Context menus and keyboard hooks?

[Christoph Brüser]

Hi,

in my application I want to react to certain keys when a context menu
is showing. So I installed a keyboard hook, but now whenever a key is
pressed when the menu is showing, the application crashes and sometimes
throws a NullReferenceEx ception in system.windows. forms.dll. I assume
that the hook somehow messes up the context menu's message loop or
something like this. I also had this problem with a mouse hook, so i
guess its a problem with hooks in general. But I have no idea how to
work around it. My code goes like this:

<code>
....

private int keyHook = 0;
private delegate int HookProc(int nCode, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);

//Import for SetWindowsHookE x function.
//Use this function to install thread-specific hook.
[DllImport("user 32.dll",CharSet =CharSet.Auto,
CallingConventi on=CallingConve ntion.StdCall)]
private static extern int SetWindowsHookE x(int idHook, HookProc lpfn,
IntPtr hInstance, int threadId);

//Import for CallNextHookEx.
//Use this function to pass the hook information to next hook procedure
in chain.
[DllImport("user 32.dll",CharSet =CharSet.Auto,
CallingConventi on=CallingConve ntion.StdCall)]
private static extern int CallNextHookEx( int idHook, int nCode, IntPtr
wParam, IntPtr lParam);

//Hook the keyboard and show the menu
private void label1_Click(ob ject sender, System.EventArg s e)
{
if(keyHook == 0)
{
keyHook = SetWindowsHookE x(WH_KEYBOARD, new
HookProc(KeyHoo kProc), IntPtr.Zero, AppDomain.GetCu rrentThreadId() );
}
contextMenu1.Sh ow( label1, new Point(0, label1.Height) );
}

private int KeyHookProc(int nCode, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam)
{
if (nCode >= 0)
{
//my handler code would be here
}
return CallNextHookEx( keyHook, nCode, wParam, lParam);
}

....
</code>

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Christoph Brüser

[John Puopolo]

Hi...

Are there mulitple threads involved?
If you are manipulating UI controls from another thread in response to the
hook, your application can crash or exhibit strange behaviour -- Windows
controls must be accessed on the thread that created them (you can use
Contol.Invoke() ) to do this.

John Puopolo

"Christoph Brüser" <ch************ ***@rwth-aachen.de> wrote in message
news:3b******** *****@news.dfnc is.de...

Hi,

in my application I want to react to certain keys when a context menu
is showing. So I installed a keyboard hook, but now whenever a key is
pressed when the menu is showing, the application crashes and sometimes
throws a NullReferenceEx ception in system.windows. forms.dll. I assume
that the hook somehow messes up the context menu's message loop or
something like this. I also had this problem with a mouse hook, so i
guess its a problem with hooks in general. But I have no idea how to
work around it. My code goes like this:

<code>
...

private int keyHook = 0;
private delegate int HookProc(int nCode, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);

//Import for SetWindowsHookE x function.
//Use this function to install thread-specific hook.
[DllImport("user 32.dll",CharSet =CharSet.Auto,
CallingConventi on=CallingConve ntion.StdCall)]
private static extern int SetWindowsHookE x(int idHook, HookProc lpfn,
IntPtr hInstance, int threadId);

//Import for CallNextHookEx.
//Use this function to pass the hook information to next hook procedure
in chain.
[DllImport("user 32.dll",CharSet =CharSet.Auto,
CallingConventi on=CallingConve ntion.StdCall)]
private static extern int CallNextHookEx( int idHook, int nCode, IntPtr
wParam, IntPtr lParam);

//Hook the keyboard and show the menu
private void label1_Click(ob ject sender, System.EventArg s e)
{
if(keyHook == 0)
{
keyHook = SetWindowsHookE x(WH_KEYBOARD, new
HookProc(KeyHoo kProc), IntPtr.Zero, AppDomain.GetCu rrentThreadId() );
}
contextMenu1.Sh ow( label1, new Point(0, label1.Height) );
}

private int KeyHookProc(int nCode, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam)
{
if (nCode >= 0)
{
//my handler code would be here
}
return CallNextHookEx( keyHook, nCode, wParam, lParam);
}

...
</code>

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Christoph Brüser

[Christoph Brüser]

John Puopolo wrote:

Are there mulitple threads involved?

Nope, at least no threads that I created. And I dont even manipulate the
UI, I just listen to keyboard events via a hook. But I believe there
might be some internal threading issue. But I have no idea how to work
around it.