Simulate button click

Question

How can I simulate a visual click on a button in my form( WinForms ). I don't mean "Button_Press(MyButton, new KeyPressEventArgs());" I want the user to see(visually) the button being clicked. of course i don't want to use SendKeys.Send("{ENTER}") or other functions from this kind thanks you.

Answer 1

If you use a RadioButton instead of a normal Button, you can set its .Appearance property to "Button" and then modify its .Checked property from somewhere else.

eg.

this.radioButton1.Appearance = Appearance.Button;

and then call:

this.radioButton1.Checked = true;

or

this.radioButton1.Checked = false;

It will look just like a regular button.

Answer 2

There is no clean way to do this. The only way I'm aware of is to use the mouse_event function from user32.dll. This also requires that you temporarily move the cursor to the desired location, perform the click, then move it back.

[DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, 
 CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
public static extern void mouse_event(long dwFlags, long dx, long dy, 
    long cButtons, long dwExtraInfo);

private const int MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTDOWN = 0x02;
private const int MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTUP = 0x04;
private const int MOUSEEVENTF_RIGHTDOWN = 0x08;
private const int MOUSEEVENTF_RIGHTUP = 0x10;

public void ClickMouseLeftButton(Point globalLocation)
{
    Point currLocation = Cursor.Position;

    Cursor.Position = globalLocation;

    mouse_event(MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTDOWN | MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTUP, 
        globalLocation.X, globalLocation.Y, 0, 0);

    Cursor.Position = currLocation;
}

public void ClickControl(Control target, Point localLocation)
{
    ClickMouseLeftButton(target.PointToScreen(localLocation));
}

public void ClickControl(Control target)
{
    ClickControl(target, new Point(target.Width / 2, target.Height / 2));
}

Alternatively, you could turn this into an extension method:

public static class ControlExtensions
{
    [DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, 
     CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
    private static extern void mouse_event(long dwFlags, long dx, long dy, 
        long cButtons, long dwExtraInfo);

    private const int MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTDOWN = 0x02;
    private const int MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTUP = 0x04;
    private const int MOUSEEVENTF_RIGHTDOWN = 0x08;
    private const int MOUSEEVENTF_RIGHTUP = 0x10;

    private static void ClickMouseLeftButton(Point globalLocation)
    {
        Point currLocation = Cursor.Position;

        Cursor.Position = globalLocation;

        mouse_event(MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTDOWN | MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTUP, 
            globalLocation.X, globalLocation.Y, 0, 0);

        Cursor.Position = currLocation;
    }

    public static void ClickMouse(this Control target, Point localLocation)
    {
        ClickMouseLeftButton(target.PointToScreen(localLocation));
    }

    public static void ClickMouse(this Control target)
    {
        ClickMouse(target, new Point(target.Width / 2, target.Height / 2));
    }
}

This will allow you to call controlName.ClickMouse();

Answer 3

Here's a ridiculously simple solution:

button1.Focus();
SendKeys.Send(" ");

Answer 4

You could always try White. I've observed it moving the mouse pointer and visibly clicking on Silverlight UI elements in my automated UI tests; I imagine the same would happen with WinForms but I can't say for certain.