Select folder dialog WPF

Question

I develop a WPF4 application and in my app I need to let the user select a folder where the application will store something  files  generated reports etc     My requirements    Ability to see the standard folder tree Ability to select a folder WPF look  amp  feel  this dialog must look like part of a modern application designed for Windows Vista 7 and not Windows 2000 or even Win9x    As I understand  until 2010   Net 4 0  there won t be a standard folder dialog  but maybe there are some changes in version 4 0   Or all what rest to do is use old-school WinForms dialog  If it s the only way to do what I need  how can I make it closer to Vista 7 style and not Win9x   On some forums  I saw the implementation of such dialogs but with old ugly icons    la Windows 95  It really doesn t look nice

User · Accepted Answer

I wrote about it on my blog a long time ago, WPF's support for common file dialogs is really bad (or at least is was in 3.5 I didn't check in version 4) - but it's easy to work around it.

You need to add the correct manifest to your application - that will give you a modern style message boxes and folder browser (WinForms FolderBrowserDialog) but not WPF file open/save dialogs, this is described in those 3 posts (if you don't care about the explanation and only want the solution go directly to the 3rd):

Fortunately, the open/save dialogs are very thin wrappers around the Win32 API that is easy to call with the right flags to get the Vista/7 style (after setting the manifest)

Vista style open and save dialogs with WPF (without using the Vista bridge sample)

User · Answer

Only such dialog is FileDialog  Its part of WinForms  but its actually only wrapper around WinAPI standard OS file dialog  And I don t think it is ugly  its actually part of OS  so it looks like OS it is run on   Other way  there is nothing to help you with  You either need to look for 3rd party implementation  either free  and I don t think there are any good  or paid

User · Answer

If you don t want to use Windows Forms nor edit manifest files  I came up with a very simple hack using WPF s SaveAs dialog for actually selecting a directory    No using directive needed  you may simply copy-paste the code below    It should still be very user-friendly and most people will never notice   The idea comes from the fact that we can change the title of that dialog  hide files  and work around the resulting filename quite easily    It is a big hack for sure  but maybe it will do the job just fine for your usage     In this example I have a textbox object to contain the resulting path  but you may remove the related lines and use a return value if you wish         Create a  Save As  dialog for selecting a directory  HACK  var dialog   new Microsoft Win32 SaveFileDialog    dialog InitialDirectory   textbox Text     Use current value for initial dir dialog Title    Select a Directory      instead of default  Save As  dialog Filter    Directory   this directory      Prevents displaying files dialog FileName    select      Filename will then be  select this directory  if  dialog ShowDialog      true        string path   dialog FileName         Remove fake filename from resulting path     path   path Replace    select this directory            path   path Replace   this directory               If user has changed the filename  create the new directory     if   System IO Directory Exists path             System IO Directory CreateDirectory path                Our final value is in path     textbox Text   path      The only issues with this hack are     Acknowledge button still says  Save  instead of something like  Select directory   but in a case like mines I  Save  the directory selection so it still works     Input field still says  File name  instead of  Directory name   but we can say that a directory is a type of file     There is still a  Save as type  dropdown  but its value says  Directory    this directory    and the user cannot change it for something else  works for me       Most people won t notice these  although I would definitely prefer using an official WPF way if microsoft would get their heads out of their asses  but until they do  that s my temporary fix

User · Answer

Just to say one thing  WindowsAPICodePack can not open CommonOpenFileDialog on Windows 7 6 1 7600

User · Answer

Based on Oyun s answer  it s better to use a dependency property for the FolderName  This allows  for example  binding to sub-properties  which doesn t work in the original  Also  in my adjusted version  the dialog shows selects the initial folder   Usage in XAML    lt Button Content       gt      lt i Interaction Behaviors gt         lt Behavior FolderDialogBehavior FolderName   Binding FolderPathPropertyName  Mode TwoWay    gt       lt  i Interaction Behaviors gt   lt  Button gt    Code    using System Windows  using System Windows Forms  using System Windows Interactivity  using Button   System Windows Controls Button   public class FolderDialogBehavior   Behavior lt Button gt         region Attached Behavior wiring     protected override void OnAttached                 base OnAttached            AssociatedObject Click    OnClick             protected override void OnDetaching                 AssociatedObject Click -  OnClick          base OnDetaching               endregion       region FolderName Dependency Property     public static readonly DependencyProperty FolderName               DependencyProperty RegisterAttached  FolderName               typeof string   typeof FolderDialogBehavior         public static string GetFolderName DependencyObject obj                return  string obj GetValue FolderName              public static void SetFolderName DependencyObject obj  string value                obj SetValue FolderName  value              endregion      private void OnClick object sender  RoutedEventArgs e                var dialog   new FolderBrowserDialog            var currentPath   GetValue FolderName  as string          dialog SelectedPath   currentPath          var result   dialog ShowDialog            if  result    DialogResult OK                        SetValue FolderName  dialog SelectedPath

