In Matlab I can start external .exe files that sometime have a pop up that requires an enter key pressed. For example:
system('C:\Program Files (x86)\WinZip\WINZIP32.EXE')
will start Winzip, and then in order to use it you need to pass the "buy now" pop up window by pressing enter.
Now my problem is not with winzip, I only gave it as an example (i use winrar anyway :).
How can I programmatically press an enter key in Matlab in such cases ? (I use win 7)
Can an event listener be used to solve that?
EDIT: The java.awt.Robot class indeed works on explorer, but not on any software that has a pop up window with an OK button that needs to be pressed. I don't know why it doesn't work for that. I gave the winzip example because I assume everybody has winzip/winrar installed in their machine. The actual software I have is different and irrelevant for the question.
There is a way using Java from Matlab, specifically the java.awt.Robot class. See here.
Apparently there are two types of programs, regarding the way they work when called from Matlab with system('...'):
For some programs, Matlab waits until the program has finished before running the next statement. This happens for example with WinRAR (at least in my Windows 7 machine).
For other programs this doesn't happen, and Matlab proceeds with the next statement right after the external program has been started. An example of this type is explorer (the standard Windows file explorer).
Now, it is possible to return execution to Matlab immediately even for type 1 programs: just add & at the end of the string passed to system. This is standard in Linux Bash shell, and it also works in Windows, as discussed here.
So, you would proceed as follows:
robot = java.awt.Robot;
command = '"C:\Program Files (x86)\WinRAR\WinRAR"'; %// external program; full path
system([command ' &']); %// note: ' &' at the end
pause(5) %// allow some time for the external program to start
robot.keyPress (java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_ENTER); %// press "enter" key
robot.keyRelease (java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_ENTER); %// release "enter" key
If your applications are only on Windows platform, you can try using .net objects.
The SendWait method of the SendKeys objects allows to send virtually any key, or key combination, to the application which has the focus, including the "modifier" keys like Alt, Shift, Ctrl etc ...
The first thing to do is to import the .net library, then the full syntax to send the ENTER key would be:
NET.addAssembly('System.Windows.Forms');
System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys.SendWait('{ENTER}'); %// send the key "ENTER"
If you only do it once the full syntax is OK. If you plan to make extensive use of the command, you can help yourself with an anonymous helper function.
A little example with notepad
%% // import the .NET assembly and define helper function
NET.addAssembly('System.Windows.Forms');
sendkey = #(strkey) System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys.SendWait(strkey) ;
%% // prepare a few things to send to the notepad
str1 = 'Hello World' ;
str2 = 'OMG ... my notepad is alive' ;
file2save = [pwd '\SelfSaveTest.txt'] ;
if exist(file2save,'file')==2 ; delete(file2save) ; end %// this is just in case you run the test multiple times.
%% // go for it
%// write a few things, save the file then close it.
system('notepad &') ; %// Start notepad, without matlab waiting for the return value
sendkey(str1) %// send a full string to the notepad
sendkey('{ENTER}'); %// send the {ENTER} key
sendkey(str2) %// send another full string to the notepad
sendkey('{! 3}'); %// note how you can REPEAT a key send instruction
sendkey('%(FA)'); %// Send key combination to open the "save as..." dialog
pause(1) %// little pause to make sure your hard drive is ready before continuing
sendkey(file2save); %// Send the name (full path) of the file to save to the dialog
sendkey('{ENTER}'); %// validate
pause(3) %// just wait a bit so you can see you file is now saved (check the titlebar of the notepad)
sendkey('%(FX)'); %// Bye bye ... close the Notepad
As explained in the Microsoft documentation the SendKeys class may have some timing issues sometimes so if you want to do complex manipulations (like Tab multiple times to change the button you actually want to press), you may have to introduce a pause in your Matlab calls to SendKeys.
Try without first, but don't forget you are managing a process from another without any synchronization between them, so timing all that can require a bit of trial and error before you get it right, at least for complex sequences (simple one should be straightforward).
In my case above for example I am running all my data from an external hard drive with an ECO function which puts it into standby, so when I called the "save as..." dialog, it takes time for it to display because the HDD has to wake up. If I didn't introduce the pause(1), sometimes the file path would be imcomplete (the first part of the path was send before the dialog had the focus).
