Block all other input to an application and control it from a wrapper in Java

Posted by Oren on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Oren
Published on 2010-04-27T03:32:40Z Indexed on 2010/04/27 3:33 UTC
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Filed under:

java

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automation

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wrapper

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Windows

I have a windows application which has a complex GUI that I would like to hide from users. In order to do this, I would like to create a wrapper with an extremely simple interface that overlays this application and automates a number of actions when a user clicks a single button on the wrapper. (I hope "wrapper" is the proper term.) Is it possible to use Java to block input to the underlying application so that users cannot inadvertently mess up the automation? How would I go about this? Also, how can I automate key presses and clicks to the application without hijacking the mouse? Is this possible in Java?

I have looked at java.awt.Robot, but it appears to hijack the mouse. I have also looked at AutoIT, but it too hijacks the mouse and does not integrate with Java.

Neither of these options seem powerful enough for what I need, but I do not know how else to proceed.

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