User · Answer

Microsoft Win32 OpenFileDialog is the standard dialog that any application on Windows uses   Your user won t be surprised by its appearance when you use WPF in  NET 4 0  The dialog was altered in Vista   WPF in  NET 3 0 and 3 5 still used the legacy dialog but that was fixed in  NET 4 0   I can only guess that you started this thread because you are seeing that old dialog   Which probably means you re actually running a program that is targeting 3 5   Yes  the Winforms wrapper did get the upgrade and shows the Vista version   System Windows Forms OpenFileDialog class  you ll need to add a reference to System Windows Forms

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Windows Presentation Foundation 4 5 Cookbook by Pavel Yosifovich on page 155 in the section on  Using the common dialog boxes  says       What about folder selection  instead of files   The WPF   OpenFileDialog does not support that  One solution is to use Windows   Forms  FolderBrowseDialog class  Another good solution is to use the   Windows API Code Pack described shortly     I downloaded the API Code Pack from Windows   API Code Pack for Microsoft    NET Framework Windows API Code Pack  Where is it   then added references to Microsoft WindowsAPICodePack dll and Microsoft WindowsAPICodePack Shell dll to my WPF 4 5 project    Example   using Microsoft WindowsAPICodePack Dialogs   var dlg   new CommonOpenFileDialog    dlg Title    My Title   dlg IsFolderPicker   true  dlg InitialDirectory   currentDirectory   dlg AddToMostRecentlyUsedList   false  dlg AllowNonFileSystemItems   false  dlg DefaultDirectory   currentDirectory  dlg EnsureFileExists   true  dlg EnsurePathExists   true  dlg EnsureReadOnly   false  dlg EnsureValidNames   true  dlg Multiselect   false  dlg ShowPlacesList   true   if  dlg ShowDialog      CommonFileDialogResult Ok       var folder   dlg FileName       Do something with selected folder string

User · Answer

The Ookii Dialogs for WPF has a VistaFolderBrowserDialog class that provides a complete implementation of a folder browser dialog for WPF   https   github com augustoproiete ookii-dialogs-wpf   There s also a version that works with Windows Forms

User · Answer

Add The Windows API Code Pack-Shell to your project  using Microsoft WindowsAPICodePack Dialogs        var dialog   new CommonOpenFileDialog    dialog IsFolderPicker   true  CommonFileDialogResult result   dialog ShowDialog

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The FolderBrowserDialog class from System Windows Forms is the recommended way to display a dialog that allows a user to select a folder  Until recently  the appearance and behaviour of this dialog was not in keeping with the other filesystem dialogs  which is one of the reasons why people were reluctant to use it  The good news is that FolderBrowserDialog was  quot modernized quot  in NET Core 3 0  so is now a viable option for those writing either Windows Forms or WPF apps targeting that version or later   In  NET Core 3 0  Windows Forms users  sic  a newer COM-based control that was introduced in Windows Vista    To reference System Windows Forms in a NET Core WPF app  it is necessary to edit the project file and add the following line   lt UseWindowsForms gt true lt  UseWindowsForms gt   This can be placed directly after the existing  lt UseWPF gt  element  Then it s just a case of using the dialog  using System  using System Windows Forms        using var dialog   new FolderBrowserDialog       Description    quot Time to select a folder quot       UseDescriptionForTitle   true      SelectedPath   Environment GetFolderPath Environment SpecialFolder DesktopDirectory            Path DirectorySeparatorChar      ShowNewFolderButton   true     if  dialog ShowDialog      DialogResult OK               FolderBrowserDialog has a RootFolder property that supposedly  quot sets the root folder where the browsing starts from quot  but whatever I set this to it didn t make any difference  SelectedPath seemed to be the better property to use for this purpose  however the trailing backslash is required  Also  the ShowNewFolderButton property seems to be ignored as well  the button is always shown regardless

User · Answer

MVVM   WinForms FolderBrowserDialog as behavior  public class FolderDialogBehavior   Behavior lt Button gt        public string SetterName   get  set         protected override void OnAttached                 base OnAttached            AssociatedObject Click    OnClick             protected override void OnDetaching                 AssociatedObject Click -  OnClick             private void OnClick object sender  RoutedEventArgs e                var dialog   new FolderBrowserDialog            var result   dialog ShowDialog            if  result    DialogResult OK  amp  amp  AssociatedObject DataContext    null                        var propertyInfo   AssociatedObject DataContext GetType   GetProperties BindingFlags Instance   BindingFlags Public               Where p   gt  p CanRead  amp  amp  p CanWrite               Where p   gt  p Name Equals SetterName                First                 propertyInfo SetValue AssociatedObject DataContext  dialog SelectedPath  null                       Usage        lt Button Grid Column  3  Content       gt               lt Interactivity Interaction Behaviors gt                   lt Behavior FolderDialogBehavior SetterName  SomeFolderPathPropertyName   gt               lt  Interactivity Interaction Behaviors gt        lt  Button gt    Blogpost  http   kostylizm blogspot ru 2014 03 wpf-mvvm-and-winforms-folder-dialog-how html

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