Gurus, I need help...

I need to know how to control the menu system of another application from my application. So far, I have gotten this feedback from Matthew Gates, but it only shows how to get the menu system from an application (in this case, Notepad):

'Code by Aaron Young

Private Declare Function GetMenu Lib "user32" (ByVal hWnd As Long) 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
Private Declare Function GetSubMenu Lib "user32" (ByVal hMenu As Long, ByVal nPos As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GetMenuItemCount Lib "user32" (ByVal hMenu As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GetMenuString Lib "user32" Alias "GetMenuStringA" (ByVal hMenu As Long, ByVal wIDItem As Long, ByVal lpString As String, ByVal nMaxCount As Long, ByVal wFlag As Long) As Long

Private Const MF_BYPOSITION = &H400&

Public Sub ListMenuStructure(ByVal hWnd As Long, ByRef oList As ListBox)
    Dim lMenu As Long
    lMenu = GetMenu(hWnd)
    oList.Clear
    If lMenu Then RecurseMenu lMenu, oList, 1
End Sub

Private Sub RecurseMenu(ByVal lMenu As Long, ByRef oList As ListBox, ByVal iLevel As Long)
    Dim lItems As Long
    Dim lItem As Long
    Dim sCaption As String
    lItems = GetMenuItemCount(lMenu)
    If lItems Then
        For lItem = 0 To lItems - 1
            sCaption = Space(255)
            sCaption = Left(sCaption, GetMenuString(lMenu, lItem, ByVal sCaption, 255, MF_BYPOSITION))
            oList.AddItem String((iLevel - 1) * 2, "-") & sCaption
            If GetSubMenu(lMenu, lItem) Then
                RecurseMenu GetSubMenu(lMenu, lItem), oList, iLevel + 1
            End If
        Next
    End If
End Sub

Private Sub Command1_Click()
ListMenuStructure FindWindowEx(0, 0, "NotePad", vbNullString), List1
End Sub

Now I need to know how to control this menu from my application.

Thanks,

Simon Bingier

What do you mean by 'control' it?

I know exactly what he means.

Public Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias _
"FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal _
lpWindowName As String) As Long
Public Declare Function SendMessageLong& Lib "user32" Alias _
"SendMessageA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As Long, _
ByVal wParam As Long, ByVal lParam As Long)
Declare Function GetMenu Lib "user32" _
(ByVal hwnd As Long) As Long
Declare Function GetSubMenu Lib "user32" _
(ByVal hMenu As Long, ByVal nPos As Long) As Long
Declare Function GetMenuItemID Lib "user32" _
(ByVal hMenu As Long, ByVal nPos As Long) As Long
Declare Function GetMenuItemCount Lib "user32" _
(ByVal hMenu As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GetMenuString Lib "user32" _
Alias "GetMenuStringA" (ByVal hMenu As Long, ByVal _
wIDItem As Long, ByVal lpString As String, ByVal nMaxCount _
As Long, ByVal wFlag As Long) As Long

Public Const WM_COMMAND = &H111

Private Sub Command1_Click()
Dim notepad As Long
notepad = FindWindow("notepad", vbNullString)
Dim TheWindow As Long
Dim aMenu As Long
Dim mCount As Long
Dim LookFor As Long
Dim sMenu As Long
Dim sCount As Long
Dim LookSub As Long
Dim sID As Long
Dim sString As String

TheWindow = notepad
aMenu& = GetMenu(TheWindow)
mCount& = GetMenuItemCount(aMenu&)
For LookFor& = 0& To mCount& - 1
    sMenu& = GetSubMenu(aMenu&, LookFor&)
    sCount& = GetMenuItemCount(sMenu&)
    For LookSub& = 0 To sCount& - 1
        sID& = GetMenuItemID(sMenu&, LookSub&)
        sString$ = String$(100, " ")
        Call GetMenuString(sMenu&, sID&, sString$, 100&, 1&)
        If InStr(LCase(sString$), LCase("&Find...")) Then
            Call SendMessageLong(TheWindow, WM_COMMAND, sID&, 0&)
            Exit Sub
        End If
    Next LookSub&
Next LookFor&
End Sub

Open Notepad and watch what it does.

[Edited by Matthew Gates on 09-07-2000 at 09:53 PM]

Whoa, that's some pretty advanced code, but it works! Thank you very very much!!

I'm trying to figure a few things out...

When the FindWindow API searches for Notepad, how do you know what the name of the program is that the API is supposed to search for.

In other words, in FindWindow("Notepad" , how do I know what to replace the "Notepad" with in my application. Is this the name of the .exe or is this the name that is in the caption of the application?


Thanks,

Simon Bingier

You can find the window by it's caption.

Private Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32.dll" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As Any, ByVal lpWindowName As Any) As Long
h = FindWindow(vbNullString, "Untitled - Notepad")

If h <> 0 Then
MsgBox "Found!": Exit Sub
Else
MsgBox "Window was not found!", 16
End If

This will find a window by it's class.

notepad = FindWindow("notepad", vbNullString)

If h <> 0 Then
MsgBox "Found!": Exit Sub
Else
MsgBox "Window was not found!", 16
End If

Ok, I'm going to experiment with this for a while...


Thank you Matthew... you are truly a guru!


-Simon Bingier

Ok, I have another question now...

What does the sString$ = String$(100, " ") in the Command1_Click event stand for?

I don't understand what the 100 and the " " mean.

I just tried the code on Windows calculator and it doesn't work. Then I tried it on Internet Explorer and it doesn't work either. Notepad seems to be the only program that it works on.

I just sent you something, in which you can find window and do exactly as I did.

Hope that helps.

Ok, thank you