How to simulate a mouse movement - c++

Question

How can I simulate a mouse event causing the pointer to move 500 pixels to the left, then click using C++. How would I do something like this?

Answer 1

Here's some modified Win32 code I had lying around:
#define WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN
#define _WIN32_WINNT 0x0500
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <conio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <windows.h>
#define X 123
#define Y 123
#define SCREEN_WIDTH 1024
#define SCREEN_HEIGHT 800
void MouseSetup(INPUT *buffer)
{
buffer->type = INPUT_MOUSE;
buffer->mi.dx = (0 * (0xFFFF / SCREEN_WIDTH));
buffer->mi.dy = (0 * (0xFFFF / SCREEN_HEIGHT));
buffer->mi.mouseData = 0;
buffer->mi.dwFlags = MOUSEEVENTF_ABSOLUTE;
buffer->mi.time = 0;
buffer->mi.dwExtraInfo = 0;
}
void MouseMoveAbsolute(INPUT *buffer, int x, int y)
{
buffer->mi.dx = (x * (0xFFFF / SCREEN_WIDTH));
buffer->mi.dy = (y * (0xFFFF / SCREEN_HEIGHT));
buffer->mi.dwFlags = (MOUSEEVENTF_ABSOLUTE | MOUSEEVENTF_MOVE);
SendInput(1, buffer, sizeof(INPUT));
}
void MouseClick(INPUT *buffer)
{
buffer->mi.dwFlags = (MOUSEEVENTF_ABSOLUTE | MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTDOWN);
SendInput(1, buffer, sizeof(INPUT));
Sleep(10);
buffer->mi.dwFlags = (MOUSEEVENTF_ABSOLUTE | MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTUP);
SendInput(1, buffer, sizeof(INPUT));
}
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
INPUT buffer[1];
MouseSetup(&buffer);
MouseMoveAbsolute(&buffer, X, Y);
MouseClick(&buffer);
return 0;
}
You'll need to call MouseSetup() to each INPUT buffer before you use it.
Resources
MSDN - SendInput()
MSDN - INPUT
MSDN - MOUSEINPUT

Answer 2

Here is a solution using Xlib for those who use Linux :
#include <X11/Xlib.h>
#include<stdio.h>
#include<unistd.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <X11/Xlib.h>
#include <X11/Xutil.h>
void mouseClick(int button)
{
Display *display = XOpenDisplay(NULL);
XEvent event;
if(display == NULL)
{
fprintf(stderr, "Errore nell'apertura del Display !!!\n");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
memset(&event, 0x00, sizeof(event));
event.type = ButtonPress;
event.xbutton.button = button;
event.xbutton.same_screen = True;
XQueryPointer(display, RootWindow(display, DefaultScreen(display)), &event.xbutton.root, &event.xbutton.window, &event.xbutton.x_root, &event.xbutton.y_root, &event.xbutton.x, &event.xbutton.y, &event.xbutton.state);
event.xbutton.subwindow = event.xbutton.window;
while(event.xbutton.subwindow)
{
event.xbutton.window = event.xbutton.subwindow;
XQueryPointer(display, event.xbutton.window, &event.xbutton.root, &event.xbutton.subwindow, &event.xbutton.x_root, &event.xbutton.y_root, &event.xbutton.x, &event.xbutton.y, &event.xbutton.state);
}
if(XSendEvent(display, PointerWindow, True, 0xfff, &event) == 0) fprintf(stderr, "Error\n");
XFlush(display);
usleep(100000);
event.type = ButtonRelease;
event.xbutton.state = 0x100;
if(XSendEvent(display, PointerWindow, True, 0xfff, &event) == 0) fprintf(stderr, "Error\n");
XFlush(display);
XCloseDisplay(display);
}
int main(int argc, char * argv[]) {
int x , y;
x = atoi(argv[1]);
y = atoi(argv[2]);
Display *display = XOpenDisplay(0);
Window root = DefaultRootWindow(display);
XWarpPointer(display, None, root, 0, 0, 0, 0, x, y);
mouseClick(Button1);
XFlush(display);
XCloseDisplay(display);
return 0;
}
Just Build it and then to simulate a click at x ,y do:
$ ./a.out x y
i.e.
$g++ -lX11 sgmousesim2.cpp
$./a.out 123 13

Answer 3

Use SendInput to generate the input you want to simulate. From MSDN documentation:
Synthesizes keystrokes, mouse motions, and button clicks.

Answer 4

I have never did this using C++. Nevertheless, there is a Java class called Robot which is able to produce mouse events. I used this back on Java version 1.4 but it does still work. I tried the example from this Simulate a physical mouse move in Mac OS X. It runs smoothly with Oracle Java 1.6.0_26 on MacOSX Lion. The good about Java is that it is platform independent.
import java.awt.AWTException;
import java.awt.Robot;
public final class MovingMouseDemo
{
public static void main(String[] args) throws AWTException
{
Robot robot = new Robot();
robot.setAutoDelay(5);
robot.setAutoWaitForIdle(true);
//put mouse in the top left of the screen
robot.mouseMove(0, 0);
//wait so that you can see the result
robot.delay(1000);
//put the mouse 200 pixels away from the top
//10 pixels away from the left
robot.mouseMove(200, 10);
robot.delay(1000);
robot.mouseMove(40, 130);
}
}
You can still use JNI to bind it with C++.
I hope it helps

Answer 5

C++ alone can't do this. It has no concept of a "mouse", let alone a "click".
You need some sort of library which talks to your windowing system. For example, QT. Then it's a matter of searching through the API and making the right C++ calls.

Answer 6

Use the mouse_event function.