Simulate input/Keyboard

From Rosetta Code
Revision as of 01:22, 18 September 2009 by rosettacode>Mbishop (Omit Modula-3)
Task
Simulate input/Keyboard
You are encouraged to solve this task according to the task description, using any language you may know.

Send simulated keystrokes to a GUI window. You should specify whether the target may be externally created (i.e., if the keystrokes are going to an application other than the application that is creating them).

AutoHotkey

target may be externally created. <lang AutoHotkey> run, cmd /k WinWait, ahk_class ConsoleWindowClass controlsend, ,hello console, ahk_class ConsoleWindowClass </lang>

Java

Works with: Java version 1.5+

Keystrokes when this function is executed will go to whatever application has focus at the time. Special cases may need to be made for certain symbols, but most of the VK values in KeyEvent map to the ASCII values of characters. <lang java5>public static void type(String str){

  Robot robot = new Robot();
  for(char ch:str.toCharArray()){
     if(Character.isUpperCase(ch)){
        robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);
        robot.keyPress((int)ch);
        robot.keyRelease((int)ch);
        robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);
     }else{
        char upCh = Character.toUpperCase(ch);
        robot.keyPress((int)upCh);
        robot.keyRelease((int)upCh);
     }
  }

}</lang>

Tcl

Library: Tk


This only works with windows created by Tk; it sends a single key "x" to the given window. <lang tcl>set key "x" event generate $target <Key-$key></lang> To send multiple keys, call repeatedly in order. Alphabetic keys can be used directly as events, " " has to be mapped to "<space>". <lang Tcl>package require Tk pack [text .t] focus -force .t foreach c [split "hello world" ""] {

  event generate .t [expr {$c eq " "?"<space>": $c}]

}</lang> Note also that the task on keyboard macros illustrates a very closely related method.