We Keep Coding

How to get the file author using C# [duplicate]

I'm trying to find out how to read/write to the extended file properties in C#
e.g. Comment, Bit Rate, Date Accessed, Category etc that you can see in Windows explorer.
Any ideas how to do this?
EDIT: I'll mainly be reading/writing to video files (AVI/DIVX/...)

For those of not crazy about VB, here it is in c#:
Note, you have to add a reference to Microsoft Shell Controls and Automation from the COM tab of the References dialog.
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
List<string> arrHeaders = new List<string>();
Shell32.Shell shell = new Shell32.Shell();
Shell32.Folder objFolder;
objFolder = shell.NameSpace(#"C:\temp\testprop");
for( int i = 0; i < short.MaxValue; i++ )
{
string header = objFolder.GetDetailsOf(null, i);
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(header))
break;
arrHeaders.Add(header);
}
foreach(Shell32.FolderItem2 item in objFolder.Items())
{
for (int i = 0; i < arrHeaders.Count; i++)
{
Console.WriteLine(
$"{i}\t{arrHeaders[i]}: {objFolder.GetDetailsOf(item, i)}");
}
}
}

Solution 2016
Add following NuGet packages to your project:
Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack-Shell by Microsoft
Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack-Core by Microsoft
Read and Write Properties
using Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack.Shell;
using Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack.Shell.PropertySystem;
string filePath = #"C:\temp\example.docx";
var file = ShellFile.FromFilePath(filePath);
// Read and Write:
string[] oldAuthors = file.Properties.System.Author.Value;
string oldTitle = file.Properties.System.Title.Value;
file.Properties.System.Author.Value = new string[] { "Author #1", "Author #2" };
file.Properties.System.Title.Value = "Example Title";
// Alternate way to Write:
ShellPropertyWriter propertyWriter = file.Properties.GetPropertyWriter();
propertyWriter.WriteProperty(SystemProperties.System.Author, new string[] { "Author" });
propertyWriter.Close();
Important:
The file must be a valid one, created by the specific assigned software. Every file type has specific extended file properties and not all of them are writable.
If you right-click a file on desktop and cannot edit a property, you wont be able to edit it in code too.
Example:
Create txt file on desktop, rename its extension to docx. You can't
edit its Author or Title property.
Open it with Word, edit and save
it. Now you can.
So just make sure to use some try catch
Further Topic:
Microsoft Docs: Implementing Property Handlers

There's a CodeProject article for an ID3 reader. And a thread at kixtart.org that has more information for other properties. Basically, you need to call the GetDetailsOf() method on the folder shell object for shell32.dll.

This sample in VB.NET reads all extended properties:
Sub Main()
Dim arrHeaders(35)
Dim shell As New Shell32.Shell
Dim objFolder As Shell32.Folder
objFolder = shell.NameSpace("C:\tmp")
For i = 0 To 34
arrHeaders(i) = objFolder.GetDetailsOf(objFolder.Items, i)
Next
For Each strFileName In objfolder.Items
For i = 0 To 34
Console.WriteLine(i & vbTab & arrHeaders(i) & ": " & objfolder.GetDetailsOf(strFileName, i))
Next
Next
End Sub
You have to add a reference to Microsoft Shell Controls and Automation from the COM tab of the References dialog.

Thank you guys for this thread! It helped me when I wanted to figure out an exe's file version. However, I needed to figure out the last bit myself of what is called Extended Properties.
If you open properties of an exe (or dll) file in Windows Explorer, you get a Version tab, and a view of Extended Properties of that file. I wanted to access one of those values.
The solution to this is the property indexer FolderItem.ExtendedProperty and if you drop all spaces in the property's name, you'll get the value. E.g. File Version goes FileVersion, and there you have it.
Hope this helps anyone else, just thought I'd add this info to this thread. Cheers!

