Running Python clicker based on keylogger inputs on the background in Windows

Question

I wanted to write a program in Python for Windows that would act as a clicker, in which according to a key the user presses a click is made at a known location on the screen. This is used for an automated option selection from a list in a webpage. I have the clicking part working, but I wanted to be able to make several clicks during execution, as if there is a quiz with multiple lists one after another.

One option is to make a while loop with getch() from msvcrt. The thing is after a click outside the cmd its window is no longer selected, but rather the window where the destination point is located. Therefore, the script stops being active and the user cannot choose another location. A workaround is to click the cmd window to return the focus to it and be able to do any more clicks. To solve this, it would be necessary to create a service or, according to @Sanju, a thread.

The other option is to use a keylogger such as PyHook, which seems like the way to go. However, the problem is that the window where I want to use it in, a webpage in flash or another animations engine, causes an error that some users have found using this keylogger for example in Skype and is being described here. In my case, it also happens with this webpage and either when the click is made on the window itself or when the key is pressed with the window selected.

My base code is presented below, where click(...) would normally contain the coordinates as argument but they are being omitted for simplicity. In this case, 0 ends the program and there are three options being chosen with the numbers 1-3.

import msvcrt, win32api, win32con

def click(x,y):
    win32api.SetCursorPos((x,y))
    win32api.mouse_event(win32con.MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTDOWN,x,y,0,0)
    win32api.mouse_event(win32con.MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTUP,x,y,0,0)

key=0

while key!=b'0':
    key=msvcrt.getch()

    if key==b'1':
        click(...)
    elif key==b'2':
        click(...)
    elif key==b'3':
        click(...)

The attempts below try to implement @Sanju's suggestion, first with the whole while inside the thread and then with the queue, both not working as expected...

import threading, msvcrt, win32api, win32con

def MyThread():
    key=0

    while key!=b'0':
        key=msvcrt.getch()

        if key==b'1':
            ...

def click(x,y):
    ...

threading.Thread(target=MyThread,args=[]).start()

.

import queue, threading, msvcrt, win32api, win32con

def MyThread(key):
    while key.get()!=b'0':
        key.put(msvcrt.getch())

        if key.get()==b'1':
            ...

def click(x,y):
    ...

key=queue.Queue()
key.put(0)

threading.Thread(target=MyThread,args=[key]).start()

The other attempt uses PyHook, but it's still facing the aforementioned issue.

import pyHook, pythoncom, win32api, win32con

def OnKeyboardEvent(event):
    if event.Key=='Numpad1':
        ...

def click(x,y):
    ...

hm=pyHook.HookManager()
hm.KeyDown=OnKeyboardEvent
hm.HookKeyboard()

pythoncom.PumpMessages()

Answer 1

All you need here is move your click part to a thread and share the user input using a shareble object such as queue. It sounds like a overkill , but that's the way to keep your tasks in background.

And BTW, you have many GUI application frameworks available in Python like tkinter ,wxpython which can ease your objective.