Who says history doesn't repeat itself? I am working on a project that needs to display and access file properties. A quick search through the .NET 2.0 Framework didn't yield anything that popped out. I did however, remember our wonderful friend - the SHELL32 API. Previously, I had posted on using ShellExecuteEX with Delphi (I am a huge Delphi fan; I may not be posting much about it recently, but I did not forget it). Here is that same sample in using C#.

1 public const uint SW_SHOW =0x5;
2 public const uint SEE_MASK_INVOKEIDLIST = 0xC;
3
4 public enum verbs
5 ...{
6 properties,
7 open,
8 edit,
9 explore,
10 print
11 }
12
13 [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
14 public struct SHELLEXECUTEINFO
15 ...{
16 public int cbSize;
17 public uint fMask;
18 public IntPtr hwnd;
19 public String lpVerb;
20 public String lpFile;
21 public String lpParameters;
22 public String lpDirectory;
23 public uint nShow;
24 public int hInstApp;
25 public int lpIDList;
26 public String lpClass;
27 public int hkeyClass;
28 public uint dwHotKey;
29 public int hIcon;
30 public int hProcess;
31 }
32
33 [DllImport("shell32.dll")]
34 static extern bool ShellExecuteEx(ref SHELLEXECUTEINFO lpExecInfo);
35
36 public void MyShellExecuteInfo(string filename, verbs verb)
37 ...{
38 SHELLEXECUTEINFO info = new SHELLEXECUTEINFO();
39 info.cbSize = System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.SizeOf(info);
40 switch (verb)
41 ...{
42 case verbs.properties:
43 info.lpVerb = "properties";
44 break;
45 case verbs.print:
46 info.lpVerb = "print";
47 break;
48 case verbs.open:
49 info.lpVerb = "open";
50 break;
51 case verbs.explore:
52 info.lpVerb = "explore";
53 break;
54 case verbs.edit:
55 info.lpVerb = "edit";
56 break;
57 }
58
59 info.lpFile = filename;
60 info.nShow = SW_SHOW;
61 info.fMask = SEE_MASK_INVOKEIDLIST;
62 ShellExecuteEx(ref info);
63 }
64

Labels: .NET, C#, Code