I would like to write some code in Delphi for opening some files (e.g. mp3, png) with the associated program in Windows.
With AssocQueryString, I can find the program for a given extension.
With this program, I can start the given file, when only one file was selected.
The problem is when I try to start the program with a list of files.
Example 1 - mp3 is associated with AIMP3 and this call works fine
D:\Tools\AIMP3\AIMP3.exe "F:\TestFiles\mp3\file1.mp3" "F:\TestFiles\mp3\file2.mp3"
Example 2 - png is associated with IrfanView and this call fail
D:\Tools\IrfanView\i_view32.exe "F:\TestFiles\png\file1.png" "F:\TestFiles\png\file2.png"
IrfanView does not accept calling it with a list of files, but only with one file.
My question is, how do I find out if a program accepts as parameters just a single file or a list of files?
I have tried to check the Registry but found nothing. In shell->open->command I can find "%1" for both programs.
I have tried to use the IDropTarget interface, but this does not work with IrfanView, either (drop multiple files on i_view32.exe doesn't work in Windows Explorer, either).
On the other hand, Windows Explorer (if using Open from the context menu for many png files) opens a new instance of IrfanView for each file. If I had this information, I could also start IrfanView for each file.
Related
I'm using the IFilter interface to read the content of files such as .docx, .pdf, etc. For those two types (and others) this already works pretty well, but I was wondering if it is possible to use this mechanism to read the meta data of a jpg file as well.
I created a test image file and added some information to its details (Title, description, ...)
Interestingly, the Windows Indexer is able to find this file using the text that I specified as title. By using the IFilter interface, however, I retrieve only an empty string for my jpeg.
I also tested the command line tool filtdump.exe from here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd940434(v=vs.85).aspx#command_line, which returned the same results as my implementation.
Does anyone know how the Windows indexer is able to see the content and how I couold use the same mechanism to achieve similar results?
I was asked to develop a game called "Flag Quiz" in which the player have to guess the correct name of the flag that appears in the middle of the screen.
Of course I have a lot of pictures (221 flags) and I have to put them inside the program because, when the button Play is pressed, the program has to pick randomly 10 of these flags.
Problem
I was thinking to use an ImageList but the flags are 480x311 and so Delphi asks me to separate the picutre in 30 different bitmaps. Can I do anything about this?
My idea, to avoid that problem, was the following (although I think that it's not very good): create 221 TPicture components (invisible to the user of course) and load in each of them a picture of a flag.
I'd prefer not using the last idea I had. Do you know any improvement?
This sort of problem is simply not suited to the form designer. You want to store 221 images, and managing that in the IDE will be horrible. Once you've got them all in you won't be able to see them readily because they will be base 16 encoded in a .dfm file. Under revision control it will be a mess because you won't be able to change individual images in a manageable and traceable manner.
The accepted way to do this is to use resources. If it were me, I'd arrange for my images to have predicatable names. For instance, flag1, flag2, etc. I'd generate a resource script (.rc) that listed all the flags. I'd compile that resource script to a compiled resource (.res) which is linked to the executable. I'd have the resource script and the image files committed to revision control.
Then at runtime you have a single TImage control to display the flag. Every time you need a new image you load it with TResourceStream, and push it into the TImage control.
Devexpress has a Componnect named cximagecolletion that you can put your images on it and save and load images from/to file
or you can save all flags in small access db and load it when you need using tadodataset
there is no doubt that if you put your images direct on your form your dfm grow very high and so you Get Into trouble
Personally I would store each file as an image in a dedicated subdirectory, using the country as a file name. Then I would read the subdirectory file names on entry to the program (so I have a list of countries that I can randomly choose from) and use TImage.LoadFromFile to display the flag. This is far easier to extend than using a resource file (IMHO).
Is it possible to persuade the stream result to download an entire directory and it's contents? And if so, how? I've no problem getting it to download individual files, but I have a need to download a series of files that must be in a specific directory structure.
I don't think so.
Stream result allow you to download ONE content, with its MIME type, its name, etc.
This makes it impossible to work with a lot of files, with different names and content type.
What you can do is:
Render in a JSP the list of files (in anchor tags for example), everyone targeting the Action that will download that single file;
Call multiple Actions via scripting opening multiple pages (target="_blank") for every file you have (dangerous, annoying, almost useless...);
Create a zip with Java in server side, containing all your files and directories, then output the zip with Stream result.
