LiteStep

LiteStep Alternative Shell is a replacement shell for the standard Windows® Explorer shell originally created by Francis Gastellu.

This fork focuses on the interoperability of Litestep and the .NET Framework.

Installation

Please refer to the official installation guide for information on how to setup and configure Litestep

Documentation

Step.rc

As mentioned above this version of Litestep is focused on the .NET Framework and the following are descriptions of the configurations that should be present in the step.rc in order to use .NET.

; Set the version of the .NET Runtime that Litestep will use to load modules. This version represents
; the actual folder name on the file system located in %WINDIR%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64
; If the setting is omitted the default runtime is v2.0.50727
LSCLRVersion v4.0.30319 

; Loading modules are the same as described in the Litestep manual
; To load a module built using the .NET Framework append the "clr" token after the module path 
LoadModule $LiteStepDir$HelloCLR.dll clr

; OR to set the version of the .NET Core Runtime. This version represents
; the actual folder name on the file system located in %PROGRAMFILES%\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App
LSCoreCLRVersion 2.0.0

; Loading modules are the same as described in the Litestep manual
; To load a module built using the .NET Core append the "coreclr" token after the module path 
LoadModule $LiteStepDir$HelloCoreCLR.dll coreclr

.NET Module

Now that you know how to configure Litestep to load the .NET Runtime the following demonstrates how to create a module with the .NET Framework. The Litestep SDK comes with a library called Lsapi# (pronounced LSAPI-sharp) which is a C# binding for Litestep's API that will enable modules to interact with the shell.

Following is a list of requirements in order for your module to be loaded by the shell

Add the LsapiSharp assembly as a reference to your project
Name the assembly and the entry point namespace the same (ie. MyModule.dll and namespace MyModule {})
The entry point class name must be called LSModule with two methods called initModule and quitModule respectively

Example HelloCLR.dll

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using static LsapiSharp.NativeMethods;

namespace HelloCLR
{
    public static class LSModule
    {
        const string BANG_COMMAND = "!HelloClr";

        // Implements the !Hello bang command
        static BangCommandDelegate BangHello = (sender, cmd) =>
        {
            LSLog(LS_LOG_DEBUG, typeof(LSModule).FullName, "BangHello called");
            MessageBox(IntPtr.Zero, "Hello, Litestep!", typeof(LSModule).FullName, 0);
        };

        /// <summary>
        /// Litestep calls this function after it loads the module. This is where the
        /// module should register bang commands and create windows. If initialization
        /// succeeds, return zero. If an error occurs, return a nonzero value.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="hWndMain"></param>
        /// <param name="appPath"></param>
        public static void initModule(Int32 hWndMain, String appPath)
        {
            LSLog(LS_LOG_DEBUG, typeof(LSModule).FullName, "initModule called");
            AddBangCommand(BANG_COMMAND, BangHello);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Litestep calls this function before it unloads the module. This function
        /// should unregister bang commands and destroy windows. 
        /// </summary>
        public static void quitModule()
        {
            LSLog(LS_LOG_DEBUG, typeof(LSModule).FullName, "quitModule called");
            RemoveBangCommand(BANG_COMMAND);
        }

        [DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
        static extern int MessageBox(IntPtr hWnd, String text, String caption, int options);
    }
}

LICENSE

LiteStep is released under the GNU General Public License Version 2. link

Questions?

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to drop me a line :-).

Email: donellesanders@gmail.com Follow Me: @DonelleJr

Donelle / LiteStep