FolderBrowserDialog Class
Prompts the user to select a folder. This class cannot be inherited.
Assembly: System.Windows.Forms (in System.Windows.Forms.dll)
This class provides a way to prompt the user to browse, create, and eventually select a folder. Use this class when you only want to allow the user to select folders, not files. Browsing of the folders is done through a tree control. Only folders from the file system can be selected; virtual folders cannot.
Typically, after creating a new FolderBrowserDialog, you set the RootFolder to the location from which to start browsing. Optionally, you can set the SelectedPath to an absolute path of a subfolder of RootFolder that will initially be selected. You can also optionally set the Description property to provide additional instructions to the user. Finally, call the ShowDialog method to display the dialog box to the user. When the dialog box is closed and the dialog box result from ShowDialog is DialogResult.OK, the SelectedPath will be a string containing the path to the selected folder.
You can use the ShowNewFolderButton property to control if the user is able to create new folders with the New Folder button.
FolderBrowserDialog is a modal dialog box; therefore, when shown, it blocks the rest of the application until the user has chosen a folder. When a dialog box is displayed modally, no input (keyboard or mouse click) can occur except to objects on the dialog box. The program must hide or close the dialog box (usually in response to some user action) before input to the calling program can occur.
The following code example creates an application that enables the user to open rich text (.rtf) files within the RichTextBox control.
' The following example displays an application that provides the ability to ' open rich text files (rtf) into the RichTextBox. The example demonstrates ' using the FolderBrowserDialog to set the default directory for opening files. ' The OpenFileDialog class is used to open the file. Imports System Imports System.Drawing Imports System.Windows.Forms Imports System.IO Public Class FolderBrowserDialogExampleForm Inherits Form Private folderBrowserDialog1 As FolderBrowserDialog Private openFileDialog1 As OpenFileDialog Private richTextBox1 As RichTextBox Private mainMenu1 As MainMenu Private fileMenuItem As MenuItem Private WithEvents folderMenuItem As MenuItem, _ closeMenuItem As MenuItem, _ openMenuItem As MenuItem Private openFileName As String, folderName As String Private fileOpened As Boolean = False Public Sub New() Me.mainMenu1 = New System.Windows.Forms.MainMenu() Me.fileMenuItem = New System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem() Me.openMenuItem = New System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem() Me.folderMenuItem = New System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem() Me.closeMenuItem = New System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem() Me.openFileDialog1 = New System.Windows.Forms.OpenFileDialog() Me.folderBrowserDialog1 = New System.Windows.Forms.FolderBrowserDialog() Me.richTextBox1 = New System.Windows.Forms.RichTextBox() Me.mainMenu1.MenuItems.Add(Me.fileMenuItem) Me.fileMenuItem.MenuItems.AddRange( _ New System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem() {Me.openMenuItem, _ Me.closeMenuItem, _ Me.folderMenuItem}) Me.fileMenuItem.Text = "File" Me.openMenuItem.Text = "Open..." Me.folderMenuItem.Text = "Select Directory..." Me.closeMenuItem.Text = "Close" Me.closeMenuItem.Enabled = False Me.openFileDialog1.DefaultExt = "rtf" Me.openFileDialog1.Filter = "rtf files (*.rtf)|*.rtf" ' Set the Help text description for the FolderBrowserDialog. Me.folderBrowserDialog1.Description = _ "Select the directory that you want to use As the default." ' Do not allow the user to create New files via the FolderBrowserDialog. Me.folderBrowserDialog1.ShowNewFolderButton = False ' Default to the My Documents folder. Me.folderBrowserDialog1.RootFolder = Environment.SpecialFolder.Personal Me.richTextBox1.AcceptsTab = True Me.richTextBox1.Location = New System.Drawing.Point(8, 8) Me.richTextBox1.Size = New System.Drawing.Size(280, 344) Me.richTextBox1.Anchor = AnchorStyles.Top Or AnchorStyles.Left Or _ AnchorStyles.Bottom Or AnchorStyles.Right Me.ClientSize = New System.Drawing.Size(296, 360) Me.Controls.Add(Me.richTextBox1) Me.Menu = Me.mainMenu1 Me.Text = "RTF Document Browser" End Sub <STAThread()> _ Shared Sub Main() Application.Run(New FolderBrowserDialogExampleForm()) End Sub ' Bring up a dialog to open a file. Private Sub openMenuItem_Click(sender As object, e As System.EventArgs) _ Handles openMenuItem.Click ' If a file is not opened, then set the initial directory to the ' FolderBrowserDialog.SelectedPath value. If (not fileOpened) Then openFileDialog1.InitialDirectory = folderBrowserDialog1.SelectedPath openFileDialog1.FileName = nothing End If ' Display the openFile dialog. Dim result As DialogResult = openFileDialog1.ShowDialog() ' OK button was pressed. If (result = DialogResult.OK) Then openFileName = openFileDialog1.FileName Try ' Output the requested file in richTextBox1. Dim s As Stream = openFileDialog1.OpenFile() richTextBox1.LoadFile(s, RichTextBoxStreamType.RichText) s.Close() fileOpened = True Catch exp As Exception MessageBox.Show("An error occurred while attempting to load the file. The error is:" _ + System.Environment.NewLine + exp.ToString() + System.Environment.NewLine) fileOpened = False End Try Invalidate() closeMenuItem.Enabled = fileOpened ' Cancel button was pressed. ElseIf (result = DialogResult.Cancel) Then return End If End Sub ' Close the current file. Private Sub closeMenuItem_Click(sender As object, e As System.EventArgs) _ Handles closeMenuItem.Click richTextBox1.Text = "" fileOpened = False closeMenuItem.Enabled = False End Sub ' Bring up a dialog to chose a folder path in which to open or save a file. Private Sub folderMenuItem_Click(sender As object, e As System.EventArgs) _ Handles folderMenuItem.Click ' Show the FolderBrowserDialog. Dim result As DialogResult = folderBrowserDialog1.ShowDialog() If ( result = DialogResult.OK ) Then folderName = folderBrowserDialog1.SelectedPath If (not fileOpened) Then ' No file is opened, bring up openFileDialog in selected path. openFileDialog1.InitialDirectory = folderName openFileDialog1.FileName = nothing openMenuItem.PerformClick() End If End If End Sub End Class
System.MarshalByRefObject
System.ComponentModel.Component
System.Windows.Forms.CommonDialog
System.Windows.Forms.FolderBrowserDialog
Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP Starter Edition, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98
The .NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework do not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.