Question

How to change the keyboard layout from within the application - VB6

Asked by: garyLittle

I have a Crypt-E-Mail application in developement in which the program can be used with 15 languages including Asian and Arabic.
I can query the OS and find out the number of keyboards that are installed and display them in a list. I would like to be able to have the user choose and change the keyboard from within the application without resorting to the Regional Options of XP.

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Asked On
2005-07-27 at 06:33:54ID21506056
Tags

keyboard

,

change

,

layout

,

vb6

Topic

Visual Basic Programming

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
5

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Answers

 

by: garyLittlePosted on 2005-07-27 at 11:11:08ID: 14539531

Thank you bpoff, this works, but I need the name of the keyboard layout. All I get here is the number.

 

by: garyLittlePosted on 2005-07-27 at 11:20:19ID: 14539631

Sorry about that, it was computron that responded.  In order to have the user select the correct keyboard, the language name will have to enumerated.

 

by: danaseamanPosted on 2005-07-27 at 11:39:39ID: 14539842

This code enumerates the Keyboard layouts in a class and returns the LCID for each layout. With this LCID you can then get the English name of language or localized name of language using KL.pfGLI(LCID, LOCALE_SLANGUAGE).

'Form code (AutoRedraw=True)
Option Explicit

Const LOCALE_SENGCOUNTRY   As Long = &H1002 '// English name of country
Const LOCALE_SLANGUAGE     As Long = &H2   '// localized name of language
Const LOCALE_SENGLANGUAGE  As Long = &H1001   '// English name of language

Dim WithEvents KL As clsKeyboardLayout

Private Sub Form_Load()
   Set KL = New clsKeyboardLayout
   Print "LCID - LOCALE_SLANGUAGE"
   Print "-----------------------"
   KL.EnumKybdLayouts &H409
End Sub

Private Sub KL_EnumKybdLayouts(ByVal LCID As Long)
   Print Hex(LCID) & " - " & KL.pfGLI(LCID, LOCALE_SLANGUAGE)
End Sub

'Class code
Option Explicit

Public Event EnumKybdLayouts(ByVal LCID As Long)

Private Declare Function GetKeyboardLayout& Lib "user32" (ByVal dwLayout As Long)
Private Declare Function GetKeyboardLayoutList& Lib "user32" (ByVal nBuff As Long, lpList As Long)
Private Declare Function ActivateKeyboardLayout& Lib "user32" (ByVal hkl As Long, ByVal flags As Long)
Private Declare Function GetKeyboardLayoutName Lib "user32" Alias "GetKeyboardLayoutNameA" (ByVal pwszKLID As String) As Long
Private Declare Function GetLocaleInfoA Lib "KERNEL32" (ByVal Locale As Long, ByVal LCType As Long, ByVal lpLCData As String, ByVal cchData As Long) As Long

Const KL_NAMELENGTH        As Long = 9
Const LOCALE_SENGCOUNTRY   As Long = &H1002 '// English name of country
Const LOCALE_SLANGUAGE     As Long = &H2   '// localized name of language
Private buf As String * KL_NAMELENGTH

Public Sub EnumKybdLayouts( _
   Optional ByVal NewLayoutLCID As Long = 0, _
   Optional ByVal bEnableCallback As Long = True)
   
   Dim lOriginalLayout  As Long
   Dim lRet             As Long
   Dim i                As Integer

   ReDim lLayouts(50) As Long
   Dim LCID             As Long

   'Save current configuration
   lOriginalLayout = GetKeyboardLayout(0)

   'Get the first 50 supported keyboard layouts (50 is max supported for now)
   lRet = GetKeyboardLayoutList(50, lLayouts(0))
   'Loop through all the keyboard layouts
   For i = 0 To UBound(lLayouts)
      If lLayouts(i) = 0 Then
         Exit For
      End If
      'Activate the keyboard layout and get its name
      lRet = ActivateKeyboardLayout(lLayouts(i), 0)
      lRet = GetKeyboardLayout(0&)
      LCID = LoWord(lRet)
      If NewLayoutLCID = LCID Then
         lOriginalLayout = lRet
      End If
      If bEnableCallback Then
         RaiseEvent EnumKybdLayouts(LCID)
      End If
   Next i

   'Restore current (or requested if available) configuration
   lRet = ActivateKeyboardLayout(lOriginalLayout, 0)

End Sub

Public Function pfGLI(ByVal m_LocaleLCID As Long, ByVal reqInfo As Long) As String
   Dim Buffer          As String * 255
   GetLocaleInfoA m_LocaleLCID, reqInfo, Buffer, 255
   pfGLI = StripNull(Buffer)
End Function

Private Function LoWord(wParam As Long) As Integer
   If wParam And &H8000& Then
      LoWord = &H8000& Or (wParam And &H7FFF&)
   Else
      LoWord = wParam And &HFFFF&
   End If
End Function

Private Function StripNull(ByVal StrIn As String) As String
   Dim nul              As Long
   nul = InStr(StrIn, vbNullChar)
   Select Case nul
      Case Is > 1
         StripNull = Left$(StrIn, nul - 1)
      Case 1
         StripNull = ""
      Case 0
         StripNull = Trim$(StrIn)
   End Select
End Function

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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