I need to capture mouse events in Console

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Hi,
I am writing a console application. I am able to get mouse position wrt screen. Can anybody help me getting mouse events enabled as it works in forms.
Thank you for your time.

Posted 28-Jun-11 21:40pm

J imran

Updated 20-Oct-18 17:44pm

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Comments

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 29-Jun-11 3:41am

Wow! In console?! and what do you want to do with it, print mouse coordinates?
--SA

Morl99 29-Jun-11 3:43am

I can't imagine that you will Be able to capture clicks in the console, but prove me wrong!

J imran 29-Jun-11 3:43am

I have done with mouse coordinates. I want events like mouse click mouse hover and so on..

J imran 29-Jun-11 3:46am

I can do it in assembly but c# doesn't invoke assembly code I guess.I once made a program with DOS interrupts in C++. In c# I don't find any method to invoke DOS interrupts :(

2 solutions

Solution 2

Look at my short example -

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace ComputerToggle
{
    class Program
    {
        [DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
        private static extern IntPtr SetWindowsHookEx(int idHook, LowLevelMouseProc lpfn, IntPtr hMod, uint dwThreadId);
        [DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
        [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
        private static extern bool UnhookWindowsHookEx(IntPtr hhk);
        [DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
        private static extern IntPtr CallNextHookEx(IntPtr hhk, int nCode, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);
        [DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
        private static extern IntPtr GetModuleHandle(string lpModuleName);

        private delegate IntPtr LowLevelMouseProc(int nCode, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);
        private const int WH_MOUSE_LL = 14;

        private static LowLevelMouseProc _proc = HookCallback;
        private static IntPtr _hookID = IntPtr.Zero;

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            _hookID = SetHook(_proc);

            System.Windows.Forms.Application.Run();

            UnhookWindowsHookEx(_hookID);

            Console.Read();
        }

        private static IntPtr SetHook(LowLevelMouseProc proc)
        {
            using (Process curProcess = Process.GetCurrentProcess())
            using (ProcessModule curModule = curProcess.MainModule)
            {
                return SetWindowsHookEx(WH_MOUSE_LL, proc, GetModuleHandle(curModule.ModuleName), 0);
            }
        }

        private static IntPtr HookCallback(int nCode, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam)
        {
            if (nCode >= 0 && MouseMessages.WM_MOUSEMOVE == (MouseMessages)wParam)
            {
                MSLLHOOKSTRUCT hookStruct = (MSLLHOOKSTRUCT)Marshal.PtrToStructure(lParam, typeof(MSLLHOOKSTRUCT));
                Console.WriteLine(hookStruct.pt.x + ", " + hookStruct.pt.y);
            }

            return CallNextHookEx(_hookID, nCode, wParam, lParam);
        }

        private enum MouseMessages
        {
            WM_LBUTTONDOWN = 0x0201,
            WM_LBUTTONUP = 0x0202,
            WM_MOUSEMOVE = 0x0200,
            WM_MOUSEWHEEL = 0x020A,
            WM_RBUTTONDOWN = 0x0204,
            WM_RBUTTONUP = 0x0205
        }


        [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
        private struct POINT
        {
            public int x;
            public int y;
        }

        [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
        private struct MSLLHOOKSTRUCT
        {
            public POINT pt;
            public uint mouseData;
            public uint flags;
            public uint time;
            public IntPtr dwExtraInfo;
        }

    }
}

Enjoy!

Posted 20-Oct-18 17:45pm

Simon Borsky

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-28T21:51:00

Solution 1

One way to achieve it is using Raw Input via P/Invoke. Start here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms645543(v=vs.85).aspx[^],
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms645536(v=vs.85).aspx[^].

—SA

Posted 28-Jun-11 21:51pm

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov

Comments

J imran 29-Jun-11 3:58am

thank you. You are always helping. I have completed that project in c#. thank God the client agreed not to convert it in c++.
happy coding

Tarun.K.S 29-Jun-11 4:19am

Please do vote and accept his answer.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 29-Jun-11 4:51am

Thank you Tarun. Did you decide to vote not by your own but indirectly? :-)
Thank you very much for proposing to accept it formally. OP could use a green button.
--SA

Manfred Rudolf Bihy 29-Jun-11 5:00am

I'll get you started with my 5! ;)

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 29-Jun-11 11:55am

Thank you, Manfred.
--SA

Tarun.K.S 29-Jun-11 5:01am

Oh that's so silly of me! Voted 5! :)

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 29-Jun-11 11:56am

Thank you, Tarun.
--SA

Manfred Rudolf Bihy 29-Jun-11 5:01am

If SA's solution helped you solve your problem please accept it as solution and vote for it.
Thank you!