GetDetailsOf() Method - Retrieves details about an item in a folder. For example, its size, type, or the time of its last modification. File Properties may vary based on the Windows-OS version.
List<string> arrHeaders = new List<string>();
Shell shell = new ShellClass();
Folder rFolder = shell.NameSpace(_rootPath);
FolderItem rFiles = rFolder.ParseName(filename);
for (int i = 0; i < short.MaxValue; i++)
{
string value = rFolder.GetDetailsOf(rFiles, i).Trim();
arrHeaders.Add(value);
}

Jerker's answer is little simpler. Here's sample code which works from MS:
var folder = new Shell().NameSpace(folderPath);
foreach (FolderItem2 item in folder.Items())
{
var company = item.ExtendedProperty("Company");
var author = item.ExtendedProperty("Author");
// Etc.
}
For those who can't reference shell32 statically, you can invoke it dynamically like this:
var shellAppType = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("Shell.Application");
dynamic shellApp = Activator.CreateInstance(shellAppType);
var folder = shellApp.NameSpace(folderPath);
foreach (var item in folder.Items())
{
var company = item.ExtendedProperty("Company");
var author = item.ExtendedProperty("Author");
// Etc.
}

After looking at a number of solutions on this thread and elsewhere
the following code was put together. This is only to read a property.
I could not get the
Shell32.FolderItem2.ExtendedProperty function to work, it is supposed
to take a string value and return the correct value and type for that
property... this was always null for me and developer reference resources were very thin.
The WindowsApiCodePack seems
to have been abandoned by Microsoft which brings us the code below.
Use:
string propertyValue = GetExtendedFileProperty("c:\\temp\\FileNameYouWant.ext","PropertyYouWant");
Will return you the value of the extended property you want as a
string for the given file and property name.
Only loops until it found the specified property - not until
all properties are discovered like some sample code
Will work on Windows versions like Windows server 2008 where you will get the error "Unable to cast COM object of type 'System.__ComObject' to interface type 'Shell32.Shell'" if just trying to create the Shell32 Object normally.
public static string GetExtendedFileProperty(string filePath, string propertyName)
{
string value = string.Empty;
string baseFolder = Path.GetDirectoryName(filePath);
string fileName = Path.GetFileName(filePath);
//Method to load and execute the Shell object for Windows server 8 environment otherwise you get "Unable to cast COM object of type 'System.__ComObject' to interface type 'Shell32.Shell'"
Type shellAppType = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("Shell.Application");
Object shell = Activator.CreateInstance(shellAppType);
Shell32.Folder shellFolder = (Shell32.Folder)shellAppType.InvokeMember("NameSpace", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, null, shell, new object[] { baseFolder });
//Parsename will find the specific file I'm looking for in the Shell32.Folder object
Shell32.FolderItem folderitem = shellFolder.ParseName(fileName);
if (folderitem != null)
{
for (int i = 0; i < short.MaxValue; i++)
{
//Get the property name for property index i
string property = shellFolder.GetDetailsOf(null, i);
//Will be empty when all possible properties has been looped through, break out of loop
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(property)) break;
//Skip to next property if this is not the specified property
if (property != propertyName) continue;
//Read value of property
value = shellFolder.GetDetailsOf(folderitem, i);
}
}
//returns string.Empty if no value was found for the specified property
return value;
}

Here is a solution for reading - not writing - the extended properties based on what I found on this page and at help with shell32 objects.
To be clear this is a hack. It looks like this code will still run on Windows 10 but will hit on some empty properties. Previous version of Windows should use:
var i = 0;
while (true)
{
...
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(header)) break;
...
i++;
On Windows 10 we assume that there are about 320 properties to read and simply skip the empty entries:
private Dictionary<string, string> GetExtendedProperties(string filePath)
{
var directory = Path.GetDirectoryName(filePath);
var shell = new Shell32.Shell();
var shellFolder = shell.NameSpace(directory);
var fileName = Path.GetFileName(filePath);
var folderitem = shellFolder.ParseName(fileName);
var dictionary = new Dictionary<string, string>();
var i = -1;
while (++i < 320)
{
var header = shellFolder.GetDetailsOf(null, i);
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(header)) continue;
var value = shellFolder.GetDetailsOf(folderitem, i);
if (!dictionary.ContainsKey(header)) dictionary.Add(header, value);
Console.WriteLine(header +": " + value);
}
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(shell);
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(shellFolder);
return dictionary;
}
As mentioned you need to reference the Com assembly Interop.Shell32.
If you get an STA related exception, you will find the solution here:
Exception when using Shell32 to get File extended properties
I have no idea what those properties names would be like on a foreign system and couldn't find information about which localizable constants to use in order to access the dictionary. I also found that not all the properties from the Properties dialog were present in the dictionary returned.
BTW this is terribly slow and - at least on Windows 10 - parsing dates in the string retrieved would be a challenge so using this seems to be a bad idea to start with.
On Windows 10 you should definitely use the Windows.Storage library which contains the SystemPhotoProperties, SystemMusicProperties etc.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/files/quickstart-getting-file-properties
And finally, I posted a much better solution that uses WindowsAPICodePack there

I'm not sure what types of files you are trying to write the properties for but taglib-sharp is an excellent open source tagging library that wraps up all this functionality nicely. It has a lot of built in support for most of the popular media file types but also allows you to do more advanced tagging with pretty much any file.
EDIT: I've updated the link to taglib sharp. The old link no longer worked.
EDIT: Updated the link once again per kzu's comment.

