Robbiblubber.Spellbook.Windows 3.2.2

robbiblubber.org Spellbook Windows Support Library

The robbiblubber.org Spellbook Windows Support Library provides classes for Windows-specific operations: creating and reading shortcuts, registering file types, registering applications in the installed apps list and accessing ini files.

The library targets .NET 8 and .NET 10 on Windows (net8.0-windows, net10.0-windows) and builds with the .NET SDK (dotnet build); Visual Studio is not required.

The repository can be found at https://bitbucket.org/robbiblubber/robbiblubber.spellbook.net/. API documentation is available from https://robbiblubber.lima-city.org/. For general information see http://robbiblubber.org/.

The robbiblubber.org Spellbook Windows Support Library is provided under the MIT license and may be used without restrictions under the conditions of this license agreement.

Shortcuts

using Robbiblubber.Spellbook.Windows;

string desktop = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.DesktopDirectory);
Shortcut.Create(Path.Combine(desktop, "rqoon.lnk"), new ShortcutInfo(Environment.ProcessPath!)
{
    Arguments = "--start",
    Description = "rqoon",
    WindowStyle = ShortcutWindowStyle.MAXIMIZED
});

ShortcutInfo info = Shortcut.Read(Path.Combine(desktop, "rqoon.lnk"));

ShortcutInfo covers target, arguments, working directory (default: folder of the target), description, icon, window style and "Run as administrator". Create() creates missing folders and replaces an existing shortcut only after the new one has been written.

File types

FileAssociation.Register(new FileAssociation.FileType(".rqn", "Robbiblubber.Rqoon.Document", Environment.ProcessPath!)
{
    Description = "rqoon Document",
    Verbs = [new FileAssociation.Verb("print") { Arguments = "/print \"%1\"" }]
});

FileAssociation.Unregister(".rqn", "Robbiblubber.Rqoon.Document");

• Register() writes the program ID with icon and verbs and adds it to the "Open with" list of the extension. It becomes the default for the extension only if there is no default yet, the default is the same program ID or a program ID that no longer exists.
• Unregister() removes only the program ID and its references; other applications registered for the extension are not affected.
• IsRegistered() and GetProgId() query registrations.
• Since Windows 8 the user's choice of the default app always wins and cannot be changed by applications. OpenDefaultAppsSettings() opens the settings where the user chooses.

To list an application with its file types in the default apps settings, where the user can make it the default for all its file types at once:

FileAssociation.RegisterApplication(new FileAssociation.ApplicationCapabilities("Robbiblubber.Rqoon", "rqoon")
{
    Description = "rqoon document editor",
    FileTypes = [new FileAssociation.FileType(".rqn", "Robbiblubber.Rqoon.Document", Environment.ProcessPath!) { Description = "rqoon Document" }]
});

FileAssociation.OpenDefaultAppsSettings("Robbiblubber.Rqoon");    // opens the page of the application
FileAssociation.UnregisterApplication("Robbiblubber.Rqoon");      // also unregisters the file types

The capabilities are stored under Software\<name>\Capabilities and listed under Software\RegisteredApplications.

Installed applications

ApplicationRegistration.Register(new InstalledApplication("Robbiblubber.Rqoon", "rqoon", new Version(4, 0, 1))
{
    Publisher = "robbiblubber.org",
    InstallLocation = AppContext.BaseDirectory,
    DisplayIcon = Environment.ProcessPath,
    UninstallCommand = $"\"{Path.Combine(AppContext.BaseDirectory, "uninstall.exe")}\""
});

InstalledApplication? app = ApplicationRegistration.Get("Robbiblubber.Rqoon");

Register() replaces an existing entry completely. Without ModifyCommand, the "Modify" command is hidden. Unregister(), IsRegistered() and Get() work with entries of other installers as well.

Scopes

FileAssociation and ApplicationRegistration take a RegistrationScope: CURRENT_USER (default, no administrator rights required) or LOCAL_MACHINE (all users, requires administrator rights; otherwise an UnauthorizedAccessException is thrown). Names of keys, program IDs and extensions are checked, so an empty or malformed name never affects other registry keys.

Ini files

IniFile ini = new("settings.ini");                 // relative to the current directory
int width = ini.GetInt32("window", "width", 800);
ini.SetValue("window", "width", 1024);             // written immediately (AutoSave)

IniFile batch = new("settings.ini") { AutoSave = false };
batch.SetValue("general", "name", "rqoon");
batch.SetValue("general", "started", true);
batch.Save();

IniFile is a managed implementation that follows the syntax of the Windows profile functions: names are not case-sensitive, the first occurrence wins, white space around names and values is ignored, quotes around values are removed and lines starting with ; or # are comments. The file is read once; comments, order and formatting of unchanged lines are kept when it is written.

• GetString(), TryGetString(), GetInt16(), GetInt32(), GetInt64(), GetDouble(), GetBoolean() and GetBinary() (Base64) return the default value if a key is missing or invalid. Numbers use the invariant culture. GetBoolean() accepts true/false, yes/no, on/off and numbers.
• SetValue() for strings, numbers, booleans (true/false) and byte arrays; SetIntBoolean() writes 1/0. A NULL string deletes the key.
• GetSections(), GetKeys(), ContainsSection(), ContainsKey(), DeleteKey(), DeleteSection(), Save() and Reload().
• The encoding is detected (UTF-8 with or without BOM, UTF-16, otherwise the ANSI code page) and kept when saving; new files are UTF-8 without BOM.