Liquid Studio Documentation
User Interface Guide / System Dialogs / External Tools / External Tool Editor
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    External Tool Editor
    In This Topic

    External Tools allow 3rd party applications to be invoked within the Liquid XML Studio Environment, form more information see External Tools.

    Once configured external tools can be assigned shortcut keys and added to other menus and toolbars, see customizing menus and toolbars.

    External Tool Exitor

    Menu Text

    This is the name that will appear in the drop down menu.

    Executable

    The executable to be invoked. This can contain Windows Environment variables (i.e. %windir%, %temp%, %homepath% etc)

    Working Directory

    The working directory that the executable will be run with, this can also contain Windows Environment variables.

    Argument

    The arguments passed to the application. This can contain Windows Environment variables, but also includes an additional set of substitutions.

    Addition Substitutions

    %FILE_NAME% if the full filename is c:\temp\test.txt, then this is test.txt
    %FILE_PATH% if the full filename is c:\temp\test.txt, then this is c:\temp
    %FILE_EXT% if the full filename is c:\temp\test.txt, then this is txt
    %FILE_FULLNAME% if the full filename is c:\temp\test.txt, then this is c:\temp\test.txt
    %FILE_NAME_WITHOUT_EXT% if the full filename is c:\temp\test.txt, then this is txt
    %TIME% i.e. hhmmss
    %HOUR% i.e. hh
    %MINUTE% i.e. mm
    %SECOND% i.e. ss
    %DATE% i.e. yyyymmdd
    %YEAR% i.e. yyyy
    %MONTH% i.e. mm
    %DAY% i.e. dd

     

    Argument Substitutions

    A list of additional substitutions that can be used in the Arguments section.

     

    Ensure that quotes are placed around path variables where applicable. If you fail to do this your path may appear to the application to be 2 arguments if it contains a space. I.e.

    Using the following example :

    Executable : C:\Windows\Notepad.exe
    Arguments  : %FILE_FULLFILENAME%       (which will expand to c:\My Files\test.xml).

    Resulting command Line

    C:\Windows\Notepad.exe c:\My Files\test.xml

    Notepad will interpret this as 2 arguments "c:\My" and "Files\test.xml".

    So the Argument should be surrounded with quotes i.e. "%FILE_FULLFILENAME%".

     
    See Also