[RESOLVED] [2005] Controlling a program without an SDK or command line input

Hi again, guys. It's been almost four months since I've been here (or done any programming at all). Nice to be back.

First off, TuneBite (screenshot below) essentialy converts audio files. You add files to the left side, press go, and they show up on the right side after they are done.

I need to find a way in .NET to get input and output from a program that doesn't really allow easy means to do so. There is no documentation for the command line options that can be run, but I found a one (/add "file_name") just by experimenting.

Is there a way I can remotely access controls in the program and get simple input or output to/from them.

I can add files from the command line, but I need to be able to press "go" and tell when it is done converting. Any ideas?

Interacting with external applications means using the Windows API. Many, many posts dedicated to the subject. Even a whole forum. :)

Shba. Cut me some slack. It's been a while. Plus I've never done API in .NET, only in VB6. I'll do some research though.

Thanks as awlays JMC.

Check out gigemboy's signature for various API tools and examples.

Look into SendMessage, using the WM_LBUTTONUP and WM_LBUTTONDOWN constants in succession in order to simulate a click on a button. You would have to enumerate the controls in order to find the handle to the button you wish to press, and then send those two SendMessage commands in order to "click" the button. The main problem with API in .NET is getting the declarations correct, and APIViewer 2004 (in sig) should help with that. Just a matter of changing it to .NET mode in the options, and looking up the function you wish to use. Then just copy and paste...

You could also use WinID (in sig) or Spy++ in order to see the properties for that button, like the class and name, and try to retrieve the handle using that, or also find if it is in some sort of container control on the form to better know how far you have to drill down in order to get to it...

Or if youre feeling really adventurous, you can check out APISpy (in sig), which should autogenerate some code for you if you choose the button. I believe the output would be VB6-style, just be a matter of cleaning it up a little for .NET...

There is also an example in the .NET codebank on enumerating all windows and children, which might help when trying to find the handle to the button you are wanting...

As far as your question on waiting for the app to finish, you can experiment with Process.WaitForInputIdle(). It should wait until the app is at an idle state before returning and running the code that you want, though not too sure what exactly designates a particular app as idle, especially if multithreading is involved and all the work is being done in the background with a "idle" and responsive interface. I usually use it to just wait for an application to start up, but you might be able to test it to see if it gets the job done or not. An example of how you can try to test is below:

VB Code:

'replace "firefox" with your process name
        Dim Procs() As System.Diagnostics.Process = System.Diagnostics.Process.GetProcessesByName("firefox")
        Select Case Procs.Length
            Case 0
                MessageBox.Show("No instances found!")
            Case 1
                'only one instance, so run our code
                Procs(0).WaitForInputIdle()
                'run the code here that you wish to try after the app is done and idle
                'function won't return until the app is at an idle state...
            Case Is > 1
                MessageBox.Show("Multiple instances found! What do you want to do?")
        End Select

Essentially you would do this after you had added your files and clicked the button to start the conversion or encoding or whatever its doing. Then you run that piece after the tunebite app is running to see if you can get it to wait until its done and run the code you want (after youve added something there to test). Just something you can try...

Thanks gigem. The WaitForInputIdle didn't work, but I thought of another idea: Is there any way to get the value of the CPU column that shows up in the taskmanager? That would make it easy for me to tell if it is working or not.

Trying to figure out a non API way to do it, and looking at the Process class, I see a PrivilegedProcessorTime property that seems to be the sum of the total time that the process has taken on the processor. If the app is completely idle and not taking any cpu cycles, this property shouldn't increase at all. If it is running and taking processor cycles, you should see it increasing. You could find a way to first, check what the property is for that process before you click the button, and then check the property at a set interval in a timer when the external app is running. You should see it steadily increase each increment, so it would be a matter of stopping the timer when the previous PrivilegedProcessorTime property value is equal to the current PrivilegedProcessorTime property value (or really close to each other, since the accuracy is very small increments of time), and then running the code you want when the timer stops...

VB Code:

'sample code that you can add in the post above to check the privilegedprocessortime
MessageBox.Show(Procs(0).PrivilegedProcessorTime.ToString)

Perfect. I can tell when the program is working or not really easily now. Now I need to get the button part working. I read a few articles and put together the code below. I get an error about Pinvoke and unmanged code when I run it though.

