[RESOLVED] Using FindWindow to access External Windows, need help with my process

[koushi]

I am using consecutive loops to search for a a sequence of windows and automate clicking command buttons but sometimes some random windows pop up in between the normal windows and my program gets stuck in a loop until it finds the window it's looking for.

This is my code, is there a better way of doing this?

Private Sub cmdYes_Click()
    Dim hWndPriceWindow As Long
    Dim hWndPriceBtn As Long
    Dim hWndOkayBtn As Long
    Dim hWndDispenseWindow As Long
    Dim hWndDispenseBtn As Long
    
    'Find first popup window
    Do
        DoEvents

        If frmSettings.chkWildcard.Value = 0 Then
            hWndPriceWindow = FindWindow(vbNullString, frmSettings.txtS3.Text)
        Else
            hWndPriceWindow = FindWindowWild(frmSettings.txtS3.Text)
        End If
   
    Loop Until hWndPriceWindow <> 0
    
    Do
        DoEvents
        hWndPriceBtn = FindWindowEx(hWndPriceWindow, 0&, "Button", "&Yes")
    Loop Until hWndPriceBtn <> 0

    Do
        DoEvents
        PostMessage hWndPriceBtn, BM_CLICK, 0, ByVal 0&
    Loop Until IsWindow(hWndPriceWindow) = 0

    Do
        DoEvents
        hWndOkayBtn = FindWindowEx(hWndParent, 0&, "Button", "Okay")
    Loop Until hWndOkayBtn <> 0

    PostMessage hWndOkayBtn, BM_CLICK, 0, ByVal 0&

    ' Find second popup window
    Do
        DoEvents
        hWndDispenseWindow = FindWindow(vbNullString, "Dispense")
    Loop Until hWndDispenseWindow <> 0

    Do
        DoEvents
        hWndDispenseBtn = FindWindowEx(hWndDispenseWindow, 0&, "Button", "&Yes")
    Loop Until hWndDispenseBtn <> 0

    Do
        DoEvents
        PostMessage hWndDispenseBtn, BM_CLICK, 0, ByVal 0&
    Loop Until IsWindow(hWndDispenseWindow) = 0

End Sub

[ladoo]

i dont like reading to much ,,,,,,,, 1 way i do search window by there caption

[koushi]

i dont like reading to much ,,,,,,,, 1 way i do search window by there caption

I simplified my post, and I already am using FindWindow to get the window handles. Thanks for trying to help

[Bonnie West]

Try this:

Private Sub cmdYes_Click()
    Dim bClicked                As Boolean
    Dim IsPriceWindowClosed     As Boolean
    Dim hWndDispenseBtn         As Long
    Dim hWndDispenseWindow      As Long
    Dim hWndOkayBtn             As Long
    Dim hWndPriceBtn            As Long
    Dim hWndPriceWindow         As Long
    Dim frmSettings_txtS3       As String
    Dim frmSettings_chkWildcard As CheckBoxConstants

    frmSettings_chkWildcard = frmSettings.chkWildcard   'Properties are slow to access
    frmSettings_txtS3 = frmSettings.txtS3

    While DoEvents
        If hWndPriceWindow Then
            If hWndPriceBtn Then
                If IsPriceWindowClosed Then
                    If hWndOkayBtn Then
                        If hWndDispenseWindow Then
                            If hWndDispenseBtn Then
                                If IsWindow(hWndDispenseWindow) Then
                                    PostMessage hWndDispenseBtn, BM_CLICK, 0&, ByVal 0&
                                Else
                                    Exit Sub
                                End If
                            Else
                                hWndDispenseBtn = FindWindowEx(hWndDispenseWindow, 0&, "Button", "&Yes")
                            End If
                        Else
                            If Not bClicked Then
                                PostMessage hWndOkayBtn, BM_CLICK, 0&, ByVal 0&
                                bClicked = True
                            End If
                            hWndDispenseWindow = FindWindow(vbNullString, "Dispense")
                        End If                  'Find second popup window
                    Else
                        hWndOkayBtn = FindWindowEx(hWndParent, 0&, "Button", "Okay")
                    End If
                Else
                    PostMessage hWndPriceBtn, BM_CLICK, 0&, ByVal 0&
                    IsPriceWindowClosed = (IsWindow(hWndPriceWindow) = 0&)
                End If
            Else
                hWndPriceBtn = FindWindowEx(hWndPriceWindow, 0&, "Button", "&Yes")
            End If
        Else
            If frmSettings_chkWildcard = vbUnchecked Then
                hWndPriceWindow = FindWindow(vbNullString, frmSettings_txtS3)
            Else                 'Find first popup window
                hWndPriceWindow = FindWindowWild(frmSettings_txtS3)
            End If
        End If
    Wend
End Sub

[koushi]

Try this:

Wow, Bonnie West thank you so much! That tidies it up a lot.

Just say if during one of those expected windows shown in the code, another window pops up that it isn't expecting, what would be the best way about closing it? Should I just have an additional timer somewhere searching for the "unwanted" popup windows and send a WM_CLOSE message as soon as they appear? These additional windows don't need to have any buttons pressed as they are just Information msgboxes and can be closed without any additional actions. Thanks again!!

[Bonnie West]

Well, you could include another window search code inside the loop, just before the Wend or Loop keywords, and see if the messagebox belongs to the target process. BTW, you should specify the classname of the window you're interested in to make the search more specific. You can obtain the classname through any Window Spy utility.

[koushi]

Thanks very much, I'll fiddle with what you've given me until it's running smoothly, thanks so much!

And of course I'll update those class names, they are "#32770" although I didn't have them initially as I was writing the program from home and testing it at work so I wanted to minimalise mistakes so I didn't have to keep running back and forth thread resolved thanks again!