Convert identical objects from different namespaces?

These are the errors:
Error 1 Cannot implicitly convert type 'Plantool.xRoute.Point' to 'Plantool.xMap.Point'
Error 2 Cannot implicitly convert type 'Plantool.xRoute.Point' to 'Plantool.xMap.Point'
Error 3 Cannot implicitly convert type 'Plantool.xRoute.LineString' to 'Plantool.xMap.LineString'
I have this code which comes with a namespace.
using Plantool; //Contains xMap, xServer, xLocate
And this is the function in question.
/* createMap()
* Input: WaypointDesc[], Route
* Output: string mapURL
* Edited 21/12/12 - Davide Nguyen
*/
private static string createMap(xRoute.WaypointDesc[] waypointDesc, xRoute.Route route)
{
#region boundingBox
// Set boundingBox fand use corners from the calculated route
xMap.BoundingBox boundingBox = new xMap.BoundingBox();
boundingBox.leftTop = route.totalRectangle.rightTop;
boundingBox.rightBottom = route.totalRectangle.leftBottom;
#endregion
#region mapParams
// Build mapParams
xMap.MapParams mapParams = new xMap.MapParams();
mapParams.showScale = true;
mapParams.useMiles = false;
#endregion
#region imageInfo
// Create imageInfo and set the frame size and image format. NOTE: 1052; 863
xMap.ImageInfo imageInfo = new xMap.ImageInfo();
imageInfo.format = xMap.ImageFileFormat.PNG;
imageInfo.height = 1052;
imageInfo.width = 863;
imageInfo.imageParameter = "";
#endregion
#region layers
// Create a line from the calculated route
xMap.LineString[] lineStrings = new xMap.LineString[] { route.polygon };
xMap.Lines[] lines = new xMap.Lines[1];
xMap.LineOptions options = new xMap.LineOptions();
xMap.LinePartOptions partoptions = new xMap.LinePartOptions();
partoptions.color = new xMap.Color();
partoptions.visible = true;
partoptions.width = -10;
options.mainLine = partoptions;
lines[0] = new xMap.Lines();
lines[0].wrappedLines = lineStrings;
lines[0].options = options;
// Define customLayer that contains the object lines and set layers.
xMap.CustomLayer customLayer = new xMap.CustomLayer();
customLayer.visible = true;
customLayer.drawPriority = 100;
customLayer.wrappedLines = lines;
customLayer.objectInfos = xMap.ObjectInfoType.NONE;
customLayer.centerObjects = true;
xMap.Layer[] layers = new xMap.Layer[] { customLayer };
#endregion
#region includeImageInResponse
// Set argument includeImageInResponse to false (default).
Boolean includeImageInResponse = false;
#endregion
// Return object map using the following method.
xMap.Map map = xMapClient.renderMapBoundingBox(boundingBox, mapParams, imageInfo, layers, includeImageInResponse, null);
// Retrieve the image
string result = "http://" + map.image.url;
// Return the drawn map
return result;
}
The problem lies with the boundingBox object and the lineString object. route.totalRectangle contains a Point object from the xRoute namespace which is identical to that of xMap. Is there anyway to copy or convert it?
This issue does not seem to happen in java examples, but it does in C#. I am sure that if I can solve this error, the other ones will be solved aswell. I have searched my ass off on the API, but it may help you:
xMap:
http://xserver.ptvgroup.com/fileadmin/files/PTV-COMPONENTS/DeveloperZone/Documents/PTV_xServer/API/xMapAPI/pages/apidoc.html
xRoute: http://xserver.ptvgroup.com/fileadmin/files/PTV-COMPONENTS/DeveloperZone/Documents/PTV_xServer/API/xRouteAPI/pages/apidoc.html
Still digging myself.

