "icopmsgAIM"
strClassNameTxtBox = txtclassname.Text
strCaptionTxtBox = txtcaption.Text
End Sub
 
Private Sub Form_QueryUnload(Cancel As Integer, UnloadMode As Integer)
 Call RemoveMouseHook
End Sub

still nothing.man this is way hard for such a simple thing.

OK, I'll try one more time.
Forget about the code you got from another thread.
Use the code I gave you in my last thread.
You said that you already know the values for captions and class names so just plug those values in and
SEND YOUR MESSAGE

It is very simple.

well, you dont have to get angry...you dont need to help if you dont want to... :cry:

anyways, i think ive figured it out:

VB Code:

Option Explicit
 
Private Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" ( _
ByVal lpClassName As String, _
ByVal lpWindowName As String _
) As Long
 
Private Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias "SendMessageA" ( _
ByVal hwnd As Long, _
ByVal wMsg As Long, _
ByVal wParam As Long, _
lParam As Any _
) As Long
 
Private Declare Function FindWindowEx Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowExA" ( _
ByVal hWnd1 As Long, _
ByVal hWnd2 As Long, _
ByVal lpsz1 As String, _
ByVal lpsz2 As String _
) As Long
 
 Dim hWndFrm As Long
 Dim hWndtxtBox As Long
 Dim strCaptionFrm As String
 Dim strClassNameTxtBox As String
 Dim strCaptionTxtBox As String
Const WM_NULL = 1
 
Private Sub Form_Load()
strCaptionFrm = "160432"
strClassNameTxtBox = "trillian display"
strCaptionTxtBox = "trillian display"
hWndFrm = FindWindow(vbNullString, strCaptionFrm)
hWndtxtBox = FindWindowEx(hWndFrm, 0, strClassNameTxtBox, strCaptionTxtBox)
Call SendMessage(hWndtxtBox, WM_NULL, 0, 0)
End Sub

i just dont know where to type in my text..,if this is to much dont respond :cool:

I'm not angry, just frustrated.
1. You don't clearly describe the problem you are trying to solve
2. You bring in code from other posts that don't have anything to do with your problem, claim it dosn't work, then claim it does work
3. You don't read other posts which have solved the same problem
4. You don't pay attention to posts I and others have made to try to help you

Good luck on that approach
:wave:

im frusterated too :blush:
1.)Im trying to sendmessage...ive never used it before, its not like it is that easy..
2.)I used code from the link you sent me. I just didnt understand it.
3.)I definately have.Except mine is different. I dont post unless i dont find it first..
4.)ok..[edit]discovered that both the text i was typing, and the text i was recieving had the same classname and same caption but not the same handle.That is my problem, i dont know how to send messages to a handle

thanks.ill just end this topic right here.

I didn't really read through any posts past the first few.

Just some advice that i always give in this forum:

www.patorjk.com For SIMPLE api stuff, just use the API Spy....instead of spending 20 minutes looking through spy++ for messages being sent and handles.

Also other neat api programs at their site.
ONLY time i have to use spy++ is when im dealing more so with treeview/listview and menu ids. Of course theres other circumstances...but 70% of the time ill just use api spy and be done in 5 minutes. :afrog:

thx, good links :wave: