I open a file in windows word and get a handle to the window. Can I get the absolute path of the file (the actual .doc file, not the winword.exe)?
Thanks a lot
You certainly won't be able to do this direct from the Windows API (where a program's document is stored and how it is manageded is not controlled / constrained by the Windows API)...
What you might be able to do is use the Word libraries to iterate through open documents and look for the document with a matching handle, but I doubt this will be simple - I'm not even sure if it will be possible...
Martin.
Related
I want to localize a shortcut and have come across this API SHSetLocalizedName() which takes a path to an executable and a resource ID. However, I want to use a string instead. It looks like it just writes to desktop.ini:
[LocalizedFileNames]
Test.lnk=#program.exe,-101
I played with it manually and I can just do this:
[LocalizedFileNames]
Test.lnk=Localized Name of Test Shortcut
Does anyone know a programmatic way of doing this? I really don't want to write to desktop.ini myself.
Thanks.
A hard coded string is the opposite of localization!
The point of SHSetLocalizedName is to have various parts of the start menu and some special folders (My documents etc.) display in a language that matches the users current UI language. To do this the string has to be a resource in a PE file so that the magic of multiple versions of a resource in different languages can work.
If you always want a specific name you can just rename the file. If you can't do that (you don't have write access or you are trying to trick the user) then perhaps this is not something you should programmatically be doing?
SHGetSetFolderCustomSettings knows how to change some values in desktop.ini but this string is not one of them. I believe using WritePrivateProfileString is the only solution...
Are there any rules for file extensions? For example, I wrote some code which reads and writes a byte pattern that is only understood by that specific programm. I'm assuming my anti virus programm won't be too happy if I give it the name "pleasetrustme.exe"... Is it gerally allowed to use those extensions? And what about the lesser known ones, like ".arw"?
You can use any file extension you want (or none at all). Using standard extensions that reflect the actual type of the file just makes things more convenient. On Windows, file extensions control stuff like how the files are displayed in Windows Explorer and what happens when you double click on it.
I wrote some code which reads and writes a byte pattern that is only
understood by that specific programm.
A file extension is only an indication of what type of data will be inside, never a guarantee that certain data formatted in a specific way will be inside the file.
For your own specific data structure it is of course always best to choose an extension that is not already in use for other file formats (or use a general extension like .dat or .bin maybe). This also has the advantage of being able to use an own icon without it being overwritten by other software using the same extension - or the other way around.
But maybe even more important when creating a custom (binary?) file format, is to provide a magic number as the first bytes of that file, maybe followed by a file header structure containing a version number etc. That way your own software can first check the header data to make sure it's the right type and version (for example: anyone could rename any file type to your extension, so your program needs to have a way to do some checks inside the file before reading the remaining data).
I am currently developing some functionality that implements some complex calculations. The calculations themselves are explained and defined in Word documents.
What I would like to do is create a hyperlink in each code file that references the assocciated Word document - just as you can in Word itself. Ideally this link would be placed in or near the XML comments for each class.
The files reside on a network share and there are no permissions to worry about.
So far I have the following but it always comes up with a file not found error.
file:///\\165.195.209.3\engdisk1\My Tool\Calculations\111-07 MyToolCalcOne.docx
I've worked out the problem is due to the spaces in the folder and filenames.
My Tool
111-07 MyToolCalcOne.docx
I tried replacing the spaces with %20, thus:
file:///\\165.195.209.3\engdisk1\My%20Tool\Calculations\111-07%20MyToolCalcOne.docx
but with no success.
So the question is; what can I use in place of the spaces?
Or, is there a better way?
One way that works beautifully is to write your own URL handler. It's absolutely trivial to do, but so very powerful and useful.
A registry key can be set to make the OS execute a program of your choice when the registered URL is launched, with the URL text being passed in as a command-line argument. It just takes a few trivial lines of code to will parse the URL in any way you see fit in order to locate and launch the documentation.
The advantages of this:
You can use a much more compact and readable form, e.g. mydocs://MyToolCalcOne.docx
A simplified format means no trouble trying to encode tricky file paths
Your program can search anywhere you like for the file, making the document storage totally portable and relocatable (e.g. you could move your docs into source control or onto a website and just tweak your URL handler to locate the files)
Your URL is unique, so you can differentiate files, web URLs, and documentation URLs
You can register many URLs, so can use different ones for specs, designs, API documentation, etc.
You have complete control over how the document is presented (does it launch Word, an Internet Explorer, or a custom viewer to display the docs, for example?)
