views:

459

answers:

2

I'm working on an application that will have attachments, and I would like to create a type of display like in windows Explorer, where you choose a "Details" view, and also show the preview pane.

I would like to be able to show a thumbnail view of the attached file currently selected, based on the file extension.

Does anyone know where I can start to look for examples on how to pull this off?

I know Outlook 2007 can also do something similar using preview handlers. I think that’s going to be the direction I want to go in, but I'm not sure where to start.

Many thanks.

All Hail the Glory of the Hypnotoad!

A: 

While you could do it in WPF, you should not do it. Seriously: don't do it! - you would break many apps (including one of mine).

To do this without .NET, see here for a nice guide.

Stefan
Fair enough, but there has to be a way to pull the same type of thing off nativly.
Russ
edited my post with a link to guide on how to do this the native way.
Stefan
Well if Russ wantss to host a previewer, not make one, that should not be a problem? Also MSDN article says that the previewers are hosted out of process and so may not be affected by multi-CLR problem.
Andrey Shchekin
Yes of course, hosting those is not a problem.
Stefan
Yes, all I want to do is host them. And anything outside of .NET isn't really an option, since the whole application is written in WPF where I want to use this functionality.
Russ
+1  A: 

I think you can start here

http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/eyal/archive/2007/07/29/Hosting-vista_2F00_office-2007-previewers-in-winform-application.aspx

(the code is partially black on black, at least for me, but you can disable the styles or just copy it)

Andrey Shchekin