Launch an application and retain focus for remote

[Morgan111]

I am trying to launch Internet Explorer with ExecuteProcess() and then be able to respond to inputs from the remote control. I have tried calling a dll function after calling ExecuteProcess which does a find window on the Sage window and making it active and even foreground but have not had any luck. The focus to keyboard and remote remains on the IE window that was launched.

Any ideas?

[CollinR]

I suggest tring out EventGhost, the SageTV plugin works perfectly in this situation. IE has focus and remote control commands go to SageTV, so you can effectively surf and watch at the same time.

You can also launch IE resize and reposition the 2 windows from within EventGhost all in one stroke.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<EventGhost Version="1242">
    <Macro Name="MultiTask" Expanded="True">
        <Event Name="Main.Multitask">
        </Event>
        <Action>
            Window.FindWindow(u'SageTV.exe', u'SageTV', u'sage.SpecialWindow', u'', u'SunAwtCanvas', 7, False, 15.0, 0)
        </Action>
        <Action>
            Window.Restore()
        </Action>
        <Action>
            Window.Resize(640, 480)
        </Action>
        <Action>
            Window.MoveTo(0, 0)
        </Action>
        <Action>
            Window.FindWindow(u'iexplore.exe', u'Google - Windows Internet Explorer', u'IEFrame', None, None, 1, False, 0.0, 0)
        </Action>
        <Action>
            Window.BringToFront()
        </Action>
        <Action>
            Window.MoveTo(641, 0)
        </Action>
        <Action>
            Window.Resize(726, 768)
        </Action>
        <Action>
            System.Execute(u'C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\osk.exe', u'', 0, False, 2, u'')
        </Action>
        <Action>
            Window.FindWindow(u'osk.exe', u'On-Screen Keyboard', u'OSKMainClass', None, None, 1, False, 30.0, 0)
        </Action>
        <Action>
            Window.MoveTo(0, 545)
        </Action>
    </Macro>
</EventGhost>

That is setup for a 1366x768 display with SageTV 640x480 and IE 726x768That will also bring up the on screen keyboard below SageTV so you can type with remote too.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Morgan111

I am trying to launch Internet Explorer with ExecuteProcess() and then be able to respond to inputs from the remote control. I have tried calling a dll function after calling ExecuteProcess which does a find window on the Sage window and making it active and even foreground but have not had any luck. The focus to keyboard and remote remains on the IE window that was launched.

Any ideas?

Morgan,
Is this for coding in the Netflix plugin or are you trying to set up your remote to work with SageTV?

[Morgan111]

CollinR, thanks for the suggestion. I'd rather not depend on a 3rd party app but I will check it out. In fact, from the Ghost parameters and commands you listed, I may be able to tweak up my dll to do what I want.

Brent, NetFlix of course!

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Morgan111

I am trying to launch Internet Explorer with ExecuteProcess() and then be able to respond to inputs from the remote control. I have tried calling a dll function after calling ExecuteProcess which does a find window on the Sage window and making it active and even foreground but have not had any luck. The focus to keyboard and remote remains on the IE window that was launched.

Any ideas?

Originally Posted by Morgan111

CollinR, thanks for the suggestion. I'd rather not depend on a 3rd party app but I will check it out. In fact, from the Ghost parameters and commands you listed, I may be able to tweak up my dll to do what I want.

Brent, NetFlix of course!

Ah. That's what I thought.

For the expert coders out there (I know you're here ) What Morgan needs is a way to launch the Internet Explorer Window (for the Netflix Watch-Now app) and execute windows commands that control the interface like girder does (explained further in this post). If anyone has any ideas post them here as we would love to see this added to the netflix plugin so girder wouldn't be required. Collin is on the right track with the eventghost settings he mentioned.

[Morgan111]

Originally Posted by Brent

Ah. That's what I thought.

For the expert coders out there (I know you're here ) What Morgan needs is a way to launch the Internet Explorer Window (for the Netflix Watch-Now app) and execute windows commands that control the interface like girder does (explained further in this post). If anyone has any ideas post them here as we would love to see this added to the netflix plugin so girder wouldn't be required. Collin is on the right track with the eventghost settings he mentioned.

I am actually making progress in setting SageTV as the forground window and then making the IE player display as the topmost window. I have code to send Windows messages to the IE player although I still have to verify the exact messages to send for each command (Spy++ seems to be able to grab what data I need). My problem now is that I can run the code to make Sage receive the remote and keyboard, but not if it is called from Sage in a dll or in a seperate process using ExecuteProcess, but it works if I manually launch a process that executes that code to give it focus. So, I am at least getting closer.