The SDL File Type Support Framework is used in an application through the File Type Manager.

There are different ways for an application to host the File Type Manager. The most straightforward way is to simply create and initialize it expicitly with a list of File Type Component Builders and related settings. Note: You need a reference to Sdl.FileTypeSupport.Framework.Core.Utilities in your project. The example below shows how to do this:

  IFileTypeManager filterManager = DefaultFileTypeManager.CreateInstance();
filterManager.AddFileTypeDefinition(new SimpleTextFilterComponentBuilder());
filterManager.AddFileTypeDefinition(new SdlXliffFilterComponentBuilder());
// ...additional filter manager initialization goes here...
UseFilterManagerForSomething(filterManager);

The example defines in the first line a PocoFilterManager (an implementation of IFileTypeManager) that provides functionality to add new filter definitions. It relies on the IFileTypeComponentBuilder to build File Type Definitions. In the second line an Open Office Text filter definition is adding using the OdtFilterDefinitionComponentBuilder (See the filter component builder example) This approach is very straightforward, but it has several implications that are worth noting:

• The application have to explicitly create and manage all the File Type Component Builder classes.
• The application needs to manage their order or priority. This has implications on how the file types are discovered and applied.
• The application is responsible for managing access to the File Type Manager, if it is shared across the application (which is probably preferrable to creating a new one every time, as the initialization could be resource-intensive)
• It is not easy to modify the FileTypeInformation inside a FilterDefinition. The FilterFramework provides a mechanism to simplify this (see Xml override).