I have the following file I need to open in a windows explorer window
C:\Users\Public\Documents\folder1\test.txt
So far opening this file using the above path is fine and I can read it as usual.
However when trying to open this this folder through Windows Explorer using wxExecute((wxChar **)cmd, wxEXEC_ASYNC, NULL); where cmd is the above path(minus the file), It opens to my user documents.
I've tried various Windows API functions to get the path, some including where Public Documents has it's own ID and these still generate the path I already have. Are there any CLI options I can give to Windows Explorer so that it can actually open Public Documents without reverting to my User Documents folder?
First of all, why do you cast your string to wxChar**? This just can't be right.
Second, you should be using wxLaunchDefaultApplication() instead of "raw" wxExecute() in the first place (FWIW wxLaunchDefaultApplication() is a straightforward wrapper for ShellExecute() under MSW, while wxExecute() is much more complicated).
It's undocumented, but has worked across multiple windows Versions since at least XP with the following command line:
explorer.exe /select,"path-to-open"
Note the comma, and make sure the path is quoted. The path may include a file name, in which case that file gets selected.
(With Windows 10, it's actually a good idea to use a file name, since otherwise the parent folder is opened with the specified sub folder selected)
Should be the same with CreateProcess, ShellExecute, or system(), or whatever comfort wxWidgets offer.
Actually turned out to be an issue with wxExec from wxWidgets. Converting the command to a ShellExecute opened it up just fine. Potentially Widgets 2.9.5 can't handle Windows 10's pseudo folders and weirdness?.
Related
Using Qt 5.9 I codded a spreadsheet program and then created an installer for it by Qt Installer Framework (QtIFW2.0.1). Then I sent the program to many of my friends. They installed the app on their Windows machine and now using it, but they have all have a common problem:
when they save files of the app, those files are shown as "unknown" files on Desktop.
The problem is only with the shape and appearance of the stored files not their functionality, and they are opened by the app if double clicked.
The question is, what changes in the code is needed to have the program make its files' shape/appearance shown known?
For example, we offer the code a specific shape using an image file or like that, to be mapped on the stored files and that way they are shown known.
This has actually nothing to do with Qt or C++ itself. You just need to register your file extension in Windows shell, so it can be understood by other Windows components/shells.
Here is general information about File Types and File Associations under windows.
You need to make some Windows Registry entries which look like this:
example.reg:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\myfirm.myapp.v1\shell\open\command]
#="c:\path\to\your\app.exe \"%1\""
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\.myextension]
#="myfirm.myapp.v1"
Here you can read how it works in general
change myfirm.myapp.v1, .myextension and path to your .exe to your prefered names.
Now Windows will know what the files with extension .myextension should be opened by your app. And if you double click on this files your app will be run with path to file as an argument. You can get it in your main() function
To set icon for your extension add Registry entry in Software\\Classes\\.myextension\\DefaultIcon and set it default value to the full path to your app, so windows can get an icon for extension from your .exe app file.
You can also do it at runtime directly in your app:
QSettings s("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\SOFTWARE\\CLASSES", QSettings::NativeFormat);
QString path = QDir::toNativeSeparators(qApp->applicationFilePath());
s.setValue(".myextension/DefaultIcon/.", path);
s.setValue(".myextension/.","myfirm.myapp.v1");
s.setValue("myfirm.myapp.v1/shell/open/command/.", QStringLiteral("\"%1\"").arg(path) + " \"%1\"");
EDIT: One more, to do it with Qt Installer look at the answers here
I was wondering how to open a file other than notepad... Our prof gave us an example:
s = "notepad.exe test.txt";
system(s.c_str());
That will open a file type of "notepad.exe" and the file name of "test.txt"
Main Question:
Now, I was wondering if there was a way to open other type of files, such as Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Visual Studio, or 7zip.
