C#•15mo ago

❔ Issue with GlobalMouseKeyHook / Global Hotkeys.

I am using: https://github.com/gmamaladze/globalmousekeyhook in one of my C# console applications to receive keypresses when the console is out of focus. This works in one of my applications - but when attempting to use the same code in a new project, the key presses are not detected at all. Not sure what the problem could be here. Any ideas? Here's the implementation i'm using in both programs.

    using Gma.System.MouseKeyHook;
    
    public class CreateHotkeyEvent
    {
        public static void Do()
        {
            Hook.GlobalEvents().KeyPress += (sender, e) =>
            {
                if (e.KeyChar == ')')
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("stop");
                    ConsoleExtensions.ChangeRunningState();
                }
                else if(e.KeyChar == '(')
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("hide");
                    ConsoleExtensions.ShowHideWindow();
                }
            };
        }
    }

    using Gma.System.MouseKeyHook;
    
    public class CreateHotkeyEvent
    {
        public static void Do()
        {
            Hook.GlobalEvents().KeyPress += (sender, e) =>
            {
                if (e.KeyChar == ')')
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("stop");
                    ConsoleExtensions.ChangeRunningState();
                }
                else if(e.KeyChar == '(')
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("hide");
                    ConsoleExtensions.ShowHideWindow();
                }
            };
        }
    }

GitHub

GitHub - gmamaladze/globalmousekeyhook: This library allows you to ...

This library allows you to tap keyboard and mouse, detect and record their activity even when an application is inactive and runs in background. - GitHub - gmamaladze/globalmousekeyhook: This libra...

35 Replies

Buddy•15mo ago

What are you making?

Owen•15mo ago

A FiveM development tool. Will have a bunch of different development things I need on the fly which can be accessed without un-focusing the game.

Groophy•15mo ago

https://github.com/HavenDV/H.Hooks

GitHub

GitHub - HavenDV/H.Hooks: Contains LowLevelKeyboardHook and LowLeve...

Contains LowLevelKeyboardHook and LowLevelMouseHook. - GitHub - HavenDV/H.Hooks: Contains LowLevelKeyboardHook and LowLevelMouseHook.

Groophy•15mo ago

try this one

Owen•15mo ago

Thanks for your suggestion. Here's my implementation, however nothing is written to the console when the keys are pressed.

using H.Hooks;

namespace GTAToolkit.Hotkeys
{
    public class CreateHotkeyEvent
    {
        public static void Do()
        {
            /*Hook.GlobalEvents().KeyPress += (sender, e) =>
            {
                if (e.KeyChar == ')')
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("stop");
                    ConsoleExtensions.ChangeRunningState();
                }
                else if(e.KeyChar == '(')
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("hide");
                    ConsoleExtensions.ShowHideWindow();
                }
            };*/

            using var keyboardHook = new LowLevelKeyboardHook();
            keyboardHook.Down += (_, args) => 
            {
                if (args.Keys.Are(Key.Control, Key.LeftShift))
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("key detected");
                }
            };

            keyboardHook.Start();

        }
    }
}

using H.Hooks;

namespace GTAToolkit.Hotkeys
{
    public class CreateHotkeyEvent
    {
        public static void Do()
        {
            /*Hook.GlobalEvents().KeyPress += (sender, e) =>
            {
                if (e.KeyChar == ')')
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("stop");
                    ConsoleExtensions.ChangeRunningState();
                }
                else if(e.KeyChar == '(')
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("hide");
                    ConsoleExtensions.ShowHideWindow();
                }
            };*/

            using var keyboardHook = new LowLevelKeyboardHook();
            keyboardHook.Down += (_, args) => 
            {
                if (args.Keys.Are(Key.Control, Key.LeftShift))
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("key detected");
                }
            };

            keyboardHook.Start();

        }
    }
}

canton7•15mo ago

I'm not sure whether it's relevant, but you are disposing keyboardHook straight after calling Start on it

Owen•15mo ago

Seems to have fixed it - thanks for your spot.

canton7•15mo ago

Yuckyuckyuck. There's no need to sleep the entire thread Just remove the using. You should probably make CreateHotkeyEvent IDisposable, and dispose the keyboardHook when CreateHotkeyEvent is disposed. That way the rest of you application has a way to remove the hook

Owen•15mo ago

Totally agree - was just my way to test. I will look into a clean implementation now

Groophy•15mo ago

Already canton7 said if you want to use using you must to create body like

            using (var keyboardHook = new LowLevelKeyboardHook())
            {
              keyboardHook.Down += (_, args) => 
              {
                  if (args.Keys.Are(Key.Control, Key.LeftShift))
                  {
                      Console.WriteLine("key detected");
                  }
              };
            }

            keyboardHook.Start();

            using (var keyboardHook = new LowLevelKeyboardHook())
            {
              keyboardHook.Down += (_, args) => 
              {
                  if (args.Keys.Are(Key.Control, Key.LeftShift))
                  {
                      Console.WriteLine("key detected");
                  }
              };
            }

            keyboardHook.Start();

because when body end will dispose your class

canton7•15mo ago

Uh, that's not what I said at all. That's even worse than the using var, because that disposes the keyboardHook before you can even call Start on it!

sibber•15mo ago

does gta allow this in their TOS?

