How can I write color text to a textbox using python and the win32 api's?

Question

Basically I want to write colored text to a textbox window of another application using python.

The general idea is to:

win32gui.SendMessage( hwnd, EM_SETCHARFORMAT, SCF_SELECTION, format);

where format is a CHARFORMAT.

My problem is that EM_SETCHARFORMAT and SCF_SELECTION are not included in the win32con library (I think) and I am unsure how to create a CHARFORMAT object.

Is this possible in python?

Do you have a short app that you could post that we could use as a test bed. I think I could put together a ctypes based CHARFORMAT in short time, but I can't really test it without building an app that has a rich edit, message pump etc. — David Heffernan
– David Heffernan, Commented Aug 1, 2011 at 19:59
Unfortunately, I do not own the application that has the rich edit box and I can not send it or view its source to make a smaller app. However, I checked WordPad (on windows) and I found that it uses a rich edit also. I hope this helps. — gh4x
– gh4x, Commented Aug 1, 2011 at 20:06
I had a go and got 99% of the way there, but can't seem to get over the final hurdle! Grr! — David Heffernan
– David Heffernan, Commented Aug 1, 2011 at 21:07

David Heffernan · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-01 21:29:40Z

2

It turns out that this is quite difficult to achieve. The problem is that the EM_SETCHARFORMAT passes a structure by reference. The EM_SETCHARFORMAT is not one of the common Windows messages, it's in the WM_USER range. The memory pointed to by lParam is not marshalled across the process boundary. The receiver of the message receives a pointer to memory that is only meaningful in the sender's process.

This means that your only solution will be to use WriteProcessMemory to write the CHARFORMAT buffer into a block of memory allocated in the target process. This is all possible but quite cumbersome, especially in Python.

If I were you, I would consider an alternative solution to your problem.

edited Aug 1, 2011 at 21:29

answered Aug 1, 2011 at 21:17

David Heffernan

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1 Comment

gh4x Over a year ago

Booo!! Thanks for the help though!

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