proc-title-watch - Monitor Processes and their titles

Currently implemented only for windows. mac/linux coming soon!

This native module will search for processes that match a specified set of strings and return their PIDs and titles of their main visible window.

Requirements

node-gyp and it's requirements.

Installing

npm install https://github.com/joncppl/proc-title-watch

Usage

var procWatch = require('../lib/proc-title-watch.js');

// an array of programs to search for
var searchList = [ "MPC", "VLC" ];

procWatch(searchList, function(error, info) {
  if (error) console.error(error);
  console.log(info);
});

// Example Output
// [ { pid: 1000, title: 'A.mp4' },
//   { pid: 1001, title: 'B.mkv' } ]

Plans

• macOS & Linux support
• Events for changes, such as
  • new matching process launched
  • title changed
  • process closed

Example Use Case

I developed this for a video catalogue application where I wanted to detect whether the user is currently watching a video and know when that video had ended so as to update the catalogue. The name of the video file is conveniently placed in the window title by most video players.