C# - Best alternative to Shell32 object for retriving extended properties

Question

I'm really getting stuck on how to design my program, in simple term, it needs to create a list of file in a given path and then sorts them for now by date creating the respective subdirectory. The problem arises since the files are uploaded by the phone in a NAS and their creation date gets modified when uploaded to this drive. Since we are talking about photos-video or audio I tried using metadata and the best way I found to retrieve some common date stored in the metadata based on this answer is this:

internal static class FileInSorting
{
    private static List<string> arrHeaders;
    private static List<int> date = new List<int>() { 197, 3, 4, 5, 12, 198, 287, 208 };
    private static List<FileToSort> fileToSort = new List<FileToSort>();

    public static List<FileToSort>  GetFilesToSort(string path)
    {
        Folder objFolder;
        LoadHeader(path, out arrHeaders, out objFolder);

         //I search for each file inside his extended property for the true creation date
         //If none is found I default to what FileInfo thinks is right
        foreach (Shell32.FolderItem2 item in objFolder.Items())
        {
            List<DateTime> tmp = new List<DateTime>();
            DateTime SelectedDate;
            foreach (int h in date)
            {
                string l = objFolder.GetDetailsOf(item, h);
                if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(l))
                {
                    string asAscii = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(
                        Encoding.Convert(
                            Encoding.UTF8,
                            Encoding.GetEncoding(
                                Encoding.ASCII.EncodingName,
                                new EncoderReplacementFallback(string.Empty),
                                new DecoderExceptionFallback()),
                            Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(l)
                            )
                        );

                    tmp.Add(DateTime.Parse(asAscii.Substring(0, 11)));
                }
            }
            if (tmp.Count == 0)
                SelectedDate = File.GetCreationTime(item.Path);
            else
                SelectedDate = tmp.Min();
            fileToSort.Add(new FileToSort(item.Name, item.Path, SelectedDate));


        }
        return fileToSort;
    }
    public static void LoadHeader(string path, out List<string> arrHeaders, out Folder objFolder)
    {
        arrHeaders = new List<string>();
        Shell32.Shell shell = new Shell32.Shell();
        objFolder = shell.NameSpace(path);

        for (int i = 0; i < short.MaxValue; i++)
        {
            string header = objFolder.GetDetailsOf(null, i);
            if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(header))
                arrHeaders.Add(header);
        }
    }
}

I made this class just for easy use during sort but it could be completely redundant

   public class FileToSort
    {
        public string nome { get; set; }
        public string path { get; set; }
        public DateTime sortDate { get; set; }
        public FileToSort(string nome,string path,DateTime data)
        {
            this.nome = nome;
            this.path = path;
            this.sortDate = data;
        }
    }

The problem using this COM object is that is slow and not so easy to handle(maybe I'm just not able to) and as turned out on another question of mine it's not thread-safe, blocking out the option for parallel operation on multiple folders after the first sort. For example, i'm first sorting all files in a tree structure "[YEAR]/[Month]/[Full date]" but then I would have to recreate the COM object for each "Full date" folder and sort those by type. I'm aware that after the first date sort I could start using Directory.EnumerateFile() for each of the newly created folders but I would like to see if there is a better way to "design" the code so it can be reused without writing 2 separate methods for the date sort and for the type sort, so is there a way to avoid using the Com object entirely?

Quick edit I forgot another why I'm searching for another solution:

this is a WPF application and I would really like to use a ListView binded with a single collection perhaps a FileInfo collection

Answer 1

The problem arises since the files are in a network and their creation date gets modified when uploaded

That's your choice, and thus your problem. If you don't want file dates to change on upload, don't change them. Windows Explorer, for example, doesn't change them by default, you get the same creation date as the source. Your own code has full access over what dates to use.

I made this class just for easy use during sort but it could be completely redundant

You should look up record. And proper .Net naming conventions (public properties should be capitalized).

it's not thread-safe, blocking out the option for parallel operation on multiple folders after the first sort

You're jumping to assumptions here. It may not be thread-safe, but nothing stops you from creating multiple objects to query through, one for each thread. Look up thread-local variables and/or statics.

but then I would have to recreate the COM object for each "Full date" folder and sort those by type

That line is a little harder to understand, but if you're saying you "need" to requery the entire filesystem again just to sort items then you're dead wrong. Sorting is a view operation, the model doesn't care about it, and what you're writing here is the model. Sorting for the view can be handled any way you want, you have the data in memory already, sort as you wish.

And I don't wish to go through your code too deep, but holy wow what is this:

                string asAscii = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(
                    Encoding.Convert(
                        Encoding.UTF8,
                        Encoding.GetEncoding(
                            Encoding.ASCII.EncodingName,
                            new EncoderReplacementFallback(string.Empty),
                            new DecoderExceptionFallback()),
                        Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(l)
                        )
                    );

If I had to rate it you'd be fired by the time I counted to 0... Just use the original string, what are you doing, man?