Using mouse programatically

Question

Is it possible to use the mouse programmatically.

I have an app that uses Process.Start to open a webpage.

I would like to programmatically Left Click the mouse and choose "Select All" form the popup menu.

then programmatically Left Click the mouse and choose "Copy"

Can anyone help

Answer 1

I want to programmatically copy the contents of the webpage. At present i start a Process.Start("firefox.exe", "https://www.thelott.com/powerball/results")

You can get the JSON response and parse it

Test with Newtonsoft.Json :

I get

Value: ProductId=Powerball

Value: DrawNumber=1397

Value: DrawDate=23/02/2023 00:00:00

etc...

Test code :

           Try
                Dim webRequest As Net.HttpWebRequest = CType(Net.HttpWebRequest.Create("https://data.api.thelott.com/sales/vmax/web/data/lotto/latestresults"), Net.HttpWebRequest)
                If webRequest IsNot Nothing Then
                    webRequest.Method = "POST"
                    webRequest.Headers.Add("Accept-Encoding", "gzip, deflate, br")
                    webRequest.Headers.Add("Accept-Language", "fr,fr-FR;q=0.8,en-US;q=0.5,en;q=0.3")
                    Dim encoder As ASCIIEncoding = New ASCIIEncoding()
                    Dim data = encoder.GetBytes("{""CompanyId"":""NTLotteries"",""MaxDrawCountPerProduct"":1,""OptionalProductFilter"":[""Powerball""]}")
                    webRequest.ContentType = "application/json"
                    webRequest.ContentLength = data.Length
                    webRequest.Expect = "application/json"
                    webRequest.AutomaticDecompression = DecompressionMethods.GZip Or DecompressionMethods.Deflate
                    webRequest.GetRequestStream().Write(data, 0, data.Length)
                    Using s As Stream = webRequest.GetResponse().GetResponseStream()
                        Using sr As StreamReader = New StreamReader(s)
                            Dim httpWebResponse = sr.ReadToEnd()
                            Console.WriteLine(String.Format("Response: {0} {1}", Environment.NewLine, httpWebResponse))
                            Dim respJson = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(httpWebResponse)
                            Dim firstResult = DirectCast(DirectCast(DirectCast(respJson, Newtonsoft.Json.Linq.JContainer).First,
                            Newtonsoft.Json.Linq.JContainer).First, Newtonsoft.Json.Linq.JContainer).First
                            For Each result In firstResult
                                Dim sName = DirectCast(result, Newtonsoft.Json.Linq.JProperty).Name
                                Dim sValue = DirectCast(result, Newtonsoft.Json.Linq.JProperty).Value
                                Console.WriteLine(String.Format("Value: {0}={1}", sName, sValue))
                            Next
                        End Using
                    End Using
                End If
            Catch ex As Exception
                Console.WriteLine("Error : {0} - {1}", ex.Message, String.Format("0x{0:X}", ex.HResult))
            End Try

Answer 2

Its actually very simple to do with keyboard mouse simulation libraries in python. There is a python library called pyautogui which can be used to simulate all kinds of keyboard and mouse inputs.
Refer https://pyautogui.readthedocs.io/en/latest/mouse.html#mouse-clicks for how to implement it.
You can interface it very easily it whatever you are working with.
Other popular programming languages also provide similar libraries, thought it may not be as simple as doing it with python.
Hope this helped.

Answer 3

Hi

This code can locate the Mouse Pointer to a particular place on screen and perform a Left Click (by a mouse button down followed by a mouse button up). In this case, I directed the pointer to the location of the Break All tiny icon in the VB edit window and performed a Click, this terminated the application - just as it would with a manual mouse left click.

Try this code and see if you can adapt it for your use - how you get screen positions is nigh on impossible without getting the particular item (Select All) screen location and that would vary according to page zoom and other considerations.

Anyway, here it is: (I see Castorix is present - he is the one to do this kind of thing :) )

Option Strict On
Option Explicit On
Public Class Form1

  Const MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTDOWN As UInteger = &H2
  Const MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTUP As UInteger = &H4

  Declare Sub mouse_event Lib "user32" Alias "mouse_event" (dwFlags As UInteger, dx As UInteger, dy As UInteger, dwData As UInteger, dwExtraInfo As Integer)

  Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
    Dim mp As Point = New Point(548, 204)
    Cursor.Position = mp
    mouse_event(MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTDOWN, 0, 0, 0, 0)
    mouse_event(MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTUP, 0, 0, 0, 0)
  End Sub
End Class

'<Flags()> Public Enum MouseEventFlags As UInteger
'  MOUSEEVENTF_ABSOLUTE = &H8000
'  MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTDOWN = &H2
'  MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTUP = &H4
'  MOUSEEVENTF_MIDDLEDOWN = &H20
'  MOUSEEVENTF_MIDDLEUP = &H40
'  MOUSEEVENTF_MOVE = &H1
'  MOUSEEVENTF_RIGHTDOWN = &H8
'  MOUSEEVENTF_RIGHTUP = &H10
'  MOUSEEVENTF_XDOWN = &H80
'  MOUSEEVENTF_XUP = &H100
'  MOUSEEVENTF_WHEEL = &H800
'  MOUSEEVENTF_HWHEEL = &H1000
'End Enum

Answer 4

That got rid of a lot of errors but there is still one remaining:

1>C:\Users\user\source\repos\PowerBall\PowerBall\frmDB.vb(59,53): error BC30451: 'DecompressionMethods' is not declared. It may be inaccessible due to its protection level.

1>C:\Users\user\source\repos\PowerBall\PowerBall\frmDB.vb(59,82): error BC30451: 'DecompressionMethods' is not declared. It may be inaccessible due to its protection level.

Could that have anything to do with the Version of NewtonSoft.Json?