[python-win32] Get path of the current open document of the current active application

[Marte Soliza]

Do you think most apps provide some interface in one way or another,
especially major apps (e.g. MS Office apps, Adobe apps)?

It's ok if we do this on an app-to-app basis, but for each app, how easy is
it do you think will it take to determine the interface for them?

Thanks for a very informative answer!

On Thu, Sep 22, 2011 at 4:35 AM, Tim Roberts <timr at probo.com> wrote:

> Marte Soliza wrote:
> >
> > I'm looking for a way to, first, determine the current active
> > application (i.e. the one with the top-most window). I think I got
> > this now, but I'm not sure how much of this will help in my final goal
> > which is to get the path of the current open document (for those that
> > have them).
> >
> > I believe there is no single way to do this that will work for all
> > applications, but is there a way to do this for most applications? Is
> > there some convention that most applications follow to define what
> > their current document is?
> >
> > If there's no general way, I'm willing to do this on an app-to-app
> > basis starting with, say, MS Word.
>
> This is an extremely difficult problem with no general case solutions.
>
> I worked on a multi-year project for A Major Processor Manufacturer a
> few years ago that tried to do this, in an attempt to create an
> immersive, collaborative team environment.  They wanted to tell whether
> several people were working on the same document.  We were able to
> support Office and Internet Explorer, but that was pretty much it, and
> even that was quite delicate.  It didn't always work, and it failed
> after virtually every Office upgrade.  That's why the product has never
> gone public.
>
> One huge problem is that Windows, in general, does not have the concept
> of a "document".  Some applications have a document-centric architecture
> (although many do not), but there are no Win32 APIs about documents.
> The Office applications can be controlled by COM, but then you need to
> map from a window handle to a COM object.
>
> Now, it turns out that last problem is solvable.  The Office
> applications all register themselves in the Running Object Table.  It's
> possible to enumerate the monikers in the Running Object Table and
> figure out which one maps to a particular window handle.  That gives you
> the root application object, and you can ask that for the current
> document, assuming the document has been saved.
>
> For IE, you can actually go probing through the window handles to find
> the text box that contains the current URL.
>
> --
> Tim Roberts, timr at probo.com
> Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.
>
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