Setting text of an edit control in another window

Question

I'm trying to programatically change the text of an edit control in a 'Save As' Dialog. The first part was easy - getting the "Save As" window's handle. But finding the edit control's? Not so easy.

Anyway, this is the code I've go to so far. Can someone tell me where I'm going wrong?

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern Int32 SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, int Msg, IntPtr wParam, String lParam);

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern IntPtr FindWindow(string lpClassName, string lpWindowName);

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern IntPtr FindWindowEx(IntPtr hwndParent, IntPtr hwndChildAfter, string lpszClass, string lpszWindow);

IntPtr dialog = FindWindow(null, "Save As");
if (dialog.ToInt32() != 0)
{
    IntPtr edit = FindWindowEx(dialog, IntPtr.Zero, "Edit", "");
    SendMessage(edit, 0x000C /* WM_SETTEXT */, IntPtr.Zero, "...");
}

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

I ended up using the functionality provided by the Autoit DLL, for it's simplicity and efficiency.

But an alternative solution (and native C#) is Md. Rashim Uddin's.

Answer 2

Just use the automation interface. That's what it's for. And it's a one-liner. (A long line, but still one line.)

using System.Windows.Automation;

    (AutomationElement.RootElement
        .FindFirst(TreeScope.Descendants,
                   new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.NameProperty, "Save As"))
        .FindFirst(TreeScope.Descendants,
                   new AndCondition(
                       new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.NameProperty,
                                             "File name:"),
                       new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ControlTypeProperty,
                                             ControlType.Edit)))
        .GetCurrentPattern(ValuePattern.Pattern) as ValuePattern).SetValue("Booga");

This says "Starting at the root, find the first descendant whose name is "Save As", then find the first descendant whose name is "File name:" and which is an edit control, then set the value to "Booga".

Answer 3

Yes.it's really a complicated one. It took for me 1 week to make it workable when i was assigned to work with that. Any way I have given you the code portion below. With that code you are able set the text to the Edit control of the Save/Open Dialog. Not restricted to only these task, with that you might do anything whatever you want of that window,

Have a look pls.

  public delegate int CallbackToFindChildWindow(int hWnd, int lParam);


    private void AccessEditControlOfDialog()
    {
        IntPtr winHandle = IntPtr.Zero;
        winHandle = GetActiveWindow();

        const int NumberOfChars = 256;
        string dialogCaption = string.Empty;
        StringBuilder buff = new StringBuilder(NumberOfChars);

        ////Getting the caption of window..eg.  Open/Save/Save as
        if (GetWindowText((int)winHandle, buff, NumberOfChars) > 0)
        {
            dialogCaption = buff.ToString();
        }

        ////Getting the ClassName of the Dialog Window handle
        StringBuilder winClassName = new StringBuilder();
        int numChars = GetClassName((IntPtr)winHandle, winClassName, winClassName.Capacity);

        int targetControlWinHandle;

        CallbackToFindChildWindow myCallBack = new CallbackToFindChildWindow(this.EnumChildGetValue);

        ////Find the window handle by using its caption
        targetControlWinHandle = FindWindow(null, dialogCaption);

        if (targetControlWinHandle == 0)
        {
            Logger.Error("No handle value is found in the Common Doalog");
        }
        else
        {
            EnumChildWindows(targetControlWinHandle, myCallBack, 0);
        }

    }

    private int EnumChildGetValue(int handleWnd, int param)
    {
        StringBuilder controlWinClassName = new StringBuilder();

        ////Getting the ClassName of the Control Window handle
        int numChars = GetClassName((IntPtr)handleWnd, controlWinClassName, controlWinClassName.Capacity);

        if (controlWinClassName != null)
        {
            string text = "hi";

            ////For Normal Common Dialog box, the class name of Edit box is "Edit" which is for office 2007 "RichEdit20W"
            if ((!string.Equals(controlWinClassName.ToString().Trim(), ""))
                && (controlWinClassName.ToString().Equals("Edit") || controlWinClassName.ToString().Equals("RichEdit20W")))
            {
                if (controlWinClassName.ToString().Equals("Edit"))
                {

                    //// Set Text to the Edit box                  
                    SendMessage(handleWnd, WM_SETTEXT, text.Length, text);
                }
                else if (controlWinClassName.ToString().ToLower().Equals("richedit20w"))
                {
                    SendMessage(handleWnd, WM_SETTEXT, 1, "");

                    ////Set the path to the RichEdit20W Which is specially for office 2007 and winxp                                                    
                    this.SetRichEditText((IntPtr)handleWnd, text);
                }
            }
        }
    }



    private void SetRichEditText(IntPtr handleWnd, string text)
    {
        try
        {
            const uint WM_USER = 0x0400;

            SETTEXTEX setextex = new SETTEXTEX();
            setextex.codepage = 1200;
            setextex.flags = RTBW_FLAGS.RTBW_SELECTION;
            IntPtr ptr = System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.AllocCoTaskMem(System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.SizeOf(setextex.GetType()));
            System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.StructureToPtr(setextex, ptr, true);
            IntPtr stringPtr = System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.StringToBSTR(text);
            int result = SendMessage((int)handleWnd, (int)WM_USER + 97, ptr.ToInt32(), text);
            System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.FreeCoTaskMem(ptr);
            System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.FreeBSTR(stringPtr);
        }
        catch (Exception oEx)
        {
            Logger.Exception(oEx, "SetRichEditText");
            throw;
        }
    }

    [DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true, CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
    public static extern int GetClassName(IntPtr hWnd, StringBuilder lpClassName, int nMaxCount);

    [DllImport("User32.dll")]
    public static extern Int32 SendMessage(int hWnd, int Msg, int wParam, string lParam);

    [DllImport("User32.dll")]
    public static extern Int32 SendMessage(int hWnd, int Msg, int wParam, string lParam);

    [DllImport("User32.dll")]
    public static extern Int32 FindWindow(String lpClassName, String lpWindowName);

    [DllImport("User32.dll")]
    public static extern Boolean EnumChildWindows(int hWndParent, Delegate lpEnumFunc, int lParam);

    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    public static extern IntPtr GetActiveWindow();

    [DllImport("User32.dll")]
    public static extern Int32 GetWindowText(int hWnd, StringBuilder s, int nMaxCount);

    [DllImport("User32.dll")]
    public static extern Int32 SendMessage(int hWnd, int Msg, int wParam, string lParam);

    [DllImport("User32.dll")]
    public static extern Int32 SendMessage(int hWnd, int Msg, int wParam, string lParam);

    public const Int32 WM_SETTEXT = 0x000C;

    [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
    public struct SETTEXTEX
    {
        public ABC.FileSystemBrowser.CustomView.CommonEnum.RTBW_FLAGS flags;
        public long codepage;
    }
    public enum RTBW_FLAGS
    {
        RTBW_DEFAULT = 0,
        RTBW_KEEPUNDO = 1,
        RTBW_SELECTION = 2
    }

Answer 4

If this is a Save dialog you created yourself from C#, you can just use the API to set certain parts of the save file dialog (e.g. Title, valid extensions), does this do what you need?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.savefiledialog.aspx