NAME

Win32::Shortkeys::Kbh - Perl extension for hooking the keyboard on windows

VERSION

0.01

SYNOPSIS

    use Win32::Shortkeys::Kbh qw(:hook :input VK_BACK VK_TAB);
    
    set_key_processor(sub {
        my ($cup, $code, $alt, $ext) = @_;
       # return on keypressed
        return if $cup == 0;

         print "process_key in perl cup: $cup code: $code alt: $alt ext: $ext \n";
        if ($code == 123) { 
            unregister_hook(); 
            quit();
        }

        if ($code == 83) { 
             sleep 1; #or usleep from Time::HiRes for shorter time
             unregister_hook();
             send_cmd(1, VK_BACK); #erase the key pressed
             send_string("You hit the s key !!!"); #and send something else
             register_hook();
        }
    
    });
    register_hook();
    msg_loop();

DESCRIPTION

This module uses Win32 API fucntions to create a keyboard hook with register_hook. A sub ref is pass to the hook with set_key_processor. This sub is called on key press and key release. It receives the key code and can react using seng_string or send_cmd.

If you run the code (also in example/example.pl) in the synopsis and if you open the notepad any keys except the s will be print out normaly. When the s key is relead the keyboard will print 'You hit the s key'. F12 will terminate the script.

set_key_processor( $my_sub_ref )

The sub passed to this function received the following parameters

$cup

Indicates if the key is released ($cup > 0) or pressed ($cup == 0)

$code

The virtual key code of the key

$alt

Indicates if the alt key is pressed ($alt > 0) or not ($alt == 0)

$ext

Indicates ($ext == 1) if extended-key flag is set or not ($ext == 0). Following ms windows documentation this flag is set if one of the additional keys on the enhanced keyboard is used. The extended keys consist of the ALT and CTRL keys on the right-hand side of the keyboard; the INS, DEL, HOME, END, PAGE UP, PAGE DOWN, and arrow keys in the clusters to the left of the numeric keypad; the NUM LOCK key; the BREAK (CTRL+PAUSE) key; the PRINT SCRN key; and the divide (/) and ENTER keys in the numeric keypad.

register_hook

unregister_hook

msg_loop

calls this to prevent your script from leaving and use next function to quit.

quit

send_cmd($how_much, $vk_code)

VK_CODE are exported by this module and can be use as constant in the perl code.

send_string("bla")

 C<register_hook>. Send string (C<send_string("bla")>or commands C<send_cmd(how_much, VK_TAB)> to the keyboard: 

EXPORT

None by default.

EXPORT_OK

The following export tags are defined to import on request:

input for send_string send_cmd paste_from_clpb

hook for register_hook unregister_hook msg_loop set_key_processor qui

vkcode to import all the VK_CODE defined

all to import everything.

EXAMPLE

The code from the SYNOPSIS above can be run from the example/example.pl script.

INSTALLATION

To install this module type the following: perl Makefile.PL make make test make install

On windows use nmake or dmake instead of make.

SEE ALSO

Win32::Shortkeys

SUPPORT

Questions or problems can be posted to me (rappazf) on my gmail account.

The current state of the source can be extract using Mercurial from

http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32-shortkeys-kbh/.

AUTHOR

François Rappaz <rappazf@gmail.com>

COPYRIGHT

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module.

cpanm Win32::Shortkeys::Kbh

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Win32::Shortkeys::Kbh