Need some help with a Visual Basic problem

[Designer]

Hi there, I'm trying to get around a problem with a bit of software called Sweetlight where it controls something through an external smartbox. The problem is that I have to click a few buttons in the program and i'm looking at a way to automate this (like on a timer), and i've found out that I can assign the buttons to keystrokes in their configuration software, so while the program is open pressing the key 'A' on the keyboard would trigger sequence A in their program, 'B' for B etc.

Recently, this was posted on their forum (www.sweetlight-controller.com) and it's in C, so i'm not famailiar at all with it

It is possible to run MACROs of USER screen with Windows messages. The following example explain how to run the first MACRO button of USER screen (written in c++ language). #define MACRO1_ON 101 #define MACRO2_ON MACRO1_ON + 1 ... #define MACRO35_ON MACRO34_ON + 1 CWnd* Window; COPYDATASTRUCT cds; Window = FindWindow(NULL, "user screen"); if(Window) { cds.dwData = MACRO1_ON; cds.lpData = "ext prog"; cds.cbData = strlen("ext prog"); Window->sendMessage(WM_COPYDATA, (WPARAM)NULL, (LPARAM)&cds); }

Apparently this will give triggers from an external program (or so i'm told). Does anyone know a way of doing this in Visual Basic. Someone on their forum sent me this but it doesnt appear to work

Private Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String) As Long
Private Type COPYDATASTRUCT
        dwData As Long
        cbData As Long
        lpData As Long
End Type
Private Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias "SendMessageA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, lParam As Any) As Long
Private Const WM_COPYDATA = &H4A


    Const MACRO1_ON = 101
    Const MACRO2_ON = MACRO1_ON + 1
    ...
    Const MACRO35_ON = MACRO34_ON + 1
   
    Dim Window As Long
    Dim cds As COPYDATASTRUCT
    Dim message_out As String

    Window = FindWindow(vbNullString, "user screen")
    If Window <> vbNull Then
        cds.dwData = MACRO1_ON
        message_out = StrConv("ext prog", vbFromUnicode)
        cds.lpData = StrPtr(message_out)
        cds.cbData = LenB(message_out) + 1
        SendMessage Window, WM_COPYDATA, vbNull, cds
    End If

This is really bugging me now, so any help with this problem would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Designer]

Oh well I finally found the answer to this by myself, just thought i'd post it so everyone else knows.

AppActivate ("user screen")
SendKeys ("a"), wait

Alright, I know strictly this isnt the proper answer to the problem but it works, instead of doing what its supposed to it just sends a keystroke to the USER SCREEN program which effectively gives the same end result.


Quite straightforward in the end, lol it's just taken me about 8 months to do it though