Insert Text into the Textbox of Another Application

Insert text into the textbox of another application

Use FindWindowEx() to find the handle (HWND) and then send the WM_SETTEXT message using SendMessage()

When using FindWindowEx you will need to first find the main window handle by using its class name. Then you will need to find the handle of whatever container the textbox is in, calling FindWindowEx, passing the handle of the parent (the window), and the class name of the container. You will need to repeat this until you reach the textbox. You can use a tool called Spy++ that is installed by default with Visual Studio to inspect the target application and find out the hierarchy of containers (all objects are really called windows in the API but I'm calling them containers in contrast with the top-level window) with their class names.

Programatically paste text into text box in another application

You can bring up the other app and send a key combination... something like:

[DllImport ("User32.dll")]
static extern int SetForegroundWindow(IntPtr hwnd);

public static void PasteToApplication(string appName)
{
  var proc = Process.GetProcessesByName(appName).FirstOrDefault();
  if(proc != null)
  {
    var handle = proc.MainWindowHandle;
    SetForegroundWindow(handle);
    SendKeys.SendWait("^v");
  }
}

This should bring up the other app's window and send a ctrl-v command. With a bit of experimentation, you could find out the exact handle of the control you want to send the paste to, and set focus on it aswell

UI Automation - Set Text for a another application's TextBox

You should first check for the availability of the ValuePattern pattern:

• If the ValuePattern pattern is available, use its SetValue method.
• Else use one of the following solutions:
  
  
  1. Set the focus to the control and use SendKeys to clear and set the text.
  2. Or Use SendMessage and send WM_SETTEXT message to set the text,

Example

var notepad = System.Diagnostics.Process.GetProcessesByName("notepad").FirstOrDefault();
if (notepad != null)
{
    var root = AutomationElement.FromHandle(notepad.MainWindowHandle);
    var element = root.FindAll(TreeScope.Subtree, Condition.TrueCondition)
                        .Cast<AutomationElement>()
                        .Where(x => x.Current.ClassName == "Edit" &&
                                    x.Current.AutomationId == "15").FirstOrDefault();
    if (element != null)
    {
        if (element.TryGetCurrentPattern(ValuePattern.Pattern, out object pattern))
        {
            ((ValuePattern)pattern).SetValue("Something!");
        }
        else
        {
            element.SetFocus();
            SendKeys.SendWait("^{HOME}");   // Move to start of control
            SendKeys.SendWait("^+{END}");   // Select everything
            SendKeys.SendWait("{DEL}");     // Delete selection
            SendKeys.SendWait("Something!");

           // OR 
           // SendMessage(element.Current.NativeWindowHandle, WM_SETTEXT, 0, "Something!");
        }
    }
}

In case of using SendMessage make sure you add the following declarations to the class:

[System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("User32.dll")]
static extern int SendMessage(int hWnd, int uMsg, int wParam, string lParam);
const int WM_SETTEXT = 0x000C;

You can read about the approach:

• Add Content to a Text Box Using UI Automation

How to insert text to another program's textbox using java

As Jonathon noted in the comment, you can try using java.awt.Robot. But you'd need to know the exact location of target text field, and have it visible on the screen.

You can have something like:

Robot robot = new Robot();
robot.mouseMove(xCoord, yCoord);
robot.mouseRelease(InputEvent.BUTTON1_MASK);
robot.keyPress(50);
robot.keyPress(51);

Apart from that, you'd need the application to provide some native API to interact with its form, and use it via JNI.

Writing/Reading text in the Text box of a application from another application

Use the GetWindowText method to read the text and SetWindowText to set the text.

However, if you control both applications, you really should think about implementing some kind of inter process communication either using old school named pipes, shared memory or up-to-date WCF.

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