Microsoft KB Archive/179497

= How To Select a Directory Without the Common Dialog Control =

Article ID: 179497

Article Last Modified on 7/13/2004

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Learning Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Learning Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Enterprise Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Enterprise Edition

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This article was previously published under Q179497



SUMMARY
This article demonstrates how to display the directory structure of a computer and allow a user to select a directory without using the Common Dialog control.



MORE INFORMATION
The sample project uses the following API functions to display the directory structure of a computer:


 * SHBrowseForFolder - displays a dialog box that enables the user to select a shell folder.
 * SHGetPathFromIDList - converts an item identifier list to a file system path.

Create the Sample Project
 Start a new Standard EXE project in Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default. Add a CommandButton to Form1.  Copy the following code to the Code window of Form1:

Option Explicit

Private Const BIF_RETURNONLYFSDIRS = 1 Private Const BIF_DONTGOBELOWDOMAIN = 2 Private Const MAX_PATH = 260

Private Declare Function SHBrowseForFolder Lib "shell32" _ (lpbi As BrowseInfo) As Long

Private Declare Function SHGetPathFromIDList Lib "shell32" _ (ByVal pidList As Long, _                                       ByVal lpBuffer As String) As Long

Private Declare Function lstrcat Lib "kernel32" Alias "lstrcatA" _ (ByVal lpString1 As String, ByVal _                                       lpString2 As String) As Long

Private Type BrowseInfo hWndOwner     As Long pIDLRoot      As Long pszDisplayName As Long lpszTitle     As Long ulFlags       As Long lpfnCallback  As Long lParam        As Long iImage        As Long End Type

Private Sub Command1_Click 'Opens a Treeview control that displays the directories in a computer

Dim lpIDList As Long Dim sBuffer As String Dim szTitle As String Dim tBrowseInfo As BrowseInfo

szTitle = "This is the title" With tBrowseInfo .hWndOwner = Me.hWnd .lpszTitle = lstrcat(szTitle, "") .ulFlags = BIF_RETURNONLYFSDIRS + BIF_DONTGOBELOWDOMAIN End With

lpIDList = SHBrowseForFolder(tBrowseInfo)

If (lpIDList) Then sBuffer = Space(MAX_PATH) SHGetPathFromIDList lpIDList, sBuffer sBuffer = Left(sBuffer, InStr(sBuffer, vbNullChar) - 1) MsgBox sBuffer End If     End Sub

 On the Run menu, click Start or press the F5 key to start the program. Click the CommandButton to display the directory structure of the computer. Select a directory and click the OK button to display the directory you selected in a message box.

Additional query words: directory chooser picker kbVBp500 kbVBp600 kbVBp kbdsd kbDSupport KBWIN32SDK KBAPI

Keywords: kbhowto kbgrpdsvb KB179497

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