SendKeys

SendKeys(keys, pause = 0.05, with_spaces = False,

with_tabs = False, with_newlines = False, turn_off_numlock = True)

KeySequenceError

SendKeys may throw KeySequenceError if an error is found when reading keys. SendKeys reads all keys before pressing any, so if an error is found, no keys will be pressed.

Modifiers

SendKeys takes a string specifying one or more keys to press. Most letter, number, and punctuation keys are represented by the corresponding characters, but the following keys and characters have special meaning:

To apply one or more modifiers to a key, place it in front of that key. For example, here's how to get CONTROL + a:

^a

You may apply one or more modifiers to a group of keys, by putting the keys in parentheses. For example, the following holds SHIFT down while all 3 keys are pressed:

+(abc)

To use one of the modifier keys, escape it by surrounding it with curly braces { and }. For example, for a literal % instead of ALT:

{%}

All of the following must be escaped within curly braces:

+ ^ % ~ { } [ ]

Each character must be escaped individually. You may not do the following:

{%%}

+a+b+c+1+1
+(abc11)

ABC!!

Key Codes

For keys which don't have a character representation, you must use a code. Here are the codes SendKeys recognizes:

Modifiers maybe used with codes as well. For example, for CONTROL + SHIFT + HOME:

^+{HOME}

Repeating Keys

Here's the syntax for a repeating key:

{key count}

Where key may be one of the Key Codes or a character and count is the number of times to press the key.

Examples:

Hello World

In this example, SendKeys is used to type "Hello World!" in notepad.

import SendKeys
SendKeys.SendKeys("""
    {LWIN}
    {PAUSE .25}
    r
    Notepad.exe{ENTER}
    {PAUSE 1}
    Hello{SPACE}World!
    {PAUSE 1}
    %{F4}
    n
""")

Tic-Tac-Toe

In this example, SendKeys is used to play a game of Tic-Tac-Toe in notepad.

import os, sys, tempfile
from SendKeys import SendKeys

try:
    True
except NameError:
    True,False = 1,0

if __name__ == '__main__':

    # create file game will be saved to
    filename = tempfile.mktemp('.txt')
    print >> sys.stdout, "saving tic-tac-toe game to `%s`" % filename
    f = open(filename,'w')
    f.write('')
    f.close()

    # open notepad
    SendKeys("""{LWIN}rNotepad.exe{SPACE}"%(filename)s"{ENTER}{PAUSE 1}"""
        % {'filename': filename.replace('~','{~}')}, with_spaces=True)

    # draw board
    SendKeys("""\
   |   |
---+---+---
   |   |
---+---+---
   |   |  """.replace('+','{+}'),0.1, with_spaces=True, with_newlines=True)

   # play the game
    SendKeys("""\
    ^{HOME}
    {DOWN 2}{RIGHT 5}+{RIGHT}{PAUSE 1}x
    {LEFT 4}+{LEFT}+o
    {UP 2}{RIGHT 3}+{RIGHT}x
    {DOWN 4}+{LEFT}+(o)
    {LEFT 4}+{LEFT}x
    {RIGHT 7}{UP 4}+{RIGHT}O
    {DOWN 4}+{LEFT}x
    {UP 4}{LEFT 8}+{LEFT}+O
    {RIGHT 7}{DOWN 2}+{RIGHT 1}x
    ^s
    """, 0.1)

    # read game saved from notepad
    f = open(filename)
    output = f.read()
    f.close()

    assert output == """\
 O | x | O
---+---+---
 O | x | x
---+---+---
 x | O | x"""
    print 'Bad news: cat got the game'
    print "Good news: that's what we expected, so the test passed"

Binaries

• SendKeys-0.3.win32-py2.1.exe
• SendKeys-0.3.win32-py2.2.exe
• SendKeys-0.3.win32-py2.3.exe
• SendKeys-0.3.win32-py2.4.exe
• SendKeys-0.3.win32-py2.5.exe

Source

• SendKeys-0.3.zip

0.3 (2003-06-14)

• Compatible w/Python 2.1.

0.2 (2003-06-06)

• Uses an extension, written in c, so ctypes (cool as it is) is not required.

0.1 (never released)

• Used ctypes to make Windows API calls.