Mouse button and keypress counter for Mac OS X

Question

There are techniques for Linux and Windows, but is there a way to count mouse and keyboard events in Mac OS X? I'm interested in doing statistical analysis of my daily activity.

Answer 1

Based on the inspiration provided by MrDaniel, I decided to program a simple little counter.

The source code for this, minus the UI defined as xib; uses Foundation and AppKit frameworks (full sources and Xcode project on GitHub):

DBAppDelegate.h

//
//  DBAppDelegate.h
//  CocoaActivityCounter
//
//  Created by Daniel Beck on 29.07.2012.
//  Copyright (c) 2012 Daniel Beck. All rights reserved.
//

#import <Cocoa/Cocoa.h>

static id monitorLeftMouseDown;
static id monitorRightMouseDown;
static id monitorKeyDown;

@interface DBAppDelegate : NSObject <NSApplicationDelegate>

@property (assign) IBOutlet NSWindow *window;
@property (strong) IBOutlet NSTextView *logView;

@property (weak) IBOutlet NSToolbarItem *toolbarStartButton;
@property (weak) IBOutlet NSToolbarItem *toolbarStopButton;
@property (weak) IBOutlet NSToolbarItem *toolbarClearButton;

@property (weak) IBOutlet NSTextField *keyPressCounterLabel;
@property (weak) IBOutlet NSTextField *leftMouseCounterLabel;
@property (weak) IBOutlet NSTextField *rightMouseCounterLabel;

@property (readwrite) NSDateFormatter *logDateFormatter;

@property (readwrite) NSNumber *keyPressCounter;
@property (readwrite) NSNumber *leftMouseCounter;
@property (readwrite) NSNumber *rightMouseCounter;

@property (readwrite) BOOL loggingEnabled;

- (IBAction)stopButtonPressed:(id)sender;
- (IBAction)startButtonPressed:(id)sender;
- (IBAction)clearButtonPressed:(id)sender;

- (void)logMessageToLogView:(NSString*)message;

- (BOOL)validateToolbarItem:(NSToolbarItem *)theItem;

@end

DBAppDelegate.m

//
//  DBAppDelegate.m
//  CocoaActivityCounter
//
//  Created by Daniel Beck on 29.07.2012.
//  Copyright (c) 2012 Daniel Beck. All rights reserved.
//

#import "DBAppDelegate.h"
#import <AppKit/NSEvent.h>

@implementation DBAppDelegate
@synthesize logView;
@synthesize toolbarStartButton;
@synthesize toolbarStopButton;
@synthesize keyPressCounterLabel;
@synthesize leftMouseCounterLabel;
@synthesize rightMouseCounterLabel;
@synthesize toolbarClearButton;
@synthesize loggingEnabled;

@synthesize keyPressCounter;
@synthesize leftMouseCounter;
@synthesize rightMouseCounter;


- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(NSNotification *)aNotification {
    self.loggingEnabled = NO;
    self.logDateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
    [self.logDateFormatter setTimeStyle:NSDateFormatterMediumStyle];
    self.keyPressCounter = [NSNumber numberWithInt:0];
    self.leftMouseCounter = [NSNumber numberWithInt:0];
    self.rightMouseCounter = [NSNumber numberWithInt:0];
}

- (BOOL)applicationShouldTerminateAfterLastWindowClosed:(NSApplication *)theApplication {
    return YES;
}

-(void)logMessageToLogView:(NSString*)message {
    [logView setString: [[logView string] stringByAppendingFormat:@"%@: %@\n", [self.logDateFormatter stringFromDate:[NSDate date]],  message]];
}

- (IBAction)stopButtonPressed:(id)sender {
    if (!self.loggingEnabled) {
        return;
    }
    self.loggingEnabled = false;
    [NSEvent removeMonitor:monitorLeftMouseDown];
    [NSEvent removeMonitor:monitorRightMouseDown];
    [NSEvent removeMonitor:monitorKeyDown];
}

- (IBAction)startButtonPressed:(id)sender {

    if (self.loggingEnabled) {
        return;
    }
    self.loggingEnabled = true;
    monitorLeftMouseDown = [NSEvent addGlobalMonitorForEventsMatchingMask:NSLeftMouseDownMask handler:^(NSEvent *evt) {
        [self logMessageToLogView:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"Left mouse down!"]];
        self.leftMouseCounter = [NSNumber numberWithInt:(1 + [self.leftMouseCounter intValue])];
    }];
    monitorRightMouseDown = [NSEvent addGlobalMonitorForEventsMatchingMask:NSRightMouseDownMask handler:^(NSEvent *evt) {
        [self logMessageToLogView:@"Right mouse down!"];
        self.rightMouseCounter = [NSNumber numberWithInt:(1 + [self.rightMouseCounter intValue])];
    }];
    monitorKeyDown = [NSEvent addGlobalMonitorForEventsMatchingMask:NSKeyDownMask handler:^(NSEvent *evt) {
        [self logMessageToLogView:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"Key down: %@ (key code %d)", [evt characters], [evt keyCode]]];
        self.keyPressCounter = [NSNumber numberWithInt:(1 + [self.keyPressCounter intValue])];
    }];
}

- (IBAction)clearButtonPressed:(id)sender {
    self.keyPressCounter = [NSNumber numberWithInt:0];
    self.leftMouseCounter = [NSNumber numberWithInt:0];
    self.rightMouseCounter = [NSNumber numberWithInt:0];
    [self.logView setString:@""];
}

- (BOOL)validateToolbarItem:(NSToolbarItem *)theItem {
    if ([theItem isEqualTo:toolbarStartButton]) {
        return !self.loggingEnabled;
    }
    if ([theItem isEqualTo:toolbarStopButton]) {
        return self.loggingEnabled;
    }
    if ([theItem isEqualTo:toolbarClearButton]) {
        return !self.loggingEnabled;
    }
    return YES;
}

@end

Icons used in the toolbar are from Tango Desktop Project.

Answer 2

WhatPulse runs on Windows, OS X, and Linux.

Thanks to Vsauce for pointing this one out.

Answer 3

Typingstats displays a total number of keystrokes and various other metrics. It doesn't count pointing device clicks though.

Answer 4

A click and button press counter program is possible via writing a Cocoa Objective-C program that can receive and count mouse and keyboard click events.

The class to take a look at is NSEvent specifically the addGlobalMonitorForEventsMatchingMask:handler: class method should prove to be very helpful. Since it offers to monitor events such as:

NSLeftMouseUp

NSRightMouseUp

NSOtherMouseUp

NSLeftMouseDown

NSRightMouseDown

NSOtherMouseDown

NSKeyDown

Answer 5

There is also open source OctoMouse utility, it can be installed on macos with Homebrew brew install octomouse.