Using windows explorer for other file storage via .net

I've seen software products that interface with windows explorer for sharing cloud drives, one was for using gmail as a drive. Is there any documentation on what libraries etcetera are us开发者_运维百科ed to accomplish this task?

1. I'm not looking to use Gmail (specifically)
2. I'm more concerned about how to access the windows-explorer interface for showing items that are not on a real disk.

You'll need to create a Windows shell extension.

This article looks promising - although quite old.

However, as stated in that article, you are discouraged to build a shell extension with managed code.

You should download open-source software such as gDisk to see how they are doing it. Or you can see how it is done in Firefox using Gspace. Here are some general guidelines for developing such applications:

1. You need some way to distinguish files from email (labels, subject line, etc).

2. You need an interface to login to the GMail website and cache those credentials.

3. You need an interface to send an email to yourself.

4. Finally, you need a way to access those "files".