intercepting keystrokes in OSX - macos

I'd like to be able to listen to keystrokes systemwide in OSX to implement an utility like AHK on windows (the shortcuts part of AHK anyway), recognizing not only simply combinations of keys, but even more complex things like sequences etc..
I need someone to point me... where to start? How to listen to keybard events system wide? Maybe there's something in the cocoa framework or that's not where to look for?

Quartz event taps. Look up CGEventTapCreate in the Xcode doc viewer to get started. Note that the user must check "Enable access for assistive devices" in the Universal Access preference panel before you'll be able to monitor keyboard events. (And even then you won't see keystrokes within password fields.)

Related

Intercepting keyboard and mouse events from focused applications on OS X

Soon I will have to work with OS X and tools like hammerspoon are missing some important capabilities for me. I need to be able to intercept keyboard and mouse events completely from the focused application. Say I ctrl+alt+apple+left_click on an application, I don't want the application to know about that left click. So far the only thing I came up with was to build a transparent fullscreen application, though I'm not sure how feasible that is yet.
Any better idea or hints how to go about this in a language of your choice?
Thanks!
You will need to create an event tap. However, the application will have to run as the root user, or the user will have to authorize that the application has been granted rights to accessibility features.
Apple's documentation can be found here.
Interestingly enough, I am in the process of writing a blog post about how to use event taps (including an ObjectiveC API that I wrote for my own use), but the post won't be made available for another week or so.

Mac OS X 10.10 Find window by title, find button by label and press it

I use Mac OS X 10.10 and I would like to write a program that looks continuously for a window analyzing all the names of the opened windows. When the windows appear, I would like that the program will look for a button with a specific label and once found it, the app should send it a "pressed message".
I would be able to do it under windows, but I am not so familiar with Mac.
I have found a question related to mine (How do I get a list of the window titles on the Mac OSX?), but I think the most difficult part is finding the button and sending it a "pressed message".
Thank you in advance!
What you are looking for is the Accessibilty APIs. These are mostly Core Foundation style C APIs and typically prefixed with AX.
You might also want to consider additional identifiers beyond window title as window titles are not necessarily unique.
Using the AX APIs is not easy and is extremely verbose. You can use them to explore the UI and find things and interact with them but you might have more limited success observing user interaction. That might require a more fragile combination with event monitoring using NSEvent globalMonitor or CGEventTap depending on the UI widgets involved.
Also note that using the AX APIs to control anything outside your app is not sandbox capable.

Global list of assigned keyboard shortcuts osx?

I favor keyboard shortcuts over mouse actions so I'm heavily using keyboard shortcuts with all kinds of applications. Every now and then I'm running into a situation where I assign a keyboard shortcut that has already been used in a different app. Not all apps show warnings when you re-use a combination that has already been used.
Also, since I tend to forget some of the lesser used combinations, it would be nice to find out what has been assigned where.
System Preferences doesn't list all of them, but since my Mac responds to them, there must be some way to get a global list of all assigned keyboard shortcuts.
Does anyone know of a command/script/application that displays them all?
What you want may not be possible. Consider the method by which a application specific system-wide shortcuts may be implemented: event taps. An application can do whatever it wants with an event and never actually register the event with the system. Thus, no application could be written to identify every possible event!
Here is an app that does almost what you want:
http://www.ergonis.com/products/keycue/
It even updates its list when shortcuts are changed.
You can download a list of additional system-wide shortcuts from their site that includes keys not listed anywhere else. But it doesn't show shortcuts for continuously active applications such as Evernote.
Further, you can query and modify hotkeys programmatically:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/24/hotkeys_framework2/
(but it still won't know about event taps)
This list of all system shortcuts from Apple is also useful:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343

Low level keyboard hook

I just bought a new keyboard, and I'm interested in tracking exactly how many keypresses/strokes I make during the entire life of the keyboard. (I would want to just record keyUp, as I don't care about repeats)
I've been googling around for the best way to do this, but I don't even know what approach to take, so I'm having trouble searching intelligently.
Also, the only language I've really worked with is C#. Haven't done anything with C/C++ or WinAPI
Is it difficult to modify the Win 7 drivers directly?
I do want to be able to record keystrokes from the moment the computer boots, but this may not be easily done.
I would prefer to use an existing driver or hook, as I really don't care to get into learning device drivers right now.
I've looked briefly at Ctrl2Cap, but I don't know how to modify something like that to suit my case.
Other questions I looked at,
Writing a keyboard device driver
Low level keyboard Hook not at UI thread
This one indicates writing a USB Filter driver may work, but I have no clue where to start on that.
Disabling the keyboard in windows c++?
It is not necessary to go the driver route, which is not for the faint of heart. You can use use a low level keyboard hook which will work fine from .NET.
I did a quick bing and found the following on codeplex
http://globalmousekeyhook.codeplex.com/
It should get you going
If you want to do that you need to use Kernel Level Keylogger. It's grabs the keystrokes before the operating system takes effects and this one 99% invisible for detection techniques. Then you can grab the Windows Log On screen typed things like password/username etc.
#ChrisTaylor's key logger not work for WinLog-on Screen I reckon. If you can install the keyboard driver filter before the system keyboard device driver take a action you can handle windows user login screen also. But In order to install this driver level key hook you need to have administrator privileges.
I found Unix and Windows Keyloggers from Github. Free to play with this https://www.adlice.com/kernelmode-rootkits-part-3-kernel-filters/ and have fun!
That, what you want is dangerous!
With the same code everyone can create keylogger*
But if you not a virus creator then I recommend you to search "hotkeying in C/C++" or something like that and hook keyboard with hotkeys!
I have written HotKey Maker in VB6 which can make hotkey from every button of keyboard.
But I really not interested in viruses :)
Good Luck !
*Virus which hooks your keyboard and send all what you wrote in keyboard to Virus owner

Cocoa accessibility API, can I click a window in the background without activating it?

I've been searching forever for a solution to this, so I thought I'd seek out the brainpower of greater minds than mine. I'm developing a Cocoa app that uses the Accessibility API to manipulate another program (it's a hotkey app). The app I'm controlling typically has multiple windows open, with some hidden behind others. What I would like to do, if it's possible, is to send mouse events to windows using the Accessibility API in a way that presses a button in the window without bringing it to the foreground (interact with the window but don't activate it). The reason I'm trying to do this is that sending the mouse event to this other window will force it to the foreground and disrupt the user's interaction with the foremost window.
This is possible on Windows - apparently, because apps similar to mine do it there - but I'm getting the feeling that this isn't possible with Cocoa, given the way the window manager works. Am I mistaken?
Accessibility is higher-level than that. You send, for example, AXPress actions to AXButton objects, but “press” is not necessarily a click—pressing the space bar while a view is focused, for example, is also a “press”. AXPress is a high-level action that means “do your thing”, which obviously has meaning for some views (such as buttons) and not others (such as fields).
Accessibility activating the application does make sense when you look at it from its intended purpose: Assistive devices for disabled users. If the user “presses” something by whatever means, they probably intend to activate the application and work in it.
Quartz Event Services will get you almost there: You can create an event tap for the process you want to control, and you can forge events and send them to a tap. The catch is that you can only send events to a tap when the tap fires—i.e., when the application already has an event to deal with. When it doesn't, you're stuck.

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