ShellFolderBrowser is a component that makes it possible to use shell's folder browsing dialog for .NET applications. It can be used in the same way as OpenFileDialog and SaveFileDialog components which are available from the framework SDK. The component makes use of SHBrowseForFolder function and demonstrates various aspects of interoperability of managed and unmanaged code like passing delegates function pointers, passing structures and strings.

It is quite simple to use the component. You can place it on the toolbox and drag it to the form. You can set the desired properties in the component in the property grid as shown :-

In order to display the dialog all that needs to be done is to call the ShowDialog method as

folderBrowser1.ShowDialog();

Here is a brief description of the component. For detailed description see the documentation of SHBrowseForFolder.

Properties

BrowseFlags	Sets the flags that control the behaviour of the dialog
FolderDisplayName	The display name of the folder selected by the user
FolderPath	The folder path that was selected
Title	String that is displayed above the tree view control in the dialog box. This string can be used to specify instructions to the user. Can only be modified if the dalog is not currently displayed.

Methods

`EnableOKButton`	Enables or disables the ok button in the dialog
`SetExpanded`	Expand a path in the folder
`SetOkButtonText`	Sets the text of the OK button in the dialog
`SetSelection`	Sets the selection the text specified
`SetStatusText`	Sets the text of the staus area of the folder dialog
`ShowDialog`	Shows the dialog

Events

`Initialized`	Fired when the dialog is initialized (when `BFFM_INITIALIZED` is send to the `BrowseCallback` function)
`IUnknownObtained`	Shell provides an `IUnknown` through this event. For details see documentation of `SHBrowseForFolder` (when `BFFM_INITIALIZED` is send to the `BrowseCallback` function)
`SelChanged`	Fired when selection changes (when `BFFM_INITIALIZED` is send to the `BrowseCallback` function)
`ValidateFailed`	Fired when validation of text typed by user fails (when `BFFM_INITIALIZED` is send to the `BrowseCallback` function)

BrowseFlags

BrowseFlags is an enumeration with Flags attribute set and can be a combination of any of the following values :-

ReturnOnlyFSDirs
Same as BIF_RETURNONLYFSDIRS

DontGoBelowDomain
Same as BIF_DONTGOBELOWDOMAIN

ShowStatusText
Same as BIF_STATUSTEXT

ReturnFSancestors
Same as BIF_RETURNFSANCESTORS

EditBox
Same as BIF_EDITBOX

Validate
Same as BIF_VALIDATE

NewDialogStyle
Same as BIF_NEWDIALOGSTYLE

BrowseIncludeURLs
Same as BIF_BROWSEINCLUDEURLS

AddUsageHint
Same as BIF_UAHINT

NoNewFolderButton
Same as BIF_NONEWFOLDERBUTTON

BrowseForComputer
Same as BIF_BROWSEFORCOMPUTER

BrowseForPrinter
Same as BIF_BROWSEFORPRINTER

IncludeFiles
Same as BIF_BROWSEINCLUDEFILES

ShowShareable
Same as BIF_SHAREABLE

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

About the Author

Rama Krishna Vavilala

Occupation:	Architect
Location:	United States

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Date

can this use in asp.net

simiabhilash

0:02 11 Jun '08

i need this type of contol in my web application , can i use this in my form
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How to hide the Network Folder?

gust083

10:25 15 Nov '07

Hi, I need a folder browser without the network folder. Can i do that with your control? Thanks in advance
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Folder Browser on framework 1.1

ncremaschini

1:30 2 Oct '07

Hi , i've put the Shell Folder browser component into my project, but i've some problems with sending messages to the dialog. Every message i send ( for example , using the method setSelection() or setOkButtonText() ) throws an "InvalidOperationException". I've tried to take a look to source code, and i've got that the demo .exe doesn't work... someone can help me please?
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Add to the list

matt_davis

10:09 23 May '07

Is it at all possible to add to the list of folders. I would like to add functionality to browse to an online storage location. I can write the code to hook up the the storage I just don't know if it's possible to add folders or links or anything else for that matter into the browser list. Is this possible?
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Folder Browser Dialog

