Java: The Robot class - How to move the mouse cursor and type keys automatically from your Java program?

Posted Sun, 02/22/2009 - 23:15 by deepak

Want to simulate the various actions that the user can perform with a mouse like mouse pressed, mouse released etc.? or simulate various keyboard actions like key pressed, key released etc.? The Java class - java.awt.Robot is your answer. Read further to see a full demo of the various features this class has to offer.

Table of Contents [hide]
      1. Introduction
      2. Application
      3. Features
      4. Usage

Introduction

This article demonstrates the various functionality offered by the java.awt.Robot class. From the Java API documentation "This class is used to generate native system input events for the purposes of test automation, self-running demos, and other applications where control of the mouse and keyboard is needed. The primary purpose of Robot is to facilitate automated testing of Java platform implementations.

Using the class to generate input events differs from posting events to the AWT event queue or AWT components in that the events are generated in the platform's native input queue. For example, Robot.mouseMove will actually move the mouse cursor instead of just generating mouse move events.

Note that some platforms require special privileges or extensions to access low-level input control. If the current platform configuration does not allow input control, an AWTException will be thrown when trying to construct Robot objects. For example, X-Window systems will throw the exception if the XTEST 2.2 standard extension is not supported (or not enabled) by the X server.

Applications that use Robot for purposes other than self-testing should handle these error conditions gracefully. "

Application

  • Automated testing: As the Java API docs said, the primary intended usage for this class is to support automated testing. For example your Java program could do certain things on a mouse click on a JButton or a key release in a JTextField. When it comes to automated testing of this Java program, you can use this Robot class to simulate these user actions in a way that will be as close as possible to a real user action.
  • Demonstration: May be you want to demonstrate a particular GUIGraphical User Interface - The visual front-end of your application through which the user interacts with your application. Check out this Swing Java tutorial for basic GUI programming. app which involves user interactions...

Features

The following are the key features/functionality offered by this Robot class.

  • Simulate/perform the following mouse events.
    • Mouse Move - Moves the mouse pointer to a given screen's coordinates.
    • Mouse press - Presses the specified mouse button at the mouse pointer's current location.
    • Mouse release - Releases the specified mouse button at the mouse pointer's current location.
    • Mouse wheel - Rotates the mouse scroll wheel to a given amount.
  • Simulate/perform the following keyboard events.
    • Key Press - Press a specified key in the keyboard.
    • Key Release - Release a specified key in the keyboard.
  • Simulate/perform a screen capture - "Creates an image containing pixels read from the screen. This image does not include the mouse cursor."
  • Get pixel color - Gets the color of the pixel at a given screen co-ordinate.

Usage

  • Instantiation: The first step to do in order to use this class's features to instantiate it. Instantiation is straight forward and you can use the default parameterless constructor.

Robot robot = new Robot();
 

  • Simulate Mouse move: To move the mouse over a text field - textField

Point locOnScreen = textField.getLocationOnScreen();
robot.mouseMove(locOnScreen.x, locOnScreen.y);

  • Simulate Mouse button press and release at the current mouse pointer position

// Press and release mouse button 1
robot.mousePress(InputEvent.BUTTON1_MASK);
robot.mouseRelease(InputEvent.BUTTON1_MASK);

// Press and release mouse button 2
robot.mousePress(InputEvent.BUTTON2_MASK);
robot.mouseRelease(InputEvent.BUTTON2_MASK);

  • Simulate Keyboard key presses and releases.

// Types the word 'DEMO'
robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_D);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_D);

robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_E);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_E);

robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_M);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_M);

robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_O);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_O);

Note: These methods could be seen as dumb methods which does exactly what you asked it to do. For example if you try to simulate a key press for the character ':' - colon like

robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_COLON)

and in you keyboard the only way you can manually type a colon is to hold shift and press semi-colon ';', then the above line would throw an IllegalArgumentException. The correct way to simulate these characters is to exactly do what can be done with the connected keyboard i.e.

robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);
robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_SEMICOLON);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_SEMICOLON);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);
 

