[GUI Plugin] Open With

[ichbindasauge]

Could the plugin somehow bring up the Windows "Open with" Dialog? That one lists all desktop and modern UI apps that can open the file. I have modern UI apps that can bring it up (see screenshot attached), not sure about other Desktop programs.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by ichbindasauge

Could the plugin somehow bring up the Windows "Open with" Dialog? That one lists all desktop and modern UI apps that can open the file. I have modern UI apps that can bring it up (see screenshot attached), not sure about other Desktop programs.

@ichbindasauge - It might be worthwhile keeping one eye on what's happening in the Windows Ten space. The issue of invoking Metro apps from legacy software was raised at the Win10 corporate briefing I attended. The briefing was run under Chatham House rules, so all I'll say is that there was no MS blood split over this issue.

I'm raising it here because I noticed jimbo45 has a shortcut to calibre on his Win8.1 clone desktop, see ==>>, Free Conversion tool from RUNNING machine to vmware VM. So it might be worth asking jimbo45 if he knows anything - he is also active at the Windows Seven forums and no doubt at Windows Eight too.

BTW : I'm thinking of using WMWare's VCenter to run Win10 Preview - I like the idea of a CloneThisWindowsHere VM solution.

BR

[AnotherCat]

Originally Posted by BetterRed;2961232...I'm raising it here because I noticed jimbo45 has a shortcut to calibre on his Win8.1 clone desktop, see ==>>, [URL="http://www.tenforums.com/virtualization/2461-free-conversion-tool-running-machine-vmware-vm.html#post157587"

Free Conversion tool from RUNNING machine to vmware VM[/URL]. So it might be worth asking jimbo45 if he knows anything - he is also active at the Windows Seven forums and no doubt at Windows Eight too.

The is no problem putting a shortcut to a Desktop application of the desktop such as Calibre shown in that link- it is done the same as in earlier versions of Windows e.g. Right Click on Desktop, select New, etc.

It is also easy to put a shortcut to a Store App on the Desktop too, one proceeds the same as earlier versions of Windows with the location (as given in my earlier post for a .bat) being C:\Windows\explorer.exe shell:AppsFolder\{AppUserModalId}. Getting the AppUserModalId for an App is trivial and well documented from a Google search so I won't elaborate here.

It is also easy to open an App from within a Desktop application if the Desktop application supports opening other applications such as Calibre does with the Open With plugin and described my earlier post.

The problem is getting an App to open from a Desktop Application AND have the App automatically open another file. I am no expert on the matter (as I said an experienced Store App developer will be far more authorative) but my understanding is that due to the strict security on these Apps and their sandboxing it is likely not currently possible (as far as I can see lots of people have pondered over how).

As you say, Windows 10 may present an easy way. My understanding is that there will be security changes (of an increased nature) and it may be these may allow this without compromising security but I have no knowledge of that.

[AnotherCat]

Originally Posted by ichbindasauge

Could the plugin somehow bring up the Windows "Open with" Dialog? That one lists all desktop and modern UI apps that can open the file. I have modern UI apps that can bring it up (see screenshot attached), not sure about other Desktop programs.

The Windows "Open with" window comes up the same whether desktop or modern interfaces.

It is a window opened by the OS and is not an .exe such as File Explorer (C:\windows\explorer.exe) is for example and so cannot be opened directly. So it would seem the only way to get to it would be developing special code to do so. It is probably possible to do that (it is in earlier versions of Windows and am assuming Win 8 is the same) but whether it could be built into a plugin/Calibre or not I could not comment on, and even if so it may turn out that because the OS itself is not the first initiator of the OS's "Open with" window's opening one may still run into security blocks preventing the opening of a Store App from it.

So you likely need someone to look into how and if it is possible to code it into Calibre/plugin. I suspect there will not be much enthusiasm for such an adventure .

[BetterRed]

@AnotherCat - I presume you know jimbo45 then - eh?

Anyway I'll get out yer way - hooray.

BR

[AnotherCat]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@AnotherCat - I presume you know jimbo45 then - eh?

BR

No I don't know him BR.

But if he can come up with a method to open a Store App from Calibre's Open With plugin, and have that Store App automatically open an eBook without coding Calibre, the plugin or the App itself (that is even if it is then possible), I'm very happy to hear of it.

When I had looked at this and arrived at the apparent dead end quite some time back, I decided for myself it was not worth pursuing any more. I am just simply passing on what I found, others are welcome to persevere. But as seen below I would see no need to implement it for myself and so no need to perservere.

Marty_B's Calibre Viewer App, which I linked to earlier and where there is some discussion as to how it works, has come along and pretty much displaced the need for Calibre's Open With plugin to open a book with a Store App for me.

Calibre Viewer is not dependant on Calibre running and so pretty much makes the need for the Calibre Open With plugin redundant if one wants to use a Store App reader to read a book in a Calibre database. One just runs Calibre Viewer, select the book wanted from the Calibre database and it will open it in one's default reading application (that application may be a Store App or a desktop one, it will open either).

