SharpHook 2.0.0

SharpHook

SharpHook provides a cross-platform global keyboard and mouse hook for .NET, and the ability to simulate input events. It is a thin wrapper of libuiohook and provides direct access to its features as well as higher-level types to work with it.

Usage

Native Methods of libuiohook

SharpHook exposes the methods of libuiohook in the SharpHook.Native.UioHook class. The SharpHook.Native namespace also contains structs and enums which represent the data returned by libuiohook.

Note: In general, you shouldn't use native methods directly. Instead, use the higher-level types provided by SharpHook.

UioHook contains the following methods for working with the global hook:

• SetDispatchProc - sets the function which will be called when an event is raised by libuiohook.
• Run - creates a global hook and runs it on the current thread, blocking it until Stop is called.
• Stop - destroys the global hook.

Additionally, UioHook contains the PostEvent method for simulating input events.

libuiohook also provides functions to get various system properties. The corresponding methods are also present in UioHook.

Default Global Hooks

SharpHook provides the IGlobalHook interface along with two default implementations which you can use to control the hook and subscribe to its events. Here's a basic usage example:

using SharpHook;

// ...

var hook = new TaskPoolGlobalHook();

hook.HookEnabled += OnHookEnabled;
hook.HookDisabled += OnHookDisabled;

hook.KeyTyped += OnKeyTyped;
hook.KeyPressed += OnKeyPressed;
hook.KeyReleased += OnKeyReleased;

hook.MouseClicked += OnMouseClicked;
hook.MousePressed += OnMousePressed;
hook.MouseReleased += OnMouseReleased;
hook.MouseMoved += OnMouseMoved;
hook.MouseDragged += OnMouseDragged;

hook.MouseWheel += OnMouseWheel;

hook.Run();
// or
await hook.RunAsync();

First, you create the hook, then subscribe to its events, and then run it. The Run method runs the hook on the current thread, blocking it. The RunAsync() method runs the hook on a separate thread and returns a Task which is finished when the hook is destroyed. You can subscribe to events after the hook is started.

IGlobalHook extends IDisposable. When you call the Dispose method on a hook, it's destroyed. The contract of the interface is that once a hook has been destroyed, it cannot be started again - you'll have to create a new instance.

Important: Always use one instance of IGlobalHook at a time in the entire application since they all must use the same static method to set the hook callback for libuiohook, and there may only be one callback at a time.

SharpHook provides two implementations of IGlobalHook:

• SimpleGlobalHook runs all of its event handlers on the same thread where the hook itself runs. This means that the handlers should generally be fast since they will block the hook from handling the events that follow if they run for too long.

• TaskPoolGlobalHook runs all of its event handlers on other threads inside the default thread pool for tasks. The parallelism level of the handlers can be configured. On backpressure it will queue the remaining handlers. This means that the hook will be able to process all events. This implementation should be preferred to SimpleGlobalHook except for very simple use-cases. But it has a downside - suppressing event propagation will be ignored since event handlers are run on other threads.

The library also provides the GlobalHookBase class which you can extend to create your own implementation of the global hook. It runs the hook on a separate thread and calls appropriate event handlers. You only need to implement a strategy for dispatching the events.

Reactive Global Hooks

Use the SharpHook.Reactive package for reactive global hooks.

Event Simulation

SharpHook provides the ability to simulate keyboard and mouse events in a cross-platform way as well. Here's a quick example:

using SharpHook;
using SharpHook.Native;

// ...

var simulator = new EventSimulator();

simulator.SimulateKeyPress(KeyCode.VcC, ModifierMask.LeftCtrl);   // Press Ctrl+C
simulator.SimulateKeyRelease(KeyCode.VcC, ModifierMask.LeftCtrl); // Release Ctrl+C

simulator.SimulateMousePress(MouseButton.Button1);   // Press the left mouse button
simulator.SimulateMouseRelease(MouseButton.Button1); // Release the left mouse button

simulator.SimulateMouseMovement(0, 0);      // Move the mouse pointer to the (0, 0) point
simulator.SimulateMouseWheel(0, 0, 10, -1); // Move the mouse pointer to the (0, 0) point, and scroll the mouse wheel

SharpHook provides the IEventSimulator interface, and the default implementation, EventSimulator, which calls UioHook.PostEvent to simulate the events.

Important: libuiohook ignores modifier masks on Windows, so you need to simulate pressing/releasing modifier keys manually.

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