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A-Shell Reference

Added February 2019

AshExplorer is included in A-Shell/Windows and ATE release packages. This standalone utility is similar to a cross between the File Open dialog—see MX_GETOFD—and Windows Explorer. It is useful within an application when you want to allow the user to browse, preview, and possibly use the default open operation on selected files, but without necessarily waiting on the user, and without giving the user too much flexibility to go wandering as would otherwise be the case with Windows Explorer. Launch via Xcall HOSTEX or Xcall MX_SHELLEX, with zero or more of the switches noted in the table below.

ASHEXPLORER.EXE {switches}

Switch

Description

/START,
folder-or-fspec

Specifies the starting folder, and optionally the file to select for preview. Default is current directory.

/FILTER

/FILTER,"descr | wildcardlist {| descr | wildcardlist}..."

Provides a filter specification to limit the files shown, using the same syntax as in MX_GETOFD. Each wildcard list is a semi-colon delimited list of filename wildcards, e.g. *.jpg;*.png; XX*.bmp. Quoting the entire argument is recommended; do not include spaces within any wildcard list. For example:

/FILTER,"Images | *.jpg;*.png | Docs | AB*.pdf;XY*.docx"

/TITLE,title

Specifies the title for the dialog box that appears. String must be quoted if it contains spaces.

/CANCEL,label

Specifies the label for the cancel/exit button (default="Exit").

/MAX{IMIZE}

Maximize the dialog.

/MAXBTN

Add a Min/Max/Normal button to the dialog caption bar.

/NOADDRESS

Remove the address (aka URL) line from the dialog. Useful when you want to confine the user to a single directory and/or there is no reason to reveal the address of the directory being viewed.

/NOCHANGEDIR

Don't allow browsing outside of the initial directory.

/NOFILEPROMPT

Remove the "File name: " prompt and edit box that otherwise appears beneath the list of files, where the user could type the name the file to select.

 

History

2018 July, A-Shell 6.5.1639:  Add feature to A-Shell