How can I set focus on other application based on process name in VB2010?
What I can do now is set focus on other application based on windows name using FindWindow then use SetForegroundWindow. Below is what I currently have
Dim theHandle As IntPtr
theHandle = FindWindow(Nothing, "Gmail: Email from Google")
If theHandle <> IntPtr.Zero Then
SetForegroundWindow(theHandle)
The problem is that FindWindow need exact windows name to works and I don't always know the exact name. (Because my program open up different website that the user enter, so I have no control over they site they open). So is there anyway that I can set focus using the process name instead? (in this case firefox.exe) Any other suggestions are welcome.
Thanks
You can use System.Diagnostics.Process to look up a process by name and then find the window title:
For Each app As Process In Process.GetProcessesByName("firefox")
Dim theHandle As IntPtr = FindWindow(Nothing, app.MainWindowTitle)
If theHandle <> IntPtr.Zero Then
SetForegroundWindow(theHandle)
End If
Next
Use the static GetProcessesByName method and then the MainWindowTitle property. For this sample you would need Import System.Diagnostics to import the right namespace.
Private Sub ActivateApp(ByVal pID As Integer)
Dim p As Process = Process.GetProcessById(pID)
If p IsNot Nothing Then
SetForegroundWindow(p.MainWindowHandle)
End If
End Sub
Then use this:
ActivateApp(System.Diagnostics.Process.GetCurrentProcess.Id)
SendKeys.SendWait("~")
Related
I have a VB.NET 4.6.1 desktop app that has been using FindWindow and FindWindowEx for over 2 years with no issue to locate a MDI child window and capture the window caption text, it has worked flawlessly until recent.
The behavior now is my app can only successfully obtain the MDI client window handle if I go back to either the parent window or MDI client and click anywhere on either window, then return to my app and the process succeeds.
I have tried adding threading sleep events, running the action continuously in a loop multiple times, calling AppActivate method using process ID (thinking I just needed to execute again), my next workaround thought is to try and send a click event to the parent window prior to my action being executed or maybe to use Enumerate all child windows of the parent, hope someone can suggest something because I am at a roadblock, been doing this for years but this one doesn't make sense to me, I have the suspicion that it is related to recent ownership of the software company and them revising this section, but I have no idea why it would interfere with these root level API methods.
Sample Code:
MDIhWnd = FindWindowEx(ParenthWnd, IntPtr.Zero, "WindowsForms10.MDICLIENT.app.0.34f5582_r7_ad1", Nothing)
'Threading.Thread.Sleep(100)
'AppActivate(proc(0).Id)
If MDIhWnd = 0 Then
Threading.Thread.Sleep(100)
'Dim hw = GetTopWindow(ParenthWnd)
For i = 0 To 500
AppActivate(proc(0).Id)
MDIhWnd = FindWindowEx(ParenthWnd, IntPtr.Zero, "WindowsForms10.MDICLIENT.app.0.34f5582_r7_ad1", Nothing)
If MDIhWnd <> 0 Then
Exit For
End If
Next
End If
The solution for me was, based on the above suggestion, to use UI Automation, I
had never worked with it before, however after looking it over I gave a go and
found that it did indeed simplify my needs to capture window text from a 3rd party application window with MDI Client Interface.
Below is a lessor version in VB.NET of the process for anyone needing to do the
same thing:
Imports System.Windows.Automation
' You will also need references to UIAutomationClient, and UIAutomationTypes
Private Sub test_ui_automation()
Dim ParenthWnd As Integer = 0
Dim _AutomationElementA As System.Windows.Automation.AutomationElement = Nothing
Dim _AutomationElementB As System.Windows.Automation.AutomationElement = Nothing
Dim _AutomationElementC As System.Windows.Automation.AutomationElement = Nothing
Dim propCondition As Condition
Try
'Parent Windows Process Stuff
ParenthWnd = FindWindow(Nothing, "Application to Find")
_AutomationElementA = AutomationElement.FromHandle(ParenthWnd)
If _AutomationElementA Is Nothing Then
NotifyIcon1.BalloonTipIcon = ToolTipIcon.Error
NotifyIcon1.BalloonTipText = "Couldn't Locate Parent Window."
