binary clipboard data

[cfxdel]

I'm using Delphi 4 and want to write a program which uses clipboard data produced by another application.

The data seems to be some kind of custom clipboard format.

I don't know how the data is formatted or how large the data is, so I would like to just get a binary copy of the data to analyse it.

I can say that running this code:
for I := 0 to Clipboard.FormatCount-1 do
ListBox1.Items.Add(IntToStr(Clipboard.Formats));
produces this list:

49161
49683
1
49171
16
7
13

How do you obtain a complete binary data copy of everything on the clipboard ?

 

[cfxdel]

Found what I needed:

The following url has a set of procedures which uses a stream to dump the binary contents of the clipboard to a file, which can then be viewed with a hex editor.

http://www.swissdelphicenter.ch/torry/showcode.php?id=945

Also useful for analysing the clipboard are the programs "clipboard viewer X" and "cbdump" at:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-tools/Clipboard/Clipboard-Viewer-X.shtml

and

http://www.mschaef.com/blog/tech/excel/what_is_in_your_clipboard.txt

Now I just need to figure out how the application I'm using has actually encoded data on the clipboard.

 

[roo0047]

You'll find everything you need to know in the delphi help file. Search for topic "TClipboard". Be sure to add "Clipbrd" to your uses clause. Add a global var ClipBoard: TClipBoard;
Clipboard.Formats is an array (0..Clipboard.FormatCount-1) of integer.

Helpful constants from Windows.pas:
CF_TEXT = 1;
CF_BITMAP = 2;
CF_METAFILEPICT = 3;
CF_SYLK = 4;
CF_DIF = 5;
CF_TIFF = 6;
CF_OEMTEXT = 7;
CF_DIB = 8;
CF_PALETTE = 9;
CF_PENDATA = 10;
CF_RIFF = 11;
CF_WAVE = 12;
CF_UNICODETEXT = 13;
CF_ENHMETAFILE = 14;
CF_HDROP = 15;
CF_LOCALE = $10;
CF_MAX = 17;
CF_DIBV5 = 17;
CF_MAX_XP = 18;

Example usage:

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
if Clipboard.HasFormat(CF_TEXT) then
  Edit1.Text := Clipboard.AsText
else
  MessageDlg('There is no text on the Clipboard', mtInformation, [mbOK], 0);
end;

HTH

Roo
Delphi Rules!

 

[roo0047]

This should tell you what format type you are dealing with:

for I := 0 to Clipboard.FormatCount-1 do
  case i of 
    0: ListBox1.Items.Add('unknown ' + IntToStr(Clipboard.Formats[I]));
    1: ListBox1.Items.Add('TEXT ' + IntToStr(Clipboard.Formats[I]));
    2: ListBox1.Items.Add('BITMAP ' + IntToStr(Clipboard.Formats[I]));
    3: ListBox1.Items.Add('METAFILEPICT ' + IntToStr(Clipboard.Formats[I]));
    4: ListBox1.Items.Add('SYLK ' + IntToStr(Clipboard.Formats[I]));
    5: ListBox1.Items.Add('DIF ' + IntToStr(Clipboard.Formats[I]));
    6: ListBox1.Items.Add('TIFF ' + IntToStr(Clipboard.Formats[I]));
    7: ListBox1.Items.Add('OEMTEXT ' + IntToStr(Clipboard.Formats[I]));
    8: ListBox1.Items.Add(DIB ' + IntToStr(Clipboard.Formats[I]));
    9: ListBox1.Items.Add('PALETTE ' + IntToStr(Clipboard.Formats[I]));
    10: ListBox1.Items.Add('PENDATA ' + IntToStr(Clipboard.Formats[I]));
    11: ListBox1.Items.Add('RIFF ' + IntToStr(Clipboard.Formats[I]));
    12: ListBox1.Items.Add('WAVE ' + IntToStr(Clipboard.Formats[I]));
    13: ListBox1.Items.Add('UNICODETEXT ' + IntToStr(Clipboard.Formats[I]));
    14: ListBox1.Items.Add('ENHMETAFILE ' + IntToStr(Clipboard.Formats[I]));
    15: ListBox1.Items.Add('HDROP ' + IntToStr(Clipboard.Formats[I]));
    16: ListBox1.Items.Add('LOCALE ' + IntToStr(Clipboard.Formats[I]));
    17: ListBox1.Items.Add('DIBV5 ' + IntToStr(Clipboard.Formats[I]));
  end; //case

Roo
Delphi Rules!

 

[cfxdel]

Roo, I have already responded to my original post to say that I have found what I needed and given a link to a page with the answer. Your post does not answer the question of handling custom formats and neither does the help file as you suggest.

 

[roo0047]

Sorry, I read your post rather quickly and had the code at hand for another assist. I hoped that knowing the clip format type would assist. Perhaps someone else will find the info helpful.