Controlling and monitoring a non-labview program

[murphyfields]

I have a commercial non-labview application that occasionally displays an alarm that requires a mouse click to reset.  I need to determine if that program is giving an alarm, and if so, force a mouse click.  Is there a way to monitor the other program?  Can I perform a screen capture and examine the image to determine if there is an alarm? Or are there any other suggestions?

[zou]

A more efficient way may be monitoring the application to see if it lost activitate.  If it does, then get the active window.  And see the the active window title includes "warning" or something like that.

George Zou

http://webspace.webring.com/people/og/gtoolbox/

[Jarrod_S.]

Your best bet is if this other application has an ActiveX interface, which is the most standard way for Windows applications to communicate with each other and automate various actions. LabVIEW can act as an ActiveX Server or Client if this other application has any such abilities.

[murphyfields]

How do I find out if the other app has an ActiveX interface?

[Jarrod_S.]

Hopefully they have some documentation to that effect. Try searching online for <product name> and ActiveX.

[murphyfields]

No dice.  This is a specialized application and they had no reason to expect anyone would try what I am trying.

[smercurio_fc]

You can use the Windows API to determine if this alarm window has been created. The Windows API Function Utilities (32-bit) for LabVIEW can help in this regards. Another option is to use something like AutoIt.

As for generating mouse clicks, that can also be done with the Windows API. This question has been asked dozens of times, so do a search for simulating mouse clicks and you'll find examples. 

[noneflight]

I start positing elements and analysing. Here is an image 'Beyond Control' snapshot: http://noneflight.notlong.com

Or an image in "Beyond Control": noteflight

[smercurio_fc]

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noneflight wrote:

I start positing elements and analysing. Here is an image 'Beyond Control' snapshot: http://noneflight.notlong.com

Or an image in "Beyond Control": noteflight

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????????

What exactly are you talking about?  

[RavensFan]

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smercurio_fc wrote:

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noneflight wrote:

I start positing elements and analysing. Here is an image 'Beyond Control' snapshot: http://noneflight.notlong.com

Or an image in "Beyond Control": noteflight

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????????

What exactly are you talking about?  

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A really bad spammer?  I always get suspicious of anyone who has posted exactly 1 time, and it is only a couple minutes after creating their login name.