Xara Viewer plugin for Directory OPUS

[joa1]

Greetings,

I am not sure if this is the right way / place to ask for this but here it goes:

Any chance Xara may provide the people at http://www.gpsoft.com.au/, developers of Directory OPUS, "THE" unmatched windows file manager replacement, with the necessary API and/or libraries for this effect (they would be willing to consider including previews for Xara files.

I have no idea if any Xara users are using DOPus, and if they think this is useful, but DOPUS is an amazing tool and it would make it incredibly easier for those working with the XARA format to have a file manager available that could provide this functionality.

As said, maybe this is not the right place and way to ask for this, and I should right Gary or the XARA team privately, but I thought maybe other XARA users could provide some feedback also on their interest / if they are already using or would use Directory OPUS.

(This would be of interest for them, cause I am the only person who has asked for this plugin... yet, they are willing to consider it... more XARA/DOPUS users would encourage them...)

They would probably also need a copy of XXP for testing purposes. I would be willing to buy an extra copy and make it available to them, for that effect, if XARA thinks this is a problem...)

Please check them out. DOPUS is an amazing file manager (and I am not related to them in anyway, btw, simply a die hard user... like with XARA

Would this be possible?

Feedback much appreciated.

Thanks.

joa1

[Odat]

Xara already has the specs for their file format on their web site for anyone to download and use. In addition part of the file format is an actual embedded image that is a thumbnail. I once wrote some trivial code in less than an hour using these specs and was able to extract the preview image. It should be quite easy to do if they want to.

http://www.xara.com/support/docs/web...ec/default.asp

turned up as the third or fourth it in a google for "xar file format".

Not only are the specs available but there is also a library you can download to help you access the file. The only thing they don't provide is code to actually render the file, for obvious reasons.

[joa1]

Hi Odat,

Not sure if I am getting everything you are saying, but thanks for your reply.

What I am asking for is maybe what you call the code to rendering the file? The thumbnail preview is lousy... albeit would be better than nothing.

But I have tried in W File Manager another app / plugin (?) available, that does that (extracts the bitmap -- maybe it's yours?!) and quit because it really is too pixelated and "undefined" and I keep progressive versions of XARA files so I need to have the file display on the preview pane at higher res...

Thnks!

joa1

[Odat]

Yeah, the thumbnails aren't the greatest, I will admit. Easy to get to, though.

While Xara is happy to release the specification for their file format so that others can work with it, they are less happy (i.e. unwilling) to give away the code that will actually render the file, for obvious reasons.

There is an open source version of Xara (nominally for Linux) at http://xaraxtreme.org/ that some people are working on. Currently it relies on a library version of the rendering code (CDraw) that Xara has provided, but some people are attempting to port it to use a different, free rendering engine called Cairo. Not sure how much progress they've been making, but in theory once that was done the code to render the files would be available for others to use.

There may be potential license problems with using the free code in an application that's commercial, they'd have to look into that. I'm no lawyer.

[Soquili]

Several years ago there was a web browser plug-in for viewing Xara's .web vector graphic files.

There have been some requests posted on the forums that an updated version be made available for viewing .xar files. As with all requests for new features, I'm sure it is being looked into but it is up to Xara Ltd to determine when or if it will be implemented.