In C# you cannot convert from one type to another, even if they are for all purposes identical, without copying all the properites, etc. unless an implicit conversion exists.
So you can either write a implicit conversion opertor as shown in link above or you could use a tool like AutoMapper to copy between the two objects

I have found another solution for this issue in the meanwhile whilst randomly playing with the code and the API and this is a partial solution for two of the errors by copying over the well known text values from one object to another. Hopefully I can do the same for the linestring part. I am posting this just incase anyone else comes across this and finds it a usefull solution. New code region below.
// Set boundingBox fand use corners from the calculated route
xMap.BoundingBox boundingBox = new xMap.BoundingBox();
xMap.Point rightTop = new xMap.Point();
rightTop.wkt = route.totalRectangle.rightTop.wkt;
xMap.Point leftBottom = new xMap.Point();
leftBottom.wkt = route.totalRectangle.leftBottom.wkt;
boundingBox.leftTop = rightTop;
boundingBox.rightBottom = leftBottom;
EDIT: Same solution for the linestrings.
// Solution: Cannot implicitly conver ttype xRoute.LineString to xMap.LineString
xMap.LineString maproute = new xMap.LineString();
maproute.wkt = route.polygon.wkt;
// Create a line from the calculated route
xMap.LineString[] lineStrings = new xMap.LineString[] { maproute };
Thanks for the help, I hope someone might find this solution usefull aswell.

Review this for your own purposes... but one option is to use a JSON Parser to serialize one class into JSON, then to deserialize it back into a different class. Short and simple answer, but if all you are looking for is to grab properties from Contoso.Project.UrMom, and transfer them directly to Albiet.Project.UrMom, it works well.

I've found this other alternative that is based on serialization of the objects. As far as I'm concerned it has the disadvantage of accessing the disk.

How did you create the client classes from the WSDL's?
I prefer to create them via command line:
WSDL /sharetypes /out:"XServer.cs" /namespace:"Plantool"
"https://xroute-eu-n-test.cloud.ptvgroup.com/xlocate/ws/XLocate?WSDL"
"https://xroute-eu-n-test.cloud.ptvgroup.com/xroute/ws/XRoute?WSDL"
"https://xroute-eu-n-test.cloud.ptvgroup.com/xtour/ws/XTour?WSDL"
/sharetypes ensures that classes such as Point will be merged intoa single shared class
This also works fine with the xServer2 API and it's WSDLs.

How do I read and write details from a file in C# [duplicate]

I'm trying to find out how to read/write to the extended file properties in C#
e.g. Comment, Bit Rate, Date Accessed, Category etc that you can see in Windows explorer.
Any ideas how to do this?
EDIT: I'll mainly be reading/writing to video files (AVI/DIVX/...)

For those of not crazy about VB, here it is in c#:
Note, you have to add a reference to Microsoft Shell Controls and Automation from the COM tab of the References dialog.
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
List<string> arrHeaders = new List<string>();
Shell32.Shell shell = new Shell32.Shell();
Shell32.Folder objFolder;
objFolder = shell.NameSpace(#"C:\temp\testprop");
for( int i = 0; i < short.MaxValue; i++ )
{
string header = objFolder.GetDetailsOf(null, i);
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(header))
break;
arrHeaders.Add(header);
}
foreach(Shell32.FolderItem2 item in objFolder.Items())
{
for (int i = 0; i < arrHeaders.Count; i++)
{
Console.WriteLine(
$"{i}\t{arrHeaders[i]}: {objFolder.GetDetailsOf(item, i)}");
}
}
}

Solution 2016
Add following NuGet packages to your project:
Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack-Shell by Microsoft
Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack-Core by Microsoft
Read and Write Properties
using Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack.Shell;
using Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack.Shell.PropertySystem;
string filePath = #"C:\temp\example.docx";
var file = ShellFile.FromFilePath(filePath);
// Read and Write:
string[] oldAuthors = file.Properties.System.Author.Value;
string oldTitle = file.Properties.System.Title.Value;
file.Properties.System.Author.Value = new string[] { "Author #1", "Author #2" };
file.Properties.System.Title.Value = "Example Title";
// Alternate way to Write:
ShellPropertyWriter propertyWriter = file.Properties.GetPropertyWriter();
propertyWriter.WriteProperty(SystemProperties.System.Author, new string[] { "Author" });
propertyWriter.Close();
Important:
The file must be a valid one, created by the specific assigned software. Every file type has specific extended file properties and not all of them are writable.
If you right-click a file on desktop and cannot edit a property, you wont be able to edit it in code too.
Example:
Create txt file on desktop, rename its extension to docx. You can't
edit its Author or Title property.
Open it with Word, edit and save
it. Now you can.
So just make sure to use some try catch
Further Topic:
Microsoft Docs: Implementing Property Handlers

There's a CodeProject article for an ID3 reader. And a thread at kixtart.org that has more information for other properties. Basically, you need to call the GetDetailsOf() method on the folder shell object for shell32.dll.

