I have a problem. i am trying to use the ClipboardMonitor for my C# Application. The goal is to monitor every change in the clipboard.
When starting to monitor:
AddClipboardFormatListener(this.Handle);
when stopping the listener:
RemoveClipboardFormatListener(this.Handle);
and the overwriting method:
const int WM_DRAWCLIPBOARD = 0x308;
const int WM_CHANGECBCHAIN = 0x030D;
protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)
{
switch (m.Msg)
{
case WM_DRAWCLIPBOARD:
IDataObject iData = Clipboard.GetDataObject();
if (iData.GetDataPresent(DataFormats.Text))
{
ClipboardMonitor_OnClipboardChange((string)iData.GetData(DataFormats.Text));
}
break;
default:
base.WndProc(ref m);
break;
}
}
and of course the DLL import:
[DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
[return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
private static extern bool AddClipboardFormatListener(IntPtr hwnd);
[DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
[return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
private static extern bool RemoveClipboardFormatListener(IntPtr hwnd);
But when putting a breakpoint at the method call ClipboardMonitor_OnClipboardChange
and changing the Clipboard I never get to it.
The problem is that you're handling the wrong window message. Quoting the documentation for AddClipboardFormatListener
:
When a window has been added to the clipboard format listener list, it is posted a WM_CLIPBOARDUPDATE
message whenever the contents of the clipboard have changed.
With that knowledge, change the code to:
const int WM_CLIPBOARDUPDATE = 0x031D;
protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)
{
switch (m.Msg)
{
case WM_CLIPBOARDUPDATE:
IDataObject iData = Clipboard.GetDataObject();
if (iData.GetDataPresent(DataFormats.Text))
{
string data = (string)iData.GetData(DataFormats.Text);
}
break;
default:
base.WndProc(ref m);
break;
}
}
SharpClipboard as a library could be of more benefit as it encapsulates the same features into one fine component library. You can then access its ClipboardChanged
event and detect various data-formats when they're cut/copied.
You can choose the various data-formats you want to monitor:
var clipboard = new SharpClipboard();
clipboard.ObservableFormats.Texts = true;
clipboard.ObservableFormats.Files = true;
clipboard.ObservableFormats.Images = true;
clipboard.ObservableFormats.Others = true;
Here's an example using its ClipboardChanged
event:
private void ClipboardChanged(Object sender, ClipboardChangedEventArgs e)
{
// Is the content copied of text type?
if (e.ContentType == SharpClipboard.ContentTypes.Text)
{
// Get the cut/copied text.
Debug.WriteLine(clipboard.ClipboardText);
}
// Is the content copied of image type?
else if (e.ContentType == SharpClipboard.ContentTypes.Image)
{
// Get the cut/copied image.
Image img = clipboard.ClipboardImage;
}
// Is the content copied of file type?
else if (e.ContentType == SharpClipboard.ContentTypes.Files)
{
// Get the cut/copied file/files.
Debug.WriteLine(clipboard.ClipboardFiles.ToArray());
// ...or use 'ClipboardFile' to get a single copied file.
Debug.WriteLine(clipboard.ClipboardFile);
}
// If the cut/copied content is complex, use 'Other'.
else if (e.ContentType == SharpClipboard.ContentTypes.Other)
{
// Do something with 'e.Content' here...
}
}
You can also find out the application that the cut/copy event occurred on together with its details:
private void ClipboardChanged(Object sender, SharpClipboard.ClipboardChangedEventArgs e)
{
// Gets the application's executable name.
Debug.WriteLine(e.SourceApplication.Name);
// Gets the application's window title.
Debug.WriteLine(e.SourceApplication.Title);
// Gets the application's process ID.
Debug.WriteLine(e.SourceApplication.ID.ToString());
// Gets the application's executable path.
Debug.WriteLine(e.SourceApplication.Path);
}
There are also other events such as the MonitorChanged
event which listens whenever clipboard-monitoring is disabled, meaning that you can enable or disable monitoring the clipboard at runtime.
In addition to all this, since it's a component, you can use it in Designer View by dragging-and-dropping it to a Windows Form, making it super easy for anyone to customize its options and work with its inbuilt events.
SharpClipboard seems to be the very best option for clipboard-monitoring scenarios in .NET.