Also, do not forget the & character when you execute the external program. All credit to Luis Mendo for highlighting it. (I tend to forget how important it is because I use it by default. I only omit it if I have to specifically wait for a return value from the program, otherwise I let it run on its own)
The special characters have a special code. Here are a few:
Shift +
Control (Ctrl) ^
Alt %
Tab {TAB}
Backspace {BACKSPACE}, {BS}, or {BKSP}
Validation {ENTER} or ~ (a tilde)
Ins Or Insert {INSERT} or {INS}
Delete {DELETE} or {DEL}
Text Navigation {HOME} {END} {PGDN} {PGUP}
Arrow Keys {UP} {RIGHT} {DOWN} {LEFT}
Escape {ESC}
Function Keys {F1} ... {F16}
Print Screen {PRTSC}
Break {BREAK}
The full list from Microsoft can be found here
There is a small javascript utility that simulates keystrokes like this on the Windows javascript interpreter.
Just create a js file with following code:
var WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell");
WshShell.SendKeys(WScript.Arguments(0));
then call it from Matlab after the necessary timeout like this:
system('c:\my\js\file\script.js {Enter}');
Can't test here now, but I think this should work...
If you need to run a console-only program in a context that permits full DOS redirection, you can create a file called, say, CR.txt containing a carriage return and use the '<' notation to pipe the value into the program.
This only works if you can provide all the keyboard input can be recorded in the file. It fails dismally if the input has to vary based on responses.
An alternative is to duplicate the input (and possibly output) stream(s) for the program and then pipe data into and out of the program. This is more robust and can permit dynamic responses to the data, but will also likely require substantial effort to implement a robot user to the application.
Rog-O-Matic is an example of a large application completely controlled by a program that monitors screen output and simulates keyboard input to play an early (1980s) ASCII graphic adventure game.
The other responses will be required for GUI-based applications.
Python package pywinauto can wait any dialog and click buttons automatically. But it's capable for native and some .NET applications only. You may have problems with pressing WPF button (maybe QT button is clickable - not checked), but in such case code like app.DialogTitle.wait('ready').set_focus(); app.DialogTitle.type_keys('{ENTER}') may help. Your case is quite simple and probably some tricks with pywinauto are enough. Is your "app with popup" 64-bit or 32-bit?
wait and wait_not functions have timeout parameter. But if you need precisely listener with potentially infinite loop awaiting popups, good direction is global Windows hooks (pyHook can listen mouse and keybd events, but cannot listen dialog opening). I'll try to find my prototype that can detect new windows. It uses UI Automation API event handlers... and... ops... it requires IronPython. I still don't know how to set UI Automation handler with COM interface from standard CPython.
EDIT (2019, January): new module win32hooks was implemented in pywinauto a while ago. Example of usage is here: examples/hook_and_listen.py.
Related
I want to capture when the user holds down the control key and presses the enter key on a figure window. Note: This is the default keys for "Evaluate Current Section" in the editor.
See example code below:
function test
f = figure;
f.KeyPressFcn = #myKeyPressFcn;
end
function myKeyPressFcn ( hFig, event )
cm = hFig.CurrentModifier();
if ~isempty ( cm )
fprintf ( 'CurrentKey: %s:%s\n', cm{1}, hFig.CurrentKey );
else
fprintf ( 'CurrentKey: %s\n', hFig.CurrentKey );
end
end
To reproduce save the above in an active file in the editor and run the function - the editor needs to be open (this is important!!).
With the figure active press any key -> the selected key is written to the terminal window. However if you hold down Control and press the enter (return) key then this is not captured but instead Matlab attempts to "Evaluate Current Section" (or cell as it used to be called) in the editor (no matter that the figure has the focus). This of course throws as error...
I have contacted Matlab support and this is "expected behaviour!". I can (just about) see why it might be a good idea for demos - but for professional applications that run in Matlab I personally think this "feature" is a bug!!
Notes
When the editor is closed the control+enter is captured in the figure
In deployed applications the control+enter is captured.
If I manually change the Evaluate Current Section shortcut then control+enter is captured.
I have tried a number of things to resolve this but none have worked, for example hiding the editor or setting editor enable state to false (neither of these are acceptable solutions - I was trying to see what I could get to work on a small test case...):
function test
desktop = com.mathworks.mde.desk.MLDesktop.getInstance;
jEditor = desktop.getGroupContainer('Editor').getTopLevelAncestor;
jEditor.setVisible(false);
jEditor.setEnable(false);
f = figure
f.KeyPressFcn = #myKeyPressFcn;
uiwait(f);
jEditor.setVisible(true);
jEditor.setEnable(true);
end
The only way I can get it to work is to close all of the editor files on launching the GUI and then opening them again when the GUI closes (this is not an acceptable solution... - for fairly obvious reasons!!)
