VB TIP: Using the Browse Folder Dialog Box

You may have noticed that in Windows the Browse Folder dialog is used in many programs, even the shell if you have used the find program you can choose browse and the folder below appears.

You can implement this dialog bow into your applications very easily by using the
following API calls.

• SHBrowseForFolder
• SHGetPathFromIDList
• lstrcat

Sample

Start a new Visual Basic standard-EXE project and add a command button.

Type in the following code

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 Browse Folders Dialog Box that displays the 
'directories in your computer
Dim lpIDList As Long ' Declare Varibles
Dim sBuffer As String
Dim szTitle As String
Dim tBrowseInfo As BrowseInfo

szTitle = "Hello World. Click on a directory and " & _
"it's path will be displayed in a message box"
' Text to appear in the the gray area under the title bar
' telling you what to do

With tBrowseInfo
   .hWndOwner = Me.hWnd ' Owner Form
   .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

Run the program, and click on the command button. The browse for folder dialog will be displayed. Click on a directory and click on OK and the path you have selected will be shown in a message box

Download the sample project