Java AutoClicker with JNativeHook Runs infinitely

Question

I have been trying to write this autoclicker with java for around 7 hours now. I wrote some of this based on other people's code, some by myself. I used JNativeHook to capture clicks in windows outside of Eclipse/the console.

The idea is this: When you hold left click, the Robot will left click for you with 300 ms in between each click.

The problem, however, is that when I left click, I do not execute the code to make the robot run. When I add the line "test.run();" in the nativeMousePressed listener, YES, it DOES autoclick, but when I release left click, It still runs. The only way to then stop it is to click the stop button on eclipse.

Now, I understand I need to make it run in a new thread so I can still use listeners with it, which I attempted to do with this in my MousePressed listener:

            Thread test = new Thread(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                try {
                    Robot robot = new Robot();
                    System.out.println("GOT HERE 1");
                    System.out.println("Got HERE 4");
                    try {
                        Thread.sleep(300);
                        System.out.println("Got HERE 5");
                        robot.mousePress(InputEvent.BUTTON1_DOWN_MASK);
                        // robot.mouseRelease(InputEvent.BUTTON1_DOWN_MASK);
                        System.out.println("Got HERE 6");
                        // if ();
                    } catch (InterruptedException ex) {
                    }
                } catch (AWTException e1) {
                }
                ;
            }
        });

I already removed my loop because that did not seem to do anything to change it. Can somebody explain to me what is going wrong here?

import java.awt.AWTException;
import java.awt.Robot;
import java.awt.event.InputEvent;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;

import org.jnativehook.GlobalScreen;
import org.jnativehook.NativeHookException;
import org.jnativehook.mouse.NativeMouseEvent;
import org.jnativehook.mouse.NativeMouseInputListener;

public class AutoClicker implements NativeMouseInputListener {

public void nativeMouseClicked(NativeMouseEvent e) {
    // dont need
}

public void nativeMousePressed(NativeMouseEvent e) {
    if (e.getButton() == NativeMouseEvent.BUTTON1) {
        System.out.println("Mouse Pressed: " + e.getButton());
        run = true;
        System.out.println(run);

        Thread test = new Thread(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                try {
                    Robot robot = new Robot();
                    System.out.println("GOT HERE 1");
                    System.out.println("Got HERE 4");
                    try {
                        Thread.sleep(300);
                        System.out.println("Got HERE 5");
                        robot.mousePress(InputEvent.BUTTON1_DOWN_MASK);
                        // robot.mouseRelease(InputEvent.BUTTON1_DOWN_MASK);
                        System.out.println("Got HERE 6");
                        // if ();
                    } catch (InterruptedException ex) {
                    }
                } catch (AWTException e1) {
                }
                ;
            }
        });
    }

}

public void nativeMouseReleased(NativeMouseEvent e) {
    if (e.getButton() == NativeMouseEvent.BUTTON1) {
        System.out.println("Mouse Released: " + e.getButton());
        run = false;
        System.out.println(run);
    }
}

public void nativeMouseMoved(NativeMouseEvent e) {
    // dont need
}

public void nativeMouseDragged(NativeMouseEvent e) {
    // dont need
}

public void click() {

}

public static boolean run = false;

public static void main(String[] args) {
    try {
        GlobalScreen.registerNativeHook();
    } catch (NativeHookException ex) {
        System.err.println("There was a problem registering the native hook.");
        System.err.println(ex.getMessage());

        System.exit(1);
    }

    Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(GlobalScreen.class.getPackage().getName());
    logger.setLevel(Level.WARNING);

    // Don't forget to disable the parent handlers.
    logger.setUseParentHandlers(false);

    // Construct the example object.
    AutoClicker clicker = new AutoClicker();

    // Add the appropriate listeners.
    GlobalScreen.addNativeMouseListener(clicker);

}
}

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited May 02 '20 at 12:32

Each mouse press triggers a click, So:

When you start your first click with a mouse press, it triggers the click after 300ms which triggers another click and so on..

Basically the program gets stuck in an infinite loop of clicking, which i sometimes call the Clickening.

If i know what you're exactly trying to do, i might provide you with a better answer.