This sample in VB.NET reads all extended properties:
Sub Main()
Dim arrHeaders(35)
Dim shell As New Shell32.Shell
Dim objFolder As Shell32.Folder
objFolder = shell.NameSpace("C:\tmp")
For i = 0 To 34
arrHeaders(i) = objFolder.GetDetailsOf(objFolder.Items, i)
Next
For Each strFileName In objfolder.Items
For i = 0 To 34
Console.WriteLine(i & vbTab & arrHeaders(i) & ": " & objfolder.GetDetailsOf(strFileName, i))
Next
Next
End Sub
You have to add a reference to Microsoft Shell Controls and Automation from the COM tab of the References dialog.

Thank you guys for this thread! It helped me when I wanted to figure out an exe's file version. However, I needed to figure out the last bit myself of what is called Extended Properties.
If you open properties of an exe (or dll) file in Windows Explorer, you get a Version tab, and a view of Extended Properties of that file. I wanted to access one of those values.
The solution to this is the property indexer FolderItem.ExtendedProperty and if you drop all spaces in the property's name, you'll get the value. E.g. File Version goes FileVersion, and there you have it.
Hope this helps anyone else, just thought I'd add this info to this thread. Cheers!

GetDetailsOf() Method - Retrieves details about an item in a folder. For example, its size, type, or the time of its last modification. File Properties may vary based on the Windows-OS version.
List<string> arrHeaders = new List<string>();
Shell shell = new ShellClass();
Folder rFolder = shell.NameSpace(_rootPath);
FolderItem rFiles = rFolder.ParseName(filename);
for (int i = 0; i < short.MaxValue; i++)
{
string value = rFolder.GetDetailsOf(rFiles, i).Trim();
arrHeaders.Add(value);
}

Jerker's answer is little simpler. Here's sample code which works from MS:
var folder = new Shell().NameSpace(folderPath);
foreach (FolderItem2 item in folder.Items())
{
var company = item.ExtendedProperty("Company");
var author = item.ExtendedProperty("Author");
// Etc.
}
For those who can't reference shell32 statically, you can invoke it dynamically like this:
var shellAppType = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("Shell.Application");
dynamic shellApp = Activator.CreateInstance(shellAppType);
var folder = shellApp.NameSpace(folderPath);
foreach (var item in folder.Items())
{
var company = item.ExtendedProperty("Company");
var author = item.ExtendedProperty("Author");
// Etc.
}

After looking at a number of solutions on this thread and elsewhere
the following code was put together. This is only to read a property.
I could not get the
Shell32.FolderItem2.ExtendedProperty function to work, it is supposed
to take a string value and return the correct value and type for that
property... this was always null for me and developer reference resources were very thin.
The WindowsApiCodePack seems
to have been abandoned by Microsoft which brings us the code below.
Use:
string propertyValue = GetExtendedFileProperty("c:\\temp\\FileNameYouWant.ext","PropertyYouWant");
Will return you the value of the extended property you want as a
string for the given file and property name.
Only loops until it found the specified property - not until
all properties are discovered like some sample code
Will work on Windows versions like Windows server 2008 where you will get the error "Unable to cast COM object of type 'System.__ComObject' to interface type 'Shell32.Shell'" if just trying to create the Shell32 Object normally.
public static string GetExtendedFileProperty(string filePath, string propertyName)
{
string value = string.Empty;
string baseFolder = Path.GetDirectoryName(filePath);
string fileName = Path.GetFileName(filePath);
//Method to load and execute the Shell object for Windows server 8 environment otherwise you get "Unable to cast COM object of type 'System.__ComObject' to interface type 'Shell32.Shell'"
Type shellAppType = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("Shell.Application");
Object shell = Activator.CreateInstance(shellAppType);
Shell32.Folder shellFolder = (Shell32.Folder)shellAppType.InvokeMember("NameSpace", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, null, shell, new object[] { baseFolder });
//Parsename will find the specific file I'm looking for in the Shell32.Folder object
Shell32.FolderItem folderitem = shellFolder.ParseName(fileName);
if (folderitem != null)
{
for (int i = 0; i < short.MaxValue; i++)
{
//Get the property name for property index i
string property = shellFolder.GetDetailsOf(null, i);
//Will be empty when all possible properties has been looped through, break out of loop
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(property)) break;
//Skip to next property if this is not the specified property
if (property != propertyName) continue;
//Read value of property
value = shellFolder.GetDetailsOf(folderitem, i);
}
}
//returns string.Empty if no value was found for the specified property
return value;
}