I get the error on this line: "ptrChild = GetWindow(ParentWindowHandle, GW_CHILD)"

Any thoughts?

VB Code:

Public Class Form1
 
    Const GW_CHILD As Integer = 5
    Const GW_HWNDNEXT As Integer = 2
 
    Const WM_GETTEXT As Integer = &HD
    Const WM_GETTEXTLENGTH As Integer = &HE
 
    Const BM_SETSTATE As Integer = &HF3
    Const WM_LBUTTONUP As Integer = &H202
    Const WM_LBUTTONDOWN As Integer = &H201
 
    Declare Auto Function GetWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As IntPtr, ByVal wCmd As Long) As IntPtr
 
    Declare Auto Function SendMessage Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal hWnd As IntPtr, ByVal Msg As Integer, _
    ByVal wParam As IntPtr, ByRef lParam As IntPtr) As IntPtr
 
    Declare Auto Function SendMessage Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal hWnd As IntPtr, ByVal Msg As Integer, _
        ByVal wParam As Integer, ByRef lParam As IntPtr) As Integer
 
    Declare Auto Function SendMessage Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal hwnd As IntPtr, ByVal wMsg As Integer, _
        ByVal wparam As Integer, ByVal lparam As System.Text.StringBuilder) As IntPtr
 
    Public Function GetWindows(ByVal ParentWindowHandle As IntPtr) As IntPtr()
 
        Dim ptrChild As IntPtr
        Dim ptrRet() As IntPtr
        Dim iCounter As Integer
 
        'get first child handle...
        ptrChild = GetWindow(ParentWindowHandle, GW_CHILD)
 
        'loop through and collect all child window handles...
        Do Until ptrChild.Equals(IntPtr.Zero)
            'process child...
            ReDim Preserve ptrRet(iCounter)
            ptrRet(iCounter) = ptrChild
            'get next child...
            ptrChild = GetWindow(ptrChild, GW_HWNDNEXT)
            iCounter += 1
        Loop
 
        'return...
        Return ptrRet
 
    End Function
 
    Public Function GetWindowText(ByVal WindowHandle As IntPtr) As String
 
        Dim ptrRet As IntPtr
        Dim ptrLength As IntPtr
 
        'get length for buffer...
        ptrLength = SendMessage(WindowHandle, WM_GETTEXTLENGTH, IntPtr.Zero, IntPtr.Zero)
 
        'create buffer for return value...
        Dim sbText As New System.Text.StringBuilder(ptrLength.ToInt32 + 1)
 
        'get window text...
        ptrRet = SendMessage(WindowHandle, WM_GETTEXT, ptrLength.ToInt32 + 1, sbText)
 
        'get return value...
        Return sbText.ToString
 
    End Function
 
    Public Sub ClickButton(ByVal ButtonHandle As IntPtr)
 
        'send the left mouse button "down" message to the button...
        Call SendMessage(ButtonHandle, WM_LBUTTONDOWN, 0, IntPtr.Zero)
 
        'send the left mouse button "up" message to the button...
        Call SendMessage(ButtonHandle, WM_LBUTTONUP, 0, IntPtr.Zero)
 
        'send the button state message to the button, telling it to handle its events...
        Call SendMessage(ButtonHandle, BM_SETSTATE, 1, IntPtr.Zero)
 
    End Sub
 
    Public Sub LaunchAndCloseRegSvr()
 
        'launch our process, we will see a dialog box with an OK button...
        Dim clsProcess As System.Diagnostics.Process = System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("Regsvr32", " /?")
 
        'get an array containing the handles to each of the child windows of the dialog...
        Dim ptrChildWindows() As IntPtr = GetWindows(clsProcess.MainWindowHandle)
 
        'loop through each child window, looking for the OK button...
        For iCounter As Integer = 0 To ptrChildWindows.Length - 1
            'grab the current handle to process...
            Dim ptrCurrent As IntPtr = ptrChildWindows(iCounter)
            'get the window text...
            Dim sText As String = GetWindowText(ptrCurrent)
            'check to see if this is the button we are looking for...
            If sText = "OK" Then
                'click the button to close the dialog...
                ClickButton(ptrCurrent)
                'done deal...
                Exit For
            Else
                Debug.WriteLine(sText)
            End If
        Next
 
    End Sub
 
    Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        LaunchAndCloseRegSvr()
    End Sub
End Class

In your declaration for getwindow. Change wCmd to an integer.