My attempt opened something in a new cmd.exe (because of the START keyword):
fileNeededtoBeOpened = "START \"New Microsoft Office Excel Worksheet.xlsx\"";
system(fileNeededtoBeOpened.c_str());
(This code is slightly different from my original, where I'm trying to open a file from a vector...) but all I really need to know is instead of "notepad.exe" or "START" is there a different command to open different file types that aren't .txt
Also, a side note, I was reading on the internet that it wasn't safe to use system() to open files, is this correct?
I found the answer by myself... for those who are curious, here an the answers:
To open a text file: system(notepad)
To open an excel file: system(start excel)
To open a word doc file: system(start winword)
To open a 7z file: system(start 7zFM)
To open a visual studio file: system(start devenv)
I think you're confused.
System executes a command as you would on the command line (type cmd into the run prompt under start menu to get that).
So, when you type notepad.exe test.txt it's saying:
Open the program notepad.exe which is on the system path (so the
command line can find it to execute that program), and pass the
parameter test.txt to it.
Notepad itself decides what to do with test.txt, in this case it opens it.
So, you can tell it to run any command (program/executable) and pass any parameters to it in reality. If excel's on your system path, you can probably just type excel.exe to open it from your system command. Otherwise, find the location excel is installed in, and refer to it with the whole path to excel.exe and it will work fine.
For example, on my computer, executing "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\EXCEL.EXE" would open excel from the command line. I can pass further parameters to it by having more information (like filenames) after the Excel.exe" portion, just as you did in your notepad example. Using your system command should have equivilent behavior when that line is executed.
If you are only targeting Windows systems you can use the ShellExecuteEx function (part of the Win32 API). You can just pass a filename to it and it will launch what ever program is registered to handle that file type (just as if you opened the file from windows explorer). Documentation is available on MSDN:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb762154(v=vs.85).aspx
There is some examples on Launching Applications (ShellExecute, ShellExecuteEx, SHELLEXECUTEINFO) MSDN article and lots more elsewhere around the internet.
AS the other guys mentioned , the System function only executes a cmd command, .. notepad.exe is in the system's path by default so it works directly
but for example for me if I want to open a zip file on my desktop , I'd type something like
"C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7zFM.exe" Desktop\zipfile.zip
that's when I'm currently at the my user's directory [by default] , or
"C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7zFM.exe" C:\Users\JiMMaR\Desktop\zipfile.zip
[where JiMMaR is my user name on windows 7]
note that this certain command works only on windows , if you are using another OS this won't work as it is
try doing a
fileNeededtoBeOpened = "\"C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7zFM.exe\" C:\Users\YOUR_USER_NAME\Desktop\zipfile.zip";
and see if that executes or not
edit:
if you cannot escape the space , then try this one
fileNeededtoBeOpened = "C:\Program~1\7-Zip\7zFM.exe C:\Users\YOUR_USER_NAME\Desktop\zipfile.zip";
Ok, firstly - system - is a function that starts a separate process to your program. Much the same as in a command window when you type the command. The command lines you provide will be dependent on the applications you want to launch.
Now, I was wondering if there was a way to open other type of files,
such as Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Visual Studio, or 7zip.
Yes I would be pretty shocked if there wasn't a command line parameter you could specify to load a document in these apps at start up. (Ok not shocked, but it is pretty standard)
Does this have anything to do with c++ - not really - you need to look at references for the applications you mention and see what the command lines parameters are for them. Then craft a string and system(...) to your hearts content.
I have 2 questions to ask regarding opening files (any kind of files) using C++. I am currently working on a GUI program and I want to add a changelog in txt form. Also I want a menu in my program to open that changelog.txt with the default text editor every user has installed or to simply put it to open that text file. Please keep in mind that I want to open the file for display NOT in the program for input/output.I know I can do that using
system("notepad.exe filepath.txt");
or to open them with the preset program:
system("filepath.txt");
The problem is that both of those open a command line behind the notepad. I know there is another command to open files using Win32 API called CreateProccess() but my compiler doesn't recognise that command (OpenWatcom W32).
So here are my questions:
1) Is there any other command to open files or is there a way to stop the command line from opening when using system command?
