Win32::Shortcut (Perl in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition)

The following example assumes you have a shortcut file named test.lnk in your current directory. This simple script will tell you where this shortcut points to:

Resolve

$link->Resolve([flag])

Attempts to automatically resolve a shortcut and returns the resolved path, or undef on error; if there is no resolution, the path is returned unchanged. Note that the path is automatically updated in the Path property of the shortcut.

By default, this method acts quietly, but if you pass a value of 0 in the flagparameter, it will eventually post a dialog box prompting the user for more information. For example:

# If the target doesn't exist...
if(! -f $link->Path) {

    # Save the actual target for comparison
    $oldpath = $link->Path;

    # Try to resolve it (with dialog box)
    $newpath = $link->Resolve(0); 

    die "Not resolved..." if $newpath == $oldpath;
}

Set

$link->Set(path, arguments, workingdirectory, description, 
showcmd, hotkey, iconlocation, iconnumber)

Sets all the properties of the shortcut object with a single command. This method is supplied for convenience only; you can also set these values by changing the values of the properties. For example:

$link->Set("C:\PERL5\BIN\PERL.EXE",
           "-v", 
           "C:\PERL5\BIN",
           "Prints out the version of Perl",
           SW_SHOWMAXIMIZED,
           hex('0x0337'),
           "C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\COOL.DLL",
           1);

This is the same as:

$link->Path("C:\PERL5\BIN\PERL.EXE");
$link->Arguments("-v");
$link->WorkingDirectory("C:\PERL5\BIN");
$link->Description("Prints out the version of Perl");
$link->ShowCmd(SW_SHOWMAXIMIZED);
$link->Hotkey(hex('0x0337'));
$link->IconLocation("C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\COOL.DLL");
$link->IconNumber(1);</PRE>

22.18.1. Shortcut Properties

The properties of a shortcut object can be accessed as:

$link->{'property'}

For example, assuming that you have created a shortcut object with:

$link=new Win32::Shortcut( );

you can see its description with:

print $link->{'Description'};

You can, of course, also set it like this:

$link->{'Description'}="This is a description";

The shortcut properties also have corresponding methods that can also set or read their values.

The properties of a shortcut reflect the content of the Shortcut Properties dialog box, which can be obtained by right-clicking on a shortcut file in the Windows 95 (or NT 4.0) Explorer and choosing "Properties." Shortcut properties are:

Arguments: The arguments associated with the shell link object. They are passed to the targeted program (see Path) when it gets executed. In fact, joined with Path, this parameter forms the "Target" field of a Shortcut Properties dialog box.
Description: An optional description given to the shortcut. Not implemented in Shortcut Properties dialog box.
File: The filename of the shortcut file opened with Load and/or the filename under which the shortcut will be saved with Save (if the fileargument is not specified).
Hotkey: The hotkey associated with the shortcut, in the form of a two-byte number, of which the first byte identifies the modifiers (Ctrl, Alt, Shift, etc.), and the second is the ASCII code of the character key. Corresponds to the "Shortcut key" field of a Shortcut Properties dialog box.
IconLocation: The file that contains the icon for the shortcut.
IconNumber: The number of the icon for the shortcut in the file pointed to by IconLocation, in case more that one icon is contained in that file.
Path: The target of the shortcut. This (joined with Arguments) is the content of the "Target" field in a Shortcut Properties dialog box.
ShortPath: Same as Path, but expressed in a DOS-readable format (8.3-character filenames). It is available as read-only (well, you can change it, but it has no effect on the shortcut; change Path instead) once you Load a shortcut file.
ShowCmd

22.18. Win32::Shortcut

22.18.1. Shortcut Properties