Open directory dialog

Question

I want the user to select a directory where a file that I will then generate will be saved  I know that in WPF I should use the OpenFileDialog from Win32  but unfortunately the dialog requires file s  to be selected - it stays open if I simply click OK without choosing one  I could  hack up  the functionality by letting the user pick a file and then strip the path to figure out which directory it belongs to but that s unintuitive at best  Has anyone seen this done before

User · Answer

I m using Ookii dialogs for a while and it work nice for WPF  Here s the direct page  https   github com augustoproiete ookii-dialogs-wpf

User · Answer

The best way to achieve what you want is to create your own wpf based control   or use a one that was made by other people why   because there will be a noticeable performance impact when using the winforms dialog in a wpf application  for some reason  i recommend this project  https   opendialog codeplex com    or Nuget      PM gt  Install-Package OpenDialog   it s very MVVM friendly and it isn t wraping the winforms dialog

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None of these answers worked for me  generally there was a missing reference or something along those lines   But this quite simply did   Using FolderBrowserDialog in WPF application  Add a reference to System Windows Forms and use this code     var dialog   new System Windows Forms FolderBrowserDialog      System Windows Forms DialogResult result   dialog ShowDialog      No need to track down missing packages  Or add enormous classes  This gives me a modern folder selector that also allows you to create a new folder  I m yet to see the impact when deployed to other machines

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You can use the built-in FolderBrowserDialog class for this  Don t mind that it s in the System Windows Forms namespace  using  var dialog   new System Windows Forms FolderBrowserDialog          System Windows Forms DialogResult result   dialog ShowDialog       If you want the window to be modal over some WPF window  see the question How to use a FolderBrowserDialog from a WPF application   EDIT  If you want something a bit more fancy than the plain  ugly Windows Forms FolderBrowserDialog  there are some alternatives that allow you to use the Vista dialog instead   Third-party libraries  such as Ookii dialogs   NET 4 5    The Windows API Code Pack-Shell    using Microsoft WindowsAPICodePack Dialogs            var dialog   new CommonOpenFileDialog      dialog IsFolderPicker   true    CommonFileDialogResult result   dialog ShowDialog     Note that this dialog is not available on operating systems older than Windows Vista  so be sure to check CommonFileDialog IsPlatformSupported first

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For Directory Dialog to get the Directory Path  First Add reference System Windows Forms  and then Resolve  and then put this code in a button click       var dialog   new FolderBrowserDialog        dialog ShowDialog        folderpathTB Text   dialog SelectedPath     folderpathTB is name of TextBox where I wana put the folder path  OR u can assign it to a string variable too i e        string folder   dialog SelectedPath    And if you wana get FileName path  Simply do this on Button Click      FileDialog fileDialog   new OpenFileDialog        fileDialog ShowDialog        folderpathTB Text   fileDialog FileName     folderpathTB is name of TextBox where I wana put the file path  OR u can assign it to a string variable too   Note  For Folder Dialog  the System Windows Forms dll must be added to the project  otherwise it wouldn t work

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The Ookii VistaFolderBrowserDialog is the one you want  If you only want the Folder Browser from Ooki Dialogs and nothing else then download the Source  cherry-pick the files you need for the Folder browser  hint  7 files  and it builds fine in  NET 4 5 2  I had to add a reference to System Drawing  Compare the references in the original project to yours  How do you figure out which files  Open your app and Ookii in different Visual Studio instances  Add VistaFolderBrowserDialog cs to your app and keep adding files until the build errors go away  You find the dependencies in the Ookii project - Control-Click the one you want to follow back to its source  pun intended   Here are the files you need if you re too lazy to do that     NativeMethods cs SafeHandles cs VistaFolderBrowserDialog cs   Interop    COMGuids cs    ErrorHelper cs    ShellComInterfaces cs    ShellWrapperDefinitions cs  Edit line 197 in VistaFolderBrowserDialog cs unless you want to include their Resources Resx throw new InvalidOperationException Properties Resources FolderBrowserDialogNoRootFolder   throw new InvalidOperationException  quot Unable to retrieve the root folder  quot     Add their copyright notice to your app as per their license txt The code in  Ookii Dialogs Wpf Sample MainWindow xaml cs line 160-169 is an example you can use but you will need to remove this  from MessageBox Show this  for WPF  Works on My Machine  TM

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I d suggest  to add in the nugget package     Install-Package OpenDialog   Then the way to used it is       Gat Controls OpenDialogView openDialog   new Gat Controls OpenDialogView        Gat Controls OpenDialogViewModel vm    Gat Controls OpenDialogViewModel openDialog DataContext      vm IsDirectoryChooser   true      vm Show         WPFLabel Text   vm SelectedFilePath ToString      Here s the documentation  http   opendialog codeplex com documentation  Works for Files  files with filter  folders  etc

