Paltalking (any version) with VB 2005 Express Beta

I would have preferred to zip up my project and attach it, or stick it in the download area, but I didn’t see how. Sorry if this violates etiquette.

I am using Visual Basic 2005 Express Beta. I think you will find the code interesting. I have not written anything that has not been accomplished before in different ways. I wrote yet another routine to write to Paltak for a specific group name, in Version 8. Big Woop. But I think you will find the use of collections, classes, and recursion worth a look. These are three things that were greatly improved in the new Visual Basic. Special thanks to loco for coming up with the idea to declare a richtextbox to do formatting.

This code should work for any Paltalk verson. Let me know if I am wrong.

Imports System.Collections.Generic

Public Class HandleGrabber



' ********** Well I do declare **********

Declare Function GetWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Int32, ByVal wCmd As Int32) As Int32

Declare Function GetWindowText Lib "user32" Alias "GetWindowTextA" (ByVal hwnd As Int32, ByVal lpString As String, ByVal cch As Int32) As Int32

Declare Function GetClassName Lib "user32" Alias "GetClassNameA" (ByVal hwnd As Int32, ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal nMaxCount As Int32) As Int32

Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String) As Int32

Public Declare Function SendMessageByString Lib "USER32" Alias "SendMessageA" (ByVal hwnd As Int32, ByVal wMsg As Int32, ByVal wParam As Int32, ByVal lParam As String) As Int32

Public Declare Function SendMessage Lib "USER32" Alias "SendMessageA" (ByVal hwnd As Int32, ByVal wMsg As Int32, ByVal wParam As Int32, ByVal lParam As Int32) As Int32



Public Const GW_CHILD = 5

Public Const GW_HWNDNEXT = 2



Public Const WM_LBUTTONDOWN As Int32 = &H201

Public Const WM_LBUTTONUP As Int32 = &H202

Public Const WM_SETTEXT As Int32 = &HC

Public Const WM_GETTEXT As Int32 = &HD

Public Const VK_RETURN As Int32 = &HD

Public Const WM_KEYDOWN As Int32 = &H100

Public Const WM_KEYUP As Int32 = &H101



Public Const TextBoxParentClass As String = "#32770"

Public Const TextBoxClass As String = "RichEdit20A"

Public Const TextBoxIndex As Int32 = 2



Public Const GroupName As String = "MyCoolGroup - Voice Room"

Public Const GroupClass As String = "My Window Class"



Private Sub HandleGrabber_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load

Dim ChatStream As OutputStream

ChatStream = New OutputStream(GroupClass, GroupName)

ChatStream.SendText(ChatStream.ChatHandle, "It works! (w)", "Courier New", Color.Orange, 12, FontStyle.Bold)

Application.Exit()

End Sub

Public Class Window

Public ChatRoom As Frame

Public ChatHandle As Int32

Sub New(ByVal WindowClass, ByVal WindowName)

' add the initial frame to the window tree

' because of recursion, this call then builds the entire tree

ChatRoom = New Frame(FindWindow(WindowClass, WindowName))

ChatHandle = GetSendTextHandle(ChatRoom)

End Sub

'  This frame objects refers to any subsection of a window, including the whole window.

'  It includes a pointer (Branch) to each of its child frames.

'  the child frames are sorted by class name for easier access.

Public Class Frame

Public Handle As Int32 = 0

Public Name As String = Space(256)

Public RegClass As String = Space(256)

Public Branch As Dictionary(Of String, List(Of Frame)) = Nothing

Sub New(ByVal FrameHandle As Int32)

Dim NameLen, ClassLen As Int32

Handle = FrameHandle



NameLen = GetWindowText(Handle, Name, 255)

ClassLen = GetClassName(Handle, RegClass, 255)



Name = Name.Substring(0, NameLen)

RegClass = RegClass.Substring(0, ClassLen)



If Handle > 0 Then

Call AddBranch()

End If

End Sub



' gets all the frame nodes for a parent frame

Public Sub AddBranch()

Dim NodeHandle As Int32

NodeHandle = GetWindow(Handle, GW_CHILD)



Branch = New Dictionary(Of String, List(Of Frame))

Do While NodeHandle > 0

AddNode(NodeHandle)

NodeHandle = GetWindow(NodeHandle, GW_HWNDNEXT)

Loop

End Sub

'Sticks a frame into its corresponding branch

Public Sub AddNode(ByVal NodeHandle As Int32)

Dim FrameNode As Frame

FrameNode = New Frame(NodeHandle)



If Not Branch.ContainsKey(FrameNode.RegClass) Then

Branch.Add(FrameNode.RegClass, New List(Of Frame))

End If

Branch(FrameNode.RegClass).Add(FrameNode)



End Sub

End Class

' after the window tree is built, this finds the send text frame and returns its handle

Public Shared Function GetSendTextHandle(ByVal CurrentFrame As Frame) As Int32

Dim KVP As KeyValuePair(Of String, List(Of Frame))

Dim F As Frame

Dim I As Int32



For Each KVP In CurrentFrame.Branch

I = 0

For Each F In CurrentFrame.Branch(KVP.Key)

If CurrentFrame.RegClass = TextBoxParentClass Then

If KVP.Key = TextBoxClass Then

I = I + 1

If I = TextBoxIndex Then

Return (F.Handle)

End If

End If

End If

If GetSendTextHandle > 0 Then Return (GetSendTextHandle)

GetSendTextHandle = GetSendTextHandle(F)

Next F

Next KVP



End Function

End Class



Private Class OutputStream

Public ChatRoom As Window

Public ChatHandle As Int32

Public RTB As RichTextBox



Sub New(ByVal WindowClass As String, ByVal WindowName As String)

ChatRoom = New Window(WindowClass, WindowName)

ChatHandle = ChatRoom.ChatHandle



RTB = New RichTextBox



' pull the handle to the send text box out of the tree

If IsNothing(ChatRoom) Then

MsgBox("Could not find an open window named: " & GroupName)

Else

If ChatRoom.ChatHandle = 0 Then

MsgBox("Could not find the text box in: " & GroupName)

End If

End If



End Sub

Public Function SendText(ByVal SendTextBox As Int32, ByVal TheText As String, ByVal FontName As String, ByVal ColorValue As System.Drawing.Color, ByVal Size As Int32, ByVal Style As System.Drawing.FontStyle)

Dim Status



'Paltalk will take anything greater than 12 and make it 10, so I make it 12

If Size > 12 Then Size = 12



RTB.SelectedText = TheText

RTB.SelectAll()

RTB.SelectionFont = New Font(FontName, Size, Style)

RTB.SelectionColor = ColorValue



Status = SendMessageByString(SendTextBox, WM_SETTEXT, Nothing, RTB.Rtf)

If (Status > 0) Then

Status = SendMessage(SendTextBox, WM_KEYDOWN, VK_RETURN, Nothing)

End If



If (Status) Then

MsgBox("Write to chatroom failed.")

End If



Return (Status)

End Function



End Class



End Class

Create a project and then paste this code into it. Enjoy.

Andrew 🙂