Question

Suppose I have a GUI-only application that runs on Windows and I’d like to create a web interface for it using PHP. Is it even possible? I know I can use functions like system() or exec() to launch programs, but can I have more control over a running GUI app? Primarily, I would like to be able to send it keystrokes, so I can use it to process a file, save the output, and exit.

Please point me in the right direction.

Answer 1

You can definitely do it, but it would take a bit of hackery. One way to do it would be to write a Windows command-line app that would send button clicks and such to the Windows GUI app. You then call this command-line app using PHP and the exec and system calls.

For example, if you were passing it say, Firefox, you would have a firefox-wrapper app that could be called like this:

firefox-wrapper open-url http://stackoverflow.com
firefox-wrapper press-back
...