File Type Settings

InstallShield 2014 » Advanced Settings for a Component

Project: The File Types area for a component is available in the following project types:

Basic MSI
DIM
InstallScript MSI
Merge Module
MSI Database
MSM Database
Transform

The File Types area under the Advanced Settings node of the Components view and the Setup Design view is organized into the following categories:

Extension
Verbs
MIME Type
ProgIDs

Extension

When you select an extension in the File Types area of the Components view or the Setup Design view, the following settings are available:

Extension Settings

Setting

Description

ProgID

Select the ProgID that should be registered for this file extension.

You can also create a ProgID by typing a new name; if you do this, InstallShield adds the new ProgID under the ProgIDs node.

A file type’s ProgID is an arbitrary string, but it should be unique on the target system. One ProgID naming convention is to append the word file to your extension without a dot—the .ext extension might use the ProgID extfile. Another convention is to name a file-type ProgID after the application used to open the file type, as in SampleApp.Document.

MIME Type

Select the MIME type, if any, that is associated with this file extension.

To create a new MIME type for your extension, right-click its icon and click New MIME Type.

Verbs

When you select a verb under a file extension in the File Types area of the Components view or the Setup Design view, the following settings are available:

Verb Settings

Setting

Description

Command Sequence

Enter a sequence number for the command verb. If this file extension has more than one verb associated with it, the sequence numbers determine the order in which the verbs are displayed on the context menu (also known as a right-click menu or pop-up menu).

If you do not specify a sequence number, or if more than one verb has the same sequence number, the verbs are listed alphabetically.

The first verb in the command sequence is displayed in bold as the default option on the file type’s context menu.

Display Name

Enter the text that you want to display for this verb on the context menu that Windows Explorer displays when an end user right-clicks a file with the current extension. For example, to display Open with SampleApp (with an underlined letter O) on the context menu for this file extension, enter &Open with SampleApp.

This setting is optional. If you do not specify a display name, the name of the verb as it appears in the Extensions tree is used on the file-type’s context menu on the target system. Note that if you use one of the canonical verbs—such as open, print, or find, and you do not specify a display name, Windows automatically localizes the verb on each system.

When you type a value for this setting, you are creating a string entry and setting its initial value for all of the languages that are currently in the project. As an alternative to typing a new value, you can click the ellipsis button (...) in this setting to select an existing string. For more information, see Using String Entries in InstallShield.

Argument

Enter the command-line arguments for this verb.

Use %1 in the argument in place of the selected file name. For example, suppose an end user right-clicks C:\File.ext and -p %1 is the argument for the verb, the command-line argument becomes -p C:\File.ext.

In some cases, it may be necessary to place quotation marks around the %1 argument—that is, enter "%1" as the argument—to correctly handle file names that contain spaces.

MIME Types

When you select a verb under a file extension in the File Types area of the Components view or the Setup Design view, the following settings are available:

Mime Type Settings

Setting

Description

Class ID

Enter the class ID that is associated with this MIME type.

ProgIDs

When you select a ProgID in the File Types area of the Components view or the Setup Design view, several settings are available. For descriptions of each setting, see ProgIDs.

See Also