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Comments

can any try for symbol like

by Visitor - 03/13/2009 - 14:00

can any try for symbol like +,~

in my pc its not workin for

by Visitor - 03/13/2009 - 14:05

in my pc its not workin for above symbol

I have a solution for your

by deepak - 03/15/2009 - 21:31

I have a solution for your problem. I have posted it as a forum post. Please check it at http://www.1your.com/drupal/node/155

bnatey

by Visitor - 11/13/2009 - 16:33


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توبيكات قطريه


دليل مواقع


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برامج
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كأس العالم 2010

العاب
العاب بنات
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شات
دليل المواقع العربيه
العاب
العاب
دليل مواقع
توبيكات
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مقالات
صور
منتدى أجنبي
منتديات

thankes

by ro7im - 12/10/2009 - 13:16


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by ro7im - 12/10/2009 - 13:17


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forex exchange forex exchange


finanzas forex


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traderforex


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Post new comment

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Java: The Robot class - How to move the mouse cursor and type keys automatically from your Java program? | Our website now yours! - Currenlty Java focussed.

Java: The Robot class - How to move the mouse cursor and type keys automatically from your Java program?

Posted Sun, 02/22/2009 - 23:15 by deepak

Want to simulate the various actions that the user can perform with a mouse like mouse pressed, mouse released etc.? or simulate various keyboard actions like key pressed, key released etc.? The Java class - java.awt.Robot is your answer. Read further to see a full demo of the various features this class has to offer.

Table of Contents [hide]
      1. Introduction
      2. Application
      3. Features
      4. Usage

Introduction

This article demonstrates the various functionality offered by the java.awt.Robot class. From the Java API documentation "This class is used to generate native system input events for the purposes of test automation, self-running demos, and other applications where control of the mouse and keyboard is needed. The primary purpose of Robot is to facilitate automated testing of Java platform implementations.

Using the class to generate input events differs from posting events to the AWT event queue or AWT components in that the events are generated in the platform's native input queue. For example, Robot.mouseMove will actually move the mouse cursor instead of just generating mouse move events.

Note that some platforms require special privileges or extensions to access low-level input control. If the current platform configuration does not allow input control, an AWTException will be thrown when trying to construct Robot objects. For example, X-Window systems will throw the exception if the XTEST 2.2 standard extension is not supported (or not enabled) by the X server.

Applications that use Robot for purposes other than self-testing should handle these error conditions gracefully. "

Application

  • Automated testing: As the Java API docs said, the primary intended usage for this class is to support automated testing. For example your Java program could do certain things on a mouse click on a JButton or a key release in a JTextField. When it comes to automated testing of this Java program, you can use this Robot class to simulate these user actions in a way that will be as close as possible to a real user action.
  • Demonstration: May be you want to demonstrate a particular GUIGraphical User Interface - The visual front-end of your application through which the user interacts with your application. Check out this Swing Java tutorial for basic GUI programming. app which involves user interactions...

Features

The following are the key features/functionality offered by this Robot class.

  • Simulate/perform the following mouse events.
    • Mouse Move - Moves the mouse pointer to a given screen's coordinates.
    • Mouse press - Presses the specified mouse button at the mouse pointer's current location.
    • Mouse release - Releases the specified mouse button at the mouse pointer's current location.
    • Mouse wheel - Rotates the mouse scroll wheel to a given amount.
  • Simulate/perform the following keyboard events.
    • Key Press - Press a specified key in the keyboard.
    • Key Release - Release a specified key in the keyboard.
  • Simulate/perform a screen capture - "Creates an image containing pixels read from the screen. This image does not include the mouse cursor."
  • Get pixel color - Gets the color of the pixel at a given screen co-ordinate.

Usage

  • Instantiation: The first step to do in order to use this class's features to instantiate it. Instantiation is straight forward and you can use the default parameterless constructor.