Well from an immediate glance I see wCmd as Long being used instead of Integer. Switch it to Integer, since that is what it should be in .NET. Also not sure of Auto Function is required. This was pulled from APIViewer 2004 as the declaration:

VB Code:

Declare Function GetWindow Lib "user32.dll" ( _ 
     ByVal hwnd As Int32, _ 
     ByVal wCmd As Int32) As Int32

Keeping the hwnd as IntPtr like you had should be fine and is actually a little more correct than using Int32....

After making that change, I get a NullReferenceException on this line: "For iCounter As Integer = 0 To ptrChildWindows.Length - 1"

Have you stepped through it to see what is happening? I took this from you

VB Code:

Dim clsProcess As System.Diagnostics.Process = System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("notepad")
 
        'get an array containing the handles to each of the child windows of the dialog...
        Dim ptrChildWindows() As IntPtr = GetWindows(clsProcess.MainWindowHandle)

The only thing I changed was I used notepad instead and it returned 2 values for me.

Oddly, when I step through it I no longer get an error on that line, and when I run it with notepad I also get 2 values, but when I continue stepping through it I get an error on this line: "ptrLength = SendMessage(WindowHandle, WM_GETTEXTLENGTH, IntPtr.Zero, IntPtr.Zero)"

It says EntryPointNotFoundException.

Here's how I changed GetWindow by the way:

VB Code:

Declare Function GetWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As IntPtr, ByVal wCmd As Int32) As IntPtr

It looks like the reason it is comming back null when you don't step through the app is because it doesn't have a MainWindowHandle yet. I added

VB Code:

Threading.Thread.Sleep(500)

between starting the process and using the handle and it worked. Note using 100 was not long enough.

That worked, but I still get the error that I noted in my last post.

YEah I'm still looking into that one. The error as far as I know means that you are using the wrong dll, but you're not. So I'm confused.

Found it. This:

VB Code:

Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32.dll"  ( ... )

... Needed to be this ...

VB Code:

Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32.dll" Alias "SendMessageA"  ( ... )

The shouldn't alias doesn't matter I got it to work by declaring the apis like this:

VB Code:

Private Declare Auto Function SendMessage Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As _
 IntPtr, ByVal wMsg As Int32, ByVal wParam As IntPtr, ByVal lParam As _ 
IntPtr) As IntPtr
 
    Private Declare Auto Function SendMessage Lib "user32" (ByVal hWnd As _
 IntPtr, ByVal Msg As Integer, ByVal wParam As Integer, ByRef lParam As _
 IntPtr) As Integer
 
    Private Declare Auto Function SendMessage Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As _
 IntPtr, ByVal wMsg As Integer, ByVal wparam As Integer, ByVal lparam As _
 System.Text.StringBuilder) As IntPtr

Also I think your buttonup state might be wrong. The button went down for me, but didn't go back up.

Okay. Now everything works except for the ButtonPress method. I tried walking through it to automatically give it some pause inbetween each SendMessage call, and it still only pushed the button down (I know this because the image of the button is depressed). Something isn't working about WM_LBUTTONUP. Not sure....

Nevermind. When I actually added a Sleep to it (instead of walking through it) it worked fine on RegSvr32. Now I just need to find the name of the button on TuneBite. Hopefully it is a button and not an image or something... Not sure what I would do then.

EDIT: I also had to add this line: "Call SendMessage(ButtonHandle, BM_SETSTATE, 1, IntPtr.Zero)" After the button down (instead of just after the button up). This made it register the button down, then receive the button up message properly.

Good luck.

Sigh... I need something other than the buttons name to identify it. They are all named with a blank string. I guess I could try pressing all of them until I figured out which index number was which button, but that doesn't seem very reliable. Any other identifying marks of a button? Besides just it's hWnd?

I just cycled through all 15 of the "buttons" and none of them were anything that responded to the BUTTONUP and BUTTONDOWN commands.

