SendKeys SendMessage Help

ryan

Hi all, i've done a lot of research out there and cannot find anything like the problem i got atm.

I'm working with C#.

Let me try to explain the situation:
My application is running minimized(trayicon) and controling a Mobily Computer(MC75) Scanner, so i get a barcode data read by the user.
In the same Mobily Computer(MC75) there's a "WM6 Remote Desktop" running an application at a remote computer. This application is not mine and I have no access to it's code.
So after all i need to get the data read by the scanner and send it to the active field at "WM6 Remote Desktop".

The problem:
When i get the scanned data, i'm able to generate some SendKeys events and it works very nice in a local application(let's say Word Mobile).
However when the same event is used at the application running at "WM6 Remote Desktop" SendKeys fails. Exemple of the failure: scanned data have 22 characters, only 20 or 21 of them are sent.

Possible solutions that i found, and I was unable to make work properly:
Use SendMessage do deliver the data. (I was stuck getting the handler to the "WM6 Remote Desktop" window).
Use something with clipboard (cut and paste). (Works nice for local applications, but fails at pasting the code at the application running at "WM6 Remote Desktop").

Maybe my explanation was a little confusing as my english is not that good, but i can try to explain it better if you guys need.
Well guess i've said all my problem, any help, tip, or code sample is appreciated.

Ryan Molina

3 Replies

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Sam Hobbs17y ago
Use the WM_SETTEXT Message instead.
ryan exequiel17y ago
My goal is to fill a textbox in the application running at the "WM6 Remote Desktop" with information I was getting with the Mobile Computer Scanner, so I was sending keys to send the data read by the scanner. I'm already using a small delay between the sendkeys, i got less of the problem, but it's still happening.

I was trying to use sendmessage method to send the keys, but was stucks with WM_COPYDATA or something like that.

Thanks for your help.
Sam Hobbs17y ago
The important problem trying to understand you is that you say "handler" but I think you mean "handle". A handler is something that reacts to an event and a handle is what Windows uses to identify windows. Can you confirm that when you said "I was stuck getting the handler" you meant handle, not handler?

Sending and receiving keys is not as easy as most people would think, as you are discovering. My advice is to find a different solution if possible. If you are sending keys to simulate the clicking of a button or a menu item, then there are much easier ways to do it. The main reason another way is likely to be easier is reliability; sending keys is unreliable. So what are you doing when you send keys?

One thing you can try is to put a small delay between sending each character.