[jawsscripts] Re: Searching menu structures for a particular menu item
- From: Doug Lee <doug.lee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: jawsscripts@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2008 21:00:06 -0500
Half a question, half a "beware" here:
Jamal, you say the Homer Kit can identify the current state of menu
items. I've done that in MSAA as well, but what I found is that the
state I got was actually the state last seen, not the state currently
in effect. This broke down into at least the following cases, and I
want to know if this is the same situation you found when using the
Windows API. These cases are for menu check boxes:
1. If the user never opened the menu, the reported state could be
accurate, but honestly I don't remember the results for this case.
2. If the user opened the menu but did not change something, the
state would be accurate, reliably.
3. If the user opened the menu but closed it by changing something,
the state of that item would reliably be reported as the opposite of
the state currently in effect.
On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 05:14:37PM -0800, Victor Tsaran wrote:
Thanks Jamal,
I will definitely give your tools a whirl.
Best,
Victor
On 12/30/2008 10:02 AM, Jamal Mazrui wrote:
> Hey Vic,
> It's possible to do that via the Windows API but not native JAWS
> scripting functions, as far as I know. WinDig is open source
> http://EmpowermentZone.com/wdsetup.exe
>
> so feel free to look at the source code in WinDig.wbt (the WinBatch
> language).
>
> I also wrote a utility dedicated to enumerating menu items which is
> included in HomerKit
> http://EmpowermentZone.com/kitsetup.zip
>
> MenuList.bas is in PowerBASIC. The small executable, MenuList.exe,
> creates a text file that lists all menu items, including their current
> state (which addresses another question someone had about whether a menu
> item is disabled). Look at the UIAlterNateMenu script in Editor.jss for
> an example of how the output is parsed.
>
> Jamal
> On Wed, 24 Dec 2008, Victor Tsaran
> wrote:
>
>> Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2008 12:10:48 -0800
>> From: Victor Tsaran<vtsaran@xxxxxxxxx>
>> Reply-To: jawsscripts@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> To: jawsscripts@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Subject: [jawsscripts] Re: Searching menu structures for a particular
>> menu item
>>
>> Hey Jamal,
>> A quick question for you: is there a way to retrieve text string
>> associated with a menu ID without actually activating the menu item
>> itself? I am not able to figure that one out and not sure if the method
>> even exists..
>> Thx,
>> Vic
>>
>> Jamal Mazrui wrote:
>>> I found a message I previously wrote explaining the SendMessage (or
>>> PostMessage) technique for invoking a menu item. Once again, WinDig is
>>> available at
>>> http://EmpowermentZone.com/wdsetup.exe
>>>
>>> You can get almost any of my programs from the Open Source Projects page
>>> of
>>> http://NonvisualDevelopment.org
>>>
>>> Jamal
>>>
>>> From: Jawsscripts-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of Jamal Mazrui
>>> [empower@xxxxxxxxx]
>>> Sent: Friday, September 23, 2005 6:36 AM
>>> To: jawsscripts@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> Subject: Using WinDig output to invoke menu choices via SendMessage
>>>
>>> In the "Menus" section of WinDig output, the last piece of data on the
>>> line for a menu item is its menu ID--if one exists. If a menu item does
>>> not have a hot key but does have a menu ID, you can create a hot key via a
>>> JAWS script and the SendMessage function. For example, the following line
>>> of WinDig output is about the Paste Special menu item of WordPad:
>>>
>>> 2.5 Paste Special... S 57639
>>>
>>> The 2.5 number is the outline number of the menu hierarchy, indicating
>>> that the menu item is the fifth one down the second menu, the Edit menu.
>>> The ... ellipses indicate that the menu item presents a dialog. S is the
>>> access letter, indicating that you can press it when the Edit menu is
>>> dropped down to invoke this menu item. Finally, the 57639 number is the
>>> menu ID, similar to a control ID.
>>>
>>> This review of the WinDig output for WordPad showed no accelerator key for
>>> PasteSpecial but a menu ID was available. I am not suggesting that
>>> scripts are needed for every menu item without a hot key--this is just to
>>> illustrate the technique, and you would judge whether such a script adds
>>> significant value in the context of the application.
>>>
>>> Although it is also possible to invoke a menu item by sending keystrokes
>>> to the application, that technique is less reliable because it is affected
>>> by the current keyboard focus. It also tends to produce extra speech
>>> which you may then need to silence with SpeechOff and Delay functions.
>>>
>>> The SendMessage approach, on the other hand, does not actually activate
>>> and navigate the menus of the application's user interface. It uses a
>>> Windows message constant, WM_COMMAND, which is passed with a menu ID to
>>> the application window associated with the menu of interest. The relevant
>>> window handle is usually the one returned by GetAppMainWindow, but the
>>> InvokeMenuItem wrapper function below does not assume this in case you
>>> wish to use another window, including a window of an application other
>>> than the one with focus.
>>>
>>> The code below consists of a generic function called InvokeMenuItem, and
>>> a sample script called PasteSpecial, which might be attached to
>>> Control+Shift+V. Note that a limitation of this approach is that it only
>>> works if the application implements standard menus of the Win32 API.
>>> Unfortunately, many applications do not, such as those in the Microsoft
>>> Office suite.
>>>
>>> Jamal
>>>
>>>
>>> Int Function InvokeMenuItem(Handle h, Int i)
>>> Var
>>> Int WM_COMMAND
>>>
>>> Let WM_COMMAND = 273
>>> Return SendMessage(h, WM_COMMAND, i, 0)
>>> EndFunction
>>>
>>> Script PasteSpecial()
>>> Var
>>> Handle h,
>>> Int i
>>>
>>> Let h = GetAppMainWindow(GetFocus())
>>> Let i = 57639 ; menu ID of Paste Special in WordPad
>>>
>>> InvokeMenuItem(h, i)
>>> EndScript
>>>
>>>
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--
Doug Lee, Senior Accessibility Programmer
SSB BART Group - Accessibility-on-Demand
mailto:doug.lee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.ssbbartgroup.com
"While they were saying among themselves it cannot be done,
it was done." --Helen Keller
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