How to open directory in file manager and highlight specific item in it ?

[ashishbansal]

Hi everyone,
I want to implement "Open Containing Folder" kinda thing. If someone doesn't know, it's like I want to open a directory in filemanager in which specific file/folder would be highlighted.
In linux, freedesktop dbus specification[0] has "ShowItems" method to attain such behaviour but I don't have any idea about other operating systems.

Does anyone has any idea about it ? I tried to find but wasn't able to find any Qt API which performs such action.

[0] http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/file-manager-interface/
Regards,
Ashish Bansal

[raf924]

@ashishbansal Apparently QtCreator does such a thing, so have a look around its code to find how it does that and just copy it to your project.

http://code.qt.io/cgit/qt-creator/qt-creator.git/

[ashishbansal]

@raf924 said:

@ashishbansal Apparently QtCreator does such a thing, so have a look around its code to find how it does that and just copy it to your project.

http://code.qt.io/cgit/qt-creator/qt-creator.git/

But it only opens up directory doesn't highlight that item on which I pressed "Show Containing folder".

[raf924]

@ashishbansal I just tried it on Qt Creator 3.4.2 on Windows and it does highlight the item.

[ashishbansal]

@raf924 said:

@ashishbansal I just tried it on Qt Creator 3.4.2 on Windows and it does highlight the item.

But not on linux :|

[raf924]

@ashishbansal Oh but you already have a solution for Linux don't you?

[ashishbansal]

@raf924 said:

@ashishbansal Oh but you already have a solution for Linux don't you?

Yeah I have that but I was looking for better alternative if possible like something in-built API in Qt.
BTW what about Mac OS.

[raf924]

@ashishbansal FOund this in the source of qBittorent:

void Utils::Misc::openFolderSelect(const QString& absolutePath)
{
    const QString path = Utils::Fs::fromNativePath(absolutePath);
#ifdef Q_OS_WIN
    if (QFileInfo(path).exists()) {
        // Syntax is: explorer /select, "C:\Folder1\Folder2\file_to_select"
        // Dir separators MUST be win-style slashes

        // QProcess::startDetached() has an obscure bug. If the path has
        // no spaces and a comma(and maybe other special characters) it doesn't
        // get wrapped in quotes. So explorer.exe can't find the correct path and
        // displays the default one. If we wrap the path in quotes and pass it to
        // QProcess::startDetached() explorer.exe still shows the default path. In
        // this case QProcess::startDetached() probably puts its own quotes around ours.

        STARTUPINFO startupInfo;
        ::ZeroMemory(&startupInfo, sizeof(startupInfo));
        startupInfo.cb = sizeof(startupInfo);

        PROCESS_INFORMATION processInfo;
        ::ZeroMemory(&processInfo, sizeof(processInfo));

        QString cmd = QString("explorer.exe /select,\"%1\"").arg(Utils::Fs::toNativePath(absolutePath));
        LPWSTR lpCmd = new WCHAR[cmd.size() + 1];
        cmd.toWCharArray(lpCmd);
        lpCmd[cmd.size()] = 0;

        bool ret = ::CreateProcessW(NULL, lpCmd, NULL, NULL, FALSE, 0, NULL, NULL, &startupInfo, &processInfo);
        delete [] lpCmd;

        if (ret) {
            ::CloseHandle(processInfo.hProcess);
            ::CloseHandle(processInfo.hThread);
        }
    }
    else {
        // If the item to select doesn't exist, try to open its parent
        openPath(path.left(path.lastIndexOf("/")));
    }
#elif defined(Q_OS_UNIX) && !defined(Q_OS_MAC)
    if (QFileInfo(path).exists()) {
        QProcess proc;
        QString output;
        proc.start("xdg-mime", QStringList() << "query" << "default" << "inode/directory");
        proc.waitForFinished();
        output = proc.readLine().simplified();
        if (output == "dolphin.desktop" || output == "org.kde.dolphin.desktop")
            proc.startDetached("dolphin", QStringList() << "--select" << Utils::Fs::toNativePath(path));
        else if (output == "nautilus.desktop" || output == "org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop"
                 || output == "nautilus-folder-handler.desktop")
            proc.startDetached("nautilus", QStringList() << "--no-desktop" << Utils::Fs::toNativePath(path));
        else if (output == "caja-folder-handler.desktop")
            proc.startDetached("caja", QStringList() << "--no-desktop" << Utils::Fs::toNativePath(path));
        else if (output == "nemo.desktop")
            proc.startDetached("nemo", QStringList() << "--no-desktop" << Utils::Fs::toNativePath(path));
        else if (output == "kfmclient_dir.desktop")
            proc.startDetached("konqueror", QStringList() << "--select" << Utils::Fs::toNativePath(path));
        else
            openPath(path.left(path.lastIndexOf("/")));
    }
    else {
        // If the item to select doesn't exist, try to open its parent
        openPath(path.left(path.lastIndexOf("/")));
    }
#else
    openPath(path.left(path.lastIndexOf("/")));
#endif
}

