Shellplus Shell

Windows Explorer is a very flexible shell. Many of its dialogs, windows, menus and options can be changed or extended. Windows supports a special COM-based plugin technology known as Shell Extensions to make it possible. There are many built-in Shell Extensions and you can see them almost everywhere:

• All virtual folders such as Printers, Control Panel, Recycle Bin are shell extensions
• File-specific icons, small arrows on link icons, link icons itself are shell extensions too
• Additional context-sensitive menu items are supplied by file-specific shell extension modules
• Tips in the tray icon menu, property sheets and many other items you see every day...

All these wonderful additions are Shell Extensions. With Shell+ you can easy develop your own Shell Extensions. It will make your program more convenient and attractive.

As usual with Delphi it is easy to start - only a few clicks are necessary to generate your own shell extension from scratch. Shell+ takes care of all methods to be implemented so you will never need to code numerous interfaces required by Windows. Write only necessary code, Shell+ will do all other routine jobs.

There are two kinds of distributive packages in Shell+: Standard and Namespace.

Generic Shell Extensions (Standard Package)

Notification Area (system tray)
An icon is easy to add into a system tray. Using Shell Extensions on systems with Internet Explorer 5.0 or later you can show balloon tooltips like those on the sample screenshot. You do not need to worry about making a correct balloon drawing - shell will take care of it and assure its look will integrate into Windows. Shell+ allows you to create this type of example easy, just follow the simple example.

• Balloon Tool tip
• Refreshing icon after restarting the Shell
• Animated icons in the system tray
• Different Balloon Tool tip events: OnClick, OnClose, OnHide...

Shortcut Menus
Every time user right clicks a file, a group of files or folders, a pop-up menu appears. This menu contains a list of commands that the user can select to perform various actions on the object. Would you like to add your own menu item? It's possible and it's easy. An example how to do it is available here. Try it and you will see your own menu items in pop-up menu in less then ten minutes.

• Complete support of TPopupMenu component
• Images on the menu items
• Owner-Draw menu items (now in developing state)

Property Sheets
When a user right-clicks a Shell object, the shortcut menu that is displayed normally includes a Properties item. Selecting that item launches a property sheet that allows the user to view, and in some cases modify the object's properties. It is convenient to handle and inspect basic file properties using this dialog. If you need to, you can easy add your own pages into this dialog. To do it you will need to design a form that should be shown as a part of the dialog and add a couple of Shell+ components to your project. Complete process is considered here, follow to quickly create your own property pages.

• Develop your property sheets like usual Delphi Form
• You can add new property sheets or replace default property sheets
• Insert your property sheets to files, folders, drives properties dialogs
• Add your property pages to device driver properties
• Also available device folders, internet settings, mouse and display properties dialogs and more...

Icon Handlers
An icon handler is a type of Shell extension that allows you to dynamically assign icons to the members of a file class. Every time a file from the class is displayed, the Shell queries the handler for the appropriate icon. For instance, an icon handler can assign different icons to different members of the class, or vary the icon based on the current state of the file. More info...

• Generate icon images in run-time
• Specify the path to existing icon file and icon index

ToolTip Handlers
Every time the user hovers the mouse pointer over the object, the Shell queries the handler for the appropriate information text. You can supply your own text there. Implementation of this feature requires to use the ToolTip Shell+ component. The following example shows how to use it.

• Add your text or modify default (system) info tip
• Generate info-tip text in run-time
• Use multi-line or single-line info tips

Copy-Hook Handlers
A copy hook handler is a Shell extension that determines if a Shell folder or printer object can be moved, copied, renamed, or deleted. The default behavior is to ask user's confirmation. Shell+ allows you to customize this operation, add your own confirmation dialog and/or control desired shell objects.

• Be informed, when anyone copies, renames or deletes file objects within the Shell
• Take under control the Shell operations

Thumbnail Image Handlers
Every time user right clicks right mouse button on a file, a group of files or folders, and drag this file objects to other folders, the pop-up menu appears. This menu contains a list of commands that the user can select to perform various actions on the object. Using this component, you can your own menu item to this menu with easy. An example how to do it is available here. Try it and you will see your own menu items in pop-up menu in less then ten minutes.

• Complete support of TPopupMenu component
• Images on the menu items
• Owner-Draw menu items (now in developing state)

Shell Change Notifier
If you need to monitor file modification, creation or deletion in different directories around your disk - this component for you. You can specify the monitoring directory, file masks, monitoring thread priority and other setting, that will help you to monitor activity of file system.

• Multithread engine
• Work under all flavors of Windows (Win7, Vista, 2008, 2003, XP, 2K, 98, ME, NT4, 95)
• Control engine threads priority

Namespace Shell Extensions (Namespace Package)

Namespace extensions
Windows Explorer displays a lot of folders that are not file directories at all: My Computer, Control Panel, Printers Folder, Network... These folders are known as virtual and it is allowed to add more folders to the Shell if necessary. To do it you will need to implement a special dynamic library and supply a lot of very specific interfaces and data. Hopefully ShellPlus takes care about all this internal features so you can develop your own extensions as easy as an ordinary application. If your project contains any data that can be represented in a tree form then you can show this data in the Explorer as if it would be reald files and directories. ShellPlus namespace extension components givces you the following benefits:

• Easy to use (put a few components and run)
• You do not need to know about numerous Shell interfaces and classes
• Different data-providers (starting from simple tree-storage to TDataSet support!)