Robot robot = new Robot();
 

  • Simulate Mouse move: To move the mouse over a text field - textField

Point locOnScreen = textField.getLocationOnScreen();
robot.mouseMove(locOnScreen.x, locOnScreen.y);

  • Simulate Mouse button press and release at the current mouse pointer position

// Press and release mouse button 1
robot.mousePress(InputEvent.BUTTON1_MASK);
robot.mouseRelease(InputEvent.BUTTON1_MASK);

// Press and release mouse button 2
robot.mousePress(InputEvent.BUTTON2_MASK);
robot.mouseRelease(InputEvent.BUTTON2_MASK);

  • Simulate Keyboard key presses and releases.

// Types the word 'DEMO'
robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_D);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_D);

robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_E);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_E);

robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_M);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_M);

robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_O);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_O);

Note: These methods could be seen as dumb methods which does exactly what you asked it to do. For example if you try to simulate a key press for the character ':' - colon like

robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_COLON)

and in you keyboard the only way you can manually type a colon is to hold shift and press semi-colon ';', then the above line would throw an IllegalArgumentException. The correct way to simulate these characters is to exactly do what can be done with the connected keyboard i.e.

robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);
robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_SEMICOLON);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_SEMICOLON);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);
 

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  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
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Comments

can any try for symbol like

by Visitor - 03/13/2009 - 14:00

can any try for symbol like +,~

in my pc its not workin for

by Visitor - 03/13/2009 - 14:05

in my pc its not workin for above symbol

I have a solution for your

by deepak - 03/15/2009 - 21:31

I have a solution for your problem. I have posted it as a forum post. Please check it at http://www.1your.com/drupal/node/155

bnatey

by Visitor - 11/13/2009 - 16:33


توبيكات


توبيكات توبيكات


توبيكات اسلاميه


توبيكات اسلاميه


توبيكات حزينه

توبيكات حب


توبيكات رومانسيه


توبيكات اسماء


توبيكات اغاني


توبيكات منوعه


توبيكات مضحكه



توبيكات عتاب
توبيكات عتاب
توبيكات ساخره
توبيكات شعريه

توبيكات اجنبيه
توبيكات جديده
توبيكات بنات
توبيكات 2010
توبيكات اعياد
توبيكات عيد الاضحى
توبيكات مناسبات
توبيكات اعياد ميلاد
توبيكات رأس السنه

توبيكات كريسماس
توبيكات توبيكات
توبيكات كرة قدم
توبيكات كأس العالم
توبيكات مصر
توبيكات إلا رسول الله
توبيكات الاهلي
توبيكات الزمالك

توبيكات
توبيكات

توبيكات اسلاميه
توبيكات حزينه

توبيكات حب
توبيكات رومانسيه
توبيكات اسماء
توبيكات اغاني

توبيكات منوعه
توبيكات مضحكه
توبيكات عتاب

توبيكات ساخره
توبيكات شعريه
توبيكات اجنبيه

توبيكات نكت
توبيكات جوال

توبيكات سعوديه
توبيكات شخصيات فنيه
توبيكات ليلة العمر
توبيكات

توبيكات

توبيكات فلاش

توبيكات روعه

توبيكات رائعه

منتديات
دردشة

العاب

العاب بنات
شات


توبيكات مصريه


توبيكات قطريه


دليل مواقع


تحميل صور


مركز تحميل


برامج
كأس العالم
كأس العالم 2010

العاب
العاب بنات
منتدي
فيديو بنات
برامج
مركز رفع صور
شات
دليل المواقع العربيه
العاب
العاب
دليل مواقع
توبيكات
كتب
مقالات
صور
منتدى أجنبي
منتديات

thankes

by ro7im - 12/10/2009 - 13:16


trading forex


forex rates forex rates


forex exchange forex exchange


finanzas forex


forex trade

forex online


forexfactory


traderforex


forexmarket


forex broker


forex broker

thankes

by ro7im - 12/10/2009 - 13:17


trading forex


forex rates forex rates


forex exchange forex exchange


finanzas forex


forex trade

forex online


forexfactory


traderforex


forexmarket


forex broker


forex broker

Post new comment

  • You can enable syntax highlighting of source code with the following tags: <code>. Beside the tag style "<foo>" it is also possible to use "[foo]".
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

  • Search Engines will index and follow ONLY links to allowed domains.

More information about formatting options