Solved: Remembering and sending keystrokes to a spawned app

Is the example of changing the number of bits per pixcel what your actualy wanting to do, if so would it not be better to load the picture (e.g. with an instance of TBitmap) change its bits/pixel and save it again?

Walter McKie

Lischke

Generally, spawning another application and control it then from within the starter application is very unreliable and therefor only recommendable for old software which doesn't know about COM or at least DDE. I recommend to use automation to control another application if it is necessary or (in the case your true problem is really only to convert a picture color resolution) to use Delphi's features.

Ciao, Mike

runebj

If you still want to record and play back keystrokes you can experiment with the JournalRecordProc and JournalPlaybackProc API calls.

Alternatively you can use something the keybd_event function to send keystrokes directly (you'll need the handle of the window to send them to). If you specify your problem in more detail I'll be happy to give you a code example of how to use keybd_event.

runebj

TheNeil

If you want to send keystrokes to an app, try this lot:

PROCEDURE SendKeys(sText : STRING);
VAR
iCount : INTEGER;
bShift : BOOLEAN;
wVK : WORD;
wScancode : WORD;
ch : CHAR;
byC : BYTE;
byS : BYTE;
CONST
vk_keys : ARRAY[0..9] OF BYTE = (VK_HOME, VK_END, VK_UP, VK_DOWN, VK_LEFT, VK_RIGHT, VK_PRIOR, VK_NEXT, VK_INSERT, VK_DELETE);
vk_shft : ARRAY[0..2] OF BYTE = (VK_SHIFT, VK_CONTROL, VK_MENU);
flags : ARRAY[FALSE..TRUE] OF INTEGER = (KEYEVENTF_KEYUP, 0);
BEGIN
bShift := FALSE;
FOR iCount := 1 TO LENGTH(sText)
DO
BEGIN
ch := sText[iCount];
IF ch >= #250
THEN
BEGIN
byS := ORD(ch) - 250;
bShift := NOT(ODD(byS));
byC := vk_shft[byS SHR 1];
wScancode := MapVirtualKey(byC, 0);
Keybd_Event(byC, wScancode, flags[bShift], 0);
END
ELSE
BEGIN
wVK := 0;
IF ch >= #240
THEN
byC := vk_keys[ORD(ch) - 240]
ELSE
BEGIN
IF ch >= #228
THEN
byC := ORD(ch) - 116
ELSE
BEGIN
IF ch < #32
THEN
byC := ORD(ch)
ELSE
BEGIN
wVK := VkKeyScan(ch);
byC := LoByte(wVK);
END;
END;
END;

wScancode := MapVirtualKey(byC, 0);
IF NOT(bShift) AND (Hi(wVK) > 0)
THEN
Keybd_Event(VK_SHIFT, $2A, 0, 0);
Keybd_Event(byC, wScancode, 0, 0);
Keybd_Event(byC, wScancode, KEYEVENTF_KEYUP, 0);
IF NOT(bShift) AND (Hi(wVK) > 0)
THEN
Keybd_Event(VK_SHIFT, $2A, KEYEVENTF_KEYUP, 0);
END;
Application.ProcessMessages;
END;
END;

Just make sure that Word (or whatever) is the focused window and you'll have no problem! (Use char-codes to send system keys such as tab, enter, arrow keys etc.).

To actually get your app running, use ShellExecute or whatever. e.g.

ShellExecute(Form1.Handle, 'open', 'Notepad.exe', '', '', SW_SHOWNORMAL);

This should get notepad up and running (maybe) and make it the application in focus, so you can send your keystrokes directly to it

The Neil

inthe

The TJPEGImage (on delphi cd)component is very good at color reducing a full color image down to 256 colors.
see the example below and instead of deleting the tempfile delete the opendialog filename ,and you can always assign the new jpg image back to a bitmap if wanted..

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
JP : TJPEGImage;
IM : TImage;
TempFileName : string;
begin
{Pop up a Open Dialog}
OpenDialog1.Options := [ofNoChangeDir, ofFileMustExist];
OpenDialog1.Filter := 'Bitmap Files (*.bmp)|*.bmp';
if OpenDialog1.Execute then begin
{Create a temporary TImage}
IM := TImage.Create(nil);
{Load the bitmap file}
IM.Picture.LoadFromFile(OpenDialog1.FileName);
{Create a temporary TJPEGImage}
JP := TJPEGImage.Create;
{Priorty on quality}
JP.Performance := jpBestQuality;
{Assign the bitmap to the JPEG}
JP.Assign(IM.Picture.Graphic);
{Free the temp image}
IM.Free;
{Make a temp file name with the extension of .jpg}
TempFileName := 'test.jpg';
{Save the JPEG to a temp file}
JP.SaveToFile(TempFileName);
{Free the JPEG}
JP.Free;
{Load the temp file to an image on the form}
Image1.Picture.LoadFromFile(TempFileName);
{Delete the temp file}
DeleteFile(TempFileName);
end;
end;

or see here:
http://www.efg2.com/lab/Graphics/Colors/CombinePf4bit.htm

or if want to use the keystroke stuff instead i suggest looking at:

http://community.borland.com/article/0,1410,10323,00.html

Regards Barry