How to simulate button click ?

Question

I have some window application that using win32 ( MFC ).
On this window i have one button and the only thing that i know if the button text.
I want to simulate button click - and i don't know how to do it.

Answer 1

Hi,

I you don't have handle to your windows application, you can use :

DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern bool SetForegroundWindow(IntPtr hWnd);

and use the method sendKey like this :

    Process[] processes = Process.GetProcessesByName("notepad");
    foreach (Process p in processes) {
        IntPtr pFoundWindow = p.MainWindowHandle;
        SetForegroundWindow(pFoundWindow);
        SendKeys.Send("{ENTER}");
    }

In my example i suppose the button have focus else sendkey TAB

It's just an idea.

Hope this helps,

Mathieu

---

Mathieu Francesch Sharplog Engineering

Answer 2

But let say that i dont know the process that pop up this window -

The only information that i hold is window title ( i know how to find the main ( parent ) window handle ) - and now i need to get hanle to the button that exist on the main window ( as i said ... i know the button text ).

Now, beside find this button handle ( that i dont know how to do it ) i need also send message ( BM_CLICK ) to this window.

Answer 3

Hi,

Try using this article : http://www.codeguru.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-148315.html

or this : http://www.vbforums.com/archive/index.php/t-364358.html

Hope this helps,

Mathieu

---

Mathieu Francesch Sharplog Engineering

Answer 4

Hello Ronili,

If we know the parent handle, we can use FindWindowEx API to get the children window handle. I quote codes sample from the pinvoke site,
http://www.pinvoke.net/default.aspx/user32.findwindowex
---------------------------------------------------------
[DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
public static extern IntPtr FindWindowEx(IntPtr parentHandle, IntPtr childAfter, string className,  IntPtr windowTitle);

//Find that button using the following codes,
IntPtr buttonHandle = FindWindowEx(parentHandle, new IntPtr(0), "Button", "button text");
---------------------------------------------------------
(Typically, a button's class name is "Button". Of course, we can get the exact class name from the Spy++ tool)

To simulate a click, we can call SendMessage API
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms644950(VS.85).aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb775985(VS.85).aspx
http://www.pinvoke.net/default.aspx/user32.SendMessage
http://www.pinvoke.net/default.aspx/Constants/BM_CLICK.html
------------------------------------------------------
[DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
static extern IntPtr SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, UInt32 Msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);

//Calling codes
const int BM_CLICK = 0x00F5;
SendMessage(buttonHandle, BM_CLICK, new IntPtr(0), new IntPtr(0));
------------------------------------------------------
(Note the remark section in BM_CLICK MSDN documentation,
"If the button is in a dialog box and the dialog box is not active, the BM_CLICK message might fail. To ensure success in this situation, call the SetActiveWindow function to activate the dialog box before sending the BM_CLICK message to the button.")


Best regards,
Ji Zhou
MSDN Subscriber Support in Forum

---

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.