Help with Application control

[Iceman2005]

Hi, can anyone direct me to where i can find a good c++ API that allows me to control the actions of another application running on my pc?

like i want to automate the actions of an application and sending messages, simulate button clicks, menu management, that sort of stuff.

is there such an api out there that would allow me to do that? preferably a very simple api, that is free or open source.

thanks
iceman

 

[RGeorg]

There is no generic API to perform actions in another app, i.e. to take over its message pump.
A simple way of communication is by ::FindWindow API that uses a class name. It returns the handle to the app with that class name. You can then use WM_COPYDATA to transfer data to the app you want to control, and depending on the data passed take some action in the responding app but both applications shoudl implement this interface.
The other methods are based on client/server and include RPC, COM, etc.

 

[cpjust]

Rational Visual Test does this really well.

http://www.rational.com/

I also tried Winrunner, but I found it harder to use than Visual Test and I couldn't get it to work well with standard apps, only web browser apps.