Send Keyboard Event. "open sesame"?

[gbourque]

Forum support folks have several times recommended the technique below for sending keyboard events from a script. However, I have no idea what "open sesame" refers to nor what I would put in its place in order to:

1) Open the Data Series dialogue.
2) Change the bar period (specifically Renko brick size).

https://forum.ninjatrader.com/forum/ninjatrader-7/indicator-development-aa/1246143-sendkeys-f5?p=1246152#post1246152

Thanks for any clues you can give.

[NinjaTrader_ChelseaB]

Hello gbourque,

This would be a string used to open the Instrument Overlay. (Any string will do here)

Note, the script you have linked uses code that is not supported by NinjaTrader and is not documented in the help guide.

[gbourque]

I see you are the writer of the script, so I'm in good hands. So the Enter key code in your script is an example of how to send a particular event. Correct?

[NinjaTrader_ChelseaB]

Hello gbourque,

This invokes the enter key in the instrument overlay window, which will trigger the instrument and / or data series to load, the same as if you had pressed enter on the keyboard while the instrument overlay window is open.

[gbourque]

Okay. So let me ask you... My indicator is running in a Renko chart, I want the chart to, when the instrument symbol changes, to change the bar period (Renko brick size). I want to use the technique in your script to do this. What would change in your code to make this happen? Thanks.

[NinjaTrader_ChelseaB]

Hello gbourque,

Please note, this would not be under the realm of what is supported by the NinjaTrader support team.

This would be something that should be used at your own risk, and may require further custom c#.

That said, nextExpiryString is the string being sent to the instrument overlay window. Your string would be "4RE" to change to 4 renko.

https://ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt8/index.html?working_with_price_data.htm#HowToChangeADataSeries

[gbourque]

I get it now. The "instrument overlay window" is that black overlay that pops up when you press certain keys. I didn't understand that before.

Yes, that worked. Thanks! I understand that this is unsupported and the risk is mine.

// explicity give the chart focus.
ChartControl.OwnerChart.Focus();

// send a key event to trigger the instrument overlay selector to appear.
Keyboard.FocusedElement.RaiseEvent(new TextCompositionEventArgs(InputManager.Current.Prim aryKeyboardDevice,
new TextComposition(InputManager.Current, ChartControl.OwnerChart, "open sesame"))
{ RoutedEvent = TextCompositionManager.PreviewTextInputEvent });

// send the actual string you want in the instrument overlay selector.
Keyboard.FocusedElement.RaiseEvent(new TextCompositionEventArgs(InputManager.Current.Prim aryKeyboardDevice,
new TextComposition(InputManager.Current, ChartControl.OwnerChart, "40RE"))
{ RoutedEvent = TextCompositionManager.TextInputEvent });

// send Enter key
Keyboard.FocusedElement.RaiseEvent(new KeyEventArgs(Keyboard.PrimaryDevice,
PresentationSource.FromVisual(ChartControl.OwnerCh art), 0, Key.Enter) { RoutedEvent = Keyboard.PreviewKeyDownEvent } );

[gbourque]

Just an FYI, it started getting this error on the keyboard code:

Error on calling 'OnStateChange' method: The calling thread must be STA, because many UI components require this.

So I wrapped the keyboard code (see previous post) in the method CallKeyboard() and called it like this:

ChartControl.Dispatcher.InvokeAsync((Action)(() =>
{
CallKeyboard(brickSize);
}));

That seems to have fixed it.

[gbourque]

Nope. The code blew away another indicator in my chart. Apparently, this code must run from a UI thread. I need it to run from StateChange.