But as i understand your question now, a simple solution would just be, to only trigger the mouse release robot.mouseRelease(InputEvent.BUTTON1_DOWN_MASK); and not do a mouse press. This will complete the click your started with your press after 300ms.

UPDATE: Per the OP's comment, here is the updated code, which uses alt to trigger clicking instead of the left mouse button.

Alt pressed --> clicking starts
Alt released --> clicking stops

Escape pressed --> program exits

import org.jnativehook.GlobalScreen;
import org.jnativehook.NativeHookException;
import org.jnativehook.keyboard.NativeKeyEvent;
import org.jnativehook.keyboard.NativeKeyListener;

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.InputEvent;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;

public class AutoClicker implements NativeKeyListener {

public static void main(String[] args) {
    try {
        GlobalScreen.registerNativeHook();
    } catch (NativeHookException ex) {
        System.err.println("There was a problem registering the native hook.");

        System.exit(1);
    }

    Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(GlobalScreen.class.getPackage().getName());
    logger.setLevel(Level.WARNING);

    // Don't forget to disable the parent handlers.
    logger.setUseParentHandlers(false);

    // Construct the example object.
    AutoClicker clicker = new AutoClicker();

    // Add the appropriate listeners.
    GlobalScreen.addNativeKeyListener(clicker);
}

private void startClicking() {
    Runnable runnable = new Runnable() {
        @Override
        public void run() {
            try {
                Robot robot = new Robot();
                while (isClicking) {
                    Thread.sleep(300);
                    System.out.println("Clicked!");
                    robot.mousePress(InputEvent.BUTTON1_DOWN_MASK);
                    robot.mouseRelease(InputEvent.BUTTON1_DOWN_MASK);                            
                }
            } catch (Exception ignored) {
                System.out.println("Couldn't click");
            }
        }
    };
    Thread clickingThread = new Thread(runnable);
    clickingThread.start();
}

private boolean isClicking = false;

@Override
public void nativeKeyPressed(NativeKeyEvent key) {
    // When alt is pressed --> Start clicking
    if (key.getKeyCode() == NativeKeyEvent.VC_ALT_L || key.getKeyCode() == NativeKeyEvent.VC_ALT_R) {
        if (!isClicking) {
            System.out.println("Alt pressed, started clicking!");
            isClicking = true;
            startClicking();
        }
    }

    //  If escape is clicked, exit the program
    else if (key.getKeyCode() == NativeKeyEvent.VC_ESCAPE) {
        System.out.println("Escape button Pressed.EXITING!");
        System.exit(0);
    }
}

@Override
public void nativeKeyReleased(NativeKeyEvent key) {
    if (key.getKeyCode() == NativeKeyEvent.VC_ALT_L || key.getKeyCode() == NativeKeyEvent.VC_ALT_R) {
        // When alt is relesed --> Stop clicking
        isClicking = false;
        System.out.println("Alt released, stopped clicking!");
    }
}

@Override
public void nativeKeyTyped(NativeKeyEvent key) {
}

}

Thank you for your answer. I figured that telling it to click was also triggering the event. This works, but lacks the functionality I'd like. Ideally, I would hold down the left mouse button, and it would left click until it was released. When it is released, it will stop clicking. As your code stands, a left mouse click would cause a single delayed second left mouse click. — Chad Wilson, Dec 22 '17 at 20:03
The problem is there is no way -as far as i know- to tell a robot mouse event from a real mouse event. Your best option is to use either the left or middle mouse buttons to detect when the robot should be clicking and when it should stop. Or even better, use a NativeKeyListener, and let a keyboard button be the trigger. — DarkMental, Dec 22 '17 at 20:40
@ChadWilson Just updated the post and added tested code, using alt as a trigger. — DarkMental, Dec 22 '17 at 21:48

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 23 '21 at 19:49

I don't know if I should be replying to this considering it is an old thread but I think I had might've found a way without using ALT or a trigger to enable the auto clicker. I had seen that if you were holding mouse button 1, and 100 ms later, the program programmatically releases mouse button1, then you release your real button 1, it says release twice (assuming you had added a print statement in the pressed method in JNativehook). This can be a signal to turn off the auto clicker when it says mouse button 1 that had been released. Hopefully that makes sense!

Java AutoClicker with JNativeHook Runs infinitely

2 Answers2