robotjs_addon

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illustrate

This project is forked from robot.js: https://robotjs.io/. The main purposes are as follows:

1. Use node-api to re-encapsulate the c++ interface. The original robot.js c++ package uses v8 api. Different node.js versions are not compatible. Switching node.js versions requires recompiling. Now using node-api, there is no such problem.

2. Need to solve the problem of typestring input being too slow The official library has been basically unmaintained since 2020. When I used version 0.6 of this library, I found that when using typestring, it takes a long time to input each character. Very poor experience.

3. Upgrade the dependent node-gyp version The node-gyp version used by the old robot.js is too low, and it also relies on python 2.7, a version that is no longer officially maintained. If the computer is in a python 3 environment, it will not compile.

4. It is convenient for bug checking and customization, and you can also learn the knowledge of node addon in sequence.

Modify as follows:

1. Removed some useless interfaces.
2. A lot of test cases have been removed. I feel that these test cases only check whether there are exceptions in the interface call, and cannot really test whether the interface is correct, which is a bit useless. It is possible to delete them all later.

use

Install dependencies

npm install robotjs_addon

Call

const robot = require("robotjs_addon");

robot.typeString("Hello World");

robot.keyTap("enter");

The supported interfaces are as follows

export function setKeyboardDelay(ms: number): void

export function setMouseDelay(delay: number): void

export function getScreenSize(): { width: number; height: number }

export function updateScreenMetrics(): void


//keyboard

export function keyTap(key: string, modifier?: string | string[]): void

export function keyToggle(key: string, down: string, modifier?: string | string[]): void

export function typeString(string: string): void

//mouse

export function dragMouse(x: number, y: number): void

export function moveMouse(x: number, y: number): void

export function moveMouseSmooth(x: number, y: number, speed?: number): void

export function mouseClick(button?: MouseButton, double?: boolean): void

export function mouseToggle(down?: boolean, button?: MouseButton): void

export function getMousePos(): { x: number; y: number }

Others

This library has been pre-compiled for windows/linux/mac, and does not require a c++ compilation environment during installation.

Custom development instructions

Install dependencies

npm install --build-from-source

Pack

npm run pack

Release package

Code using node-pre-gyp-github

This is just to explain, it has been integrated into github_action

First you need a github token

go to Settings -> Developer settings

click Personal access tokens

click Generate new token

Select public_repo and repo_deployment

Generate Token

copy the key that's generated and set NODE_PRE_GYP_GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable to it. Within your command prompt:

SET NODE_PRE_GYP_GITHUB_TOKEN=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After setting the environment variable NODE_PRE_GYP_GITHUB_TOKEN, you can publish it.

npm run release

github_action description

build.yml

Responsible for compiling node modules for each platform and uploading them to github release

pub_npm.yml

Responsible for packaging npm package and uploading to npm registry

Record of problems encountered

Question 1: Error when compiling on Linux

../node_modules/node-addon-api/napi-inl.h:2464:34: error: cannot bind non-const lvalue reference of type ‘Napi::CallbackInfo&’ to an rvalue of type ‘Napi::CallbackInfo’

The reason is

Napi::Object node_getMousePos(Napi::CallbackInfo &info)

The parameters should be added const

Napi::Object node_getMousePos(const Napi::CallbackInfo &info)

Question 2:

./src/mouse.c:12:10: fatal error: X11/extensions/XTest.h: No such file or directory

It says online that you need to install the library

ubuntu:

$ sudo apt-get install xorg-dev

centeros

$ sudo yum install xorg-x11\*

refer to

node-addon-api

node-gyp-github

node-sqlite3

node-pre-gyp

robotjs

Conclusion

If you have any questions, you can raise an issue and we can make progress together.