File preview component (C++/MFC)

Question

Is anyone aware of a good, general purpose file preview component for MFC/C++ desktop applications?

Specifically, I'm looking for a component that I could embed in my application that would allow a broad range of file types (text files, multimedia, etc.) to be previewed without the need for original applications (such as MS Word, etc.) to be installed.

I could only find one, via Google:

http://www.file-viewer-sdk.com/

Unfortunately, these folks want $60k for unlimited redistribution, which is outside of our budget.

Anyone have any recommendations? If not a component, is anyone using another general-purpose strategy that works well for them?

Answer 1

You can write your own shell preview host once you know the interfaces.

Answer 2

You might want to check out Autovue, originally made by Cimmetry since acquired by Oracle .

Our product makes limited use of their SDK to do some document conversions (Mostly RTF->PS) and that works well enough for us.