I think you may consider the third option.
I am working on an internal application. We have a website that displays all our SSRS reports for a group of work. I have been asked to see if I can link all the files (pdf, word, excel) for the group of work. These files are stored on a file server that users viewing the reports have access to. Each group has its own group of reports and shared files.
Is it possible to open the files (without downloading them) from a webpage? Meaning that they file is opened from the file server? I don't want people to download a copy of the file.
I am pretty sure this can work with IE because sharepoint does it. However, other browsers may have an issue.
EDIT: What I would like is to have a web page with links to the files. When they click on a link (say for a word doc), word will open the file that resides on the file server. Without out a local copy downloaded from the network share.
EDIT2: Please note, I know what I am asking is probably not possible in all browsers. I am more or less just making sure. It seems possible in IE using activeX, but out side of that browsers do a good job at keeping processes inside a sandbox.
3 options. Remember this is for an internal website.
link to the share using file://. This will have the side affect of downloading the file to be viewed. As long as user clicks open every time it should not be a big deal.
Use JavaScript and activeX to open word (excel, reader, ect) passing in the file path as a command line arguments. This works only in IE and in win7 (probably vista) user will get a pop up asking if it is ok for the activeX control to run.
Create a new protocol. openfile://. This would be set up to run an application that is installed on the client machine which would open the file. Since it is internal, the application could be installed on the machines without issues. This also requires a registry change.
I haven't picked one as this change is still being looked into but i figure I would update this in case someone runs into something similar.
How do i get the location of the file that i used to open my programs with?
Example: if i create a new extention ".xyz" say and i tell windows that i want to open the file type .xyz with myapplication, then it starts my aplication. Great, but how does my application get a handle on the file path of the file that was used to start it?
Also, is there a way to keep just one version of my app running and new files that are opened to just call a method in my application? For example if your using a torrent and you open 5 .torrent files they all just get passed to one application.
Side question: are all file extensions 3 letters long and is there a list of ones that are publicly used? If im creating a file extension I don't want to use one that is already used.
When you created your file association, you specified the command line that Explorer should run to activate your program. The shell puts the name of the document file on the command line, too, so in your program, check the command-line arguments. How you do that depends on your language and development environment. In Delphi, use the ParamCount and ParamStr functions.
When you create the file association, you can specify exactly where on the command line the document file name should go. Use %1 somewhere on the command line, and the shell will replace it with the file name. Since Windows file names frequently contains spaces, you should put quotation marks around the file name, so the command line in the file association would look like this:
ArthurApp.exe "%1"
With that association, double-clicking another document file will start another instance of your program. If you'd prefer to have the document opened in another window of the already-running instance, then you can write code to make your program look for already-running instances when it starts up. If it finds one, then it can communicate with that instance to tell it what file to open. You can effect that communication any number of ways, including mailslots, sockets, named pipes, memory-mapped files, and DDE.
The shell's file-association mechanism already has a way of communicating via DDE, so a second instance of your program wouldn't be started at all. Instead, the shell would start a DDE conversation with the already-running instance and tell it the new file name that way. However, DDE seems to be falling out of favor nowadays, so check out some of the other options first.
For your side question, no, extensions are not always three characters long. Look around, and that should be obvious: C code goes in .c files, Adobe Illustrator graphics go in .ai files, and new Microsoft Word documents go in .docx files.
But beware. If you ask for **.doc*, the results will include .docx files as well. That's because FindFirstFile matches both short and long file names, and long file names with long file extensions have three-character extensions in their short-file-name versions.
Rob covered the answer to your question(s) beautifully.
As to the last part, whether there is a public list of file extensions - not as such, but there is shell.windows.com, the web service Explorer uses to locate handlers for unknown file extensions. You can make up an extension then query shell.windows.com to see whether it's been registered. For example, to check whether the extension .blah has been registered by anyone on shell.windows.com, just open this URL in any browser:
http://shell.windows.com/fileassoc/0409/xml/redir.asp?ext=blah
Of course, replace the trailing blah with your extension.
You can find more details about this in KB929149 and in Raymond Chen's post Where does shell.windows.com get information about file extensions, and how do I get in on that action?.