Sorting ListViewItems by Date, Number or String

As shown in this article, you can sort a ListView items by date.

This code is very slow however.

Here’s an improved version which also handles sorting of numbers.

First create a static Dictionary in your MainForm, like this:

internal static Dictionary<int, ListViewColumnSorter.cDataType> columnType = new Dictionary<int,ListViewColumnSorter.cDataType>();

cDataType

is an enum:
public enum cDataType

{

    number, datetime, text

}

When re-loading your ListView, or when changing the columns, clear the Dictionary, because the data type of the column can change.

public int Compare(object x, object y)

{

    int compareResult;

    ListViewItem listviewX, listviewY;

    // Cast the objects to be compared to ListViewItem objects

    listviewX = (ListViewItem)x;

    listviewY = (ListViewItem)y;

    // Compare the two items

    //Determine data type of object

    string objectX = listviewX.SubItems[ColumnToSort].Text;

    string objectY = listviewY.SubItems[ColumnToSort].Text;

    cDataType dType = cDataType.text;

    if (!MainForm.columnType.TryGetValue(ColumnToSort, out dType))

    {

        long tempLong;

        DateTime tempDateTime;

        if (Int64.TryParse(objectX, out tempLong))

        {

            MainForm.columnType.Add(ColumnToSort, cDataType.number);

        }

        else if (DateTime.TryParse(objectX, out tempDateTime))

        {

            MainForm.columnType.Add(ColumnToSort, cDataType.datetime);

        }

        else

        {

            MainForm.columnType.Add(ColumnToSort, cDataType.text);

        }

    }

    switch (MainForm.columnType[ColumnToSort])

    {

        case cDataType.number:

            compareResult = ObjectCompare.Compare(Convert.ToInt64(objectX), Convert.ToInt64(objectY));

            break;

        case cDataType.datetime:

            compareResult = ObjectCompare.Compare(DateTime.Parse(objectX), DateTime.Parse(objectY));

            break;

        default:

            compareResult = ObjectCompare.Compare(objectX, objectY);

            break;

    }

   

    // Calculate correct return value based on object comparison

    if (OrderOfSort == SortOrder.Ascending)

    {

        // Ascending sort is selected, return normal result of compare operation

        return compareResult;

    }

    else if (OrderOfSort == SortOrder.Descending)

    {

        // Descending sort is selected, return negative result of compare operation

        return (-compareResult);

    }

    else

    {

        // Return '0' to indicate they are equal

        return 0;

    }

}

App-V Icons

While programming the App-V Self Support tool I noticed that application Icons are stored in a lot of different places.

Here’s some places where you can look for:

1: User’s Icon Cache. By default located in %Appdata%\Softgrid Client\Icon Cache

 Note that you have to now the GUID of the app you're trying to fetch.

Use WMI for that, or the OSD file.

2: Public Icon Cache. By Default located in Public Documents

 

3: A direct approach: In the folder where the SFT and OSD of the package reside:

You can use code like this:

string orgOsdPath = "";

RegistryKey appsKey = appVKey.OpenSubKey("Applications");

orgOsdPath = appsKey.OpenSubKey(<<Full Name of App-V application>>).GetValue("OriginalDescriptionURL").ToString();

DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(Path.GetDirectoryName(orgOsdPath));

string icopath = di.FullName + "\\" + di.Name + " Icons\\" + Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(orgOsdPath) + ".ico";if(File.Exists(icopath))

{

    Do something with: icopath;

}

Using WMI To query for App-V Packages

Here's a bit of code to query WMI for App-V Packages:

string root = "root/microsoft/appvirt/client";

ManagementPath path = new ManagementPath(root);

ManagementScope scope = new ManagementScope(path);

// Try and connect to the remote (or local) machine.

try

{

scope.Connect();

}

catch (ManagementException ex)

{

// Failed to authenticate properly.

return "Failed to authenticate: " + ex.Message;

//p_extendederror = (int)ex.ErrorCode;

//return Status.AuthenticateFailure;

}

catch (System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException)

{

// Unable to connect to the RPC service on the remote machine.

return "Unable to connect to RPC service";

//p_extendederror = ex.ErrorCode;

//return Status.RPCServicesUnavailable;

}

catch (System.UnauthorizedAccessException)

{

// User not authorized.

return "Error: Unauthorized access";

//p_extendederror = 0;

//return Status.UnauthorizedAccess;

}

ManagementScope wmiScope = scope;

ObjectQuery oq = new ObjectQuery("Select * from Package");

ManagementObjectSearcher searcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher(wmiScope, oq);

foreach (ManagementObject queryObj in searcher.Get())

{

ListManagementObject> appvPackages = new ListManagementObject>();

appvPackages.Add(queryObj);

}

You now have a generic List of Managementobjects that contains all sorts of information about the App-V packages.

Here's an example what kind of information is in one ManagementObject:

As you can see, almost everything you need to know is in here.

Not Everything! But I will blog about that later...

App-V Self Support Tool

Yesterday Jeroen (my collegue) and I released the App-V Self Support Tool.

Read the article about the release on BrianMadden

In the coming days, I'll give you peeks under the hood of this application, so you can write something like this yourself.

Here's a picture:

A new blog!

Hi All,

THis is the start of me new blog!

Cheers,

Peter Nap