Windows sub-menu

also curious..

A shell extension is needed here. I don't know a way to do that without. It's quite complicated.

I also think that you can't create sub menus without a shell extension except the "sent to" menu there it's already done by windows.

Yep, that's a shell extension too. I checked that out before I posted my previous comment.

CalvinDay, I may be able to solve this problem but it will take far too much time that I don't have right now.

Delphi 3 and 4 come with a context menu demo (contmenu.dpr) which add an item to the menu when you right-click drag-and-drop. That demo can be modified to construct a submenu.
Then the DLL must be registered the right way.

It's tricky stuff so be carefull.

Eps.

I couldn't get contmenu.dpr to work. I then realized I must copy contmenu.dll to C:\windows\system. It works fine.

So far I've added this. (and it works)

function TContextMenu.QueryContextMenu(Menu: HMENU; indexMenu, idCmdFirst,
          idCmdLast, uFlags: UINT): HResult;
var
  popMenu:HMENU;
begin
  popMenu:=CreatePopupMenu;
  InsertMenu(popMenu,0,MF_STRING or MF_BYPOSITION,0,'Sub 1');
  InsertMenu(popMenu,1,MF_STRING or MF_BYPOSITION,1,'Sub 2');
  InsertMenu(popMenu,2,MF_STRING or MF_BYPOSITION,2,'Sub 3');
  InsertMenu(popMenu,3,MF_STRING or MF_BYPOSITION,3,'Sub 4');
  InsertMenu(Menu,indexMenu,MF_STRING or MF_POPUP,popMenu,'Compile...');
  Result := 1;
end;

Other posting was wrong, this is correct: I have written a little utility to sort file names and print them according to sort criteria. It is called xprint.exe. Now with this little shell extension, I can highlight a group of files, right click and select the printed sort order on the fly.

Here's the final code:

unit ContextM;

interface
uses
    Windows, ComObj, ComServ, ShlObj, ActiveX, ShellApi, SysUtils, Classes;

Const
   CLSID_ContextMenuShellExtension: TGUID = (
    D1:$8e3e0f0a; D2:$0fcc; D3:$11ce; D4:($bc, $b0, $b3, $fd, $0e, $25, $38, $1a));

type
    TContextMenu = class(TComObject, IShellExtInit, IContextMenu)
    private
      szFile: array[0..MAX_PATH] of Char;
    public
      function QueryContextMenu(Menu: HMENU; indexMenu, idCmdFirst, idCmdLast,
        uFlags: UINT): HResult; stdcall;
      function InvokeCommand(var lpici: TCMInvokeCommandInfo): HResult; stdcall;
      function GetCommandString(idCmd, uType: UINT; pwReserved: PUINT;
        pszName: LPSTR; cchMax: UINT): HResult; stdcall;
      function Initialize(pidlFolder: PItemIDList; lpdobj: IDataObject;
        hKeyProgID: HKEY): HResult; stdcall;
    end;

var
  t:TStringStream;

implementation

function GetCompilerPath(sort:integer): string;
const
  SortName='ntsd';
var
  sWinDir,s:string;
  l:integer;
begin
  SetLength(sWinDir,255);
  l:=GetWindowsDirectory(PChar(sWinDir),255);
  SetLength(sWinDir,l);
  Result := sWinDir+'\xPrint.exe /'+SortName[sort+1]+' %s';
end;

function TContextMenu.QueryContextMenu(Menu:HMENU;indexMenu,idCmdFirst,idCmdLast,uFlags:UINT):HResult;
const
  CmdName: array[0..3] of string=('by &Name','by &Type','by &Size','by &Date');
var
  popMenu:HMENU;
  i:integer;
begin
  popMenu:=CreatePopupMenu;
  for i:=0 to High(CmdName) do
    InsertMenu(popMenu,i,MF_STRING or MF_BYCOMMAND,idCmdFirst+i,PChar(CmdName[i]));
  InsertMenu(Menu,indexMenu,MF_STRING or MF_POPUP,popMenu,'xPrint ...');
  Result:=High(CmdName)+1;
end;

function TContextMenu.InvokeCommand(var lpici: TCMInvokeCommandInfo): HResult;
var
  H: THandle;
begin
  Result:=E_FAIL;
  if HiWord(Integer(lpici.lpVerb))<>0 then exit;
  H:=WinExec(PChar(Format(GetCompilerPath(LoWord(lpici.lpVerb)),[t.DataString])),lpici.nShow);
  if H<32 then
    MessageBox(lpici.hWnd, 'Error executing xPrint.', 'Error',MB_ICONERROR or MB_OK);
end;

function TContextMenu.GetCommandString(idCmd,uType:UINT;pwReserved:PUINT;pszName:LPSTR;cchMax:UINT):HRESULT;
const
  CmdHint: array[0..3] of string=('Name','Type','Size','Date');
begin
  Result:=NOERROR;
  if (idCmd>=0) and (idCmd<=High(CmdHint)) then
    StrPCopy(pszName,'Prints selected items sorted by '+CmdHint[idCmd])
  else
    Result:=E_INVALIDARG;
end;

function TContextMenu.Initialize(pidlFolder:PItemIDList;lpdobj:IDataObject;hKeyProgID:HKEY):HResult;
var
  medium: TStgMedium;
  fe: TFormatEtc;
  i,count:integer;
begin
  with fe do
    begin
    cfFormat:=CF_HDROP;
    ptd:=nil;
    dwAspect:=DVASPECT_CONTENT;
    lindex:=-1;
    tymed:=TYMED_HGLOBAL;
    end;

  Result:=E_FAIL;
  if lpdobj=nil then exit;

  Result:=lpdobj.GetData(fe,medium);
  if Failed(Result) then exit;

  count:=DragQueryFile(medium.hGlobal,$FFFFFFFF,nil,0);
  t.Position:=0;
  for i:=0 to count-1 do
    begin
    DragQueryFile(medium.hGlobal,i,szFile,SizeOf(szFile));
    t.WriteString('"'+string(szFile)+'" ');
    end;

  Result:=NOERROR;
  ReleaseStgMedium(medium);
end;

initialization
  t:=TStringStream.Create('');
  TComObjectFactory.Create(ComServer, TContextMenu, CLSID_ContextMenuShellExtension,
         '', 'Delphi 3.0 ContextMenu Example', ciMultiInstance);
finalization
  t.Free;
end.

Epsylon, please post an answer for your wonderful suggestion.

Thanks, epsylon, I did learn alot. The only thing I'm missing is the little bitmap next to the menu. I may have to post a question to do that.
 
If anyone wants the xPrint program, drop me your email. it's pretty good when trying to compare dll's and such.