Macro, Capture MOUSE and KEYBOARD

Question

I need to do a macro, capturing mouse and keyboard. How should I proceed in JAVA? I need some specific API ?

Answer 1

If I understood correctly, the idea of making a Macro would be to automate a task, as if it were a user using the computer.

The Java API provides the class Robot to do so. It contains methods that trigger simple events such as mouseMove, mousePress and keyPress.

For automation of simple tasks it should work well. However, the documentation warns that in some systems special permissions may be required to function.

I don’t know this API very well, so I can’t tell you what are the limitations and problems that can occur.

If you need something more elaborate you can try a third-party API, such as the jNativeHook, which provides a Java API interface with native methods of the Operating System API. In fact, the idea is the same as in the class Robot, but they promise more functionality.

Answer 2

Just to complete the @utluiz reply

Some practical examples of the use of these functions:

Uncontrolled mouse randomly walks by the screen:

public static  void movemouse(){
        Robot robot = null;
        try {
            robot = new Robot();
        } catch (AWTException ex) {
            Logger.getLogger(NewJFrame.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
        }
        Random random = new Random();
        while (stop<=30) {
            robot.mouseMove(random.nextInt(500), random.nextInt(500));
            stop++;
            try {
                Thread.sleep(2000);
            } catch (InterruptedException ex) {
                Logger.getLogger(NewJFrame.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
            }                
        }               
    }

Program that shuts down the computer (possibly have to change the values due to resolution)

public static  void desligaPc(){
    Robot robot = null;
    try {
        robot = new Robot();
    } catch (AWTException ex) {
        Logger.getLogger(NewJFrame.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
    }

        robot.mouseMove(0, 800);
        robot.mousePress(InputEvent.BUTTON1_MASK);
        robot.mouseMove(300, 700);
        robot.mousePress(InputEvent.BUTTON1_MASK);
        robot.mouseRelease(InputEvent.BUTTON1_MASK);            
    }    
}