Here is a solution for reading - not writing - the extended properties based on what I found on this page and at help with shell32 objects.
To be clear this is a hack. It looks like this code will still run on Windows 10 but will hit on some empty properties. Previous version of Windows should use:
var i = 0;
while (true)
{
...
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(header)) break;
...
i++;
On Windows 10 we assume that there are about 320 properties to read and simply skip the empty entries:
private Dictionary<string, string> GetExtendedProperties(string filePath)
{
var directory = Path.GetDirectoryName(filePath);
var shell = new Shell32.Shell();
var shellFolder = shell.NameSpace(directory);
var fileName = Path.GetFileName(filePath);
var folderitem = shellFolder.ParseName(fileName);
var dictionary = new Dictionary<string, string>();
var i = -1;
while (++i < 320)
{
var header = shellFolder.GetDetailsOf(null, i);
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(header)) continue;
var value = shellFolder.GetDetailsOf(folderitem, i);
if (!dictionary.ContainsKey(header)) dictionary.Add(header, value);
Console.WriteLine(header +": " + value);
}
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(shell);
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(shellFolder);
return dictionary;
}
As mentioned you need to reference the Com assembly Interop.Shell32.
If you get an STA related exception, you will find the solution here:
Exception when using Shell32 to get File extended properties
I have no idea what those properties names would be like on a foreign system and couldn't find information about which localizable constants to use in order to access the dictionary. I also found that not all the properties from the Properties dialog were present in the dictionary returned.
BTW this is terribly slow and - at least on Windows 10 - parsing dates in the string retrieved would be a challenge so using this seems to be a bad idea to start with.
On Windows 10 you should definitely use the Windows.Storage library which contains the SystemPhotoProperties, SystemMusicProperties etc.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/files/quickstart-getting-file-properties
And finally, I posted a much better solution that uses WindowsAPICodePack there

I'm not sure what types of files you are trying to write the properties for but taglib-sharp is an excellent open source tagging library that wraps up all this functionality nicely. It has a lot of built in support for most of the popular media file types but also allows you to do more advanced tagging with pretty much any file.
EDIT: I've updated the link to taglib sharp. The old link no longer worked.
EDIT: Updated the link once again per kzu's comment.

Problems with OpenOffice Writer using C#

I am creating a OO Writer document with C#.
Any help would be appreciated - I no longer know whether I am coming or going, I have tried so many variations....
using C#, has anybody successfully got the following to work? I just have a simple table of 2 columns and want to set the column widths to different values (actual value at this stage immaterial - just not identical widths).
This code is adapted from various web sources given as examples of how to do column widths. I cannot get it to work....
//For OpenOffice....
using unoidl.com.sun.star.lang;
using unoidl.com.sun.star.uno;
using unoidl.com.sun.star.bridge;
using unoidl.com.sun.star.frame;
using unoidl.com.sun.star.text;
using unoidl.com.sun.star.beans;
..............................
XTextTable odtTbl = (XTextTable) ((XMultiServiceFactory)oodt).createInstance("com.sun.star.text.TextTable");
odtTbl.initialize(10, 2);
XPropertySet xPS = (XPropertySet)odtTbl;
Object xObj = xPS.getPropertyValue("TableColumnSeparators")**; // << Runtime ERROR**
TableColumnSeparator[] xSeparators = (TableColumnSeparator[])xObj;
xSeparators[0].Position = 500;
xSeparators[1].Position = 5000;
xPS.setPropertyValue("TableColumnSeparators", new uno.Any(typeof(unoidl.com.sun.star.text.XTextTable),xSeparators));
// Runtime ERROR indicates the ; at the end of the Object line, with message of IllegalArgumentException
Now this is only one type of error out of all the combinations of attempts. Not many allowed execution at all, but the above code did actually run until the error.
What is the correct code for doing this in C# please?
In addition, what is the correct C# code to set an O'Writer heading to a particular style (such as "Heading 1") so that it looks and prints like that style in the document?
Thank you.

