Accessing other apps

[samdv]

Hi everyone!

My question is simple. The answer is probably less simple. Is it possible to access the text in a textbox in ANOTHER application? I need a method of converting the text in a textbox in another application to a string, and I can't for the life of me work out how to do it. I'm thick.

Thanx in advance,

Sam

[Serge]

It is possible. You would have to find the window handle (hWnd) of the application first (you have to know the ClassName or atleast the Caption of the application you're looking for), then find the Textbox in the application, then get the text from the textbox. This is "How to get the text from another app in a nut shell". Here's an example. This example will get the text from the Notepad. Add a Textbox (set it's Multiline proprety to True) and a Command button:

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
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 SendMessageString Lib "user32" Alias "SendMessageA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, lParam As String) As Long
Private Const WM_GETTEXT = &HD
Private Const WM_GETTEXTLENGTH = &HE

Private Sub Command1_Click()
    Dim lngHwnd As Long
    Dim lngTextbox As Long
    Dim strBuffer As String
    Dim lngTextLength As Long
    Dim lngResult As Long
    
    'Find Notepad window (the classname is "Notepad")
    lngHwnd = FindWindowEx(0, 0, "Notepad", vbNullString)
    'Find the textbox (the classname is "Edit")
    lngTextbox = FindWindowEx(lngHwnd, 0, "Edit", vbNullString)
    
    'Get the length of the text
    lngTextLength = SendMessage(lngTextbox, WM_GETTEXTLENGTH, 0, 0)
    'Prepare buffer's length
    strBuffer = Space(lngTextLength)
    'Get the text from the Notepad
    lngResult = SendMessageString(lngTextbox, WM_GETTEXT, lngTextLength, ByVal strBuffer)
End Sub

[Ishamel]

Serge,

You seem to be pretty clued up on accessing external applications.

Do you have any idea why myself and Nitro are having this problem??

http://forums.vb-world.net/showthrea...threadid=19275

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[samdv]

Serge,

that code is perfect, except for one thing - how do I find the ClassName of the text box that I want to access?

Thanks tons,

SamDV

To find class, a handle, or any basic need to use other windows, download an winapi spy. I recommend you use Patorjk's api spy: http://www.patorjk.com/downloads/apispy50.zip
Works great.

[samdv]

And what a clever little application it is as well!



Cheers!