Furthermore, if one wants Calibre running as well, say while selecting books for its Editor and so having Editor running too, and then checking them in an eBook Reader Store App or desktop application so having one of those running too, then there is no problem as all 4 applications will run happily together and one can just flip between them as desired having them arranged on the screen(s), taskbar or background as one desires.

[JimmXinu]

There's been a calibre change (in 2.10) that requires changes to some of the plugins to correctly support keyboard shortcuts. Specifically, plugins that change their menus dynamically.

I've been in touch with kiwidude, he doesn't have time right now to work on correcting these issues. But he has given the go-ahead for us (the PI dev community) to update them.

Attached is a version of this plugin I've updated. I've done some testing with it on calibre 2.10, 2.9 and 1.48 and it seems good. I'd like to hear if anybody has problems with it.

Confirmation that it fixes the shortcut issue for you would also be appreciated.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

There's been a calibre change (in 2.10) that requires changes to some of the plugins to correctly support keyboard shortcuts. Specifically, plugins that change their menus dynamically.

I've been in touch with kiwidude, he doesn't have time right now to work on correcting these issues. But he has given the go-ahead for us (the PI dev community) to update them.

Attached is a version of this plugin I've updated. I've done some testing with it on calibre 2.10, 2.9 and 1.48 and it seems good. I'd like to hear if anybody has problems with it.

Confirmation that it fixes the shortcut issue for you would also be appreciated.

@JimmXinu - My testing with this update in calibre v2.10 causes calibre to crash when I do a library switch - see https://bugs.launchpad.net/calibre/+bug/1394383

Ahhh - now I understand - when I tested this on Tuesday morning my time, I only checked that the kb shortcuts were working - that's why it took me until today to discover the PI was creating problems with library switching.

BR

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@JimmXinu - My testing with this update in calibre v2.10 causes calibre to crash when I do a library switch - see https://bugs.launchpad.net/calibre/+bug/1394383

BR,

I think the attached version corrects the problem. At least, I can't make it crash switching libraries.

FYI, I had to switch between at least 3 different libraries to get the crash reliably. If I just switched between 2, it only came up once in a while--which is why I didn't see it at first.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

BR,

I think the attached version corrects the problem. At least, I can't make it crash switching libraries.

FYI, I had to switch between at least 3 different libraries to get the crash reliably. If I just switched between 2, it only came up once in a while--which is why I didn't see it at first.

@JimmXinu - I just put it through the sequence of tests on which I was getting consistent failures - no APPCRASHes

You're right, it was never on first switch and sometimes not on second, I discovered it when I was futzing around in relation to this thread ==>> Set or Freeze Column Widths?, which is why I cast my initial suspicions on View Manager. Couldn't believe my eyes - calibre crashed - first time ever.

BR

ps : MS released an out of cycle security patch to their Kerberos code yesterday. Until I saw your post at launchpad asking if I use EPUBMerge, I was getting ready to revoke it's ticket :lol:

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@JimmXinu - I just put it through the sequence of tests on which I was getting consistent failures - no APPCRASHes :fingersx
:...

Excellent!

FYI, the problem was that I'd missed a line in Open With only--it wasn't doing self.gui.keyboard.unregister_shortcut(...) on each action, only self.gui.removeAction(...). All the other PIs had that and that's what corrected Open With.

[JimmXinu]

Attached is a test version that may help with with a segfault problem reported by a user on switching libraries.

It simply doesn't update menus on library switch--there's no reason to, Open With doesn't have library-specific configuration. This is a work around more than a fix.

[loviedovie]

Hi

I am testing the fix. I will let you know

thanks

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Vortex

Well thought of BR!

It works but has the same snag as the plugin, it adds a + symbol between each part of the name. So far I haven't been able to find a way to get 'Everything' to ignore them.

A Default title link template sounds like a great idea.

That's a sign you are using the wrong plugin. The plugin is building a search string suitable for use as part of a URL and hence the pluses separating each word. All the plugin is doing is building a URL and passing that to the OS to handle in whatever way the OS handles URL. That is why BR's suggestion gets close as the OS knows what to do with the "file:" protocol.

Ideally, this would be an Open With plugin function. But it always passes full filename to the application and doesn't parse the arguments for templates. Adding that probably wouldn't be very hard, but I haven't looked at it*. The alternative would be modifying the Search The Internet plugin to allow different way of opening the generated search string and then a different way of opening the search string. I'd expect that to be more code.

Something that should work with the Search the Internet plugin is use the file: protocol to call a wrapper script rather than the search application directly. The script could change all the + symbols to spaces and add any extra parameters needed before calling the search application.

* chaley: stop rolling your eyes at my glib statement

[BetterRed]

@davidfor - But surely Vortex does not want a file path to passed to to his target program (Everything), which is what Open With does. He wants a search string made up of {author} {book title} etc

See ==>> Everything Search Operators

Maybe something simple that borrows from the template parsing used in Save to Disk and Send to Device that just puts the result into the clipboard which user can paste into target program, command line etc. With ability to save the templates.

BR