CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#c++windowswinformswinapi
Zee99
Zee99

Reputation: 1234

Retrieve all the controls of any window with their types and value

My application is something like the Spy++ application: i want to be able to automatically retreive all the different controls of the active window (any application) and their children, and for each control i want to know the type, the name, and the value (caption or text).

I am using a C# windows app.

what is the solution to iterate all the controls of the foreground window and their children (and so on) and retrieve name, type and value?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 8063

Answers (3)

Alex K.
Alex K.

Reputation: 175748

To enumerate top level windows use EnumWindows(), to get their child windows use EnumChildWindows().

Using theHWNDs from the enumeration, a top level window with a title bars value can be read via GetWindowText(), for other windows you can use the WM_GETTEXT message, or depending on exactly what you want, a message specific to the windows class such as LB_GETTEXT for a listbox.

RealGetWindowClass() will give you the windows class.

Window API reference; http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff468919%28v=VS.85%29.aspx

Upvotes: 5

Trevor Balcom
Trevor Balcom

Reputation: 3888

There are a number of Win32 API functions you can use to write your own Spy++ program. This link explains how to write a Spy++ clone in Visual Basic. I know, you probably don't use Visual Basic, but this document does show you how to duplicate Spy++ using the Win32 API. It should not require much effort to translate this to C#.

Upvotes: 0

Iain Ward
Iain Ward

Reputation: 9936

Yes you will have to use the windows API if its a window thats not part of your current application. This will get you the currently active window:

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Text;

public class MainClass

    // Declare external functions.
    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    private static extern IntPtr GetForegroundWindow();

    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    private static extern int GetWindowText(IntPtr hWnd, StringBuilder text, int count);

    public static void Main() {
        int chars = 256;
        StringBuilder buff = new StringBuilder(chars);

        // Obtain the handle of the active window.
        IntPtr handle = GetForegroundWindow();

        // Update the controls.
        if (GetWindowText(handle, buff, chars) > 0)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(buff.ToString());
            Console.WriteLine(handle.ToString());
        }
    }
}

It uses the GetWindowText() function to find the name of the window, so I assume it shouldn't be a problem to find out other properties of the windows such as its controls etc.

Upvotes: -1

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