Steam Library Shortcuts

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January 2024

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January 2024

Source mods under /sourcemods/, when configured correctly, show up on Steam Library after a restart. Source Mods placed in |all_source_engine_paths|, GoldSrc mods or even Source 2 mods don't show up by default.

Steam shortcuts file

Any game/mod could by added to the Steam Library by creating a shortcut. The shortcuts file for a given user are located under the directory steam_install_dir\\userdata\\, and the path ends with config. The shortcuts are stored inside this directory, in a file named shortcuts.vdf.

Shortcut format

• string AppName
• string Exe
• string StartDir
• string Icon
• string ShortcutPath
• string LaunchOptions
• bool Hidden
• array<string> Tags

Reading the shortcuts.vdf

For the format structure, see Adding Non-Steam Games.

// 1. Read all bytes from the file at 'filepath'.
// 2. Convert the bytes to a string using the appropriate encoding.
// 3. Assign the string to 'shortcutsString'.
// 4. Return the list with the data
//
// Unicodes:
// \u0000 - NUL
// \u0001 - SOH
// \u0002 - STX

public class Shortcut
{
	// adding '?' to declare as a nullable property, for example "Icon" would be null if the icon wasn't set
    // public string? AppId { get; set; }
    public string? AppName { get; set; }
    public string? Exe { get; set; }
    public string? StartDir { get; set; }
    public string? Icon { get; set; }
    public string? ShortcutPath { get; set; }
    public string? LaunchOptions { get; set; }
    public bool IsHidden { get; set; }
    public bool AllowDesktopConfig { get; set; }
    public bool AllowOverlay { get; set; }
    public bool OpenVR { get; set; }
    public bool Devkit { get; set; }
    public string? DevkitGameID { get; set; }
    public string? DevkitOverrideAppID { get; set; }
    // public string? LastPlayTime { get; set; }
    public string? FlatpakAppID { get; set; }
    public List<string> Tags { get; set; } = new List<string>();
}

public static List<Shortcut> ReadAndReturn(string filepath)
{
    string shortcutsString = File.ReadAllText(filepath, Encoding.GetEncoding("ISO-8859-1")); // Read the file with the correct encoding

    List<Shortcut> result = new List<Shortcut>();
    int start = shortcutsString.IndexOf("\u0000shortcuts\u0000") + "\u0000shortcuts\u0000".Length;
    int end = shortcutsString.LastIndexOf("\u0008\u0008");
    shortcutsString = shortcutsString.Substring(start, end - start);
    Shortcut shortcut = null;
    string word = "";
    string key = "";
    bool readingTags = false;
    int tagId = -1;
    
    foreach(char c in shortcutsString.ToCharArray())
    {
        if (c == '\u0000') {
            if (word.EndsWith("\u0001AppName")) {
                if (shortcut != null)
                    result.Add(shortcut);
                // New shortcut  
                shortcut = new Shortcut();
                key = "\u0001AppName";
            }
            else if (
                //word == "\u0002appid" || // NOTE: there is no NUL terminated at the end of it, so it is not read correctly
                word == "\u0001Exe" ||
                word == "\u0001StartDir" ||
                word == "\u0001icon" ||
                word == "\u0001ShortcutPath" ||
                word == "\u0001LaunchOptions" ||
                word == "\u0002IsHidden" ||
                word == "\u0002AllowDesktopConfig" ||
                word == "\u0002AllowOverlay" ||
                word == "\u0002OpenVR" ||
                word == "\u0002Devkit" ||
                word == "\u0002DevkitGameID" ||
                word == "\u0002DevkitOverrideAppID" ||
                //word == "\u0002LastPlayTime" || // NOTE: there is no NUL terminated at the end of it, so it is not read correctly
                // Which means that this bottom one is getting picked up by the LastPlayTime
                word == "\u0001FlatpakAppID"
            ) {
                key = word;
            }
            else if (word == "tags") {
                readingTags = true;
            }
            else if (key != "") {
                switch (key) {
                    //case "\u0002appid": shortcut.AppId = word; break;
                    case "\u0001AppName": shortcut.AppName = word; break;
                    case "\u0001Exe": shortcut.Exe = word.Trim('"'); break;
                    case "\u0001StartDir": shortcut.StartDir = word; break;
                    case "\u0001icon": shortcut.Icon = word; break;
                    case "\u0001ShortcutPath": shortcut.ShortcutPath = word; break;
                    case "\u0001LaunchOptions": shortcut.LaunchOptions = word; break;
                    case "\u0002IsHidden": shortcut.IsHidden = (word == "\u0001"); break;
                    case "\u0002AllowDesktopConfig": shortcut.AllowDesktopConfig = (word == "\u0001"); break;
                    case "\u0002AllowOverlay": shortcut.AllowOverlay = (word == "\u0001"); break;
                    case "\u0002OpenVR": shortcut.OpenVR = (word == "\u0001"); break;
                    case "\u0002Devkit": shortcut.Devkit = (word == "\u0001"); break;
                    case "\u0002DevkitGameID": shortcut.DevkitGameID = word; break;
                    case "\u0002DevkitOverrideAppID": shortcut.DevkitOverrideAppID = word; break;
                    //case "\u0002LastPlayTime": shortcut.LastPlayTime = word; break;
                    case "\u0001FlatpakAppID": shortcut.FlatpakAppID = word; break;
                    default:
                        break;
                }
                key = "";
            }
            else if (readingTags) {
                if (word.StartsWith("\u0001")) {
                    tagId = int.Parse(word.Substring("\u0001".Length));
                }
                else if (tagId >= 0) {
                    shortcut.Tags.Add(word);
                    tagId = -1;
                }
                else {
                    readingTags = false;
                }
            }
            word = "";
        }
        else {
            word += c;
        }
    }

