Hello gurus,

In short:
Sending WM_COPY message from my app to Word, Excel or Notepad works. But sending it to Internet Explorer, Firefox or Outlook Express does not work: the clipboard remains unchanged.

In long:
I'm writing the following application:
- no visible user interface
- when the user is over any text on any other app (Word, Access, Internet Explorer, Outlook...), he selects a telephone number, he presses F9, and the computer will make the call to that number for him.
(Image you are browsing a hotel's site, you want to contact it, on the web page you see the phone to call, so you just select it and press F9! I find it nice)

· There's no problem from the telephony point of view (CTI).
· I'm also able to "listen" that the user has pressed F9, no matter which application had the focus (I hook the WM_CHAR message of any window using the idea found here: http://www.codeproject.com/system/KeyLogger.asp)
· And I can also send a WM_COPY message to that window where F9 has been pressed, so that I load the selected text up to the clipboard. (code below)
· Then I can retrieve the content of the clipboard (code found here: http://www.codeproject.com/clipboard...clipboard1.asp ) and, if it is a phone number, I order the makeCall.

My problem is, as I said:
This works fine with MS Word, Excel, Notepad... BUT sending WM_COPY message to Internet Explorer, Firefox & Outlook Express does not work: the clipboard remains unchanged.
I also tried to send this message recursively not only to the actual focused window, but also to all of its parents. But it still does not work.
I also tried to PostMessage, instead of SendMessage, but this didn't work either.

Are these applications somehow "protected" against sending messages to their message-queues?
Any ideas on how could I solve my problem or a better approach?

Thank you!

Ricardo Vázquez.
Madrid, Spain.

Code:
// (as you see most of it is commented out: 
// I tried so many messages to send...
// This works fine with: Notepad, MS Word & Excel
// but it doesn't work with: Internet Explorer, Firefox & Outlook express)

  HWND hTemp = m_hWinInFocus;
  do
   {
   sendCtrlCopy(hTemp))
   }
  while(hTemp = ::GetParent(hTemp));

(...)

BOOL CHookF9::sendCtrlCopy(HWND wnd)
{
 BOOL bRes = FALSE;

 /*
 ::SendMessage(wnd, WM_KEYDOWN, 0x11, 0x1D0001);
 ::SendMessage(wnd, WM_KEYDOWN, 0x11, 0x401D0001);
 ::SendMessage(wnd, WM_KEYDOWN, 0x43, 0x2E0001);
 ::SendMessage(wnd, WM_CHAR, 0x3, 0x2E0001);
 ::SendMessage(wnd, WM_KEYUP, 0x43, 0xC02E0001);
 ::SendMessage(wnd, WM_KEYUP, 0x11, 0xC01D0001);
 */

 ::SendMessage(wnd, WM_COPY, 0x00, 0x00);

 /*
 bRes = ::PostMessage(wnd, WM_KEYDOWN, 0x11, 0x1D0001);
 if (!bRes) return FALSE;
 bRes = ::PostMessage(wnd, WM_KEYDOWN, 0x11, 0x401D0001);
 if (!bRes) return FALSE;
 bRes = ::PostMessage(wnd, WM_KEYDOWN, 0x43, 0x2E0001);
 if (!bRes) return FALSE;
 bRes = ::PostMessage(wnd, WM_CHAR, 0x3, 0x2E0001);
 if (!bRes) return FALSE;
 bRes = ::PostMessage(wnd, WM_KEYUP, 0x43, 0xC02E0001);
 if (!bRes) return FALSE;
 bRes = ::PostMessage(wnd, WM_KEYUP, 0x11, 0xC01D0001);
 if (!bRes) return FALSE;
 bRes = ::PostMessage(wnd, WM_COPY, 0x00, 0x00);
 if (!bRes) return FALSE;
 */

 return TRUE;
}