In this post i will show you, how you can host an existing Preview Handler in your Delphi VCL App. Preview handlers are a lightweight and read-only preview of a file contents that are bound to a the preview pane window of the explorer or a another window, all this is done without launching the file’s associated application.

The Preview Handlers was introduced in Windows Vista and are used mainly by the Windows Explorer and other applications like MS Outlook. Hosting an existing preview handler in your application will able to display a preview of most major office document formats, media files, CAD files and so on.

To host a preview handler, first we need find the CLSID of the preview associated to a file extension, this info is located in the windows registry, the default value of the {8895b1c6-b41f-4c1c-a562-0d564250836f} subkey is the class identifier (CLSID) of the handler. An example of the extfile ProgID subkey is shown here, associating a handler of CLSID {11111111-2222-3333-4444-555555555555}.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
   extfile
      shellex
         {8895b1c6-b41f-4c1c-a562-0d564250836f}
            (Default) = [REG_SZ] {11111111-2222-3333-4444-555555555555}

So you can wrote a method like this to get the CLSID of the preview handler associated to a file.

function GetPreviewHandlerCLSID(const AFileName: string): string;
var
  LRegistry: TRegistry;
  LKey: String;
begin
  LRegistry := TRegistry.Create();
  try
    LRegistry.RootKey := HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT;
    LKey := ExtractFileExt(AFileName) + '\shellex\{8895b1c6-b41f-4c1c-a562-0d564250836f}';
    if LRegistry.KeyExists(LKey) then
    begin
      LRegistry.OpenKeyReadOnly(LKey);
      Result:=LRegistry.ReadString('');
      LRegistry.CloseKey;
    end
    else
      Result := '';
  finally
    LRegistry.Free;
  end;
end;

Now with the proper CLSID we can create an instance the IPreviewHandler interface

var
    FPreviewHandler : IPreviewHandler;
begin
  ...
  ...
  FPreviewHandler := CreateComObject(LPreviewGUID) As IPreviewHandler;

The next step is determine how the preview handler was implemented using a IInitializeWithStream.Initialize, IInitializeWithFile, or IInitializeWithItem interface and then call the proper Initialize method.

  if FPreviewHandler.QueryInterface(IInitializeWithFile, LInitializeWithFile) = S_OK then
    LInitializeWithFile.Initialize(StringToOleStr(FFileName), STGM_READ)
  else
  if FPreviewHandler.QueryInterface(IInitializeWithStream, LInitializeWithStream) = S_OK then
  begin
    LFileStream := TFileStream.Create(FFileName, fmOpenRead);
    LIStream := TStreamAdapter.Create(LFileStream, soOwned) as IStream;
    LInitializeWithStream.Initialize(LIStream, STGM_READ);
  end
  else
  if FPreviewHandler.QueryInterface(IInitializeWithItem, LInitializeWithItem) = S_OK then
  begin
    SHCreateItemFromParsingName(PChar(FileName), nil, StringToGUID(GUID_ISHELLITEM), LShellItem);
    LInitializeWithItem.Initialize(LShellItem, 0);
  end;

Finally we need to call the SetWindow (passing the proper host window handle and TRect) and the DoPreview methods of the IPreviewHandler interface.

I encapsulate all the above code in a component called THostPreviewHandler and this is the source code.

{**************************************************************************************************}
{                                                                                                  }
{ Unit uHostPreview                                                                                }
{ component for host preview handlers                                                              }
{                                                                                                  }
{ The contents of this file are subject to the Mozilla Public License Version 1.1 (the "License"); }
{ you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the    }
{ License at http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/                                                           }
{                                                                                                  }
{ Software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF   }
{ ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing rights  }
{ and limitations under the License.                                                               }
{                                                                                                  }
{ The Original Code is uHostPreview.pas.                                                           }
{                                                                                                  }
{ The Initial Developer of the Original Code is Rodrigo Ruz V.   Copyright (C) 2013.               }
{ All Rights Reserved.                                                                             }
{                                                                                                  }
{**************************************************************************************************}

unit uHostPreview;

interface

uses
  ShlObj,
  Classes,
  Messages,
  Controls;

type
  THostPreviewHandler = class(TCustomControl)
  private
    FFileStream     : TFileStream;
    FPreviewGUIDStr : string;
    FFileName: string;
    FLoaded :Boolean;
    FPreviewHandler : IPreviewHandler;
    procedure SetFileName(const Value: string);
    procedure LoadPreviewHandler;
    procedure WMSize(var Message: TWMSize); message WM_SIZE;
  protected
    procedure Paint; override;
  public
    property FileName: string read FFileName write SetFileName;
    constructor Create(AOwner: TComponent); override;
    destructor Destroy; override;
  end;


implementation

uses
 SysUtils,
 Windows,
 Graphics,
 ComObj,
 ActiveX,
 Registry,
 PropSys;