    if (shortcut != null)
        result.Add(shortcut);

    return result;
}

// to read and return data, use this somewhere:
List<Shortcut> shortcuts = (YourClassName.)ReadAndReturn(filePath);

Writing the shortcuts.vdf

   private static string BuildShortcuts(List<Shortcut> shortcuts)
   {
       string shortcutsString = "\u0000shortcuts\u0000";
       for (int i = 0; i < shortcuts.Count; i++)
       {
           shortcutsString += "\u0000" + i + "\u0000";
           shortcutsString += BuildShortcut(shortcuts[i]);
           shortcutsString += "\u0008";
       }
       shortcutsString += "\u0008\u0008";
       return shortcutsString;
   }

   private static string BuildShortcut(Shortcut shortcut)
   {
       string shortcutString = "";
       //shortcutString += "\u0002appid\u0000" + shortcut.GetAppID() + "\u0000";
       shortcutString += "\u0001appname\u0000" + shortcut.AppName + "\u0000";
       shortcutString += "\u0001exe\u0000\"" + shortcut.Exe + "\"\u0000";
       shortcutString += "\u0001StartDir\u0000\"" + shortcut.StartDir + "\"\u0000";
       shortcutString += "\u0001icon\u0000" + shortcut.Icon + "\u0000";
       shortcutString += "\u0001ShortcutPath\u0000" + shortcut.ShortcutPath + "\u0000";
       shortcutString += "\u0001LaunchOptions\u0000" + shortcut.LaunchOptions + "\u0000";
       shortcutString += "\u0002hidden\u0000" + (shortcut.Hidden ? "\u0001" : "\u0000") + "\u0000\u0000\u0000";
       shortcutString += buildTags(shortcut.Tags);
       return shortcutString;
   }

   private static string buildTags(List<string> tags)
   {
       var tagString = "\u0000tags\u0000";
       for (var i = 0; i < tags.Count; ++i)
       {
           tagString += "\u0001" + i + "\u0000" + tags[i] + "\u0000";
       }
       tagString += "\u0008";
       return tagString;
   }

Get AppId for a shotcut

To display an image in the library, the app id of the shortcut must be known. What has been documented so far is that the app id is given by the following (untested) method:

   var longValue = new Long(crcValue, crcValue, true);
   longValue = longValue.or(0x80000000);
   longValue = longValue.shl(32);
   longValue = longValue.or(0x02000000);
   return result.ToString();

   private string GetSHA1()
   {
       var data = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(Exe);
       var hashData = new SHA1Managed().ComputeHash(data);
       var hash = string.Empty;
       foreach (var b in hashData)
       {
           hash += b.ToString("X2");
       }
       return hash;
   }

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January 2024