Vikram Tapikar

1:40 2 Mar '06

Hi i need a folder Browser Dialog box like VS.Net. Just right click the solution and choose Add-> New Project and then click on Browse button.The Dialog box pop up with tiltle Project Location. Is there any way to use the Dialog box. or to create that particular dialog box. Vikram
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Re: Folder Browser Dialog

matt_davis

10:02 31 May '07

First it's not a Folder Browser dialog. So just create a user control. It's just a tree view with a list view a few labels and some text boxes. What are you going to use it for? There might be a better solution. There is another article here http://www.codeproject.com/cs/miscctrl/OpenFileDialogEx.asp that does a file open dialog, maybe that's more of what your looking for?
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Folder Browser in Web Project

Jeevan The Wonder

0:50 23 Feb '06

hi, I could require a project where folder browser is used in Web Project. So it could if anyone can help me out with this. With Regards, Jeevan Moses I am Jeevan Moses working in the domain of ASP.Net and I am working in the field for nearly 2 years. I have the role of developing the Class files and back hand query.
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Re: Folder Browser in Web Project

Rama Krishna Vavilala

1:45 23 Feb '06

This is a windows forms control and cannot be used in a web project. Member in good standing - the great cult of Firefox at CP
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Folder Browser Component

mjwaller

9:14 1 Feb '06

In the previous comment you said that there was a folder browser component built into newer versions of .net. I have been looking for one in ASP.NET 2.0 where the user could select a folder in their local drives. I would really like to create a Save File As box where they could enter a filename too, but I would be happy if they could just select the file path. It would not even have to be their local drives, but on the files on the web server. (I would only allow them to store on the shared server drive the users and web browsers can see). If you could direct me to any useful websites or give me the actual component names, I would appreciate it. Thanks.

programmer new to .net

1.60/5 (5 votes)

This code sucks

Tom Guinther

10:08 21 Jan '06

Half of it doesn't work correctly (ever bother to test it?) and the design is broken. I have a more correct version which anyone can have by e-mailing me. BTW, is this code a direct rip-off of: http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/VB/[] or did they mistakenly take your code? Tom (tomguinther@hotmail.com) Tom Guinther http://mothership.blogdns.net/cs/blog
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Re: This code sucks

Rama Krishna Vavilala

15:55 21 Jan '06

Tom Guinther wrote: http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/VB/[][^] did they mistakenly take your code? Wow it is a direct conversion of my C# code into VB. Including the namespace (CP i.e Code Project) and code comments. BTW this article is quite old and was published for .NET 1.0. If you are using .NET 1.1 or .NET 2.0 there is a builtin folder browser component available.
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What is the sense of the NoNewButtonFolder flag?

Josef Meile

8:57 12 Jan '06

Hi Rama, I'm just wondering what the use of the NoNewButtonFolder flag is. I'm using Windows XP Service Pack 2 and it doesn't matter if this flag is checked or not, the dialog won't show a "New Folder" Button. Is this a bug or is it a missing feature? Regards, Josef
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Re: What is the sense of the NoNewButtonFolder flag?

Josef Meile

9:07 12 Jan '06

Josef Meile wrote: I'm just wondering what the use of the NoNewButtonFolder flag is. I'm using Windows XP Service Pack 2 and it doesn't matter if this flag is checked or not, the dialog won't show a "New Folder" Button. Is this a bug or is it a missing feature? Ok. I figured out that the button will only appear when you check the NewDialogStyle. Regards Josef
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ShellbrowserDialog Textbox

MohanPazhanganattu

21:45 10 Jan '06

Can i put a text box inside Shellbrowsedialog.... Or can i get what i typed in shellbrowserdialog browseflag=editbox Mohan Kartha
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Button Text/Title Not Visible

Alaranaz

18:33 11 Dec '05

When using this component, everything works fine except there is no text in the buttons or the Title area. This occurs both in a project I have included the component in, and in the demo project. Incidentally, in my own project, once another dialog (such as a standard Open File dialog) has been opened, the text is then visible if I open a Folder Browser dialog. I am running on Windows XP SP2,etc. Has anyone else experience anything similar or does anyone have any ideas?

