win32: simulate a click without simulating mouse movement?

Question

I'm trying to simulate a mouse click on a window. I currently have success doing this as follows (I'm using Python, but it should apply to general win32):

win32api.SetCursorPos((x,y))
win32api.mouse_event(win32con.MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTDOWN,0,0)
win32api.mouse_event(win32con.MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTUP,0,0)

This works fine. However, if the click happens while I'm moving the mouse manually, the cursor position gets thrown off. Is there any way to send a click directly to a given (x,y) coordinate without moving the mouse there? I've tried something like the following with not much luck:

nx = x*65535/win32api.GetSystemMetrics(0)
ny = y*65535/win32api.GetSystemMetrics(1)
win32api.mouse_event(win32con.MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTDOWN | \
                     win32con.MOUSEEVENTF_ABSOLUTE,nx,ny)
win32api.mouse_event(win32con.MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTUP | \
                     win32con.MOUSEEVENTF_ABSOLUTE,nx,ny)

Andrew · Accepted Answer · 2010-09-15 19:23:45Z

11

Try WindowFromPoint() function:

POINT pt;
    pt.x = 30; // This is your click coordinates
    pt.y = 30;

HWND hWnd = WindowFromPoint(pt);
LPARAM lParam = MAKELPARAM(pt.x, pt.y);
PostMessage(hWnd, WM_RBUTTONDOWN, MK_RBUTTON, lParam);
PostMessage(hWnd, WM_RBUTTONUP, MK_RBUTTON, lParam);

answered Sep 15, 2010 at 19:23

Andrew

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5 Comments

Claudiu Over a year ago

The coordinates I have are absolute coordinates, though, not coordinates relative to the window position.. will PostMessage transmit them as absolute ones or as ones relative to the window? I actually could get the hwnd already, but just translating my coords to (x - left, y - top), where I got left and top from GetWindowRect didn't click in the right spot.

Andrew Over a year ago

Ah, really. You need to convert an absolute click position into the relative. Use ScreenToClient(hWnd, lpPoint) before PostMessage

Claudiu Over a year ago

ah ty, i'll try that! is there any diff between postmessage and sendmessage in this case?

Andrew Over a year ago

I think there is no difference between postmessage and sendmessage in this case.

Lai32290 Over a year ago

Hey, where is MAKELPARAM come from?

Claudiu · Accepted Answer · 2010-09-15 19:41:33Z

5

This doesn't answer the question, but it does solve my problem:

win32api.ClipCursor((x-1,y-1,x+1,y+1))
win32api.SetCursorPos((x,y))
win32api.mouse_event(win32con.MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTDOWN| \
                     win32con.MOUSEEVENTF_ABSOLUTE,0,0)
win32api.mouse_event(win32con.MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTUP| \
                     win32con.MOUSEEVENTF_ABSOLUTE,0,0)
win32api.ClipCursor((0,0,0,0))

The result is that any movements I'm making won't interfere with the click. The downside is that my actual movement will be messed up, so I'm still open to suggestions.

answered Sep 15, 2010 at 19:41

Claudiu

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