Monitor Mouse Clicks

Hi,

I would like to monitor mouse clicks, i.e whenever the left mouse button is pressed i know about it.

But i'm just abit lost as where to start, i havent coded anything like this before, could some point me in the right direction.

Thanks for your time.

Shall we guess the OS/Compiler you're going to use to attempt this?

Sorry, my fault.

Windows XP, and Microsoft Visual c++ compiler.

Are you using the MFC library, the native Windows API or some other library to handle your graphics?

In native windows the message is VM_LBUTTON_DOWN or VM_RBUTTON_DOWN.
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms645607.aspx

In MFC, use CWnd::OnLButtonDown (or OnRButtonDown). http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/lib...9k(VS.80).aspx

Other libraries obviously have their own way to deal with these things.

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Mats

Thanks for the reply, not sure which to use.

Basically i would need the mouse clicks to be monitored outside of the client window, well there wouldn't even be a client window. I want to be able to monitor everytime the user clicks the left mouse button within windows xp. I'm writing an automated test app, i am using a combination of Java robot api and JNI, java does not support mouse click monitoring outside the VM, so i have gone native.

Thanks, using windows programming i can now monitor left clicks within the client window. But now i need to monitor them outside of the client window. Hopefully i can do this?

Yes, I beleive you can create a handle for the desktop itself, and using that you should be able to "see" mouseclicks all over.

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Mats

Quote:

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But now i need to monitor them outside of the client window.

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SetCapture.

Moved to windows.

Thank you for your help.

I have been experimenting with HOOKPROC. I will also look into SetCapture. Using either of these i think my problem will be solved.

I have tried googling my next question but with no luck, i dont think i am using the correct terminology, but basically i was wondering if i could open the application i am testing within the application i am writing. Is this possible?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mmarab

Thank you for your help.

I have been experimenting with HOOKPROC. I will also look into SetCapture. Using either of these i think my problem will be solved.

I have tried googling my next question but with no luck, i dont think i am using the correct terminology, but basically i was wondering if i could open the application i am testing within the application i am writing. Is this possible?

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Yes, ShellExecute or CreateProcess will create a new process that your current process is "the owner of".

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Mats

Cheers for your help.

I have a question concerning the following lines of code:

Code:

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hinstDLL = LoadLibrary((LPCTSTR) "c:\\windows\\sysmsg.dll");
hkprcSysMsg = (HOOKPROC)GetProcAddress(hinstDLL, "SysMessageProc");

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These two lines of code are from the MSDN website, i am confused with them though, firstly the .dll "c:\\windows\\sysmsg.dll" does not exist, i cant find it in that directory.

Also "SysMessageProc", is this a method i should implement in my code, or is this a method within the .dll .

Thanks Again.