I doubt it will work, but try
[Highlight=VB]
Const WM_LBUTTONDBLCLK As Int32 = &H203
[Highlight=VB]
instead of button up and down

Nope. As sloppy as this is, is there any way to control the mouse and send message to the mouse to click?

Or is there some other way to tell which one of the 15 controls is the image/button I need and then I can experiment with what commands to send to it?

Okay. I figured out how to move the cursor. My last question is how to change the position of the external application window. I ran across a few APIs that look like they could do the job, but I'm not sure which to use.

I couldn't tell you for sure, but I would start with SetWindowPos.

Okay. I can move the mouse. And the window has a default position that I can work with. The only problem remaining is that I can't simulate a click of the mouse, based on where the mouse is. Is that even possible?

Is it possible to send message to the cursor to tell it to click? I can move it to the right position using Windows.Forms.Cursor.Position, but there is not method or property to simulate a click as far as I can tell.

Take a look at this thread #2

Well if you have the cursor position over the button you want, you can try the WindowFromPoint API in order to get a handle to the window that the cursor is over. I think it returns the "most childish" handle (if you get my drift), which should be the handle to the button if the cursor is over it, as opposed to returning the parent window handle or something like that, although not 100% sure. I checked an old prog I tried and clicked a button on a form using GetCursorPos and WindowFromPoint, and it seemed to work, retrieving the handle to the button and not the parent container window, but in reading the documentation, I have some doubts, and don't have the prog anymore that the code was ran with to test. You can try it out and see if it works...

VB Code:

'pass in the x and y coordinates of your mouse point
Declare Function WindowFromPoint Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal xPoint As Integer, _
                                                       ByVal yPoint As Integer) _
                                                       As IntPtr

If that doesn't work, you can also try ChildWindowFromPoint

This is sloppy, but it works:

VB Code:

Private Declare Sub mouse_event Lib "user32.dll" ( _
          ByVal dwFlags As Int32, _
          ByVal dx As Int32, _
          ByVal dy As Int32, _
          ByVal cButtons As Int32, _
          ByVal dwExtraInfo As Int32)
    Private Declare Function GetMessageExtraInfo Lib "user32" () As Long
 
    Const MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTDOWN As Int32 = &H2
    Const MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTUP As Int32 = &H4
    Const MOUSEEVENTF_MIDDLEDOWN As Int32 = &H20
    Const MOUSEEVENTF_MIDDLEUP As Int32 = &H40
    Const MOUSEEVENTF_MOVE As Int32 = &H1
    Const MOUSEEVENTF_ABSOLUTE As Int32 = &H8000
    Const MOUSEEVENTF_RIGHTDOWN As Int32 = &H8
    Const MOUSEEVENTF_RIGHTUP As Int32 = &H10
....
        mouse_event(MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTDOWN, 0, 0, 0, 0)
        Threading.Thread.Sleep(500)
        'Mouse Up
        mouse_event(MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTUP, 0, 0, 0, 0)
        Threading.Thread.Sleep(500)

Well its API, not easy to make it look "pretty" :) So does that wrap everything up?

Not quite. I knew I would run into more problems. That's why I left the thread open.

I can't get the SetFocus API to work. I think it might be because the program has a system tray icon and it's POSSIBLE that it's counting the icon as it's own form and attempting to set focus to that, but here's what I have:

VB Code:

Declare Function SetFocus Lib "user32.dll" ( _
        ByVal hwnd As Int32) As Int32
 
...
 
    SetFocus(Procs(0).MainWindowHandle.ToInt32)

MainWindowHandle returns an IntPtr... I had to convert it to an Integer to pass it to the API. Not sure what I should do.

Should I jump back to the earlier code about getting all the different handels on the form and set focus to all of them and hopefully one is the actual main window?

EDIT: And just for the record, Procs(0) does have the program attached to it.

Well there was an API function I found a few days ago in response to another thread on a different forum, and it is SwitchToThisWindow. And also later down in the thread there was an issue with minimized (or hidden windows, something like that), and another person responded what to do in those circumstances, so it could be exactly what you're looking for...

Check out the thread here: http://www.codeguru.com/forum/showth...93#post1462493

That worked PERFECTLY. Awesome. Thanks a ton. The rest is easy. :)