x11 convert a string into keysym

[fargalaxy1]

Dear all,
i need to send fake key events to my application, where the keysym to send is readen from a config file and saved to a vector<string>.
I use:


[...]
#include <X11/Xlib.h>
#include <X11/Intrinsic.h>
#include <X11/extensions/XTest.h>
#include <unistd.h>

//the below function from http://bharathi.posterous.com/x11-fake-key-event-generation-using-xtest-ext

static void sendKBEvent (Display * display, KeySym keysym, KeySym modsym)
{
KeyCode keycode = 0, modcode = 0;

keycode = XKeysymToKeycode (display, keysym);

if (keycode == 0) return;

XTestGrabControl (display, True);

/* Generate modkey press */
if (modsym != 0)
{
modcode = XKeysymToKeycode(display, modsym);
XTestFakeKeyEvent (display, modcode, True, 0);
}

/* Generate regular key press and release */
XTestFakeKeyEvent (display, keycode, True, 0);
XTestFakeKeyEvent (display, keycode, False, 0);

/* Generate modkey release */
if (modsym != 0)
XTestFakeKeyEvent (display, modcode, False, 0);

XSync (display, False);
XTestGrabControl (display, False);
}


int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
[...]
vector<string> kbdEventsVect;

ConfigFile configFile;

kbdEventsVect = configFile.parseFile("file.txt");

/*kbdEventsVect[] contains XK_Up, XK_Down, XK_Escape, XK_Right*/

[...]
sendKBEvent(display, kbdEventsVect[0], 0);
[...]
}

the problem is that the compiler does not like me passing a string ( kbdEventsVect[0]) to
sendKBEvent(), which instread needs a Keysym var as 2 argument.


error: cannot convert ‘std::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> >’ to ‘KeySym’ for argument ‘2’ to ‘void sendKBEvent(Display*, KeySym, KeySym)’The wired thing is that if I pass directly the string, everything works fine


sendKBEvent(display, XK_F11, 0); but If I use &kbdEventsVect[0] == XK_F11


sendKBEvent(display, kbdEventsVect[0], 0); I guess i'm missing something...

Thank you for any help you would give me.

Martina

[dwhitney67]

A KeySym is a typedef for a long unsigned int.

It would seem from the error that you posted, that you are attempting to pass an STL string (which you retrieved from a vector), not a character within that string for the KeySym parameter.

Try something like:


sendKBEvent(display, kbdEventsVect[0][0], 0);

[fargalaxy1]

Thank you for your help!

I tried your code and now it finally compiles! The only problem is that i need to send the whole string , say: XK_F11, but with the below code I just send X to sendKBEvent() which instead needs the whole XK_F11 to know what to do next.

sendKBEvent(display, kbdEventsVect[0][0], 0);
Maybe i can loop through the kbdEventsVect[0], save to a char array and then convert it to a long unsigned int. What do you think?

Martina

[dwhitney67]

Thank you for your help!

I tried your code and now it finally compiles! The only problem is that i need to send the whole string , say: XK_F11, but with the below code I just send X to sendKBEvent() which instead needs the whole XK_F11 to know what to do next.

sendKBEvent(display, kbdEventsVect[0][0], 0);
Maybe i can loop through the kbdEventsVect[0], save to a char array and then convert it to a long unsigned int. What do you think?

Martina

My $0.02...

I recommend that you setup an STL map, where you can have a relationship between a string and a KeySym value. For example:


typedef std::map<std::string, KeySym> KeySymMap;
...
KeySymMap myKeySymMapping;
...
myKeySymMapping["XK_F11"] = XK_F11;

Later, when you want to process a key-sym strings, look up the appropriate KeySym value from the map.


KeySymMap::iterator it = myKeySymMapping.find(keysymstr);
KeySym sym;

if (it != myKeySymMapping.end())
{
sym = it->second;
}
else
{
//error
}

[fargalaxy1]

Thank you!
I'll try your suggestion.

Cheers,

Martina