Howto make Java JNI KeyListener with C++

Question

I'm trying to make a program like AutoHotKey, but with a graphical interface. I'm using java.awt.Robot Now I want to make the code for checking the state from a key (In AHK: getKeyState) Of course somthing like a KeyListener without having focus. I read already something with JNI and C++, but.... I can't find some information.

Can somebody help me??

Answer 1

There are lot of good JNI resources for starting out with JNI Programming like the Sun JNI Tutorial. Almost all Tutorials assume a good knowledge of C/C++ because the Java Native Interface (JNI) is the bridge between native C/C++ code, the Java Virtual Machine and everything running in there (meaning your Java Bytecode).

What you may want to do first is to find a key capturing library for your operating system of choice (you didn't mention anything specific here) in C++ and try that out as well as checking if there are already some Java bindings (libraries that use JNI and offer Java classes) to interact with. I didn't find any promising on a quick search unfortunately.

Answer 2

works perfect for windows 32/64 Bit. It's not necessary to integrate the dll files into the (eclipse)workspace / deployment process. Amazing Lib:

Hot stuff! http://ksquared.de/blog/2011/07/java-global-system-hook/