NotifyIcon1.Visible = True
NotifyIcon1.ShowBalloonTip(3000)
Exit Sub
End If
' MDI Client Stuff
' I used ClassNameProperty but other conditions are available
propCondition = New PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ClassNameProperty, "WindowsForms10.MDICLIENT.app.0.34f5582_r7_ad1", PropertyConditionFlags.IgnoreCase)
_AutomationElementB = _AutomationElementA.FindFirst(TreeScope.Element Or TreeScope.Children, propCondition)
If _AutomationElementB Is Nothing Then
NotifyIcon1.BalloonTipIcon = ToolTipIcon.Warning
NotifyIcon1.BalloonTipText = "Application warning MDIClient not Available!"
NotifyIcon1.Visible = True
NotifyIcon1.ShowBalloonTip(3000)
Exit Sub
End If
' Final Stage Stuff Locate Window Containing Class with Caption
propCondition = New PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ClassNameProperty, "WindowsForms10.Window.8.app.0.34f5582_r7_ad1", PropertyConditionFlags.IgnoreCase)
_AutomationElementC = _AutomationElementB.FindFirst(TreeScope.Element Or TreeScope.Children, propCondition)
If _AutomationElementC Is Nothing Then
NotifyIcon1.BalloonTipIcon = ToolTipIcon.Warning
NotifyIcon1.BalloonTipText = "Automation warning, MDI Details are open."
NotifyIcon1.Visible = True
NotifyIcon1.ShowBalloonTip(3000)
Exit Sub
End If
Caption = _AutomationElementC.Current.Name
' If needed you can now parse/strip any data needed from the Caption text.
' I had other processes here but could not include in the post.
Catch ex As Exception
MsgBox(ex.Message)
End Try
End Sub
I am novice of VB.Net trying to create a plugin for a program with a fairly lacking API. Essentially what I am trying to accomplish is press a button in the interface, which will create a new window. Once this window loads, I have a couple other buttons to press to eventually print out an HTML file it generates.
I attempted to use Windows UI Automation, but was unable to manipulate the first control (it appeared as a "pane" element for some reason, and had no supported control patterns)
I eventually was able to use PostMessage to send a MouseDown and MouseUp message to the control to activate it.
My question is: What is the best way for me to wait for this window to finish loading before continuing my code execution?
I tried using Thread.Sleep after I sent the click to my control, but my code seemed to trigger the sleep before it even started to load the window. I suspect there may be some kind of event-driven options, but I don't even know where I would begin with that.
Side note: I do have access to the program's Process ID if that helps.
EDIT:
To be more explicit about what I have done, here is some code for you to look at:
' These variables declared further up in my program, when plugin is loaded
Private aeDesktop As AutomationElement
Private aeRadan As AutomationElement
Private aeBlocksBtn As AutomationElement
Private Sub UITest1()
Dim rpid As Integer
Dim intret As Integer
' Note: mApp is declared further up in the code, when the plug in initializes
' It sets a reference to the application object (API command from the software)
rpid = mApp.ProcessID
aeDesktop = AutomationElement.RootElement
Dim propcon As New PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ProcessIdProperty, rpid)
Dim propcon2 As New PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.NameProperty, "big_button_blocks.bmp")
aeRadan = aeDesktop.FindFirst(TreeScope.Children, propcon)
aeBlocksBtn = aeRadan.FindFirst(TreeScope.Descendants, propcon2)
' MAKELONG is a function that concatenates given x and y coordinates into an appropriate "lparam" value for PostMessage.
' Coordinates 20, 20 are chosen arbitrarily
Dim lParam As Long = MAKELONG(20, 20)
intret = PostMessage(CInt(aeBlocksBtn.GetCurrentPropertyValue(AutomationElement.NativeWindowHandleProperty)), &H201, &H1, lParam)
intret = PostMessage(CInt(aeBlocksBtn.GetCurrentPropertyValue(AutomationElement.NativeWindowHandleProperty)), &H202, &H0, lParam)
Dim bwinprop As New PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.NameProperty, "Radan Block Editor")
Dim aeblockwin As AutomationElement
Dim numwaits As Integer = 0
Do
numwaits += 1
Thread.Sleep(100)
aeblockwin = aeRadan.FindFirst(TreeScope.Children, bwinprop)
Loop While (numwaits < 50) AndAlso (aeblockwin Is Nothing)
If numwaits >= 50 Then
MessageBox.Show("ERROR: Block Editor Window Not found")
End If
I am fairly sure what is happening has to do with the code moving to the Do While loop before the PostMessage is processed by the program. I have tried using SendMessage to try to bypass this, but unfortunately that does not seem to work.
I feel like there is a pretty simple solution here, like maybe some kind of alternate wait or sleep command that I don't know about, so maybe someone could help guide me to it?