2) How do you define in Windows that the text file is in the current program folder? I mean instead of giving the entire filepath which will change from user to user is there any way to "tell" the program that the file is always on the current folder that the program is in?
I am sorry for any errors, if you want any clarification please let me know.
CreateProcess would be the wrong function to use here. That would require you to decide which process to run. The user may prefer to use a text editor other than Notepad, I know I do! The right way to do this on Windows is to ask the shell to open the file with whatever program the user has associated with the file. The ShellExecute function does this.
Call it like this:
ShellExecute(
MainWindowHandle,
"open",
FullyQualifiedTextFileName,
NULL,
NULL,
SW_SHOWNORMAL
);
You will need to include the Shellapi.h header file and link to the Shell32.lib library. If your compiler does not include these files, and I would be surprised if that was the case, then you can get them from the Platform SDK. That said, if you are serious about programming on Windows you should get hold of a tool that gives you access to the Windows API.
I do recommend that you use a fully qualified path for a task like this. Since your text file is located in the same directory as the executable you should simply join that directory to your text file's name. Get hold of the full path to the executable by calling GetModuleFileName passing NULL for the hModule parameter.
I am using the following command in a shortcut to open my virtual drive in Windows Explorer.
%SystemRoot%\Explorer.exe /e,::{MyExtension CLSID}
The virtual drive uses IShellFolder interface and is a ShellExtension. It has a couple of predefined folders in it.
The problem is that I can open the virtual drive in Windows explorer directly using the above statement but I cannot directly open one of its folders.
This link explains how to open a IShellFolder
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb776817(VS.85).aspx#
but I am not sure how to use the objectname param
%SystemRoot%\Explorer.exe /e,::{MyExtension CLSID},objectname
I took the GMail Drive Shell extension, installed it, and create a folder inside the namespace. Then I use the above method (/E,::{CLSID}) to create the shortcut and added ",foldername" at the end.
It worked perfectly, I think that you need to check your IPersistFolder::Initialize implementation.
I am using Borland Builder C++ 2009. I want to add a button to a form that allows the user to open a file in Excel that I specify. I can't think of how to do this. I know how to link with other code and executables -- is there a Microsoft Excel executable that I could use? How could I specify the file then? Any hints on this, or at least a place to look online, would be greatly appreciated.
Assuming that the file type is registered with Excel, you could call ShellExecute() on the file, using the "open" verb. This will cause the file to be opened as if double clicked by the user in Explorer and will invoke Excel.
If that isn't the case, and you can assume that Excel is installed, you could instead pass "excel" to ShellExecute() as the application, and the path of the file as the parameter. (Note that I didn't test this, but it worked from the Run dialog, so I think that it should work from ShellExecute() as well).
Thanks, Andy. I am using ShellExecute() as you suggested, giving Excel as the application and the path of the file as the parameter. It works to open Excel, however, it cannot seem to find the file. I have tried moving the file around, typing in the entire path, part of the path with no change. Here is the code I use:
ShellExecute(NULL, "open" ,"Excel.exe", "C:\\Documents and Settings\\Lab1\\My Documents\\Waypoint Tool.xls", NULL, SW_SHOWNORMAL);
So, I need to figure out why it isn't able to find this file.
Thank you for the suggestion to use ShellExecute though. I think I am on the right track!
Try:
print("ShellExecute(NULL, "open" ,"Waypoint Tool.xls", "C:\\Documents and Settings\\Lab1\\My Documents\\", NULL, SW_SHOWNORMAL);");
Looking at this page: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb762153(VS.85).aspx
It seems like it wants the file you are wanted to execute the open on as the third parameter and the directory for the fourth.
System() command should be enough i think.
For any Windows application, we can open any file using the Location of .exe file and the File Path.
Eg.,
system("PATH C:\\Program\ Files\\Microsoft\ Office\\OFFICE11;%PATH% & excel \"C:\\Documents and Settings\\User\\Desktop\\ExcelFile.xls\"");