Question

Use VB program to select radio button.

Asked by: jay-are

Hello Experts

How would I use a VB winform to make selections on another running program?  I have a program that is running already with 4 radio buttons.  I need to pick one of the choices using my own program.  A user opens a program and a new window pops up asking for a selection.  They always use "save" so I'd like to automate this so they don't have to do this everytime.

I have a winform already that selects the window that pops up and makes it the foreground window (see code).  How do I use my app to select the radio button "save" on that window?

Module Module1
 
    Public Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String) As Long
    Public Declare Function GetWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal wCmd As Long) As Long
    Public Declare Function GetWindowText Lib "user32" Alias "GetWindowTextA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal lpString As String, ByVal cch As Long) As Long
    Public Declare Function GetParent Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long) As Long
    Public Declare Function SetForegroundWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long) As Long
 
    Public Const GW_HWNDNEXT = 2
    Sub ActivateWindow()
        Dim lngHwnd As Long
 
        lngHwnd = FindWindow(vbNullString, "User Info")
 
        SetForegroundWindow(lngHwnd)
    End Sub
End Module
 
Public Class Form1
 
    Sub Form_Load() Handles MyBase.Load
        ActivateWindow()
        Me.Close()
    End Sub
 
End Class

                                  
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Asked On
2009-09-25 at 14:07:40ID24763127
Tags

visual basic

,

radio button

Topics

Visual Basic Programming

,

VB Script

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
7

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Answers

 

by: purplepomegranitePosted on 2009-09-26 at 05:18:55ID: 25429615

While it can be done in VB, you'd need to use various functions to obtain handles to the window and then the controls.

There is a program that is written to do things like this, called AutoIt: http://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/

 

by: jay-arePosted on 2009-09-28 at 05:27:41ID: 25438695

Nice program!  I tried altering one of their examples but I still don't know the proper code to do things like activate a named window, find its radio button control and select it.  

 

by: purplepomegranitePosted on 2009-09-28 at 05:37:16ID: 25438773

You can use the AutoIt WindowInfo tool to find information required by AutoIt for activating windows and controls.

Once you have the details, you can use commands like the below.

There is a detailed help-file - everything you need should be in there.

; Wait for first setup window (60 is the timeout, in seconds)
WinWait ("Program Setup", "", 60)
; Click Yes (6 is the ID of the control in this instance - found using WindowInfo Tool)
ControlClick("Program Setup","",6)
                                              
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by: jay-arePosted on 2009-09-28 at 06:24:52ID: 25439091

What if I know the name of the instance "Button1" or "Static1"?  Can I use that?
ControlClick("User Info", "Static1")  ??

 

by: jay-arePosted on 2009-09-28 at 07:29:31ID: 25439626

Wow ok I got it working...That was easier than I thought!  Now how to keep the program looping and running...  :)

 

by: jay-arePosted on 2009-09-28 at 07:54:36ID: 25439867

I looped it since it's something that needs to be running all the time.  This eats up CPU power though.  Is there some other way to leave this script running without it killing the cpu?

 

by: jay-arePosted on 2009-09-28 at 10:11:44ID: 25441153

Nevermind, I got it working.  It loops only when the window is active now.

Thanks!!

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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