How to get text (or automate) from an external control in a Java application (AWT)?

Question

There is an application which is built in the SunAWTFrame class and, as you can guess, this is a strange world for the Windows API.

So I wonder, what should I do/use to get text from controls in a GUI built with this or automate them?

Is there some sort of API or library that can accomplish this and is suitable for work inside pure C++ or similiar language (not only Java)?

Answer 1

Your problem is likely due to the Java GUI being a Swing GUI program (note that the MS Windows class for these GUI's -- at least I know for JFrames -- is "SunAWTFrame"), and since Swing uses light-weight components, not MS Windows native components, you won't easily be able to extract window information from them. I don't know of any easy way around this without the Java source code.

Edit 1
After a little Googling some I have found new information:

• Have you looked into using perhaps Java Monkey or Java Ferret?
• Or perhaps best of all, Java Access Bridge which "is a technology that exposes the Java Accessibility API in a Microsoft Windows DLL, enabling Java applications and applets that implement the Java Accessibility API to be visible to assistive technologies on Microsoft Windows systems"