Page rating	96% for 25 votes	Useless Brilliant

This dialog class displays a directory tree similar to the one found in "Find in Files" Browse button. Shown above.

I have noticed several applications requiring a user to select a path that often use CFileDialog which does not fit the task very well. A better option is to use a Tree control but I have not found any that allow access to the network other than via mapped drives. Both methods lack the style that "Find in Files" provides. I have also spent some time trying to use SHBrowseForFolder but to date have had little success.

Why not just use SHBrowseForFolder.

• Documentation is difficult to understand and lacks good examples.
• Syntax is very cryptic.
• Many lines of code plus callbacks are necessary to do simply tasks such as set the inital path.
• The SHBrowseForFolder dialog can not be customized to any great extent. ie Changing the dialogs layout or Adding a control showing information about the selected directory is not possible.

How to use it.

I have developed a Dialog for easy implementation. The source is written to put the Dialog object into a single class so it can be hacked out and used in any willing developers code.

1. Copy the source files DlgGetPath.cpp and DlgGetPath.h to your Project directory and add them to your project.
2. From within your project open the TryNetworkTree.rc file and drag the Bitmap (IDB_FILE_TYPES) and Dialog (IDD_GET_PATH) into your project.
3. Add the mpr.lib in to be linked into your application. To do this select Project->Settings to open the Project settings dialog. Select the Link tab and from the drop down box select the General Catagory. In the Object/Link modules edit type in mpr.lib
4. Add the following code where you want to activate the Picker dialog. ie in a button handler.

//#include "DlgGetPath.h"          //Definition to get path
...
void CBlarOnButtonBrowse()
{
    CDlgGetPath dlgPath( this );
    dlgPath.SetPath( _T("C:\\Temp") );
    if( dlgPath.DoModal() == IDOK )
    {
        //Do some cool stuff with it here
        //SetDlgItemText( IDC_EDIT_SEARCH_IN, dlgPath.GetPath() );
    }

Using selection event.

    //
    //TODO add code here to process users selection
    //
    ASSERT( GetDlgItem( IDC_STATIC_NOTE ) );
    SetDlgItemText( IDC_STATIC_NOTE, sPath ); 

Enhancements.

• Display the recycle bin appropiatly.
• Display the contents of the recycle bin with out S- numbers.
• Sort items when added except for "Entire Network".
• Check on a more complex network.
• Determine why icon disappears from the ALT-TAB bar when active?
• Handle WNetEnumResource for more than 16384 bytes of data.
• It would be nice to read the system icons with SHGetFileInfo and use them.

History

Date Posted: May 30, 1999 - CodeGuru

• Inital release.

Date Posted: September 7, 2000 - Code Project

• Added Sven Wiegand fix for GetDriveType.
• Added SetPath( blar ); to allow the preset expansion of a given path.
• Notes on SHBrowseForFolder (No code change)?