I did think about trying to temporarily modify the shortcut key (Preferences-Keyboard-Shortcuts) of the "Evaluate Current Section" -> but haven't worked out a way to do it from the commandline, and then set it back again when finished. If this is fast you could do it when the user presses and releases the control key.
So what am I asking:
If possible I need a solution that will work for anyone anywhere - as if I can get this to work it will be included in a new add-on feature in my Matlab GUI Toolbox. - which is used by people all over the world.
Do you know how to modify the keyboard shortcuts from the commandline - if so how!
Any other suggestions?
My other idea is to change my shortcut to a different key combination - but wheres the fun in that! :) (I will still have the issue if some user somewhere has altered the execute the current cell to my new combination...)
P.S. Thanks for reading this far down!! :)
Why don't you go to the home> Preferences > keyboard > Shortcutand change it there?
you only need to hit Ctrl + Enter in the black box at top of the page for searching the related command, which is here Evaluate Current Section and change it whatever you like.
Please bear in mind you will only need to split out your windows (Undock them). Then, when you click on Ctrl + Enter, it will do whatever you would like.
I hope you find this answer helpful.
You can try the solution from my FEX submission. The KbTimer is motivated by the need to capture keyboard stroke without the need of GUI that designed either by GUIDE or APP DESIGNER. Note that the implementation of function was inspired from the PsychToolbox which is MEX based.
This question already has answers here:
Stop and continue execution from debugger possible?
(6 answers)
Closed 8 years ago.
Strg+C stops and kills a Matlab script (at least sometimes). But is there a way to stop a Matlab, take a look at some variables and continue the calculation?
I am not talking about just setting a breakpoint. I want my script, let’s say run for couple hours come back to it hit some buttons that stops the calculations take a look at some variable and then continue the calculation.
I tried to find out if there is some shortcut key for this – I am quite sure there isn’t.
Now I was thinking about including an if-case that looks if a certain button was pressed by the user. If so there would be a useless k=0 line and a breakpoint on it. And if no one is pressing this button the loop would continue. But this is where my limited Matlab knowledge leaves me. I don’t know if there is a way to ask for a user-button press but don’t wait for a button press like in the function input. Also I just have a running script, I don’t have any GUI.
To drop to the command prompt you need the command keyboard and then type return when you have finished (you don't need a breakpoint). The tricky bit is how to trigger it. There a few options. The easiest is to open a figure window. The following code halts the process when any key is pressed.
keyDownListener=#(src,event) keyboard;
fig = figure;
drawnow
set(fig,'KeyPressFcn',keyDownListener)
for p=1:10000
%do some thing
end
You can modify this to test for a specific key since the keypress is contained within the event struct.
To use no figure gui at all its more of a problem. I'm not aware of a non blocking keyboard input method. A mex file the runs kbhit() in C might do it, but kbhit() is not standard C so it would only work on Windows. An easier option maybe to test for the presence of a file.
for p=1:100000
if exist(fullfile(pwd,'halt.tmp'),'file')
keyboard
end
%do something here
end
This drops to the debug console when halt.tmp is created in the current directory.
Other potential methods could involve using multiple threads to read 'input' (either the Parallel computer toolbox or undocumented Java code), or using http://psychtoolbox.org/ as mentioned by #bdecaf
I have a simple question, although it's harder than it seems; I couldn't find the answer on the interwebs :O
I'm writing a script in Matlab. What I want to do is the following:
When I press the esc key, I want a helpdialogue to pop up, so my script pauses. (So when I press esc, I want to stop the whole script to run so that the car (which im writing the script for) stops driving)
How do I do this? How can I say to Matlab: When I press esc, do this...
Thanks for your time guys!
EDIT: It's no option to implement something which awaits the keypress. Im writing a script for a driving car. It just has to drive around basically, but when I press esc for example, it should stop driving. So the script just has to run, untill I press the esc key; then the script has to pause.
KeyPressFcn is good because it forces you to write event-driven code. Which is generally a good idea! However, if KeyPressFcn doesn't seem right for you, for example if you must keep running in a loop, and you just want to poll whether a key has been pressed, I found this solution buried in the matlab website:
get(gcf,'CurrentCharacter')
Then you could set this property to a blank, and poll it as required.
e.g:
finish=false;
set(gcf,'CurrentCharacter','#'); % set to a dummy character
while ~finish
% do things in loop...
