Check for keystroke - java

Im making an application that should see if your online or away.
So i need to somehow see when the user hit a key on the keyboard last time.
The application is running in the background and you can only access it from the trey.
Is this possible and if it is how would i check.
Best regards

I believe that what you're looking for can be done via a global keyboard hook, but that doesn't have direct support in the JVM. From Googling, it would appear that your only options are to write a C++ shim which you can use via JNI, or go via libffi with JRuby.

From what I've read here it is not possible to add KeyListener to the SystemTray. The only listener that is supported, is the PropertyChangedListener.
Furthermore from that question it seems to be possible on Windows but not on Linux and MacOS.

This is possible, but not using Java. You'll have to use JNI to access OS APIs that provide this information (and implent it differently for each OS).

Related

How can I Listen for something that occurs within the OS itself

For instance, I would like to have my program running in the background and when text is highlighted anywhere, my program will come alive into focus.
Similar to what TinyGrab does, it appears once the user makes a screenshot.
That is a very OS specific question you have there and can definitely not be done in native Java. If there is support for what you are looking for by the OS, you will definitely have to use a Java Native Interface (JNI) to write plain C code in order to have access to the low-level OS features provided in C.
I dont think its a good idea to use a virtual machine to spy the host machine's ui ...
check for the host os/ui for the supported way to access user inputs and then call/execute/signal it somehow to the vm.

Can information be brought from windows device manager using java program?

I want to bring the information stored in device manager since there is no way to detect hardwares directly using java.Can this be done?
Not in pure Java. You'll need to use JNI and some Windows C/C++ to get access to that level of info. If that's too much work, you could make use of something like xFunction.

How do you turn on and off a monitor from within a Java application?

How do you turn on and off a monitor from within a Java application?
In case you're wondering why, this is a kiosk style application where it would be great to turn off the monitors at night. Yes you can do it within the screensaver settings of the machine, but it would be great to do it programatically and avoid having to configure it on each machine.
Assuming you deploy your Java Applications on Windows, you can use this WIN32API functions:
// turn off monitor
SendMessage(HWND_BROADCAST, WM_SYSCOMMAND, SC_MONITORPOWER, (LPARAM) 2);
// turn on monitor
SendMessage(HWND_BROADCAST, WM_SYSCOMMAND, SC_MONITORPOWER, (LPARAM) -1);
Then you write a little C-JNI wrapper to functions that call the mentioned SendMessage and use the little wrapper to turn off the monitor from Java.
While you can query the monitor configurations with Java, there is no way to turn the monitors on and off programatically without using JNI.
I have seen this exe named nircmd on the net. It is a freeware and can be used on by anyone.It has a built in function for doing this.
nircmd.exe monitor off
A detailed help is also found in the website.
Just use it in your program and call it using
Runtime.getRuntime().exec(this.getClass().getResource("nircmd.exe").getPath());
or put it to the windows directory and run it from there.
You can open a full screen swing window, make it completely black, so the monitor, as far as observable behavior is concerned, is turned off.

Intercept / Disable System Keys in Java

Is there a way to intercept the system keys in Java so that the events are not propagated to the operating system? Ctrl+Alt+Del or other security related combinations do not matter, the main problem is for example the Windows key.
The program in question is a for a full screen application that performs some remote operations via a proprietary protocol. Currently my only idea would be to solve this via JNI, whereas the solution for Windows seems to be simple, I'm not sure about Linux and MAC OS X.
I'd prefer a somewhat standard solution, maybe there is something for Java games or so.
Java processes the key strokes after the operating system (OS), so Java can't "intercept" them. Although, you could code OS specific stuff in C/C++ that intercepted the keystrokes and call it in Java using JNI.
This appears to be fixed in Java 5, so you could have a shot at it. Apparently, the KeyEvent class in the Java API exposes two Microsoft Windows keyboard specific events - VK_WINDOWS (for the left and right winkeys) and VK_CONTEXT_MENU (for the context menu key).
It is quite possible to trap these events by implementing a KeyListener, but be forewarned that if you attempt to capture the Winkey event alone, you're bound to trip the event handler of the OS first, before Java can process it.

Can Java see activity of my keyboard?

I would like to write a program which can monitor activity of my keyboard. In more details, the Java program should "see" which key is pressed/released and when. All this information should be stored in a given file.
First of all I would like to know if it's possible to do it with Java. I know that it's possible if I type in a text field generated by Java program. But is it possible for Java to monitor the keyboard activity if I type, let say, in a text field of a browser or, for example, in word (or open office) document?
These events are directed to the window which has the focus, from all events on the desktop you can only get the mouse position.
import java.awt.MouseInfo;
public class Mouse {
public static void main(String[] args) {
while ( true ) {
System.out.println( MouseInfo.getPointerInfo().getLocation() );
}
}
}
For capturing sysem wide (what you need for word) you need to include a native lib
Code example for windows: Native keyboard mouse hook
Forget JNI and JNA.
There is now a new library for native mouse&keyboard access that works exactly the same as MouseXxxListener and KeyListener. In other words, it's a familiar interface so you don't have to learn anything new (except for how you link an external library).
https://code.google.com/p/jnativehook/
Forget JNI
JNA is the solution (is based on JNI but it's way easier although most people don't use it thinking it's as difficult as JNI, but it's not)
Check https://github.com/twall/jna/
and specifically in the middle of the page where it says: Platform / Platform Documentation
If you download the platform.jar (and check the sourcecode) you'll find a wrapper around
User32.dll where you can find the win32 function
GetAsyncKeyState(int vKey)
mapped to a corresponding java function
(see h**ps://jna.dev.java.net/javadoc/platform/com/sun/jna/platform/win32/User32.html)
There u can check the state of a key (pressed or released)
If you need a global key listener have a look at my other reply to:
h**p://stackoverflow.com/questions/696170/java-keylistener-without-window-being-open/4394398
Thanks to Stackoverflow i can't post more than one working link in my replies :(
Cheers
It's likely possible to write a Java-based key logger using some native libraries, although be aware that such a program is likely more noticeable than one with a different technology, since the Java VM will need to be running for it to work. Keep that in mind if you're trying to be clandestine.
Also, if you just need such a program for use, and don't have to develop it yourself, there are many hardware and software keylogging systems already out there that you could use instead.
I think that native functions can do it.
It's something like you can connect c++ with Java.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_Native_Interface
What you are requesting is not possible using the Java API. In order to do system-wide key logging you need to register with win32 (or other OS native) hooks. Specifically, this will be done using native libraries and interfacing with the JNI.
There are some code snippets over at http://forums.sun.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3808163#3808163. It's a good example of how to get started with JNI and registering a Java callback to a win32 hook.

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