asked on

Retrieve text of focused control in another application, namely IE

I want to write a function to retrieve the text of the active (focused) control, even if the control belongs to another application.

The function below does that in most cases. However, it doesn't work if Internet Explorer is the foreground application and the user is in, for example, a TEXTAREA field. (Like the one that I am typing in right now.) Does that control not respond to the WM_GetText message or do you think GetFocus() is returning the wrong handle? In either case, how would I go about reading the text from this type of control within IE?

function GetActiveText: String;
const
MaxTextLen = 5000;
var
FW, FC : HWND;
ThID : DWORD;
Buf : array[0..MaxTextLen] of Char;
begin
FW := 0;
FC := 0;
FW := GetForegroundWindow;
ThID := GetWindowThreadProcessId(FW,0);
AttachThreadInput(GetCurrentThreadId(),ThID,TRUE);
try
FC := GetFocus();
finally
AttachThreadInput(GetCurrentThreadId(),ThID,FALSE);
end;
SendMessage(FC,WM_GETTEXT,MaxTextLen,Integer(@Buf));
Result := Buf;
end;

gmayo

Not sure specifically why your code does not work. However, I use the following to get text from another app's edit boxes:

function GetWindowTextEx(win : HWND) : string;
var
      s : array [1..513] of char;
      i : integer;
      res : DWORD;
begin
      Result := '';
      SendMessageTimeout(win, WM_GETTEXT, 512, Integer(@s[1]), 0, 1000, res);
      i := 1;
      while (i < 513) and (s[i] <> #0) do begin
            Result := Result + s[i];
            Inc(i);
      end;
end;

It could be improved but it works.

Geoff M.

roknjohn

ASKER

geoff,

can you get your method to read text from an IE TextArea control? For example, the control that I am typing this message into?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Russell Libby

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gmayo

You're right. That's the first time I've come across a program in which that didn't work. It does work in the address bar though.

Geoff M.

roknjohn

ASKER

I found this:

Peeking into Password Edit Controls & Internet Explorer - Super Password Spy++
http://www.developer.com/net/cplus/article.php/1561741

It seems to focus on password fields, but I think I can extract the information I need from this. Now, if I can only find the time. :-)

Russell Libby

Yes, saw that one two....
But like i said, you need to delve into the document interface in order to get this information. This will work fine if you only intend on dealing with IE though... (won't work with anything else ;-)

Regards,
Russell

roknjohn

ASKER

Hmm, looks more complicated than its worth right now.

My plan was to put together a freeware spell checker that would work across applications. But, I think I'll just google for "Spell Checker" instead of "IHTMLDocument2 delphi"...lol

Every heard of "As-U-Type"?
http://www.asutype.com

roknjohn

ASKER

I think I found a real gem! The trail version works cool as heck! It works on IE & Outlook, just like I wanted to do. Only $29.95 (US) and I don't have to learn IHTMLDocument2!!

PS. You can disable it for certain apps, like Delphi.

Thanks Russell, your information solved my curousity.