javascriptnode.jsnpmuser32node-ffi

How can I take a window screenshot in Node.js?


I'm in a research to find a way to take a screenshot of a window using Node.js, and I'm trying to do this with node-ffi, but I don't know how... at a time I'm stuck here:

var ffi = require('ffi');

var user32 = new ffi.Library("user32", {
      FindWindowA: [ 'uint32' , [ 'string', 'string' ]]
    , PrintWindow: [ 'int32'  , [ 'int32', 'string', 'int32' ]]
});

var IMG;
var windowHandle = user32.FindWindowA(null, "Calculator");
var printWin = user32.PrintWindow(windowHandle, IMG, 0);

console.log(printWin);
console.log(IMG);

The result:

$ node get-print.js
1
undefined

EDITED

I found the following working code in C++

Bitmap bm = new Bitmap(1024, 768);
Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(bm);
IntPtr hdc = g.GetHdc();
Form1.PrintWindow(this.Handle, hdc, 0);
g.ReleaseHdc(hdc);
g.Flush();
g.Dispose();
this.pictureBox1.Image = bm;

now I need to do this on NodeJs,

Anyone can help me?


Solution

  • Although I don't have full code working, but in theory if you're able to do so in C++, then simply use node-gyp to compile the C++ file to a .node file, then include that in you're nodeJS file.

    So some example pseudo-code, first of all make a binding.gyp file in a new directory, and put some code in it like this:

    {
      "targets": [
        {
            "target_name": "addon",
            "sources": [ 
                "hi.cc"
            ]
        }
      ]
    }
    

    then in that same directory (for now) make another file called hi.cc, and put your C++ code in it, plus some more to make a node module out of it. So, based on the docs mentioned above, you could do something like this (untested):

    /*don't know what includes you're using to git the Bitmap 
    and  Graphics functions, but include them here */
    
     /*then to make a node module*/
    #include <node.h>
    
    using namespace v8;
    
    
    void GetImage(const FunctionCallbackInfi<Value>& args) {
        Bitmap bm = new Bitmap(1024, 768);
        Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(bm);
        IntPtr hdc = g.GetHdc();
        Form1.PrintWindow(this.Handle, hdc, 0);
        g.ReleaseHdc(hdc);
        g.Flush();
        /*
        this is the key part, although I'm not
        100% sure it will work since I don't 
        know exactly what type Graphics returns, 
        but basically just convert it somehow into 
        base64, or a plain old void* value
        (as in this following example), then make a new
        Local variable of it and set the return type
        (or make a function callback). So first get the 
        Graphics variable into a void* of the data, then 
        convert it to an ArrayBuffer to use in NodeJS, based on this
        answer. Anyway:
        */
        Local<
            ArrayBuffer
        > 
        v = 
        ArrayBuffer::New(i, /*some void* value*/ temp, 5000/*or some length*/);
        a.GetReturnValue().Set(v);
    }
    
    
    void Initialize(Local<Object> exports) {
      NODE_SET_METHOD(exports, "hello", GetImage);
    }
    
    NODE_MODULE(NODE_GYP_MODULE_NAME, Initialize)
    

    Then make sure you actually have node-gyp and the proper build tools installed (see docs above, but its pretty much npm i -g node-gyp), then go to build -> Release -> addon.node and copy it to your main nodeJS directory, then make a new nodeJS file or include the following in an existing one:

    let addon = require("./addon"),
        pictureData = Buffer.from(addon.hello()/* if you choose to return a base64 string instead, then insert: ,"base64"*/);