Sendkeys V Sendmessage

[Skreen]

I have been trying to replace Sendkeys with Sendmessage but I am having a few problems.

Example of old sendkeys code :

App.Activate "Title of other application"
Sendkeys "^o" & "~", TRUE
Sendkeys "filename" & "~", TRUE
DoEvents 

This code seems to work (sometimes)

The Sendmessage code I am using is as follows :

Public Const WM_SETTEXT = &HC

Private Declare Function GetForegroundWindow _
Lib "user32" () As Long

Public Declare Function SetForegroundWindow Lib "user32" _
    (ByVal hwnd As Long) 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

SetForegroundWindow otherapp.hWnd
SendMessage otherapp.hWnd, WM_SETTEXT, 0, By Val "^o"
SendMessage GetForegroundWindow, WM_SETTEXT, 0, By Val "filename" 

My problem is that using the sendmessage changes the window caption/title of the other application instead of pass in the keystrokes.

What am I doing wrong or should I give up on sendmessage and stick to sendkeys?

[filburt1]

What are you trying to achieve using Sendmessage rather than SendKeys?

[DaoK]

Yes he try to do that

[filburt1]

Originally posted by DaoK
Yes he try to do that

No, I mean what is the advantage of using Sendmessage over SendKeys?

[DaoK]

Sendkey is more easy ? Am I right?

[filburt1]

IMHO it IS much easier. Maybe he was trying to get a speed advantage or something.

[Skreen]

With sendkeys if the active application that you are sending the keys too looses focus, things can go out of control.

From what I can read, sendmessage is a more reliable method.

I have cases where I have multiple send keys (like about 10 in a row) because I need to perform a task in another application and I am using sendkeys to automate this process. The major problem sendkeys can screw up sometimes and I want to use something that will work everytime, even if the user click's another window.

[crptcblade]

Originally posted by Skreen
My problem is that using the sendmessage changes the window caption/title of the other application instead of pass in the keystrokes.

What am I doing wrong or should I give up on sendmessage and stick to sendkeys?

The problem is that it is working, just not the way you wanted to . If you pass SendMessage the hWnd of a window, it will change the caption. To "send" keystrokes, you will need to get the handle of the textbox or whatever. There was a thread about this a couple of weeks ago, I will look around for it.

[crptcblade]

http://161.58.186.97/showthread.php?...light=megatron

[Skreen]

If I know the hWnd of the parent window (i.e. the application window), how can I find the handle to the child window that has the focus (i.e. the text box or command button etc)