constructor THostPreviewHandler.Create(AOwner: TComponent);
begin
  inherited Create(AOwner);
  FPreviewHandler:=nil;
  FPreviewGUIDStr:='';
  FFileStream:=nil;
end;

procedure THostPreviewHandler.Paint;
const
  Msg = 'No preview available.';
var
  lpRect: TRect;
begin
 if (FPreviewGUIDStr<>'') and (FPreviewHandler<>nil) and not FLoaded then
 begin
  FLoaded:=True;
  FPreviewHandler.DoPreview;
  FPreviewHandler.SetFocus;
 end
 else
 if FPreviewGUIDStr='' then
 begin
   lpRect:=Rect(0, 0, Self.Width, Self.Height);
   Canvas.Brush.Style :=bsClear;
   Canvas.Font.Color  :=clWindowText;
   DrawText(Canvas.Handle, PChar(Msg) ,Length(Msg), lpRect, DT_VCENTER or DT_CENTER or DT_SINGLELINE);
 end;
end;

destructor THostPreviewHandler.Destroy;
begin
  if (FPreviewHandler<>nil) then
    FPreviewHandler.Unload;

  if FFileStream<>nil then
    FFileStream.Free;

  inherited;
end;

function GetPreviewHandlerCLSID(const AFileName: string): string;
var
  LRegistry: TRegistry;
  LKey: String;
begin
  LRegistry := TRegistry.Create();
  try
    LRegistry.RootKey := HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT;
    LKey := ExtractFileExt(AFileName) + '\shellex\{8895b1c6-b41f-4c1c-a562-0d564250836f}';
    if LRegistry.KeyExists(LKey) then
    begin
      LRegistry.OpenKeyReadOnly(LKey);
      Result:=LRegistry.ReadString('');
      LRegistry.CloseKey;
    end
    else
      Result := '';
  finally
    LRegistry.Free;
  end;
end;

procedure THostPreviewHandler.LoadPreviewHandler;
const
  GUID_ISHELLITEM = '{43826d1e-e718-42ee-bc55-a1e261c37bfe}';
var
  prc                   : TRect;
  LPreviewGUID          : TGUID;
  LInitializeWithFile   : IInitializeWithFile;
  LInitializeWithStream : IInitializeWithStream;
  LInitializeWithItem   : IInitializeWithItem;
  LIStream              : IStream;
  LShellItem            : IShellItem;
begin

  FLoaded:=False;
  FPreviewGUIDStr:=GetPreviewHandlerCLSID(FFileName);
  if FPreviewGUIDStr='' then exit;

  if FFileStream<>nil then
    FFileStream.Free;

  LPreviewGUID:= StringToGUID(FPreviewGUIDStr);

  FPreviewHandler := CreateComObject(LPreviewGUID) As IPreviewHandler;
  if (FPreviewHandler = nil) then
    exit;

  if FPreviewHandler.QueryInterface(IInitializeWithFile, LInitializeWithFile) = S_OK then
    LInitializeWithFile.Initialize(StringToOleStr(FFileName), STGM_READ)
  else
  if FPreviewHandler.QueryInterface(IInitializeWithStream, LInitializeWithStream) = S_OK then
  begin
      FFileStream := TFileStream.Create(FFileName, fmOpenRead or fmShareDenyNone);
      LIStream := TStreamAdapter.Create(FFileStream, soOwned) as IStream;
      LInitializeWithStream.Initialize(LIStream, STGM_READ);
  end
  else
  if FPreviewHandler.QueryInterface(IInitializeWithItem, LInitializeWithItem) = S_OK then
  begin
    SHCreateItemFromParsingName(PChar(FileName), nil, StringToGUID(GUID_ISHELLITEM), LShellItem);
    LInitializeWithItem.Initialize(LShellItem, 0);
  end
  else
  begin
    FPreviewHandler.Unload;
    FPreviewHandler:=nil;
    exit;
  end;

  prc := ClientRect;
  FPreviewHandler.SetWindow(Self.Handle, prc);
end;

procedure THostPreviewHandler.SetFileName(const Value: string);
begin
  FFileName := Value;
  HandleNeeded;
  LoadPreviewHandler;
end;

procedure THostPreviewHandler.WMSize(var Message: TWMSize);
var
  prc  : TRect;
begin
  inherited;
  if FPreviewHandler<>nil then
  begin
    prc := ClientRect;
    FPreviewHandler.SetRect(prc);
  end;
end;

end.

And you can use it in this way

  FPreview := THostPreviewHandler.Create(Self);
  FPreview.Top := 0;
  FPreview.Left := 0;
  FPreview.Width  := Panel1.ClientWidth;
  FPreview.Height := Panel1.ClientHeight;
  FPreview.Parent := Panel1;
  FPreview.Align  := alClient;
  FPreview.FileName:=FileName;

This is a sample image of a preview handler hosted in a VCL Application.

Check the source code on Github.