how to know if key was sent by physical keyboard or by Send() ?

[orbs]

hello all,

i have this scenario:

script1 is doing a task which is very I/O intensive. in order to minimize impact on user workflow, it starts its activity when the user is idle for some time (assuming the user left his desk). when a mouse/keyboard action is detected, script2 assumes the user has returned, therefore pauses until the idle time is reached again. for that, i use the function _Timer_GetIdleTime()

this was working well for long time now.

now, i have another script, script2 which is doing a completely unrelated task. it is running in the background monitoring an application, sometimes using send() to respond to dialogs created by that application.

 

that alone also works very well.

 

now, these two tasks are supposed to be consolidated into one physical host.

you see the problem:

 

if script1 and script2 launch independently, then script1 detects the occasional send() of script2 as a user activity, and pauses without need.

 

now here is the interesting thing:

 

if i make script1 launch script2, then script1 does not detect the send() of script2, and works as expected.

 

although i don't understand why this is, i can accept that as a solution. but performance-wise this is far from ideal. i would be happy if script1 is able by itself to tell if a key was sent by the physical keyboard or by send() of script2 (or any other script, for that matter).

 

another possible approach would be to check the idle time of mouse only (not keyboard), so only if the user moves the mouse then script1 pauses. but i don't know how to do this.

 

consolidating the scripts is not possible, as the scripts run with different credentials.

 

any help is welcome, thanks,

orbs

[JohnOne]

When script 1 starts its business, you might check for mousepos, and check it.

[Gianni]

hi orbs

according to this link, it is possible to discriminate virtual keys from real keys.

http://inputsimulator.codeplex.com/discussions/267233

(look at the bottom of that page)

if you know the C language maybe you can get something from that ....

[orbs]

thanks JohnOne! i switched to using mouse coordinates change to determine user activity, it works exactly as intended.

Pincopanco, unfortunately i'm not that strong on dll and that stuff, and since i have a working solution, i will not investigate further.

[MarkRobbins]

Why not use a flag in the registry? Interfering script maintains the flag, and interfered with script checks it. Just put a wrapper on all your Send() calls that flips the flag.

[Keltset]

I'm running into the same issue here with the mouse movement- I have a script that I have been trying to figure out how to run when the computer is idle but it takes control of the mouse- I was hoping to be able to enter my script back into a "pause" mode when the user comes back and uses the physical keyboard and mouse and not have the scripted keyboard actions work. Unfortunately my testing of the idle timer check shows that the script moving the mouse considers it input and thus never allows it to think the system is idle...

While 1
sleep(1000)
    MouseMove(3,5)
    MouseMove(30,555)
    ConsoleWrite("Idle time| " & _Timer_GetIdleTime() / 1000 & "seconds" & @LF)
wend

What a huge bummer- my only work around so far has been setting an ini flag in an ini I already have set up for the script to communicate with other scripts I wrote. I had not thought about using the registry which may be a smarter approach to creating a flag. 

I was really hoping someone may have located an alternative solution that would aid in the op's post here which is the same issue I'm having. The only thing I could think of was monitoring the actual hardware IO but that's out of my scope of abilities.

[JohnOne]

Problem is with this sort of problem is to determine the source, you basically need a keylogger which is not allowed here.

[BrewManNH]

Don't use MouseMoves and MouseClicks, use ControlClick instead.

[Keltset]

Don't use MouseMoves and MouseClicks, use ControlClick instead.

 

I really wish I could but this particular program I'm interacting with, a proprietary company program, does not show anything that I know or have figured out how to work with when I use the autoit window tool for the buttons. It is highly possible that I'm simply not code intelligent enough regarding window controlling. I have been relying on pure coordinate locations and the ImageSearch.dll to make my particular scripts function.

 

This is a menu list with buttons on it.

>>>> Control <<<<

Class: WindowsForms10.Window.8.app.0.378734a

Instance: 2

ClassnameNN: WindowsForms10.Window.8.app.0.378734a2

Name: ToolBar1

Advanced (Class): [NAME:ToolBar1]

ID: 2101344

Text:

Position: 0, 0

Size: 1276, 38

ControlClick Coords: 914, 22

Style: 0x56010000

ExStyle: 0x00000000

Handle: 0x00201060

 

This is a selection list...

>>>> Control <<<<

Class: WindowsForms10.Window.8.app.0.378734a

Instance: 2

ClassnameNN: WindowsForms10.Window.8.app.0.378734a2

Name: dgBSReprint

Advanced (Class): [NAME:dgBSReprint]

ID: 10096394

Text:

Position: 16, 40

Size: 400, 376

ControlClick Coords: 151, 147

Style: 0x56010000

ExStyle: 0x00000000

Handle: 0x009A0F0A

 

Then inside the following I have all sorts of buttons and lists of attachments that change

 

>>>> Control <<<<

Class: WindowsForms10.Window.8.app.0.378734a

Instance: 1

ClassnameNN: WindowsForms10.Window.8.app.0.378734a1

Name: dgvReport

Advanced (Class): [NAME:dgvReport]

ID: 398756

Text:

Position: 12, 44

Size: 743, 258

ControlClick Coords: 474, 55

Style: 0x56010000

ExStyle: 0x00000000

Handle: 0x000615A4