Extracting Data from a listbox in Another Application

Question

Hi  I need to extract data from a third party application's ListBox and store it into a .csv . would like to do something like this article http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/SamTomato/clicking-a-button-in-another-application/ I am new to C# and any sample code would be greatly appreciated . I can have the Listbox id through SPY++ as shown in the above article. Thanks & Regards Sid

Sam Hobbs · Answer

I might not understand the situation. There are probably at least two possible solutions. If you are lucky then Window F has a unique class name. In Spy++ the properties of a window has a Class tab. At the top of the Class tab is a class name. If that class name is unique then you can use that. You can use the FindWindowEx function with the window handle for Window A and the class name. You can use NULL for hwndChildAfter and lpszWindow. If it is not possible to do that then hopefully you can walk the window hierarchy. Look at the GetWindow function . You can use it to do various things to find windows depending on the relationship of the windows. I assume that Window B is the first child of Window A so you get the child of Window A. Then get the first window in the Z-order (GW_HWNDNEXT) and that should be Window C. Then get the child of Window C. If it were me I would add logic that does something to ensure it is working as expected; something such as checking the window titles (either the entire title or a portion of it) (using a WM_GETTEXT message I think) but that depends on your application. Use whatever works for your application to check each window to ensure it is the correct window so if the application changes then your application will fail gracefully. There might be other ways to do it but it depends on your application. You can look at the Windows API functions in case something else will help.

Sam Hobbs · Answer

The link in my previous post for the macros is incorrect but since the post has source code in it I do not want to edit the post. The correct link is List Box Macros .

SIDDARTHA KAVILIPATI · Answer

I will try the C# solution. Many thanks for all the information. It helps.

Sam Hobbs · Answer

So you will want to send a LB_GETCOUNT message ( ListBox_GetCount macro) then for each item send a LB_GETTEXTLEN ( ListBox_GetTextLen ) and LB_GETTEXT ( ListBox_GetText ). You can do the equivalent in C# using SendMessage. I hope my article about clicking a button in another application helps you to figure out how to do that.

Sam Hobbs · Answer

It is easier in C++ if you are more familiar with it since the Windows API is designed to work with C++. See List Box Controls for the documentation of List Box Controls. For C++ there is a set of macros that make it especially easy to send API messages. See List Box for the List Box macros. The following is a C++ console application that gets the items of a ComboBox. I used a ComboBox just because it is easier for me to find one for testing with. It is easy to do the equivalent for List Boxes. int n = ComboBox_GetCount(hWnd); std::wcout _TCHAR Buffer[100]; int length; for (int i=0; i length = ComboBox_GetLBTextLen(hWnd i); if (length ComboBox_GetLBText(hWnd i Buffer); std::wcout } else std::wcout } The stdafx.h file for that is: #pragma once #include targetver.h #include #include #include #include #include #include

SIDDARTHA KAVILIPATI · Answer

So Sam to be brief I am looking for something which can do this for me so that I have List data from the listbox selected //Exporting Data IntPtr hWndListBox = GetDlgItem(handle ListBoxId); int lparam = (ListBoxId data = SendMessage(handle WM_COMMAND lparam hWndListBox);

SIDDARTHA KAVILIPATI · Answer

while (i { i++; //Button Click Event System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(5000); Console.WriteLine({0:X} handle); IntPtr hWndButton = GetDlgItem(handle ButtonId); int wParam = (BN_CLICKED SendMessage(handle WM_COMMAND wParam hWndButton); Console.WriteLine(Message sent); //Exporting Data IntPtr hWndListBox = GetDlgItem(handle ListBoxId); int lparam = (ListBoxId data = SendMessage(handle WM_COMMAND lparam hWndListBox);//and this line AppendCSVFile(data); } I can write code to appendCSV File with extracted data I am looking for a SendMessage Command which can return a string of data from the listbox.

SIDDARTHA KAVILIPATI · Answer

Yes Sam I can use C++

Sam Hobbs · Answer

First let me ask you if you can use C++. I will help you with C# but I wanted to first ask about C++.

SIDDARTHA KAVILIPATI · Answer

OK will do that . Many Thanks Sid

Sam Hobbs · Answer

Looks good except I strongly suggest that you send a LB_GETTEXTLEN before each LB_GETTEXT to ensure that the text is not too long. It seems unnecessary but it is better to be sure.

SIDDARTHA KAVILIPATI · Answer

I have directly replaced hWndListBox = (IntPtr)ListBoxId; I have ListBoxId from SPY++ This works for me to extract data from listbox. Sam thanks for all the information shared. hWndListBox = (IntPtr)ListBoxId; cnt = (int)SendMessage(hWndListBox LB_GETCOUNT IntPtr.Zero null); List listBoxContent = new List (); for (int j = 0; j { StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(256); IntPtr getText = SendMessage(hWndListBox LB_GETTEXT (IntPtr)j sb); listBoxContent.Add(sb.ToString()); } AppendCsvFile(listBoxContent);

Sam Hobbs · Answer

Probably the reason for the different results using GetDlgItem and FindWindowEx is that the class name is used more than once. If you call FindWindowEx again using the first button's handle as hwndChildAfter then you will likely get another button.

Sam Hobbs · Answer

I am sorry that I was not clear. I meant to use FindWindowEx to find Window F then use GetDlgItem to get the ListBox. FindWindowEx however does not work the way I was thinking it does. The reason why is quite technical; it involves the difference between owned windows and child windows. So it will not work to specify a window handle with FindWindowEx which means that you will search all windows in the system for a specified class name. That might work. Use null for hwndParent Window F's class name for lpszClass and null for hwndChildAfter and lpszWindow. If you get a window using that then I suggest making a second call to FindWindowEx using that handle in hwndChildAfter and Window F's class name for lpszClass. If you get a window from the second call then that means there are more than one windows with that class name and that is a probable problem. If you get one and only one window then you can use GetDlgItem to get the ListBox.

SIDDARTHA KAVILIPATI · Answer

For a known handle if I am doing IntPtr hWndButton = GetDlgItem(handle ButtonId); //returns 131740 whereas if I do IntPtr hWndButton = FindWindowEx(handle IntPtr.Zero WindowsForms10.BUTTON.app.0.378734a null); // returns 131700 for the same button using class name search it gives a different result??

SIDDARTHA KAVILIPATI · Answer

If the first solution works it would be great  I checked that my listbox as a unique classname WindowsForms10.LISTBOX.app.0.378734a So I am doing this IntPtr hWndListBox = FindWindowEx(handle IntPtr.Zero WindowsForms10.LISTBOX.app.0.378734anull ); but still my hWndListBox is null. Regards Sid

SIDDARTHA KAVILIPATI · Answer

Hi Sam Can you help me with this I have a window heirarchy has shown below Window 0001027C A Window 0001028E B Window 000102B4 C Window 00170108 D Window 00C00FE E Window 001003A6 F F is my target Listbox I need handle for F and A is the process main window with the below code from your earlier article I get handle for the mainwindow A. foreach (System.Diagnostics.Process p in localAll) { if (p.MainWindowHandle != IntPtr.Zero) { System.Diagnostics.ProcessModule pm = GetModule(p); string filename = get_filename(p.MainModule.FileName); /*if (pm != null && p.MainModule.FileName == fn) handle = p.MainWindowHandle;*/ if (pm != null && filename == fn) { handle = p.MainWindowHandle; } } } IntPtr hWndListBox = GetDlgItem(handle ListBoxId); How to do get handle for my listbox which is in child window. The above code works for the immediate child widgets.

Extracting Data from a listbox in Another Application

Hi ,