EDIT 2:
Screenshot of the inspect.exe output for this control.
Also, a screenshot of the user interface. This is from Radan, a CAM software I use for nesting and processing sheet metal parts to be laser cut. I put a red box around the control I would like to activate.
I have a requirement in Visual Studio Visual Basic 2012 to map printers for users from a module.
I cannot find a way to do this with .net 3.5 directly so I have been using the following in a module:
Declare Function AddPrinterConnection Lib "winspool.drv" Alias "AddPrinterConnectionA" (ByVal pName As String) As Integer
I then use a for each to test something else and if it is true I use the following to add the printer:
AddPrinterConnection("\\printserver\" & X(1))
Now that works but it is very slow to map the 10 plus printers.
I would like to know if:
There is a way to call the function multiple times so the function would run many times making the job quite quick?
Or is there a better way to map network printers using VB.net that I am using.
What I ended up doing was the following;
For the multi threading I used a class
Class MainClass
Public Shared Sub Main(Printer)
Dim PadThread As New Threading.Thread(
AddressOf Work.AddNetPrint)
PadThread.IsBackground = True
PadThread.Start(Printer)
End Sub
End Class
Public Class Work
Shared Sub AddNetPrint(Printer)
Dim PP As New Printing.LocalPrintServer
If Repair = True Then
Repair = False
Try
PP.DisconnectFromPrintQueue(Printer)
Catch
End Try
Try
PP.ConnectToPrintQueue(Printer)
Catch
End Try
Else
Try
PP.ConnectToPrintQueue(Printer)
Catch
End Try
End If
PP.Dispose()
PP = Nothing
End Sub
End Class
For mapping the queue I use System.Printing.LocalPrintServer
Dim PP As New Printing.LocalPrintServer
PP.ConnectToPrintQueue(Printer)
That all works nicely and quickly too.
Hope this helps someone.
Basically, I want to download the contents of a particular URL (basically, just HTML codes in the form of a String) into my VB6 String variable. However, there are some conditions.
I know about the URLDownloadToFile Function - however, this requires that you save the downloaded file/HTML onto a file location on disk before you can read it into a String variable, this is not an option for me and I do not want to do this.
The other thing is, if I need to use an external library, it must already come with all versions of Windows from XP and onwards, I cannot use a control or library that I am required to ship, package and distribute even if it is free, this is not an option and I do not want to do this. So, I cannot use the MSINET.OCX (Internet Transfer) Control's .OpenURL() function (which simply returns contents into a String), as it does not come with Windows.
Is there a way to be able to do this with the Windows API, URLMON or something else that is pre-loaded into or comes with Windows, or a way to do it in VB6 (SP6) entirely?
If so, I would appreciate direction, because even after one hour of googling, the only examples I've found are references to URLDownloadToFile (which requires saving on disk before being ale to place into a String) and MsInet.OpenURL (which requires that I ship and distribute MSINET.OCX, which I cannot and don't want to do).
Surely there has got to be an elegant way to be able to do this? I can do it in VB.NET without an issue, but obviously don't have the luxury of the .NET framework in VB6 - any ideas?
Update:
I have found this: http://www.freevbcode.com/ShowCode.asp?ID=1252
however it says that the displayed function may not return the entire
page and links to a Microsoft bug report or kb article explaining
this. Also, I understand this is based off wininet.dll - and I'm
wondering which versions of Windows does WinInet.dll come packaged
with? Windows XP & beyond? Does it come with Windows 7 and/or Windows
8?
This is how I did it with VB6 a few years ago:
Private Function GetHTMLSource(ByVal sURL As String) As String
Dim xmlHttp As Object
Set xmlHttp = CreateObject("MSXML2.XmlHttp")
xmlHttp.Open "GET", sURL, False
xmlHttp.send
GetHTMLSource = xmlHttp.responseText
Set xmlHttp = Nothing
End Function
If you want to do this with pure VB, and no IE, then you can take advantage of a little-used features of the VB UserControl - async properties.