Owen•15mo ago

Program is completely external. It does nothing with the live game. Simply creates its own files that can be later used within fivem It doesn’t touch or interact with the game in any way. It is simply a tool to simplify file generation, and other things required in FiveM development What are your thoughts on this implementation?

using GTAToolkit.Extensions;
using H.Hooks;

namespace GTAToolkit.Hotkeys
{
    public class CreateHotkeyEvent
    {
        public static LowLevelKeyboardHook keyboardHook = new LowLevelKeyboardHook();
        public static void Do()
        {
            keyboardHook.Down += (_, args) => 
            {
                if (args.Keys.Are(Key.Shift, Key.D0))
                {
                    // Shows/hides window via ')' hotkey
                    ConsoleExtensions.ShowHideWindow();
                }
            };
            keyboardHook.Start();
        }
    }
}

using GTAToolkit.Extensions;
using H.Hooks;

namespace GTAToolkit.Hotkeys
{
    public class CreateHotkeyEvent
    {
        public static LowLevelKeyboardHook keyboardHook = new LowLevelKeyboardHook();
        public static void Do()
        {
            keyboardHook.Down += (_, args) => 
            {
                if (args.Keys.Are(Key.Shift, Key.D0))
                {
                    // Shows/hides window via ')' hotkey
                    ConsoleExtensions.ShowHideWindow();
                }
            };
            keyboardHook.Start();
        }
    }
}

I then have another method to detect console closing which will Dispose the public keyboardHook.

canton7•15mo ago

Eh. I don't like that things are static, or that someone can call Do twice which will break things, or that people have to dispose the keyboardHook member even though they used the CreateHotkeyEvent class to start it At the very least, keyboardHook should be readonly / a getter-only property, so people can't re-assign it

Owen•15mo ago

I'm not yet familiar with

IDisposable

IDisposable

- so I wasn't able to fully put your above recommendation to practice. Maybe I will do some research if you think an alternative method involving this would be better. Sounds correct, I will make this change now.

sibber•15mo ago

id use the raw input api rather than low level hooks

Jester•15mo ago

can this help you? https://discord.com/channels/143867839282020352/1093135226835841074/1093164488779387023

Owen•15mo ago

This does look good - thank you muchly. I'm pretty happy using low level hooks here as it seems to work, just needs solid implementation. I'm going to save the above code snippet though, and if I encounter any issues - i'll be switching over.

sibber•15mo ago

definitely look into IDisposable its basically just an interface that has a special keyeord

Jester•15mo ago

if IDisposable, call Dispose on the object when you dont need it anymore

sibber•15mo ago

you dispose unmanaged resources in the Dispose method and you clearly have unmanaged resources

Owen•15mo ago

Sounds like essentially what I have written above - but done correctly haha. I will look into it now.

sibber•15mo ago

and don't make anything static

canton7•15mo ago

and you clearly have unmanaged resources

Nope, no unmanaged resources here LowLevelKeyboardHook is very much managed

sibber•15mo ago

is it, my bad

canton7•15mo ago

An unmanaged resource is something like an IntPtr to native memory, which can't free itself A reference to another C# class is managed

sibber•15mo ago

yeah I'm aware

canton7•15mo ago

LowLevelKeyboardHook probably owns unmanaged resources, but they're its responsibility

Jester•15mo ago

you could also unregister the hotkey but thats usually not needed

sibber•15mo ago

oh i thought he was writing LowLevelKeyboardHook

canton7•15mo ago

Nah, that's from https://github.com/HavenDV/H.Hooks

sibber•15mo ago

ah if this is just for hotkeys why not just use RegusterHotkey

Jester•15mo ago

i cleaned it up a little and put it on github https://github.com/QubitTooLate/Snippies/blob/main/HotKeys.cs

Owen•15mo ago

Thank you very much! Thank you others also, appreciate the help greatly.

Accord•15mo ago

Was this issue resolved? If so, run /close - otherwise I will mark this as stale and this post will be archived until there is new activity.

Gaming

Programming

❔ Issue with GlobalMouseKeyHook / Global Hotkeys.