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I created a UserControl which is used like this      lt UtilitiesWPF FolderEntry Text   Binding Path LogFolder   Description  Folder for log files   gt    The xaml source looks like this    lt UserControl x Class  Utilities WPF FolderEntry      xmlns  http   schemas microsoft com winfx 2006 xaml presentation      xmlns x  http   schemas microsoft com winfx 2006 xaml  gt       lt DockPanel gt           lt Button Margin  0  Padding  0  DockPanel Dock  Right  Width  Auto  Click  BrowseFolder  gt     lt  Button gt           lt TextBox Height  Auto  HorizontalAlignment  Stretch  DockPanel Dock  Right              Text   Binding Text  RelativeSource  RelativeSource FindAncestor  AncestorType  x Type UserControl       gt       lt  DockPanel gt   lt  UserControl gt    and the code-behind  public partial class FolderEntry       public static DependencyProperty TextProperty   DependencyProperty Register  Text   typeof string   typeof FolderEntry   new FrameworkPropertyMetadata null  FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions BindsTwoWayByDefault        public static DependencyProperty DescriptionProperty   DependencyProperty Register  Description   typeof string   typeof FolderEntry   new PropertyMetadata null         public string Text   get   return GetValue TextProperty  as string    set   SetValue TextProperty  value           public string Description   get   return GetValue DescriptionProperty  as string    set   SetValue DescriptionProperty  value            public FolderEntry     InitializeComponent           private void BrowseFolder object sender  RoutedEventArgs e            using  FolderBrowserDialog dlg   new FolderBrowserDialog                  dlg Description   Description              dlg SelectedPath   Text              dlg ShowNewFolderButton   true              DialogResult result   dlg ShowDialog                if  result    System Windows Forms DialogResult OK                    Text   dlg SelectedPath                  BindingExpression be   GetBindingExpression TextProperty                   if  be    null                      be UpdateSource

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Ookii folder dialog can be found at Nuget  PM gt  Install-Package Ookii Dialogs Wpf And  example code is as below  var dialog   new Ookii Dialogs Wpf VistaFolderBrowserDialog    if  dialog ShowDialog this  GetValueOrDefault          textBoxFolderPath Text   dialog SelectedPath     More information on how to use it  https   github com augustoproiete ookii-dialogs-wpf

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For those who don t want to create a custom dialog but still prefer a 100  WPF way and don t want to use separate DDLs  additional dependencies or outdated APIs  I came up with a very simple hack using the Save As dialog    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

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You could use smth like this in WPF  I ve created example method   Check below   public string getFolderPath                   Create OpenFileDialog             Microsoft Win32 OpenFileDialog dlg   new Microsoft Win32 OpenFileDialog                OpenFileDialog openFileDialog   new OpenFileDialog               openFileDialog Multiselect   false              openFileDialog InitialDirectory   Environment GetFolderPath Environment SpecialFolder MyDocuments              if  openFileDialog ShowDialog      true                              System IO FileInfo fInfo   new System IO FileInfo openFileDialog FileName                  return fInfo DirectoryName                          return null

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I found the below code on below link    and it worked Select folder dialog WPF  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

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using System  using System Collections Generic  using System Linq  using System Text  using System Threading Tasks  using System Windows  using System Windows Controls  using System Windows Data  using System Windows Documents  using System Windows Input  using System Windows Media  using System Windows Media Imaging  using System Windows Navigation  using System Windows Shapes   namespace Gearplay            lt summary gt                                    OpenFolderBrows xaml          lt  summary gt      public partial class OpenFolderBrows   Page               internal string SelectedFolderPath   get  set            public OpenFolderBrows                         InitializeComponent                Selectedpath                InputLogicalPathCollection                                     internal void Selectedpath                         Browser Navigate   quot C   quot                             Browser Navigated    Browser Navigated                     private void Browser Navigated object sender  NavigationEventArgs e                        SelectedFolderPath   e Uri AbsolutePath ToString                  MessageBox Show SelectedFolderPath                      private void MenuItem Click object sender  RoutedEventArgs e                                                              string    testing   get  set            private void InputLogicalPathCollection                           add Menu items for Cotrol              string   DirectoryCollection Path   Environment GetLogicalDrives       Get Local Drives             testing   new string DirectoryCollection Path Length                 MessageBox Show DirectoryCollection Path 0  ToString                 MenuItem    menuItems   new MenuItem DirectoryCollection Path Length      Create Empty Collection             for int i 0 i lt menuItems Length i                                     Create collection depend how much logical drives                  menuItems i    new MenuItem                    menuItems i  Header   DirectoryCollection Path i                   menuItems i  Name   DirectoryCollection Path i  Substring 0 DirectoryCollection Path Length-1                   DirectoryCollection Items Add menuItems i                    menuItems i  Click    OpenFolderBrows Click                  testing i   DirectoryCollection Path i  Substring 0  DirectoryCollection Path Length - 1                                                           private void OpenFolderBrows Click object sender  RoutedEventArgs e                         foreach  string str in testing                                if  e OriginalSource ToString   Contains  quot Header  quot  str      Navigate to Local drive                                       Browser Navigate str     quot    quot                                                                               private void Goback Click object sender  RoutedEventArgs e              Go Back             try                               Browser GoBack                 catch Exception ex                                MessageBox Show ex Message                                    private void Goforward Click object sender  RoutedEventArgs e              Go Forward             try                               Browser GoForward                              catch  Exception ex                                MessageBox Show ex Message                                     private void FolderForSave Click object sender  RoutedEventArgs e                           Separate Click For Go Back same As Close App With send string var to Main Window   Main class etc                this NavigationService GoBack

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As stated in earlier answers  FolderBrowserDialog is the class to use for this  Some people have  justifiable  concerns with the appearance and behaviour of this dialog  The good news is that it 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  you re out of luck if still using NET Framework though    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

I know this is an old question  but a simple way to do this is use the FileDialog option provided by WPF and using System IO Path GetDirectory filename

[wpf] Open directory dialog

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