Improve getAllAppsWindowsTitle()

[zak-45]

Hi, for one of my project, I need to retreive hWnd.

I want to show to the end user a window pop up with all active windows grouped by apps.
getAllAppsWindowsTitle is perfect for that, but missing the hWnd information.

I create this small script for this purpose :

import pywinctl as pwc
windows=pwc.getAllWindows()
for win in windows:
    print(win.title, win._hWnd,win.getAppName())

this work, except that by adding win.getAppName() this take too much time.

Have tried several solution, no one quickest.

Do you have any idea on how to improve that ?
And as suggestion: including hWnd into getAllAppsWindowsTitle() or create getAllAppsWindowsTitlehWnd() will be great.

and thanks for this great module !!

[Kalmat]

Hi! Thank you for your interest in this module!

First off, sorry for my late reply. I was trying to figure out how to properly manage your request. To be honest, I don't like mixing titles and names together with id's... On the other hand, you're totally right. getAppName() uses a for, so it is very slow when using it inside another for.

Still not sure what could be the best for all cases, but right now I'm considering to build a method which returns a dictionary including all windows info (app name and pid, window id, title, position, etc.)... If it is not too demanding (this is what I have to check in all three platforms), may be this a more general solution for other future use cases including yours.

Please, let me think and test the best solution. If you have any idea, it's welcome!

[Kalmat]

Sorry, I tested your code today... the time it takes is not acceptable at all!!!

I will work in a new version. I think, by now, that the best solution is to build a dict containing all info.

In the mean time, please use this code as a workaround (you are on Windows, right? Or do you need a multi-platform solution? If so, please let me know):

import win32process

import pywinctl as pwc
from pywinctl._pywinctl_win import _getAllApps


def getAppWindowsID(tryToFilter: bool = True):
    process_list = _getAllApps(tryToFilter)
    result = []
    for win in pwc.getAllWindows():
        id = win.getHandle()
        pID = win32process.GetWindowThreadProcessId(id)
        for item in process_list:
            appPID, appName = item
            if appPID == pID[1]:
                result.append([appName, win.title, id])
                break
    return result

It returns a list of other lists each containing app name, window title and window id. It takes around 0.2 seconds in my system (the dict will take a bit longer, but it will contain more info).

Note that tryToFilter will try to get user (non-system) applications only if you set it to True, but some real user applications are skipped in some cases (I didn't find a way to trustfully return only user applications in windows). So set it to True or False at your convenience.

Thank you again!

[zak-45]

thanks to you and not worry about time, we all have some other things to do.... In fact, yes, goal is to have a cross-platform solution, so a dict with all informations is ok for me. My project is still on beta phase, so do your best at your time. I just wanted to point this sad effect by using getAppName().

[Kalmat]

Hi! I have uploaded a new version to PyPi (v0.4.01) which includes getAllWindowsDict() function.

Whenever you have time, please check it and let me know if it works in your case.

Thanks for pointing out this issue and your help!

[zak-45]

Hi, this works, great job, thanks a lot.

Just one remark: to be "Json friendly", value for 'Point' and 'size' need to be reviewed (put ' or made it serializable).
For reference, here is my working code:

` @staticmethod
async def windows_titles():
""" Provide a list of all window titles / hWnd by applications """

    try:
        # Assuming these are your custom classes
        class Point:
            def __init__(self, x, y):
                self.x = x
                self.y = y

        class Size:
            def __init__(self, width, height):
                self.width = width
                self.height = height

        # Define a function to serialize custom objects
        def custom_serializer(obj):
            if isinstance(obj, Point):
                return {"x": obj.x, "y": obj.y}
            elif isinstance(obj, Size):
                return {"width": obj.width, "height": obj.height}
            raise TypeError(f"Type {type(obj)} not serializable")

        # Your dictionary
        data = pwc.getAllWindowsDict()
        # Convert dictionary to JSON
        windows_all = json.dumps(data, default=custom_serializer, ensure_ascii=False, indent=4)
        windows_by_app = json.loads(windows_all)

    except Exception as er:
        logger.error(f"Error retrieving windows: {er}")
        return {}

    return windows_by_app

`

I will close this one as complete and thanks again.

[Kalmat]

So happy to hear that!

Regarding Point and Size objects, you're right... Inside a dictionary perhaps it's better to stick to standard types (tuple[int, int]). I will change that in next version.

In the mean time, just for your info, they are a NamedTuple classes:

class Point(NamedTuple):
    """Container class to handle Point struct (x, y)"""
    x: int
    y: int

class Size(NamedTuple):
    """Container class to handle Size struct (width, height)"""
    width: int
    height: int

So you can use them just importing them from PyWinCtl:

from pywinbox import Point, Size

You can also serialize them in a more simple way by using this:

if isinstance(obj, Point) or isinstance(obj, Size):
    return tuple(obj)

Thank you!