Caleb

A fix for SetSelection()

lujason1

11:31 7 Dec '05

Replace Marshal.StringToHGlobalAuto with Marshal.StringToHGlobalAnsi

public void SetSelection(string newsel)
{
if (handle == IntPtr.Zero)
throw new InvalidOperationException();

int msg = (Environment.OSVersion.Platform == PlatformID.Win32NT) ? BFFM_SETSELECTIONA : BFFM_SETSELECTIONW;

//IntPtr strptr = Marshal.StringToHGlobalAuto(newsel);
IntPtr strptr = Marshal.StringToHGlobalAnsi(newsel);

UnManagedMethods.SendMessage(handle, msg, new IntPtr(1), strptr);

Marshal.FreeHGlobal(strptr);
}

Best Solution: Use OpenFileDialog

softplanner

6:14 6 Dec '05

I've looked into this a bit and I've decided that I really hate the FolderBrowserDialog because it doesn't support links or any of the other features of SaveFileDialog or OpenFileDialog.

Fortunately, although its not really a very neat solution, you can get the OpenFileDialog to browse for folders.

The key is setting CheckFileExists to false and setting the Filter to return no file results (by hacking it to look for "no.files"):


OpenFileDialog bob = new OpenFileDialog();
bob.InitialDirectory = txt_DirPath.Text;

bob.Title = "Please choose a folder";
bob.CheckFileExists = false;

bob.FileName = "[Get Folder...]";
bob.Filter = "Folders|no.files";

bob.ShowDialog();

string dir_path = Path.GetDirectoryName(bob.FileName);
if (dir_path != null && dir_path.Length > 0) {
	txt_DirPath.Text = dir_path;
}

Note: there is a textbox on the form called "txt_DirPath" that is used to display the folder to which the user browsed.

Re: Best Solution: Use OpenFileDialog

Ineffable

9:47 1 Aug '06

This solution is far worse. You can not choose a directory with a subdirectory.
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Re: Best Solution: Use OpenFileDialog

Hamid Qureshi

2:25 19 Sep '06

Works for me..Actually its just what I was looking for. As for selecting a directory which has subdirectories, the key is "NOT" to double click the folder but simply click "Open" while the folder is not selected. Hamid
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how does it work ?

quietcoder

7:51 8 Sep '05

Do I add a ref to the folderbrowser project . How do I put it in the toolbox? Please help!
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OK button text

HStrix

0:51 2 Mar '05

First of all: it is a great submission. Smile

I was looking a long time for such stuff.
But nevertheless I encountered the following problem:
I'm running your code on Win2K SP4 Workstation with .Net 2003 (V1.1).
But I couldn't change the text of the OK button.
Can you please help me out.
---
I modified your code slightly to set the caption as well:
---
case BFFM_INITIALIZED:
   handle = hwnd;
   if (Initialized != null)
   {
   Initialized(this, null);
   //Change 'Browse for Folder' window's title bar text:
   string strCaption = "Browse for a directory";
   UnManagedMethods.SetWindowTextA(hwnd.ToInt32(), strCaption);
   }
---
[DllImport("user32", EntryPoint="SetWindowText")]
internal extern static int SetWindowTextA(int hwnd, string lpString);
---
I hope that is of interest too.

   Best regards HStrix

Re: OK button text

HStrix

20:13 2 Mar '05

I checked the code now on WinXP SP2 and Win2003,
both with .Net 2003, and it worked fine.
So, it means, there is a problem in W2K.

But there is still a question:
I want to change the text of the OK button not in the calling program
(after diplaying the browse dialog) but in the component itself.
I could imagine that it could be solved using threading
but unfortunately I haven't any experience with this.

You forget something

Yaron Sh

22:33 8 Feb '05

This browser is based on the shell objects support.
At older OS like NT 4.0, file browsing is not supported by the shell object (only version 4.71 and above).
Moreover, the browser performence at older shell is quite poor.
Since there is no shell update package by MS you should think twice before using such a browser if you need to support older OS. (they say that IE 4 and above update the shell but it's not true, IE 6.0 for example doesn't update the shell).

Few suggestions

smallguy78

2:07 24 Nov '04

It'd be nice if the Title,OK button text etc. could be set before the dialog was shown, by making these into fields (or in Title's case, it already is), and not checking for a handle. These fields could then be checked to see if they're null inside ShowDialogInternal, and if they're not, set them once we've got the handle for the dialog.
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Listing names of files in a folder in C#

Anonymous

11:08 2 Aug '04

Hi, I'm trying to write C# code that takes in the name of a folder, then opens the folder and lists the names of the files in the folder. Any ideas on how to do this? Thanks, SM
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