How to programmatically press a key exactly the same as if it were pressed on a keyboard?

Question

Does anyone know how to programmatically press a key exactly the same as if it were pressed on a keyboard? PostMessage fails, SendInput fails, keybd_event fails, SendMessage fails and I even tried the unusual way of mimicing a key press using the Vcl.Touch.Keyboard. I even wrote a quick vb script file calling sendkeys which also failed. I have been have having trouble trying doing this on a program called Sellerdeck http://www.sellerdeck.com/

I have tried all of the following, they all work with notepad but fail on this program. The window is successfully brought to the forground by

procedure bringToForegroung;
Var
findhandle1 : cardinal;
begin
findhandle1 := FindWindow(NIL, 'Business Plus - Test site: Online Catalogue');
ShowWindow(findhandle1,SW_SHOW);
SetForegroundWindow(findhandle1);
end;

1.

procedure SendF10;
Var
findhandle1 : cardinal;
begin
findhandle1 := FindWindow(NIL, 'Business Plus - Test site: Online Catalogue');
ShowWindow(findhandle1,SW_SHOW);
SetForegroundWindow(findhandle1);
PostMessage(findhandle1, WM_KEYDOWN, VK_F10, 0);
PostMessage(findhandle1, WM_KEYUP, VK_F10, 0);
end;

2.

 procedure SendAltF;
var
  KeyInputs: array of TInput;
  //--------------------------------------------
  procedure KeybdInput(VKey: Byte; Flags: DWORD);
  begin
    SetLength(KeyInputs, Length(KeyInputs)+1);
    KeyInputs[high(KeyInputs)].Itype := INPUT_KEYBOARD;
    with  KeyInputs[high(KeyInputs)].ki do
    begin
      wVk := VKey;
      wScan := MapVirtualKey(wVk, 0);
      dwFlags := Flags;
    end;
  end;
begin
  KeybdInput(VK_MENU, 0);                 // Alt
  KeybdInput(Ord('F'), 0);
  KeybdInput(Ord('F'), KEYEVENTF_KEYUP);
  KeybdInput(VK_MENU, KEYEVENTF_KEYUP);   // Alt
  SendInput(Length(KeyInputs), KeyInputs[0], SizeOf(KeyInputs[0]));
end;

3.

procedure SendKey2(Wnd,VK : Cardinal; Ctrl,Alt,Shift : Boolean);
var
  MC,MA,MS : Boolean;
begin
  // Try to bring target window to foreground
  ShowWindow(Wnd,SW_SHOW);
  SetForegroundWindow(Wnd);

  // Get current state of modifier keys
  MC:=Hi(GetAsyncKeyState(VK_CONTROL))>127;
  MA:=Hi(GetAsyncKeyState(VK_MENU))>127;
  MS:=Hi(GetAsyncKeyState(VK_SHIFT))>127;

  // Press modifier keys if necessary (unless already pressed by real user)
  if Ctrl<>MC then keybd_event(VK_CONTROL,0,Byte(MC)*KEYEVENTF_KEYUP,0);
  if Alt<>MA then keybd_event(VK_MENU,0,Byte(MA)*KEYEVENTF_KEYUP,0);
  if Shift<>MS then keybd_event(VK_SHIFT,0,Byte(MS)*KEYEVENTF_KEYUP,0);

  // Press key
  keybd_event(VK,0,0,0);
  keybd_event(VK,0,KEYEVENTF_KEYUP,0);

  // Release modifier keys if necessary
  if Ctrl<>MC then keybd_event(VK_CONTROL,0,Byte(Ctrl)*KEYEVENTF_KEYUP,0);
  if Alt<>MA then keybd_event(VK_MENU,0,Byte(Alt)*KEYEVENTF_KEYUP,0);
  if Shift<>MS then keybd_event(VK_SHIFT,0,Byte(Shift)*KEYEVENTF_KEYUP,0);
end;

4.

procedure SendF10v2;
Var
findhandle1 : cardinal;
begin
findhandle1 := FindWindow(NIL, 'Business Plus - Test site: Online Catalogue');
ShowWindow(findhandle1,SW_SHOW);
SetForegroundWindow(findhandle1);
SendMessage(findhandle1, WM_KEYDOWN, VK_F10, 0);
SendMessage(findhandle1, WM_KEYUP, VK_F10, 0);
end;

5.

uses
  Vcl.Touch.Keyboard, Vcl.Touch.KeyboardTypes;
type
    procedure FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
protected        {i.e. dont make form active}
    procedure CreateParams(var Params: TCreateParams); override; {i.e. dont make keyboard form active}


procedure TForm1.CreateParams(var Params: TCreateParams);
 begin
  inherited CreateParams(Params);
  with Params do
  begin
    ExStyle   := ExStyle or WS_EX_NOACTIVATE;
    WndParent := GetDesktopwindow;
  end;
end;

procedure TForm1.SpeedButton1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
  KeyData: TKeyData;
begin
KeyData := VKey(VK_F10, -1);
SendKey(KeyData, ksDown);
SendKey(KeyData, ksUp);
end;

6. (VBS)

Option Explicit
Dim objShell
Set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
objShell.Run """C:\Program Files (x86)\SellerDeck 2013\Catalog.exe"" /s ""Test site"" /n Administrator /w Administrator", 0, True
Wscript.Sleep 10000
objShell.SendKeys "%F"
Wscript.Sleep 1000
objShell.SendKeys "%F"
Wscript.Sleep 1000
objShell.SendKeys "%F"
Wscript.Sleep 1000
objShell.SendKeys "%F"
Wscript.Sleep 1000
objShell.SendKeys "%F"
Wscript.Sleep 1000
objShell.SendKeys "%F"
WScript.Quit 

As I said all, of these work in notepad, otherwise I would think it was my PC that was the problem. I am trying to automate some basic tasks on this Sellerdeck program. Is there anyway to exactly mimic a key press? I hope it is just that I am missing something really basic.

Answer 1

My guess is that you are sending the commands to the wrong Window handle. Perhaps the main application window, returned by FindWindow(), is not the one handle keystokes.

Try to use a debug tool, like WinSight (ws32.exe - which was shipped in older versions of Delphi), to guess the right handle...

Answer 2

The following code works fine for me:

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
  keybd_event(VK_MENU, $b8, 0, 0);
  keybd_event(VK_F4, $8f, 0, 0);
  keybd_event(VK_F4, $8f, KEYEVENTF_KEYUP, 0);
  keybd_event(VK_MENU, $b8, KEYEVENTF_KEYUP, 0);
end;

The required function is the following:

void keybd_event(BYTE bVirtualKey, BYTE bScanCode, DWORD dwFlags, DWORD dwExtraInfo);

This syntax must be used:

• bVirtualKey: Virtual Keycode of keys. E.g., VK_RETURN, VK_TAB…
• bScanCode: Scan Code value of keys. E.g., 0xb8 for “Left Alt” key.
• dwFlags: Flag that is set for key state. E.g., KEYEVENTF_KEYUP.
• dwExtraInfo: 32-bit extra information about keystroke.

The following link summarizes all information on the function together in detail: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/7305/Keyboard-Events-Simulation-using-keybd-event-funct