Create a new UserControl, and call it something like UrlDownloader. Set the InvisibleAtRuntime property to True. Add the following code to it:
Option Explicit
Private Const m_ksProp_Data As String = "Data"
Private m_bAsync As Boolean
Private m_sURL As String
Public Event AsyncReadProgress(ByRef the_abytData() As Byte)
Public Event AsyncReadComplete(ByRef the_abytData() As Byte)
Public Property Let Async(ByVal the_bValue As Boolean)
m_bAsync = the_bValue
End Property
Public Property Get Async() As Boolean
Async = m_bAsync
End Property
Public Property Let URL(ByVal the_sValue As String)
m_sURL = the_sValue
End Property
Public Property Get URL() As String
URL = m_sURL
End Property
Public Sub Download()
UserControl.AsyncRead m_sURL, vbAsyncTypeByteArray, m_ksProp_Data, IIf(m_bAsync, 0&, vbAsyncReadSynchronousDownload)
End Sub
Private Sub UserControl_AsyncReadComplete(AsyncProp As AsyncProperty)
If AsyncProp.PropertyName = m_ksProp_Data Then
RaiseEvent AsyncReadComplete(AsyncProp.Value)
End If
End Sub
Private Sub UserControl_AsyncReadProgress(AsyncProp As AsyncProperty)
If AsyncProp.PropertyName = m_ksProp_Data Then
Select Case AsyncProp.StatusCode
Case vbAsyncStatusCodeBeginDownloadData, vbAsyncStatusCodeDownloadingData, vbAsyncStatusCodeEndDownloadData
RaiseEvent AsyncReadProgress(AsyncProp.Value)
End Select
End If
End Sub
To use this control, stick it on a form and use the following code:
Option Explicit
Private Sub Command1_Click()
XDownload1.Async = False
XDownload1.URL = "http://www.google.co.uk"
XDownload1.Download
End Sub
Private Sub XDownload1_AsyncReadProgress(the_abytData() As Byte)
Debug.Print StrConv(the_abytData(), vbUnicode)
End Sub
Suffice to say, you can customise this to your hearts content. It can tell (using the AyncProp object) whether the file is cached, and other useful information. It even has a special mode in which you can download GIF, JPG and BMP files and return them as a StdPicture object!
One alternative is using Internet Explorer.
Dim ex As InternetExplorer
Dim hd As HTMLDocument
Dim s As String
Set ex = New InternetExplorer
With ex
.Navigate "http://donttrack.us/"
.Visible = 1
Set hd = .Document
s = hd.body.innerText ' assuming you just want the text
's = hd.body.innerHTML ' if you want the HTML
End With
EDIT: For the above early binding to work you need to set references to "Microsoft Internet Controls" and "Microsoft HTML Object Library" (Tools > References). You could also use late binding, but to be honest, I forget what the proper class names are; maybe someone smart will edit this answer :-)
We are upgrading a suite of data acquisition and analysis routines from VB6 programs to a mixture of VB.NET, VB6, and Matlab programs. We want to keep the system modular (separate EXEs) so we can easily create specialized stand-alone analysis programs without having to constantly upgrade one massive application. We have used MBInterProcess to send messages between EXEs when all the programs were written in VB6 and this worked perfectly for us (e.g., to have the data acquisition EXE send the latest file name to a stand-alone data display program). Unfortunately, this ActiveX cannot be used within Matlab or VB.NET to receive messages. We are wondering what is the simplest string message passing system (pipes, registered messages, etc) that we could adopt. Right now we are just polling to see if new file was written in a specific folder, which can't be the best solution. Our ideal solution would not require a huge investment in time learning nuances of Windows (we are biologists, not full-time programmers) and would work in both WinXP and 64-bit versions of Windows.
In response to the queries, we have wrapped the entire Matlab session within a VB6 program that has the MBInterProcess ActiveX control. That works but is not a great solution for us since it will probably lock us into WinXP forever (and certainly will prevent us from using the 64-bit version of Matlab). The latest version of Matlab (2009a) can access .NET functions directly, so we assume one solution might be to use the .NET library to implement pipes (or something similar) across programs. We would like to recreate the elegantly simple syntax of the MBInterProcess ActiveX and have a piece of code that listens for a message with that program's top-level Windows name, and then call a specific Matlab m-file, or VB.NET function, with the string data (e.g., file name) as an argument.
Could you create an ActiveX EXE in VB6 to simply forward messages between the different parties? When anyone called it, it would raise an event with the parameters passed to the call. Your VB6 and VB.NET code could establish a reference to the ActiveX exe to call it and sink its events. I'm not familiar with Matlab so I don't know whether it would be accessible there.
EDIT: you've written that Matlab 2009a can access .NET directly. If it can sink .NET events, you could also have a .NET wrapper on the VB6 ActiveX EXE.
Here's some sample code I knocked up quickly.
VB6 ActiveX EXE project with project name VB6MatlabMessenger. Each message has a text string Destination (that somehow identifies the intended recipient) and a string with the message.
