Screen scraping data from windows app - help needed

[Me]

I am dealing with a poorly written windows application that does not contain
an API.

I would like to use C# to run a predetermied set of steps in the application
and scrape the resulting data from the screen and write it to a SQL
database. That said, I have no idea how to go about doing so in C#.

Any ideas, samples or links would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]]

Me,

In order to scrape the screen, you are going to have to resort to using
API calls in C#, so I would look into the P/Invoke layer. Also, I would
learn to use Spy++, a tool that comes with Visual Studio. It allows you to
find the windows in an application and get information about the messages
sent to them, the styles, etc, etc. This kind of information can be
invaluable for a screen-scraping application. Finally, I would look into
ADO.NET, which is what you will use to place the information into a SQL
database.

Hope this helps.

 

[Me]

Thanks!

Me,

In order to scrape the screen, you are going to have to resort to using
API calls in C#, so I would look into the P/Invoke layer. Also, I would
learn to use Spy++, a tool that comes with Visual Studio. It allows you to
find the windows in an application and get information about the messages
sent to them, the styles, etc, etc. This kind of information can be
invaluable for a screen-scraping application. Finally, I would look into
ADO.NET, which is what you will use to place the information into a SQL
database.

Hope this helps.


--
- Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]
- (e-mail address removed)

I am dealing with a poorly written windows application that does not contain
an API.

I would like to use C# to run a predetermied set of steps in the application
and scrape the resulting data from the screen and write it to a SQL
database. That said, I have no idea how to go about doing so in C#.

Any ideas, samples or links would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.