Longhorn Search and Organize
User And Developer Experience
Paul Cutsinger – Lead Program Manager
Kerem Karatal – Lead Program Manager
Microsoft Corporation
Agenda
Demo
Overview
Extending The Longhorn Explorer
Developing Applications
Search, Organize And Visualize
Paul Cutsinger
Lead Program Manager
Developer Experience
Extending the Longhorn Explorer:
Content (metadata and full-text)
Rich thumbnails
Rich previews
Developing applications using new APIs:
Search in your application
Read/Write metadata
Leverage Common File Dialog
Architecture Overview
3rd Party Applications
Windows Explorer
Windows Search Engine
Windows Metadata System
3rd Party
System
Custom
Properties
Properties
System
Metadata
Handlers
3rd Party
Metadata
Handlers
File System
(NTFS, FAT32)
System
Protocol
Handlers
3rd Party
Protocol
Handlers
Other Data Stores
Agenda
Demo
Overview
Extending The Longhorn Explorer
Developing Applications
Extending Longhorn Explorer
Top 3 Extension Points
Provide content to the Explorer:
Search across file formats, data stores.
Both full-text content & metadata.
Enable organization by writing metadata back into
file formats.
E.g.: Set System.Keyword property on .foo file type.
Provide rich thumbnails in the Explorer:
Visually stimulating view of files in the Explorer.
Provide rich previewing in the Explorer:
Browse contents of files without opening the file.
Providing Content
3 Ways To Provide Content
Property Handlers
File formats
Metadata
Some full-text content
Multimedia
File Formats
Property Handlers
+ IFilters (Full-text)
File formats
Metadata
Extensive full-text
content, multilingual chunks
Document-based
File Formats
Protocol Handlers
Non-file system
based stores
Metadata
Extensive full-text
content, multilingual chunks
Document
Management,
Messaging
Metadata
Leverage system properties where possible:
Best performance
Best behavior in heterogeneous sets
E.g. One column shows Photographer and Author in Explorer
Otherwise add new properties:
XML based format for describing custom properties,
APIs to register the custom properties to system.
Property naming convention:
Canonical Names:
Publisher.ApplicationName.PropertyName
FormatId/PropertyId:
FormatId: Use a new GUID for each property
PropertyId: Use value > 2
Custom Properties
<configuration xmlns:xsi= "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation= "allprops.xsd“ >
<propertyDescriptionList publisher = "Microsoft" product = "Windows” >
<propertyDescription name="System.Author"
formatId="F29F85E0-4FF9-1068-AB91-08002B27B3D9"
propertyId="4">
<typeInfo
type="String" canStackBy="true"
groupingRange=“Discrete" multipleValues="true"
isReadOnly="false"/>
<displayInfo
drawControl=“Explorer.EditPropertyControl”
editControl=“Explorer.EditPropertyControl">
</displayInfo>
<labelInfo
label="Author"
invitationText="Add an author"
sortDescription="AToZ"/>
</propertyDescription>
<propertyDescriptionList/>
</configuration>
Providing Metadata For File Formats
Property Handlers
Registered through the File Association System
One per file type
Can be invoked as:
Read-Only while indexing files
Read/Write when reading/updating metadata in
the Explorer
Implemented as COM components
Mainly implement:
IInitializeWithStream – Initialization code
IPropertyStore – Property Read/Write access
IPropertyStoreCapabilities – Indicate capabilities like
set of properties supported, read/write etc.
Rich Thumbnails In Longhorn
In Longhorn, thumbnails provide a rich
visualization option for file types:
Providing Rich Thumbnails
Longhorn is introducing a new and simpler API.
IThumbnailProvider replaces IExtractImage
There are problems with existing API:
Complex and error-prone implementation:
Many unused flags, parameters.
Need for fixing many bitmaps that are returned:
Convert bit depth to 32bpp,
Stretch if necessary,
Guess if bitmap is RGB or ARGB.
Opportunity to open files with too many or wrong oplocks.
Thumbnail handlers are now required to implement:
IInitializeWithStream – Initialization code.
IThumbnailProvider – Simpler interface for providing thumbnails.
Rich Previews In Explorer
A new pane in Explorer : Reading Pane
In place browsing of file contents
Providing Rich Preview Handlers
3rd parties provide viewers for their own
file formats
Will run in:
Explorer
Outlook 12 and
Common File Dialog
Implemented as COM components.
Light weight components that render content in readonly mode
Mainly implement:
IInitializeWithStream – Initialization code
IPreviewHandler – Rendering and interactive code
Agenda
Demo
Overview
Extending The Longhorn Explorer
Developing Applications
Developing Applications
New Set Of APIs
Known Folders:
Common namespace locations
E.g. Documents, Music, etc.
Access them and create new ones
Search in your application:
Query items in Windows Search Engine
Metadata Read/Write:
Unified access to file formats.
Common File Dialog:
Open/save files with metadata
Known Folders
Longhorn defines a new and more intuitive
namespace:
Users
Username
Documents
Pictures
Music
…
Public
Documents
…
Redirection to common network locations:
In XP, known as “Redirected My Documents”
In Longhorn available for all known folders
Known Folders
Using And Extending
Applications should NEVER hard code
file paths
Use Known Folder APIs instead
Use existing Known Folders if they are
semantically equivalent:
E.g.: PDF documents stored in Documents
Otherwise applications can create new
known folders:
E.g.: 3D Drawings, Shapes, Code
Projects etc.
Using Search In Applications
OLEDB/ADO APIs are used for
issuing queries
SQL-like syntax
Returns an OLEDB Recordset
Both managed and native access
Columns correspond to properties in
Windows Metadata System
E.g.: System.Photo.FNumber
Reading/Writing Properties
Unified layer to read/write metadata into
files formats:
Requires metadata handlers which provide
per file type handling
3rd party applications can:
Enumerate properties stored in a file
Discover property descriptions as described
in the system
Read and write values for properties
Common File Dialog
Longhorn Common File Dialog mirrors the
familiar Explorer UI:
Using Common File Dialog
New COM APIs.
Enable multiple view states per application
View State: Last visited folder, dialog size
Working with properties:
Promote application related properties
Setting default values for properties
Getting property values to save
Rich set of events:
FileOk, Help, SelectionChange,
FolderChange, Overwrite, etc.
Extending Common File Dialog
New Places In Places Bar
Extending Common File Dialog
Custom Layout And Controls
Summary
Longhorn provides 3 ways to extend
Search, Organize and Visualize experience:
Providing content (metadata and full-text)
Providing rich thumbnails
Providing rich preview handlers
Longhorn enables application developers:
Use and extend Known Folders
Issue queries to Windows Search Engine
Read/Write properties through unified layer
Incorporate the new UI using the Common
File Dialog
© 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This presentation is for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary.