Get Window Name from the Handle.

I had looked at both of those (I've been searching for hours) and neither seem to be what I need  (but I could be just confused)

The It seems as though what I need is the reverse of FindWindowEx because I need not the Title of a window from a PID, not just the class name of the window but the NAME of a particular instance of a window (an edit control, for instance)  

To clarify further, I need to be able to point to a widndow and get its handle with WindowFromPoint which returns a handle, get the instance name of that window then climb the hierarchy using GetParent and get the names off each parent so that I can use them in a function like the one below that drill down into IE6 to get the current URL.

  Result := '';
  if handle = 0 then
    handle := FindWindow(pchar('IEFrame'), nil);
  if handle <> 0 then begin
    handle := FindWindowEx(handle, 0, 'WorkerW', nil);
    if handle <> 0 then begin
      handle := FindWindowEx(handle, 0, 'rebarwindow32', nil);
      if handle <> 0 then begin
        handle := FindWindowEx(handle, 0, 'comboboxex32', nil);
        if handle <> 0 then begin
          handle := FindWindowEx(handle, 0, 'ComboBox', nil);
          if handle <> 0 then begin
            handle := FindWindowEx(handle, 0, 'Edit', nil);
            if handle <> 0 then begin
              SendMessage(handle, WM_GETTEXT, 512, longint(@buf));
              Result := string(buf);
            end;
          end;
        end;
      end;
    end;
  end;
end;

Lastly, if you still want to find the text in a specific edit control in some app, I keep some code on my ftp site that could help you.

Check out

ftp://jcitssystems.com/pub/DelphiExamples/WinHandles.zip

May take a minute to connect so be patient.

John

If you are talking about the Text of the window for example this windows text is:

Get Window Name from the Handle. : Windows API - Window Internet Explorer

Then you do it like this, tested here and it works.

Dim lngHandle as Long
lngHandle = 1771640 'Of course you will change this to the handle that you have.
Dim TheText As String, TL As Long
TL = SendMessageLong(lngHandle, WM_GETTEXTLENGTH, 0&, 0&)
TheText = String(TL + 1, " ")
Call SendMessageByString(ieframe, WM_GETTEXT, TL + 1, TheText)
TheText = Left(TheText, TL)
MsgBox TheText

                                              

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AND LOL I just realised I'm in the wrong forum I thought I was in the Visual Basic forum. LMAO sorry!!!!!

Johnjces,  Sorry I confused you - no the code I quoted was just an example of why I need this function.  But thanks for the code anyway - it may prove useful to myself or someone else.

No - it was just to show how I will use the results - that is to create a descending "ladder" to a specific window in any application (not in browsers)

No I don't need the displayed text of an edit control - I need to get the control NAME, so that I can use FindWindowEx to get to a specific control in another application.  I thought there would be an API function that would let me get the name of a control (NOT user viewable text , but the Window NAME - the value you need to pass to the FindWindowEx API function.  

mystami:m  No harm!  

Gotcha! You still might check out the code on my ftp as it might help you.

Good luck!

John  -

I'm tired as all hell but wouldn't GetWindowText work?

You want the window caption from the hWnd no?

No - GetWindowText returns the displayable contents of a Window - in the case of a main window (a form) it will return the caption.  In the case of a control that has displayable text such as an edit control or a label control (the Delph terms) it will return the caption of the label or the text in the edit box.  No, what I need is the "name" of the object.  That is the value that is needed for passing to the API method FindWindowsEx.  Thinking in Delphi terms, the value that I'm looking for is the value that you supply (or automatically allow) in the "Name" property NOT the one in the "caption" or "text" property.

Hello

How is it?, did you get what you want?

It seems as though the API function  GetWindowText is the only one that returns the name of a window control - however - if the control is one like an edit control that can contain displayable text that is what is returned instead of the object name.  Since that seems to be the case, I can't use it in the way I need to.  Therefore, this  question appears not to have a complete answer.

I will leave it open for a while, in case someone has a better conclusion to the problem and if none is forthcoming, will divide the points up among everyone who has been helpful.

I jsut have to face it - sometimes the answer is "no".

Moderator, please do not consider this abandoned - I will continue to monitor it and close it myself.

Take a look at the code in post number 3 where I start "To clarify further' and tell me what is going on there.  I agree with you, I did not think that variable names "survived" compilation and assembly, but the object windows in that hierarchy are identified by name - and the code works.  So how is that possible?

In any case, I've gone a different direction to solve my requirement, and although I'll leave this question open for a few more days, "just in case", I'm no longer in "deperate" need of a solution <BG>