Obtain Active window using Python

Question

I would like to get the active window on the screen using python.

For example, the management interface of the router where you enter the username and password as admin

That admin interface is what I want to capture using python to automate the entry of username and password.

What imports would I require in order to do this?

Answer 1

Try using wxPython:

import wx
wx.GetActiveWindow()

Answer 2

Just wanted to add in case it helps, I have a function for my program (It's a software for my PC's lighting I have this simple few line function:

def isRunning(process_name):
   foregroundWindow = GetWindowText(GetForegroundWindow())
   return process_name in foregroundWindow

Answer 3

On windows, you can use the python for windows extensions (http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywin32/):

from win32gui import GetWindowText, GetForegroundWindow
print GetWindowText(GetForegroundWindow())

Below code is for python 3:

from win32gui import GetWindowText, GetForegroundWindow
print(GetWindowText(GetForegroundWindow()))

(Found this on http://scott.sherrillmix.com/blog/programmer/active-window-logger/)

Answer 4

The following script should work on Linux, Windows and Mac. It is currently only tested on Linux (Ubuntu Mate Ubuntu 15.10).

Prerequisites

For Linux:

Install wnck (sudo apt-get install python-wnck on Ubuntu, see libwnck.)

For Windows:

Make sure win32gui is available

For Mac:

Make sure AppKit is available

The script

#!/usr/bin/env python

"""Find the currently active window."""

import logging
import sys

logging.basicConfig(format='%(asctime)s %(levelname)s %(message)s',
                    level=logging.DEBUG,
                    stream=sys.stdout)


def get_active_window():
    """
    Get the currently active window.

    Returns
    -------
    string :
        Name of the currently active window.
    """
    import sys
    active_window_name = None
    if sys.platform in ['linux', 'linux2']:
        # Alternatives: http://unix.stackexchange.com/q/38867/4784
        try:
            import wnck
        except ImportError:
            logging.info("wnck not installed")
            wnck = None
        if wnck is not None:
            screen = wnck.screen_get_default()
            screen.force_update()
            window = screen.get_active_window()
            if window is not None:
                pid = window.get_pid()
                with open("/proc/{pid}/cmdline".format(pid=pid)) as f:
                    active_window_name = f.read()
        else:
            try:
                from gi.repository import Gtk, Wnck
                gi = "Installed"
            except ImportError:
                logging.info("gi.repository not installed")
                gi = None
            if gi is not None:
                Gtk.init([])  # necessary if not using a Gtk.main() loop
                screen = Wnck.Screen.get_default()
                screen.force_update()  # recommended per Wnck documentation
                active_window = screen.get_active_window()
                pid = active_window.get_pid()
                with open("/proc/{pid}/cmdline".format(pid=pid)) as f:
                    active_window_name = f.read()
    elif sys.platform in ['Windows', 'win32', 'cygwin']:
        # http://stackoverflow.com/a/608814/562769
        import win32gui
        window = win32gui.GetForegroundWindow()
        active_window_name = win32gui.GetWindowText(window)
    elif sys.platform in ['Mac', 'darwin', 'os2', 'os2emx']:
        # http://stackoverflow.com/a/373310/562769
        from AppKit import NSWorkspace
        active_window_name = (NSWorkspace.sharedWorkspace()
                              .activeApplication()['NSApplicationName'])
    else:
        print("sys.platform={platform} is unknown. Please report."
              .format(platform=sys.platform))
        print(sys.version)
    return active_window_name

print("Active window: %s" % str(get_active_window()))

Answer 5

For Linux users: All the answers provided required additional modules like "wx" that had numerous errors installing ("pip" failed on build), but I was able to modify this solution quite easily -> original source. There were bugs in the original (Python TypeError on regex)

import sys
import os
import subprocess
import re

def get_active_window_title():
    root = subprocess.Popen(['xprop', '-root', '_NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
    stdout, stderr = root.communicate()

    m = re.search(b'^_NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW.* ([\w]+)$', stdout)
    if m != None:
        window_id = m.group(1)
        window = subprocess.Popen(['xprop', '-id', window_id, 'WM_NAME'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
        stdout, stderr = window.communicate()
    else:
        return None

    match = re.match(b"WM_NAME\(\w+\) = (?P<name>.+)$", stdout)
    if match != None:
        return match.group("name").strip(b'"')

    return None

if __name__ == "__main__":
    print(get_active_window_title())

The advantage is it works without additional modules. If you want it to work across multiple platforms, it's just a matter of changing the command and regex strings to get the data you want based on the platform (with the standard if/else platform detection shown above sys.platform).

On a side note: import wnck only works with python2.x when installed with "sudo apt-get install python-wnck", since I was using python3.x the only option was pypie which I have not tested. Hope this helps someone else.