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 29-Jun-11 11:56am

Thank you, Manfred; OP did.
Thank you, J imran.
--SA

Morl99 29-Jun-11 4:49am

Almighty... I guess this is out of my programming spectrum ;) I am still wondering though, why would you even need to caputre mouse input in a console application?

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 29-Jun-11 4:53am

This is a question to OP. I already asked about it. Probably to make something really cool. :-)
--SA

J imran 29-Jun-11 11:10am

I am making an application to take snapshots on mouse move and make achieves. Well I have found some way.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Net.Mime;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Diagnostics;
namespace Mouse_handling
{
public class Mouse
{
private static LowLevelMouseProc _proc = HookCallback;
private static IntPtr _hookID = IntPtr.Zero;
static Timer timeBig = new Timer();
static Timer timsmall = new Timer();
static bool moveFlag = false;
public Mouse()
{
timeBig.Interval = 1;
timsmall.Interval = 1;
}
public void start()
{
timeBig.Tick += new EventHandler(timeBig_Tick);
timeBig.Start();
_hookID = SetHook(_proc);

Application.Run();
UnhookWindowsHookEx(_hookID);
}
static uint timeElapsed = 0;
void timeBig_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
timeElapsed++;

}

private static IntPtr SetHook(LowLevelMouseProc proc)
{
using (Process curProcess = Process.GetCurrentProcess())
using (ProcessModule curModule = curProcess.MainModule)
{
return SetWindowsHookEx(WH_MOUSE_LL, proc,
GetModuleHandle(curModule.ModuleName), 0);
}
}
public static void mouseStarted()
{
}
private delegate IntPtr LowLevelMouseProc(int nCode, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);

private static IntPtr HookCallback( int nCode, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam)
{
if (nCode >= 0 && MouseMessages.WM_LBUTTONDOWN == (MouseMessages)wParam)
{
MSLLHOOKSTRUCT hookStruct = (MSLLHOOKSTRUCT)Marshal.PtrToStructure(lParam, typeof(MSLLHOOKSTRUCT));
Console.WriteLine("Left Clicked:");

timeBig.Start();

}
if (nCode >= 0 && MouseMessages.WM_LBUTTONUP == (MouseMessages)wParam)
{
MSLLHOOKSTRUCT hookStruct = (MSLLHOOKSTRUCT)Marshal.PtrToStructure(lParam, typeof(MSLLHOOKSTRUCT));
timeBig.Stop();
Console.WriteLine("Time Elapsed Left Clicked:" + timeElapsed.ToString()+"ms");
timeElapsed = 0;
}
return CallNextHookEx(_hookID, nCode, wParam, lParam);
}

private const int WH_MOUSE_LL = 14;

private enum MouseMessages
{
WM_LBUTTONDOWN = 0x0201,
WM_LBUTTONUP = 0x0202,
WM_MOUSEMOVE = 0x0200,
WM_MOUSEWHEEL = 0x020A,
WM_RBUTTONDOWN = 0x0204,
WM_RBUTTONUP = 0x0205
}

[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
private struct POINT
{
public int x;
public int y;
}

[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
private struct MSLLHOOKSTRUCT
{
public POINT pt;
public uint mouseData;
public uint flags;
public uint time;
public IntPtr dwExtraInfo;
}

[DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
private static extern IntPtr SetWindowsHookEx(int idHook,
LowLevelMouseProc lpfn, IntPtr hMod, uint dwThreadId);

[DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
[return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
private static extern bool UnhookWindowsHookEx(IntPtr hhk);

[DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
private static extern IntPtr CallNextHookEx(IntPtr hhk, int nCode,
IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);

[DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
private static extern IntPtr GetModuleHand

J imran 29-Jun-11 11:11am

mouse events are checked at
<c> private static IntPtr HookCallback( int nCode, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam)