Exapt tool so it allows you to bind specific file extensions to specific programs

[Pituivan]

I think this tool would be much more useful if it allowed you to make Unity open specific file extensions with specific programs. What do you think?

I can definitely do that and submit a pull request with my implementation. If you consider this to be a good idea, let's discuss here how I should approach this enhancement — or if you prefer to handle it yourself.

Thanks!

[nathanAjacobs]

This could be viable, it would have to be designed out in a decent way to allow opening different file types in specific applications since that is not something that is standardized.

I am open to ideas.

[Pituivan]

Alright, here is my initial idea.

I have experience with the Unity UI Toolkit, so I think I am capable of developing a somewhat decent UI for this. We could either create a new preference for this new feature or replace the existing preference entirely. I'll go with whichever option you prefer.

I think we could make it so each entry has two fields: Program and Extension. Program will display the name of the program that will open this type of files, and when clicked it will ask you to browse the executable corresponding to the program you want to set it to. Extension, on the other hand, will work just the same as the field your plugin already has.

How does this sound to you?

[nathanAjacobs]

I think replacing the implementation makes the most sense.

While I much prefer UI Toolkit, I did this in IMGUI for maximum compatibility.

Although, UI Toolkit is probably fine since it has been part of the engine for several major releases now.

What I was referring to about implementation details is that some programs may require opening a file like so with custom args:

myprogram.exe --customFile C:\path-to-file

And there probably should be a decent way to handle this.

[Pituivan]

Oh, I also have no problem working with IMGUI if you value maximum compatibility. I don't mind working with the IMGUI either.

About implementation details: yeah, passing custom args to an executable doesn't seem too much of a big deal. I'm pretty sure I can cleanly handle that from the code.

So do you like my idea in general? If so, should I go with IMGUI or the UI Toolkit?

[nathanAjacobs]

I would say IMGUI, since the GUI will not be that complex anyways.

I guess it really could boil down to specifying multiple program executable paths and associate file extensions to specific executable paths.

Each program could have an optional flag that allows you to specify an argument that the program requires to open the file and any additional arguments.

We still potentially might run into issues if programs use different formats for their arguments, for example:

myprogram1.exe --customFile C:\path-to-file

myprogram2.exe --customFile:C:\path-to-file

I cannot think of a decent way to handle that in a generic way right now. However, I think most applications probably work like the following, so maybe it is not a huge issue.

myprogram.exe C:\path-to-file

[nathanAjacobs]

I just had a thought, we could do string interpolation with a placeholder for the file on the arguments input field. This would allow for flexibility.

Example 1:
--customFile {file}

Which would resolve to:
myprogram1.exe --customFile C:\path-to-file

Example 2:
--customFile:{file}

Which would resolve to:
myprogram2.exe --customFile:C:\path-to-file