unoidl.com.sun.star.uno.XComponentContext localContext = uno.util.Bootstrap.bootstrap();
unoidl.com.sun.star.lang.XMultiServiceFactory multiServiceFactory = (unoidl.com.sun.star.lang.XMultiServiceFactory)localContext.getServiceManager();
XComponentLoader componentLoader =(XComponentLoader)multiServiceFactory.createInstance("com.sun.star.frame.Desktop");
XComponent xComponent = componentLoader.loadComponentFromURL(
"private:factory/swriter", //a blank writer document
"_blank", 0, //into a blank frame use no searchflag
new unoidl.com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue[0]);//use no additional arguments.
//object odtTbl = null;
//odtTbl = ((XMultiServiceFactory)xComponent).createInstance("com.sun.star.text.TextTable");
XTextDocument xTextDocument = (unoidl.com.sun.star.text.XTextDocument)xComponent;
XText xText = xTextDocument.getText();
XTextCursor xTextCursor = xText.createTextCursor();
XPropertySet xTextCursorProps = (unoidl.com.sun.star.beans.XPropertySet) xTextCursor;
XSimpleText xSimpleText = (XSimpleText)xText;
XTextCursor xCursor = xSimpleText.createTextCursor();
object objTextTable = null;
objTextTable = ((XMultiServiceFactory)xComponent).createInstance("com.sun.star.text.TextTable");
XTextTable xTextTable = (XTextTable)objTextTable;
xTextTable.initialize(2,3);
xText.insertTextContent(xCursor, xTextTable, false);
XPropertySet xPS = (XPropertySet)objTextTable;
uno.Any xObj = xPS.getPropertyValue("TableColumnSeparators");
TableColumnSeparator[] xSeparators = (TableColumnSeparator[])xObj.Value; //!!!! xObj.Value
xSeparators[0].Position = 2000;
xSeparators[1].Position = 3000;
xPS.setPropertyValue("TableColumnSeparators", new uno.Any(typeof(TableColumnSeparator[]), xSeparators)); //!!!! TableColumnSeparator[]

How to create a Uri instance parsed with GenericUriParserOptions.DontCompressPath

When the .NET System.Uri class parses strings it performs some normalization on the input, such as lower-casing the scheme and hostname. It also trims trailing periods from each path segment. This latter feature is fatal to OpenID applications because some OpenIDs (like those issued from Yahoo) include base64 encoded path segments which may end with a period.
How can I disable this period-trimming behavior of the Uri class?
Registering my own scheme using UriParser.Register with a parser initialized with GenericUriParserOptions.DontCompressPath avoids the period trimming, and some other operations that are also undesirable for OpenID. But I cannot register a new parser for existing schemes like HTTP and HTTPS, which I must do for OpenIDs.
Another approach I tried was registering my own new scheme, and programming the custom parser to change the scheme back to the standard HTTP(s) schemes as part of parsing:
public class MyUriParser : GenericUriParser
{
private string actualScheme;
public MyUriParser(string actualScheme)
: base(GenericUriParserOptions.DontCompressPath)
{
this.actualScheme = actualScheme.ToLowerInvariant();
}
protected override string GetComponents(Uri uri, UriComponents components, UriFormat format)
{
string result = base.GetComponents(uri, components, format);
// Substitute our actual desired scheme in the string if it's in there.
if ((components & UriComponents.Scheme) != 0)
{
string registeredScheme = base.GetComponents(uri, UriComponents.Scheme, format);
result = this.actualScheme + result.Substring(registeredScheme.Length);
}
return result;
}
}
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
UriParser.Register(new MyUriParser("http"), "httpx", 80);
UriParser.Register(new MyUriParser("https"), "httpsx", 443);
Uri z = new Uri("httpsx://me.yahoo.com/b./c.#adf");
var req = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(z);
req.GetResponse();
}
}
This actually almost works. The Uri instance reports https instead of httpsx everywhere -- except the Uri.Scheme property itself. That's a problem when you pass this Uri instance to the HttpWebRequest to send a request to this address. Apparently it checks the Scheme property and doesn't recognize it as 'https' because it just sends plaintext to the 443 port instead of SSL.
I'm happy for any solution that:
Preserves trailing periods in path segments in Uri.Path
Includes these periods in outgoing HTTP requests.
Ideally works with under ASP.NET medium trust (but not absolutely necessary).