% check for keys
k=get(gcf,'CurrentCharacter');
if k~='#' % has it changed from the dummy character?
set(gcf,'CurrentCharacter','#'); % reset the character
% now process the key as required
if k=='q', finish=true; end
end
end
This worked well for me in 2014b. The downside is that the graphics window needs to be focused to receive the key events.
In a matlab figure you can define a 'KeyPressFcn' that works similar to do what you ask.
If you are in the console you have to work around that matlab is single threaded. Basically you need to halt the program flow to check for key presses.
btw - also when you use 'KeyPressFcn' you will need to make some pauses so that Matlab will check if anything has happened.
btw2 - I should also add during this pauses Matlab will not only read your key presses - but also do some housekeeping such as redrawing its window and stuff.
I frequently ran into similar use cases and typically preferred to react to joystick buttons because of the more convenient interface provided by vrjoystick. However, I recently wrote a library that provides a similar interface for keyboard inputs.
% Pause on ESC
kb = HebiKeyboard();
while true
state = read(kb);
if state.ESC
% PAUSE DRIVING
else
% DRIVE CAR
end
end
It's non-blocking and doesn't require focus on any particular figure.
File Exchange: http://mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/61306-hebirobotics-matlabinput
Github: https://github.com/HebiRobotics/MatlabInput
I had a related task once, and i did it with getkey form matlab file exchange.
Basicly you will want to have it listen for ascii 1B (27 decimal)
if getkey does not solve your problem you can still have a look at its code and maybe find the line that will do the trick for you.
I have written a python script for my co-workers, and then created an autohotkey script to run it every time someone presses Ctrl+LShift+Y. Looks something like this:
^+y::Run helper.py
The python script is fine, but the ahk script doesn't work on all the computers. Sometimes it works fine, and sometimes you get this error:
^+y does not exist in current keyboard layout
Now, searching the web this seems to be a problem with multi-language keyboards (we're using both Hebrew and English), because different languages means a different layouts (I guess?). I also found someone explaining that to solve this you need to use scan codes instead of the usual ^ and + and so on (I'd link to it but I cannot seem to find it now).
This all vaguely makes sense to me on a theoretical level, but when I want to realize it with actual code, I don't really know what to do. To me it seems as if this topic is hardly discussed (with the few exceptions being lacking in examples or hard to understand), so I'd love an answer that would include the following:
some simple way of determining the scan code for a key. This should preferably be a pythonic solution (and just out of curiosity, I'd love to know how to do this with linux as well). This is probably the easier part (but I think is an inherent part of a complete answer).
This is the important part: examples of how you implement that scan code in an autohotkey script, including edge-cases (if there are any).
Question 1
As you want to use the key with autohotkey, it makes sense to use autohotkey detect the key in the first place. Obviously this method works only on windows where autohotkey is running.
Write a Autohotkey script with this line and run it.
#InstallKeybdHook
Press the key you want to examine.
Open the script menu by right clicking the icon of the script in the right lower corner of your screen.
Select OPEN, then from the Menu "View / Key history and script info"
There is a line for each keypress.
First column is the VK (Virtual key) code, next is the scancode.
For example for CAPSLOCK the VK is 14 and the Scancode 03a
Question 2:
#InstallKeybdHook
VK14::
msgbox, you pressed capslock!
return
OR
#InstallKeybdHook
SC03a::
msgbox, you pressed capslock!
return
both work.
Note that you can combine two keys into a hotkey by combining them with & (but not 3)
#InstallKeybdHook
RShift & SC03a::
msgbox, you pressed Rshift capslock!
return
You can modify a Scancode with + and ^
#InstallKeybdHook
^+SC02C::
msgbox, you pressed Ctrl Shift and Y(maybe)!
return
Further info about this is on the page "List of Keys, Mouse Buttons, and Joystick Controls" of the autohotkey help file that comes with the default installation.
I'd like to use a function in some matlab scripts that would do the following:
Pause until user hits any single key
Return the key stroke hit by the user
The pause function doesn't work, because it doesn't return the user keystroke. The input function doesn't work, because it requires the "enter" key to be hit. The keyboard command dumps you into the full command line window which I don't want (although might be useful for future work). Note, there are ways to do this from figures, i.e. if a figure has focus, you can sniff keystrokes using the 'KeyPressFcn' handler. But I want to do this from scripts. Worst case, I can use the input command, but was hoping for something that required fewer keystrokes from the user.
I found this on MathWorks. Does it do what you want: http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/7465-getkey