In this example we are going to see how to simulate mouse moves and key pressing events in a Java Desktop Application. This is a quite cool feature that you can use in many ways in your application. For example you can have an interactive “Help” option that shows the user how to perform a certain activity in your applcation.
In short all you have to do in order to simulate mouse moves and key pressing events is:
- Create a new
Frameand a newTextArea. - Create a new
Robotcomponent. - Use
robot.mouseMove(xCoord, yCoord)to move the mouse pointer in the coordinates you wish. - Use
robot.mousePress(InputEvent.BUTTON1_MASK)to press the key want. - Use
robot.mouseRelease(InputEvent.BUTTON1_MASK)to release the key.
Let’s see the code snippet that follows:
package com.javacodegeeks.snippets.desktop;
import java.awt.AWTException;
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Component;
import java.awt.Frame;
import java.awt.Robot;
import java.awt.TextArea;
import java.awt.event.InputEvent;
import java.awt.event.KeyEvent;
public class SimulateMouseMoveAndKeyPress {
public static void main(String[] args) {
try {
// Create frame with specific title
Frame frame = new Frame("Example Frame");
// Create a component to add to the frame; in this case a text area with sample text
Component textArea = new TextArea();
// Add the components to the frame; by default, the frame has a border layout
frame.add(textArea, BorderLayout.CENTER);
// Show the frame
int width = 300;
int height = 300;
frame.setSize(width, height);
frame.setVisible(true);
// These coordinates are screen coordinates
int xCoord = 50;
int yCoord = 100;
// Move the cursor
Robot robot = new Robot();
robot.mouseMove(xCoord, yCoord);
// Simulate a mouse click
robot.mousePress(InputEvent.BUTTON1_MASK);
robot.mouseRelease(InputEvent.BUTTON1_MASK);
// Simulate a key press
robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_H);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_H);
robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_E);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_E);
robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_L);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_L);
robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_L);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_L);
robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_O);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_O);
} catch (AWTException e) {
System.out.println("Low level input control is not allowed " + e.getMessage());
}
}
}
This was an example on how to simulate mouse moves and key pressing events.
