Access nonstandard clipboard data

[kurtykurtyboy]

I am working with a program called CoDeSys used for programming PLCs that does not let you copy&paste between 2 different instances of the software. You can only paste within the same program.

I've tried inspecting the clipboard contents with various tools, but it doesn't seem to capture anything other than standard text. So I am guessing they are using some sort of private or custom clipboard management internal to the software?

Just thought I would ask here if anyone had any ideas on hooking into this private data or confirm my suspicion that there is nothing I can do about it.

Thanks

[genius257]

Hi @kurtykurtyboy.

_ClipBoard_GetData is a good place to start

also to check the formats available in the clipboard, see _ClipBoard_EnumFormats, the example should be able to give you some information i think

[jchd]

Also note that not all clipboard formats are in this enum.

Last time I checked I got unlisted formats as well, which as @genius257 said afterwards are registered on demand with varying IDs.

 

Edited May 22, 2022 by jchd

[genius257]

15 hours ago, jchd said:

Also note that not all clipboard formats are in this enum.

Last time I checked, I got listed and unlisted formats. I suspect more formats codes exist.

Those extra formats provided may not have the same id on another machine or another boot on some machine, as any program can register a format and the order of the formats registering are dependent on who registers first.

for example, text/_moz_htmlcontext is 49613 on my machine currently.

That is why i mentioned the example in the _ClipBoard_EnumFormats documentation.

[jchd]

Thanks for the tip, I didn't know the proprietary ids were assigned/registered on the fly as apps demand.

Sorry for the noise.

[kurtykurtyboy]

Thanks for the tips, I really appreciate it.

I've tried the _ClipBoard_EnumFormats example and various other tools and determined that when I copy text only, it uses the clipboard. But when I try copying anything else (programming blocks in this case), the clipboard doesn't change at all.

I think I have accepted the fact that this program just does not use the Windows clipboard. It must have some internal data management. Which is probably why I can't copy between program instances in the first place. I can workaround it by using export/import, but it's a pain and seems like such a waste to not have copy/paste..