Remote control any app using virtual keys

by **bobbo** on Sun May 14, 2006 11:52 pm

I just put these instructions in my BeyondTV post, but since it is universal to all applications that use hotkeys, I thought I would repeat the info:

* Using http://www.windows-spy.com/ or similar, find the "Class Name" and "Window Name" for the program you want to control. For BeyondTV, these were "Streamzap.WM.D3D" and "Beyond TV".

* Write down the shortcut keys (e.g. pause=space bar). Then look up the virtual key ID's on MSDN (e.g. space bar = 0x20 hex = 32 decimal).

* Create a "send message" event in XLobby:

Class Name = Streamzap.WM.D3D
Window Name = Beyond TV
Message = WM_KEYDOWN
wParam = 32
iParam = 0

* If you wanted to be really picky, you ought to send a WM_KEYDOWN, wait 100ms, then a WM_KEYUP to simulate a real key press. This is necessary if your app has a shift+key types of combination (e.g. for Alt+Enter, use this sequence: keydown Alt, keydown Enter, keyup Enter, keyup Alt).

* Click "Test" to test to see XLobby remote control your application!

by **Twit** on Mon May 15, 2006 4:58 pm

Great work! Should come in handy.

by **hvs69** on Tue May 16, 2006 3:39 pm

Thanks.

It is good to know that there is another program besides girder that can be used to find window_class_name.

by **chaumurky** on Tue Jul 25, 2006 2:56 pm

Has anyone tried this with WebScheduler's keyboard interface in Internet Explorer running in fullscreen mode? For a "Down" keypress I'm using the following:

Class Name = IEFrame
Window Name = http://localhost/servlet/ApplyTransform ... sl=kb-root - Microsoft Internet Explorer
Message = WM_KEYDOWN
wParam = 40
iParam = 0

No success - in girder either.

by **S Pittaway** on Tue Jul 25, 2006 5:17 pm

try sending a keyup as well.

by **chaumurky** on Wed Jul 26, 2006 6:14 am

No luck. I suppose I should try to get it working with Girder first. In the past I've just sent keypresses to the focused window but that can't be done with xlobby can it?

by **S Pittaway** on Wed Jul 26, 2006 11:14 am

that sounds like a really simple one line plugin to me...

i am busy at the moment, or i would knock one up

by **chaumurky** on Wed Jul 26, 2006 12:24 pm

Yes it would be a very useful event to have at one's disposal. There is a DTV program called DNTVLive! that I use which has no window classname so it would also help in this case. See here:

http://forums.dvbowners.com/index.php?showtopic=3776

by **chaumurky** on Wed Jul 26, 2006 1:10 pm

Actually, perhaps I could just set the page in a browser screen - I still need to navigate wth simulated keystrokes I guess. It seens that arrow keys just scroll.

by **art** on Thu Jul 27, 2006 1:02 am

S Pittaway wrote:that sounds like a really simple one line plugin to me...

i am busy at the moment, or i would knock one up

Well, I had some time this afternoon, so I knocked it up

...

chaumurky,
If you still interested, download this file.
Like Sean said it's just one line plug-in based on SendKeys, so if you want to send some combo keys like ctrl+A which would be ^A or backspace {BS} check this page, it should explain how to do it http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/librar ... dkeys.aspx

by **chaumurky** on Fri Jul 28, 2006 12:23 am

Well it works beautifully. I wanted to use the same navigation keys on my remote so i added xSendKey events to the existing xlobby navigation events - of course then I got double events when xlobby is in focus so I removed the xlobby navigation events and it works well!! Can anyone see potential problems with me just using this new plugin to navigate xlobby in such a way? I use the Girder/xRemote combination to trigger these events and while I could just send keys to focused apps from Girder, I find it a more stable combination this way and would prefer to keep my gml simple. Thanks for your efforts. I'm going to let the guys know over at http://forums.dvbowners.com/ , this will be very helpful.

EDIT: I'm not having any success with DNTVLive! unfortunately. I just want to send channel change keys ^U and ^D but it's not working on this occasion. I wonder what could be wrong here.

by **art** on Fri Jul 28, 2006 10:33 pm

Try this. I had this code in my other plug-in, so I just had to copy it...
Anyway, I was able to test it a little bit on DNTVLive! like changing to DVD mode etc. and it worked for me. I don't have a card, so that's all I could do.

by **chaumurky** on Sun Jul 30, 2006 3:20 am

Perfect. I re-mapped the nav commands for the new plugin, then the channel change CTRL:U and CTRL:D for DNTVLive! and it all works well. I just need to get xlobby to come to the front on startup - i still have to bring it to the front to be able to navigate. It's probably winamp stealing focus or something but i imagine that will be easy to fix but for now i have an 'ALT-TAB' button on my remote so I've created and mapped an 'ALT:TAB' SendKey event. Well done. This fills the only real issue i had with xlobby. It's now running full time on my HTPC.

EDIT: That's solved now too. Just set winamp to minimize to the tray when it starts...
http://www.xlobby.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=30585#30585

by **stevodude** on Sat Aug 12, 2006 12:59 am

so after all that, you have DNTVLive working with xlobby?

I want to do the same thing, but I need a bit of pointing in the right direction...

what TV plugin did you use?
what skin did you use
how do you use the xskeys.dll file

cheers, stevo.

by **art** on Sun Aug 13, 2006 11:15 pm

stevodude wrote:so after all that, you have DNTVLive working with xlobby?

I want to do the same thing, but I need a bit of pointing in the right direction...

what TV plugin did you use?
what skin did you use
how do you use the xskeys.dll file

cheers, stevo.

I can't answer your first two questions, but as far as #3 - don't use xskeys, instead see this page, for some reason xskeys didn't work with DNTVLive.