Controlling An External Application?

[bsgoins]

I'm trying to be able to control an external application from the one I'm writing. I can get the window handle of the other app successfully. I tried to enumerate the properties of the other window using EnumProp and PropEnumProc. I guess it successfully enumerates the properties (it prints "hello" for as many properties as it encounters), but I can't do anything with the parameters that go through my Callback function. I tried dereferencing and printing the LPCTSTR that comes through, and it gives an error and shuts down my program, and I have no idea what to do with the data handle (HANDLE object) that comes through. So I'm stuck.

Am I on the right track to being able to programmatically control another application? How can I see or otherwise use the parameters that are coming through my callback function?

[kirants]

What does your PropEnumProc look like ? Please post code.
What are the property names that you are getting ? Instead of printing "hello", it would be useful if you print out lpszString in PropEnumProc.
Last and actually most important. controlling an external application is a very broad term and can mean myriad things. What specifically are you trying to control ?

[bsgoins]

I have a simple callback right now, just to see what's in the window. Once it gets here, it gives me an error saying my program needs to close, so I can't get any names. I tried it with and without the dereference operator.

BOOL CALLBACK PropEnumProc(HWND hwnd, LPCTSTR lpszString, HANDLE hData) {
cout << *lpszString << endl;
return TRUE;
}

And I'm trying to control Sony Ericsson's Wireless Manager.

[kirants]

Per MSDN documentation for SetProp
lpString
[in] Pointer to a null-terminated string or contains an atom that identifies a string. If this parameter is an atom, it must be a global atom created by a previous call to the GlobalAddAtom function. The atom must be placed in the low-order word of lpString; the high-order word must be zero.

So, your code should actually be something like this:

BOOL CALLBACK PropEnumProc( HWND hwnd,
LPCTSTR lpszString,
HANDLE hData
)
{
if(0 == HIWORD(lpszString))
{
TCHAR szAtomName[10];
GetAtomName(LOWORD(lpszString),szAtomName,sizeof(szAtomName)/sizeof(TCHAR));
cout << szAtomName << endl;
}
else
{
cout << lpszString << endl;
}
return TRUE;
}



And I'm trying to control Sony Ericsson's Wireless Manager.

That still doesn't make it any clearer ;) What aspect of the Wireless Manager are you trying to control ?

[bsgoins]

Ok. Thank you. I had read that excerpt, but it didn't make any sense to me until I saw the code you wrote.

By control, I mean things like pressing the buttons in the application window, reading items off of the menu bar at the top, etc. Does that make it any clearer?

[kirants]

In that case, EnumProps isn't really going to be of much help, I guess. EnumProps relies heavily on whether the application that created the window has set those properties. Do you know if the wireless manager application is doing that ? If not, you are out of luck using that approach.

each of those activities you said has to be tackled in a different way. So, it is difficult to generalize how to go about.

BTW, just curious. What do you finally want to achieve ? Are you attempting at some kind of automated testing of this application ?

[bsgoins]

Yeah, I guess you could say that's what I'm trying to do. Thanks for the advice. I wasn't really sure.

Any advice on how to approach the task?