'MultiUse class VB6Messenger
Option Explicit
Public Event MessageReceived(ByVal Destination As String, ByVal Message As String)
Public Sub SendMessage(ByVal Destination As String, ByVal Message As String)
Call Manager.RaiseEvents(Destination, Message)
End Sub
Private Sub Class_Initialize()
Call Manager.AddMessenger(Me)
End Sub
Friend Sub RaiseTheEvent(ByVal Destination As String, ByVal Message As String)
RaiseEvent MessageReceived(Destination, Message)
End Sub
'BAS module called Manager
Option Explicit
Private colMessengers As New Collection
Sub AddMessenger(obj As VB6Messenger)
colMessengers.Add obj
End Sub
Sub RaiseEvents(ByVal Destination As String, ByVal Message As String)
Dim obj As VB6Messenger
For Each obj In colMessengers
Call obj.RaiseTheEvent(Destination, Message)
Next obj
End Sub
And a test VB6 normal exe, with a reference to the VB6MatlabMessenger. Here is the whole frm file. Build this as an exe, run a few copies. Fill in the destination and message text fields and click the button - you will see that the messages are received in all the exes (reported in the listboxes).
VERSION 5.00
Begin VB.Form Form1
Caption = "Form1"
ClientHeight = 3090
ClientLeft = 60
ClientTop = 450
ClientWidth = 4680
LinkTopic = "Form1"
ScaleHeight = 3090
ScaleWidth = 4680
StartUpPosition = 3 'Windows Default
Begin VB.ListBox lstEvents
Height = 1620
Left = 120
TabIndex = 3
Top = 1320
Width = 4455
End
Begin VB.TextBox txtMessage
Height = 375
Left = 120
TabIndex = 2
Text = "Message"
Top = 840
Width = 2295
End
Begin VB.TextBox txtDestination
Height = 375
Left = 120
TabIndex = 1
Text = "Destination"
Top = 240
Width = 2295
End
Begin VB.CommandButton cmdSendMessage
Caption = "Send Message"
Height = 495
Left = 2640
TabIndex = 0
Top = 360
Width = 1575
End
End
Attribute VB_Name = "Form1"
Attribute VB_GlobalNameSpace = False
Attribute VB_Creatable = False
Attribute VB_PredeclaredId = True
Attribute VB_Exposed = False
Option Explicit
Private WithEvents objMessenger As VB6MatlabMessenger.VB6Messenger
Private Sub cmdSendMessage_Click()
objMessenger.SendMessage txtDestination, txtMessage.Text
End Sub
Private Sub Form_Load()
Set objMessenger = New VB6MatlabMessenger.VB6Messenger
End Sub
Private Sub objMessenger_MessageReceived(ByVal Destination As String, ByVal Message As String)
lstEvents.AddItem Now() & " RECEIVED - " & Destination & ", " & Message
End Sub
I started writing a VB.NET class library that wraps the VB6 to make it accessible to .NET. I haven't tested this one. It has a reference to the VB6MatLabMessenger.
Public Class VBNETMatlabMessenger
Private WithEvents objVB6Messenger As VB6MatlabMessenger.VB6Messenger
Public Event MessageReceived(ByVal Destination As String, ByVal Message As String)
Public Sub SendMessage(ByVal Destination As String, ByVal Message As String)
objVB6Messenger.SendMessage(Destination, Message)
End Sub
Public Sub New()
objVB6Messenger = New VB6MatlabMessenger.VB6Messenger
End Sub
Private Sub objVB6Messenger_MessageReceived(ByVal Destination As String, ByVal Message As String) Handles objVB6Messenger.MessageReceived
RaiseEvent MessageReceived(Destination, Message)
End Sub
End Class
This might get you started. Note that the VB6 messenger objects will live forever because the messenger keeps a reference to them internally, so COM will never tidy them up. If this becomes a problem (if many messages are sent without rebooting the PC) you could add a method to the VB6 messenger which instructs it to removed the messenger object from its collection,
I've used the Matlab dos command to execute a Java program on the commandline, it waits for the commandline to complete before returning control to Matlab. This worked fine for me, after my Matlab program regained control I read the output file from the Java.
I've used compiled Matlab programs (i.e. exe's), these work okay but they spray files around when they execute - I believe it's possible to pass in commandline arguments to a compiled executable. Assuming VB.NET is like C# .NET you could execute your exe from code using something like the Process object.
Alternatively there are ways to compile to .dll which are accessible via .NET see here:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dotnet/matlabeng.aspx
for an explanation. I've never tried this...