File Associaton
To get the tmg (or any other) extension to be recognised in Explorer (or any
other program), you need to do two things:
1) Register the tmg extension so that explorer knows to run your application
when a file of that type is clicked on
2) Provide a description for the extension (ie Word Document)
3) and finally, once your program has been run, get it to open the file.
So, for #1, you can use the following code. Read the comments to see
what you need to change. Note that you will need to compile your program to
an EXE for this to work (so that explorer can call your program)
'// Registry windows api calls
Private Declare Function RegCreateKey& Lib "advapi32.DLL" Alias
"RegCreateKeyA" (ByVal hKey As Long, ByVal lpszSubKey As String, lphKey
As Long)
Private Declare Function RegSetValue& Lib "advapi32.DLL" Alias
"RegSetValueA" (ByVal hKey As Long, ByVal lpszSubKey As String, ByVal
fdwType As Long, ByVal lpszValue As String, ByVal dwLength As Long)
'// Required constants
Private Const HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT = &H80000000
Private Const MAX_PATH = 256&
Private Const REG_SZ = 1
'// procedure you call to associate the tmg extension with your program.
Private Sub MakeDefault()
Dim sKeyName As String '// Holds Key Name in
registry.
Dim sKeyValue As String '// Holds Key Value in registry.
Dim ret As Long
'// Holds error status if any from API calls.
Dim lphKey As Long '//
Holds created key handle from RegCreateKey.
'// This creates a Root entry called "TextMagic"
sKeyName = "TextMagic" '// Application Name
sKeyValue = "TextMagic Document" '// File
Description
ret = RegCreateKey&(HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, sKeyName, lphKey)
ret = RegSetValue&(lphKey&, Empty, REG_SZ, sKeyValue,
0&)
'// This creates a Root entry called .tmg associated
with "TextMagic".
sKeyName = ".tmg" '// File Extension
sKeyValue = "TextMagic" '// Application Name
ret = RegCreateKey&(HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, sKeyName, lphKey)
ret = RegSetValue&(lphKey, Empty, REG_SZ, sKeyValue,
0&)
'//This sets the command line for "TextMagic".
sKeyName = "TextMagic" '// Application Name
If Right$(App.Path,1) = "\" Then
sKeyValue = App.Path & App.EXEName
& ".exe %1" '// Application Path
Else
sKeyValue = App.Path & "\"
& App.EXEName & ".exe %1" '// Application Path
End If
ret = RegCreateKey&(HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, sKeyName, lphKey)
ret = RegSetValue&(lphKey, "shell\open\command",
REG_SZ, sKeyValue, MAX_PATH)
End Sub
Private Sub Form_Load()
'// ensure we only register once. When debugging etc,
remove the SaveSetting line, so your program will
'// always attempt to register the file extension
If GetSetting(App.Title, "Settings", "RegisteredFile",
0) = 0 Then
'// associate tmg extension
with this app
MakeDefault
SaveSetting App.Title, "Settings",
"RegisteredFile", 1
End If
End Sub
Now, try compiling your program and then run it. This will associate the file
extension with your program. Now create a new text document, and name it test.tmg.
Go into explorer, and you will see that explorer recognises test.tmg as
a TextMagic Document. Click on the file, and your program will run.