[ashishbansal]

@raf924 said:

@ashishbansal FOund this in the source of qBittorent:

void Utils::Misc::openFolderSelect(const QString& absolutePath)
{
    const QString path = Utils::Fs::fromNativePath(absolutePath);
#ifdef Q_OS_WIN
    if (QFileInfo(path).exists()) {
        // Syntax is: explorer /select, "C:\Folder1\Folder2\file_to_select"
        // Dir separators MUST be win-style slashes

        // QProcess::startDetached() has an obscure bug. If the path has
        // no spaces and a comma(and maybe other special characters) it doesn't
        // get wrapped in quotes. So explorer.exe can't find the correct path and
        // displays the default one. If we wrap the path in quotes and pass it to
        // QProcess::startDetached() explorer.exe still shows the default path. In
        // this case QProcess::startDetached() probably puts its own quotes around ours.

        STARTUPINFO startupInfo;
        ::ZeroMemory(&startupInfo, sizeof(startupInfo));
        startupInfo.cb = sizeof(startupInfo);

        PROCESS_INFORMATION processInfo;
        ::ZeroMemory(&processInfo, sizeof(processInfo));

        QString cmd = QString("explorer.exe /select,\"%1\"").arg(Utils::Fs::toNativePath(absolutePath));
        LPWSTR lpCmd = new WCHAR[cmd.size() + 1];
        cmd.toWCharArray(lpCmd);
        lpCmd[cmd.size()] = 0;

        bool ret = ::CreateProcessW(NULL, lpCmd, NULL, NULL, FALSE, 0, NULL, NULL, &startupInfo, &processInfo);
        delete [] lpCmd;

        if (ret) {
            ::CloseHandle(processInfo.hProcess);
            ::CloseHandle(processInfo.hThread);
        }
    }
    else {
        // If the item to select doesn't exist, try to open its parent
        openPath(path.left(path.lastIndexOf("/")));
    }
#elif defined(Q_OS_UNIX) && !defined(Q_OS_MAC)
    if (QFileInfo(path).exists()) {
        QProcess proc;
        QString output;
        proc.start("xdg-mime", QStringList() << "query" << "default" << "inode/directory");
        proc.waitForFinished();
        output = proc.readLine().simplified();
        if (output == "dolphin.desktop" || output == "org.kde.dolphin.desktop")
            proc.startDetached("dolphin", QStringList() << "--select" << Utils::Fs::toNativePath(path));
        else if (output == "nautilus.desktop" || output == "org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop"
                 || output == "nautilus-folder-handler.desktop")
            proc.startDetached("nautilus", QStringList() << "--no-desktop" << Utils::Fs::toNativePath(path));
        else if (output == "caja-folder-handler.desktop")
            proc.startDetached("caja", QStringList() << "--no-desktop" << Utils::Fs::toNativePath(path));
        else if (output == "nemo.desktop")
            proc.startDetached("nemo", QStringList() << "--no-desktop" << Utils::Fs::toNativePath(path));
        else if (output == "kfmclient_dir.desktop")
            proc.startDetached("konqueror", QStringList() << "--select" << Utils::Fs::toNativePath(path));
        else
            openPath(path.left(path.lastIndexOf("/")));
    }
    else {
        // If the item to select doesn't exist, try to open its parent
        openPath(path.left(path.lastIndexOf("/")));
    }
#else
    openPath(path.left(path.lastIndexOf("/")));
#endif
}

Thanks. It seems that it would solve the problem :)