Keyboard Commands

[shadowayex]

Is there a way to make a program launch a command that corresponds to a keyboard command?

For example, can I make a program launch the arrow key commands or the ctrl/alt keys? Maybe even mouse clicks?

[firedraco]

Huh? What exactly do you mean by "Launch the arrow key commands"?? The arrows keys don't launch programs or anything...

[chrisname]

I think he means he wants to receive keyboard/mouse events.

If you want to catch mouse clicks you can use WM_LBUTTONDOWN and WM_MBUTTONDOWN or WM_RBUTTONDOWN for the left mouse button, middle mouse button and right mouse buttons respectively.

You can use WM_KEYDOWN - then use a switch statement like this:

switch (message) /*this is the message you received after receiving a WM_KEYDOWN*/ {

case "VK_CONTROL": // (I'm not 100% if this is the actual keyname -- you can also use:)
//code
break;

case 'A': // This is not case sensitive.
// code
break;

}

[shadowayex]

Not exactly what I meant, but that info will help to. Thanks.

What I mean is instead of pressing the up arrow to do something, have the program send the same command to the computer that the up arrow would normally. Basically like I am pressing a button, but I'm really not, the program is doing it. Is that possible? I don't think it is, but someone told me they did it before, and I was curious as to how.

Edit: To put it in clearer language (I hope) I want to simulate keyboard and mouse events. These events have to be sent to a different window though.

[z05DSL3A]

Go to MSDN Library and search for SendInput Function.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/default.aspx

edit:
If it is what you are looking for there are a few examples of using it here (but otherwise it is not very well documented):
http://www.codeguru.com/forum/showthread.php?t=377394

[chrisname]

Oh, that it similar to what I am trying to do - have the program 'press' the key.

You can easily send mouse events. I wrote this for a program I am currently writing (with no current purpose); it clicks random places. I'm not sure if the mouse click works as I have not tested it, but it should do:

void clickloop() { // This function generates random x, y coords for the mouse to move to and click on that co-ordinate.
int x, y;
    do {
        srand((unsigned)time(0)); 
        int random_integer; 
        int lowest=230, highest=730; 
        int range=(highest-lowest)+1; 
        x=lowest+int(range*rand()/(RAND_MAX + 1.0));			// Generate the x-coord...
        y=lowest+int(range*rand()/(RAND_MAX + 1.0));			// ... and the y-coord.
        SetCursorPos(x, y);                                                 // Move to the location demonstrated
        // Send a mouse click event. As this Window does not exist the active window will be affected instead. Hopefully.
        mouse_event(MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTDOWN|MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTUP, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL);   
    } while (true);
}

[z05DSL3A]

The 'mouse_event()' function has been superseded by 'SendInput()'

srand((unsigned)time(0)); should not be called more than once, so should be outside of your do...while loop.

[chrisname]

SendInput()? I tried using that for text but couldn't figure it out.

Anyway this is not my thread. Apologies for hijacking it. Grey Wolf has given you the correct info.