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SharpClipboard

SharpClipboard is a clipboard-monitoring library for .NET that listens to the system's clipboard entries, allowing developers to tap into the rich capabilities of determining the clipboard's contents at runtime.

Here's a screenshot and below a usage-preview of the library's features:

Installation

To install via the NuGet Package Manager Console, run:

Install-Package SharpClipboard

Features

• Supports .NET Framework 2.0 and above plus .NET Core.
• Built as a component making it accessible in Design Mode.
• Silently monitors the system clipboard uninterrupted; can also be disabled while running.
• Provides support for multi-instance clipboard monitoring.
• Ability to detect clipboard content in various formats: text, images, files, and other complex types.
• Option to control the type of content to be monitored, e.g. text only, text and images only.
• Ability to capture the background application's details from where the clipboard's contents were captured.

Usage

If you prefer working with the Designer, simply add the library to Visual Studio's Toolbox and use the Properties window to change its options:

To use it in code, first import WK.Libraries.SharpClipboardNS - the code below will then assist you:

    var clipboard = new SharpClipboard();

    // Attach your code to the ClipboardChanged event to listen to cuts/copies.
    clipboard.ClipboardChanged += ClipboardChanged;
    
    private void ClipboardChanged(Object sender, ClipboardChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        // Is the content copied of text type?
        if (e.ContentType == SharpClipboard.ContentTypes.Text)
        {
            // Get the cut/copied text.
            Debug.WriteLine(clipboard.ClipboardText);
        }

        // Is the content copied of image type?
        else if (e.ContentType == SharpClipboard.ContentTypes.Image)
        {
            // Get the cut/copied image.
            Image img = clipboard.ClipboardImage;
        }

        // Is the content copied of file type?
        else if (e.ContentType == SharpClipboard.ContentTypes.Files)
        {
            // Get the cut/copied file/files.
            Debug.WriteLine(clipboard.ClipboardFiles.ToArray());

            // ...or use 'ClipboardFile' to get a single copied file.
            Debug.WriteLine(clipboard.ClipboardFile);
        }

        // If the cut/copied content is complex, use 'Other'.
        else if (e.ContentType == SharpClipboard.ContentTypes.Other)
        {
            // Do something with 'clipboard.ClipboardObject' or 'e.Content' here...
        }
    }

You can also get the details of the application from where the clipboard's contents were cut/copied from using the ClipboardChanged argument property SourceApplication:

    private void ClipboardChanged(Object sender, SharpClipboard.ClipboardChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        // Gets the application's executable name.
        Debug.WriteLine(e.SourceApplication.Name);
        // Gets the application's window title.
        Debug.WriteLine(e.SourceApplication.Title);
        // Gets the application's process ID.
        Debug.WriteLine(e.SourceApplication.ID.ToString());
        // Gets the application's executable path.
        Debug.WriteLine(e.SourceApplication.Path);
    }

This option could come in handy especially when you're building a clipboard-monitoring application where users may feel the need to know where every recorded cut/copy action occurred.

To manually parse the content after a cut/copy has been detected, you can use the argument property e.Content in the ClipboardChanged event:

    private void ClipboardChanged(Object sender, ClipboardChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        // For texts...
        string text = e.Content.ToString();

        // or images...
        Image img = (Image)e.Content;

        // or files...
        List<string> files = (List<string>)e.Content;
		
        // or other complex types too.
        // Person p = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Person>(e.Content);
    }

Made with 💛 by Willy Kimura | Like to say thank you? Star this project. Feel free to BuyMeACoffee also. 😊