Microsoft says it will be fixed in .NET 4.0 (though it appears from the comments that it has not been fixed yet)
https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/386695/system-uri-incorrectly-strips-trailing-dots?wa=wsignin1.0#tabs
There is a workaround on that page, however. It involves using reflection to change the options though, so it may not meet the medium trust requirement. Just scroll to the bottom and click on the "Workarounds" tab.
Thanks to jxdavis and Google for this answer:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/netfxbcl/thread/5206beca-071f-485d-a2bd-657d635239c9

I'm curious if part of the problem is that you are only accounting for "don't compress path", instead of all the defaults of the base HTTP parser: (including UnEscapeDotsAndSlashes)
private const UriSyntaxFlags HttpSyntaxFlags = (UriSyntaxFlags.AllowIriParsing | UriSyntaxFlags.AllowIdn | UriSyntaxFlags.UnEscapeDotsAndSlashes | UriSyntaxFlags.CanonicalizeAsFilePath | UriSyntaxFlags.CompressPath | UriSyntaxFlags.ConvertPathSlashes | UriSyntaxFlags.PathIsRooted | UriSyntaxFlags.AllowAnInternetHost | UriSyntaxFlags.AllowUncHost | UriSyntaxFlags.MayHaveFragment | UriSyntaxFlags.MayHaveQuery | UriSyntaxFlags.MayHavePath | UriSyntaxFlags.MayHavePort | UriSyntaxFlags.MayHaveUserInfo | UriSyntaxFlags.MustHaveAuthority);
That's as opposed to the news that has flags (for instance):
private const UriSyntaxFlags NewsSyntaxFlags = (UriSyntaxFlags.AllowIriParsing | UriSyntaxFlags.MayHaveFragment | UriSyntaxFlags.MayHavePath);
Dang, Brandon Black beat me to it while I was working on typing things up...
This may help with code readability:
namespace System
{
[Flags]
internal enum UriSyntaxFlags
{
AllowAnInternetHost = 0xe00,
AllowAnyOtherHost = 0x1000,
AllowDnsHost = 0x200,
AllowDOSPath = 0x100000,
AllowEmptyHost = 0x80,
AllowIdn = 0x4000000,
AllowIPv4Host = 0x400,
AllowIPv6Host = 0x800,
AllowIriParsing = 0x10000000,
AllowUncHost = 0x100,
BuiltInSyntax = 0x40000,
CanonicalizeAsFilePath = 0x1000000,
CompressPath = 0x800000,
ConvertPathSlashes = 0x400000,
FileLikeUri = 0x2000,
MailToLikeUri = 0x4000,
MayHaveFragment = 0x40,
MayHavePath = 0x10,
MayHavePort = 8,
MayHaveQuery = 0x20,
MayHaveUserInfo = 4,
MustHaveAuthority = 1,
OptionalAuthority = 2,
ParserSchemeOnly = 0x80000,
PathIsRooted = 0x200000,
SimpleUserSyntax = 0x20000,
UnEscapeDotsAndSlashes = 0x2000000,
V1_UnknownUri = 0x10000
}
}

You should be able to precent escape the '.' using '%2E', but that's the cheap and dirty way out.
You might try playing around with the dontEscape option a bit and it may change how Uri is treating those characters.
More info here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.uri.aspx
Also check out the following (see DontUnescapePathDotsAndSlashes):
http:// msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.genericuriparseroptions.aspx

Does this work?
public class MyUriParser : UriParser
{
private string actualScheme;
public MyUriParser(string actualScheme)
{
Type type = this.GetType();
FieldInfo fInfo = type.BaseType.GetField("m_Flags", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
fInfo.SetValue(this, GenericUriParserOptions.DontCompressPath);
this.actualScheme = actualScheme.ToLowerInvariant();
}
protected override string GetComponents(Uri uri, UriComponents components, UriFormat format)
{
string result = base.GetComponents(uri, components, format);
// Substitute our actual desired scheme in the string if it's in there.
if ((components & UriComponents.Scheme) != 0)
{
string registeredScheme = base.GetComponents(uri, UriComponents.Scheme, format);
result = this.actualScheme + result.Substring(registeredScheme.Length);
}
return result;
}}