ACF Does Shell - Part 2

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Introduction

In my previous article ACF Does Shell – Part 1, I talked about how to use the Item class to navigate Windows Shell and retrieve item information. In this article, I will show you how to use the Item and LinkItem classes to create and open shell links (shortcuts). If you are not familiar with the Item class, please check my previous article first.

Creating shell links

The following code snippet shows how to create a link to "My Documents" and then save it to desktop:

ItemPtr target = new Item(SpecialFolder::Personal); // My Documents
ItemPtr location = Item::get_Desktop(); // Desktop

LinkItemPtr link = new LinkItem(target); // The link
link->Save(location);

As you can see, the API is very straightforward.

Opening existing shell links

The following code snippet shows how to open an existing link file and retrieve its properties (description, target, arguments, etc.):

StringPtr path = ...; // Path to a file
ItemPtr item = new Item(path);

if (item->IsLink) {
    LinkItemPtr link = item->LinkItem;

    StringPtr description = link->Description;
    StringPtr targetPath = link->Target->FileSysPath;
    StringPtr args = link->Arguments;
    StringPtr dir = link->WorkingDirectory;
}

The sample application demonstrates how to use these classes.

Class Item

Properties

• bool IsLink;

  Gets a value indicating whether this object is a shortcut.

• LinkItemPtr LinkItem;

  Gets a LinkItem object representing a shortcut item.

For other members, please check my previous article.

Class LinkItem

Constructors

• LinkItem();

  Constructs a new shortcut.

• LinkItem(Item* target);

  Constructs a new shortcut with the specified target.

Properties

• StringPtr Description;

  Gets or sets the description string.

• ItemPtr Target;

  Gets or sets the target.

• StringPtr Arguments;

  Gets or sets the command-line arguments.

• StringPtr WorkingDirectory;

  Gets or sets the working directory.

• bool IsDirty;

  Gets a value indicating whether this object is dirty since it was last saved.

Methods

• void Resolve();

  Resolves the shortcut. See IShellLink::Resolve.

• void Save();

  Saves the shortcut. See IPersistFile::Save.

• void Save(Item* parentFolder);

  Saves the shortcut to the specified location. See IPersistFile::Save.

• void Save(Item* parentFolder, String* name, bool rememberSaveLocation = true);

  Saves the shortcut to the specified location with the specified name. See IPersistFile::Save.

Reference

• ACF.
• Windows Shell: see MSDN
• Longhorn SDK Windows Explorer.