C++ – How enable dragging a file on the *.exe and get it as parameter

cdrag and dropexecutableparameterswindows

What do I have to do to make my program use a file that has been dragged and dropped onto its icon as a parameter?

My current main method looks like this:

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
    if (argc != 2) {
        cout << "ERROR: Wrong amount of arguments!" << endl;
        cout << "\n" << "Programm closed...\n\n" << endl;
        exit(1);
        return 0;
    }

    Converter a(argv[1]);
    // ...

    cout << "\n" << "Programm finished...\n\n" << endl;

    // cin.ignore();
    return 0;
}

What I'd really like to be able to do is select 10 (or so) files, drop them onto the EXE, and process them from within my application.

EDIT:

The incomming parameter is used as filename, constructed in the cunstructor.

Converter::Converter(char* file) {
       // string filename is a global variable
   filename = file;
   myfile.open(filename.c_str(), ios_base::in);
}

The method where the textfile gets read:

string Converter::readTextFile() {
char c;
string txt = "";

if (myfile.is_open()) {

    while (!myfile.eof()) {
        myfile.get(c);
        txt += c;
    }

} else {
    error("ERROR: can't open file:", filename.c_str());
}
return txt;
}

EDIT2:
deleted

Update:
I got again to this point.

Actual Main method: 

// File path as argument

int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
if (argc < 2) {
cout
<< "ERROR: Wrong amount of arguments! Give at least one argument …\n"
<< endl;
cout << "\n" << "Programm closed…\n\n" << endl;
cin.ignore();
exit(1);
return 0;
}

vector<string> files;

for (int g = 1; g < argc; g++) {
    string s = argv[g];
    string filename = "";
    int pos = s.find_last_of("\\", s.size());

    if (pos != -1) {
        filename = s.substr(pos + 1);

        cout << "argv[1] " << argv[1] << endl;
        cout << "\n filename: " << filename << "\n pos: " << pos << endl;
        files.push_back(filename);

        }
    files.push_back(s);
    }

for (unsigned int k = 0; k < files.size(); k++)
    {
    cout << "files.at( " << k << " ): " << files.at(k).c_str() << endl;
    Converter a(files.at(k).c_str());
    a.getATCommandsFromCSV();
    }


cout << "\n" << "Programm finished...\n\n" << endl;

cin.ignore();

return 0;
}

Actually the console window apears for maybe 0.5 sec and closes again.
It doen't stop on any of my cin.ignore(); Maybe it doesn't get there?

Can anyone help?

Best Answer

Your program does not need to do anything special apart from handling command-line arguments. When you drag-drop a file onto an application in Explorer it does nothing more than to pass the file name as argument to the program. Likewise for multiple files.

If all you expect is a list of file names, then just iterate over all arguments, do whatever you want with them and be done. This will work for zero to almost arbitrarily many arguments.

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