# Custom Extensions

Top Previous Next

While Agent Ransack can search many popular formats there are many other niche formats that it doesn't know how to convert to text format for searching. However, Agent Ransack does provide a way to integrate a external programs for converting given formats into text.

Example

Say, for example, a company called ThirdParty has a program that converts files of type .ABC to text, and is run:

"C:\Program Files\ThirdParty\SomeApp.exe" "E:\Files\intro.abc" "E:\Out\intro.txt"

To enable Agent Ransack to use the program to read .ABC files follow these steps:

Step 1. Create an XML file to add the format

Using an editor, like NotePad, create an XML file using the format shown below, replacing the highlighted entries with the appropriate values, e.g.

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<InterpreterConfig xmlns="http://www.mythicsoft.com/FileLocator">

<displayname>ABC</displayname>

<uniquename>http://www.mythicsoft.com/abcformat</uniquename>

<progid>Extensions.ConvertToTextCommand</progid>

<setup>"C:\Program Files\ThirdParty\SomeApp.exe" "$(InputFile)" "$(OutputFile)"</setup>

<filetypes>abc</filetypes>

<interpretertype>textconverter</interpretertype>

<active>no</active>

<safemode>no</safemode>

<useisfilter>no</useisfilter>

<nonreglibrary>extensions.dll</nonreglibrary>

</InterpreterConfig>

Save the file, e.g. abc.xml.

Note: The available macros for use in the <setup> element are:

Macro | Description | Example
$(InputFile) | The full path of the file to be converted | C:\Folder\Filename.abc
$(InputLongPathFile) | The full path of the file to be converted in long path format | \\?\C:\Folder\Filename.abc
$(OutputFile) | The full path for the text conversion | C:\TEMP\flt_ab123cd.tmp
$(InstallFolder) | The progam's installation folder | C:\Program Files\Mythicsoft\Agent Ransack

Step 2. Copy the XML file into the plugin_cfg folder

Step 3. Activate the extension

Make sure Office/PDF documents is checked in the Enhanced/PDF documents section of the Options tab.

Step 4. Test the extension

Run a simple search using a small group of test files.

More Information

The XML configuration file above has several different values, whilst it's not important to understand the values a brief description is shown below:

Value | Description
displayname | The name shown in the Extensions list.
uniquename | A unique identifier for the extension.
progid | The COM component Id used to create the Extension – for custom extensions it MUST be ‘Extensions.ConvertToTextCommand’.
setup | Setup information for the extension. In this case the command to run to convert the file into text.
interpretertype | The type of the interpreter, for custom extensions it MUST be ‘textconverter’.
active | Leave as ‘no’.
safemode | Should the component be loaded into a separate EXE to ensure it doesn’t affect the main program. Leave as ‘no’.
useisfilter | Should any registered IFilter for the file type take precedence over this extension.
nonreglibrary | The DLL to directly load the component from instead of looking for COM registration. Use ‘Extensions.dll’.

Copyright © 2026 Mythicsoft Ltd. All rights reserved.
Help file version: 9.0
PDF and CHM versions of this help file are available here:
http://mythicsoft.com/filelocatorpro/help