Introduction to KeyboardSimulator

KeyboardSimulator is a package for R language that make users simulate keyboard event, cursor movement and mouse click with simple R function.

This package provide 6 functions which are developed in C++:

• keybd.press() Simulate keyboard key presses. Multiple keys can be pressed simultaneously by using + as separator.
• keybd.release() Simulate the release of keyboard keys held by keybd.press.
• keybd.type_string() Type a string with simulated keyboard input.
• mouse.click() Simulate left and right button of mouse clicks.
• mouse.release() Simulate the release of mouse button held by mouse.click.
• mouse.get_cursor() Get current cursor coordinate of screen.
• mouse.move() Move cursor to specific coordinate of screen.

The supported keys are listed in keyboard_value.

FAQ

Does KeyboardSimulator support operating systems other than Windows?

No, KeyboardSimulator is built on top of the Windows API and is not compatible with other operating systems.

This package doesn’t work on my computer! How can I make it work?

Open a GitHub issue and let us know what version of Windows you are using and what keyboard and mouse hardware you have connected.

Package Setup

install.packages("KeyboardSimulator")
library(KeyboardSimulator)

or

if (!require("devtools")) install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("ChiHangChen/KeyboardSimulator")
library(KeyboardSimulator)

Examples

Simulate keyboard event

• Press single key

keybd.press("Enter")

• Press multiple keys with + as seperator

keybd.press("Alt+f4")

• Hold keys with argument hold=TRUE and use keybd.release to release the held key

keybd.press("Alt", hold = TRUE)
keybd.press('Tab')
keybd.release('Alt')

Simulate mouse event

• Get current location of cursor

mouse.get_cursor()

# Return the x,y coordinate of screen
[1] 960 540

• Press mouse button

mouse.click()
mouse.click("right")

• Move cursor to the center of screen on 1080FHD monitor

mouse.move(960, 540)

• Move cursor to the center of screen on 1080FHD monitor within 3 seconds

mouse.move(960, 540, duration=3)

• Drag an item to center of screen

mouse.click(button = "left", hold = TRUE)
mouse.move(960, 540)
mouse.release()

Developers

Dependencies

It is highly recommended that you use the RStudio IDE to develop this package. In addition to an R installation, you’ll also need to install Rtools and a TeX distribution. TeX Live is a comprehensive distribution that seems to work well.

Once you have cloned this repository, you’ll need to download the build package dependencies. These dependencies are managed with packrat and can be restored by running

if (!require(packrat)) install.packages("packrat")
packrat::on()
packrat::restore()

Documentation

The roxygen2 R package is used to manage KeyboardSimulator’s documentation. Do not edit any of the files that have a warning comment at the top about manually editing those files!

You can regenerate package documentation with the RStudio shortcut Ctrl+Shift+Enter, or by running

roxygen2::roxygenize()

The project is set up to do this whenever building and testing the package.

Other

• Put any C/C++/Fortran code in ‘src’.
• See Writing R Extensions for more information.