General Discussion - Standard "Open With..." dialog to choose helperapp

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Standard "Open With..." dialog to choose helperapp

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Forum Name: General Discussion
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URL: http://forum.codejock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=14613
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Topic: Standard "Open With..." dialog to choose helperapp

Posted By: lorax1284
Subject: Standard "Open With..." dialog to choose helperapp
Date Posted: 24 June 2009 at 10:19pm

Our software manages files, and we want to allow users to select "helper apps" for various types of files.

We would like to present the standard "Open With..." dialog to users from which they can choose the app they want to use.

I understand that this dialog is usually shown by the OS itself when a user attempts to launch an unknown file from Windows Explorer... but is there an API for this dialog so it can be used to set up helper apps?

(MFC, C++, Visual Studio .Net 2003)

Thanks in advance!

-------------
Ryan Germann
Product Manager &
UI Designer

Replies:

Posted By: mdoubson
Date Posted: 28 July 2009 at 8:44pm

You just need to call ShellExec with you type of file and if it not registrated as already existed association - ShellExec will open you prompt to find target

This is a sample from my old code - ext is string of file extention.

..............

int j = strFile.ReverseFind('.');
strFile = strFile.Left(j + 1);
strFile += ext;

if (::ShellExecute(GetSafeHwnd(), "open", strFile, NULL, strPath, SW_HIDE) == (HINSTANCE) SE_ERR_NOASSOC)
{
AfxMessageBox("No Associations with extension " + ext + "\nYou should create one!");
ShellExecute(GetSafeHwnd(), "open", "rundll32.exe", "shell32.dll,OpenAs_RunDLL " + strFile, strPath, SW_SHOW);
}

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Mark Doubson, Ph.D.

Posted By: ijwelch
Date Posted: 29 July 2009 at 9:59pm

You can build menu yourself. The info is in registry. This site explains where:
- http://windowsxp.mvps.org/OpenWith.htm

-------------
ExtremeSuitePro 12.1.1
WinXP SP3

Posted By: mdoubson
Date Posted: 29 July 2009 at 10:09pm

Sure - but the idea is to give USER a choice to make association - not force him (e.g. our app generate some image of special format we don't have internal viewer but user can have some "universal" image viewer he can choose)

-------------
Mark Doubson, Ph.D.