[Question] Send Keys to Window

[TuFF]

Alright Quick Question for VB6 Coders

How do you use the SendKeys Function To A Specific window, Without having the window maxamized?

What im trying to do: SendKeys to WoW While the game is minimized.

Thanks!

[Jens]

you use PostMessage:

 [DllImport("User32.Dll", EntryPoint = "PostMessageA")]
 static extern bool PostMessage(
     IntPtr hWnd,
     uint msg,
     int wParam,
     int lParam
);

const uint WM_KEYDOWN = 0x100;
const uint WM_KEYUP = 0x101;
const int WM_ARROWUP = 0x26;

PostMessage(hWnd, WM_KEYDOWN, WM_ARROWUP, 0);
PostMessage(hWnd, WM_KEYUP, WM_ARROWUP, 0);
//will send the arrow up key! (more keys)

[Apoc]

Imports System
Imports System.Collections.Generic
Imports System.Diagnostics
Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices
Imports System.Windows.Forms

Class KeySender
    <DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError := True)> _
    Private Shared Function FindWindowEx(ByVal hwndParent As IntPtr, ByVal hwndChildAfter As IntPtr, ByVal lpszClass As String, ByVal lpszWindow As String) As IntPtr
    End Function
    
    <DllImport("User32.Dll", EntryPoint := "PostMessageA")> _
    Private Shared Function PostMessage(ByVal hWnd As IntPtr, ByVal msg As UInteger, ByVal wParam As Integer, ByVal lParam As Integer) As Boolean
    End Function
    
    <DllImport("user32.dll")> _
    Private Shared Function VkKeyScan(ByVal ch As Char) As Byte
    End Function
    
    Const WM_KEYDOWN As UInteger = 256
    
    Public Shared Function GetKey(ByVal character As Char) As Keys
        Return DirectCast(VkKeyScan(character), Keys)
    End Function
    
    Public Shared Sub SendMessageToWindow(ByVal windowHandle As IntPtr, ByVal message As IEnumerable(Of Char))
        For Each c As Char In message
            SendKeyToWindow(windowHandle, GetKey(c))
        Next
    End Sub
    
    Public Shared Sub SendMessageToWindow(ByVal process As Process, ByVal message As IEnumerable(Of Char))
        SendMessageToWindow(process.MainWindowHandle, message)
    End Sub
    
    Public Shared Sub SendMessageToWindow(ByVal windowName As String, ByVal message As IEnumerable(Of Char))
        For Each process As Process In Process.GetProcesses()
            If process.MainWindowTitle = windowName Then
                SendMessageToWindow(process.MainWindowHandle, message)
            End If
        Next
    End Sub
    
    Public Shared Sub SendKeyToWindow(ByVal windowHandle As IntPtr, ByVal key As Keys)
        PostMessage(windowHandle, WM_KEYDOWN, CByte(key), 0)
    End Sub
    
    Public Shared Sub SendKeyToWindow(ByVal windowName As String, ByVal key As Keys)
        For Each process As Process In Process.GetProcesses()
            If process.MainWindowTitle = windowName Then
                SendKeyToWindow(process.MainWindowHandle, key)
                Exit For
            End If
        Next
    End Sub
    
    Public Shared Sub SendKeyToWindow(ByVal process As Process, ByVal key As Keys)
        SendKeyToWindow(process.MainWindowHandle, key)
    End Sub
End Class

That class will handle pretty much any key sending you need. (That's VB.NET)

And in VB6 (using outdated API calls, since keybd_event is obsolete now, should look into SendInput instead) Taken from vbAccelerator - SendKeys using the API

Private Declare Sub keybd_event Lib "user32" ( _
   ByVal bVk As Byte, ByVal bScan As Byte, _
   ByVal dwFlags As Long, ByVal dwExtraInfo As Long)
Private Const KEYEVENTF_EXTENDEDKEY = &H1
Private Const KEYEVENTF_KEYUP = &H2

Private Declare Function GetVersion Lib "kernel32" () As Long
Private Declare Function VkKeyScan Lib "user32" Alias "VkKeyScanA" ( _
   ByVal cChar As Byte) As Integer
Private Declare Function VkKeyScanW Lib "user32" ( _
   ByVal cChar As Integer) As Integer

Private Declare Sub CopyMemory Lib "kernel32" Alias "RtlMoveMemory" ( _
    lpvDest As Any, lpvSource As Any, ByVal cbCopy As Long)


Public Sub KeyDown(ByVal vKey As KeyCodeConstants)
   keybd_event vKey, 0, KEYEVENTF_EXTENDEDKEY, 0
End Sub

Public Sub KeyUp(ByVal vKey As KeyCodeConstants)
   keybd_event vKey, 0, KEYEVENTF_EXTENDEDKEY Or KEYEVENTF_KEYUP, 0
End Sub

Public Function KeyCode(ByVal sChar As String) As KeyCodeConstants
Dim bNt As Boolean
Dim iKeyCode As Integer
Dim b() As Byte
Dim iKey As Integer
Dim vKey As KeyCodeConstants
Dim iShift As ShiftConstants

   ' Determine if we have Unicode support or not:
   bNt = ((GetVersion() And &H80000000) = 0)
   
   ' Get the keyboard scan code for the character:
   If (bNt) Then
      b = sChar
      CopyMemory iKey, b(0), 2
      iKeyCode = VkKeyScanW(iKey)
   Else
      b = StrConv(sChar, vbFromUnicode)
      iKeyCode = VkKeyScan(b(0))
   End If
   
   KeyCode = (iKeyCode And &HFF&)

End Function

[blupig]

Or instead of having to go through all that complex code, why not just use the SendMessage API

[Apoc]

Or instead of having to go through all that complex code, why not just use the SendMessage API

Because SendMessage is slower, not as reliable, and you'd then have to handle message queues. The class I posted may be long, but it makes life easier since you can just call a method and not really worry about the actual win32 API.