I would advise against using spaces in filenames and URLs - spaces have never worked properly under Windows, and always cause problems (or require ugliness like %20) sooner or later. The easiest and cleanest solution is simply to remove the spaces or replace them with something like underscores, dashes or periods.
Does anyone know a pure Win32 solution for renaming a file and only changing its capitalization, that does not involve intermediate renaming to a different name or special privileges (e.g. backup, restore).
Since the Win32 subsystem generally regards two file names differing only in capitalization as the same, I haven't been able to find any solution to the problem.
A test program I made with the MoveFile API seems to work. So does the rename command in cmd.exe. What have you tried, and what error are you getting?
This isn't relevant, but further testing shows that renaming a long filename in this way works but will change the short filename (alternating between ~1 and ~2 for example), incidentally.
Just use the normal MoveFile API. That call probably just turns into ZwSetInformationFile(..., FileRenameInformation,...) The docs for FILE_RENAME_INFORMATION states that you need DELETE access and the file can't be locked etc, but those restrictions will probably apply to other solutions also.
I do not believe there is a way to expose two files with identical names that differ only in spelling to the Win32 subsystem. Even if some how you were able to create these files, the most likely result would be that only one file would be accessible - defeating the purpose of staying soley in Win32.
If you want to go into the Native layer, you can create a file with NtCreateFile and InitializeObjectAttributes w/o OBJ_CASE_INSENSITIVE or you can pad the end with extra spaces (if you pad with extra spaces, the file will not be accessible from Win32 dos paths). See here: http://www.osronline.com/ddkx/kmarch/k109_66uq.htm . I'm pretty sure you were already aware but I included it incase you did not know.
So long as your file is not immediately needed by another program, you can use my solution.
When you rename the file, capitalize, and delete the last letter. Then rename again and return the letter.
:)
If I have a string that resolves to a file path in Windows, is there an accepted way to get a canonical form of the file name?
For example, I'd like to know whether
C:\stuff\things\etc\misc\whatever.txt
and
C:\stuff\things\etc\misc\other\..\whatever.txt
actually point to the same file or not, and store the canonical form of the path in my application.
Note that simple string comparisons won't work, nor will any RegEx magic. Remember that we have things like NTFS reparse points to deal with since Windows 2000 and the new Libraries structure in Windows 7.
Short answer: not really.
There is no simple way to get the canonical name of a file on Windows. Local files can be available via reparse points, via SUBST. Do you want to deal with NTFS junctions? Windows shortcuts? What about \\?\-escaped filenames
Remote files can be available via mapped drive letter or via UNC. Is that the UNC to the origin server? Are you using DFS? Is the server using reparse points, etc.? Is the server available by more than one name? What about the IP address? Does it have more than one IP address?
So, if you're looking for something like the inode number on Windows, it ain't there. See, for example, this page.
Roger is correct, there is no simple way. If the volume supports file a unique file index, you can open the file and call GetFileInformationByHandle, but this will not work on all volumes.
The Windows API call GetFullPathName may be the best simple approach.
GetFinalPathNameByHandle appears to do what your asking for, which is available starting with Windows Vista.
Using FileInfo (example in C#):
FileInfo info1 = new FileInfo(#"C:\stuff\things\etc\misc\whatever.txt");
FileInfo info2 = new FileInfo(#"C:\stuff\things\etc\misc\other\..\whatever.txt");
if (info1.FullName.Equals(info2.FullName)) {
Console.WriteLine("yep, they're equal");
}
Console.WriteLine(info1.FullName);
Console.WriteLine(info2.FullName);
Output is:
yep, they're equal
C:\stuff\things\etc\misc\whatever.txt
C:\stuff\things\etc\misc\whatever.txt
jheddings has a nice answer, but since you didn't indicate which language you are using, I thought I'd give a Python way to do it that also works from the command line, using os.path.abspath:
> python -c "import os.path; print os.path.abspath('C:\stuff\things\etc\misc\other\..\whatever.txt')"
C:\stuff\things\etc\misc\whatever.txt
I would use System.IO.Path.GetFullPath. It takes a string as an input (C:\stuff\things\etc\misc\other..\whatever.txt in your case) and will output a string (C:\stuff\things\etc\misc\whatever.txt).
I guess I'm a little late, but you can use System.IO.Path.GetFullPath("C:\stuff\things\etc\misc\other..\whatever.txt") and it will return "C:\stuff\things\etc\misc\whatever.txt"
To get canonical path you should use PathCanonicalize function.