[WPF] 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?

Answer 1

Check out this question.

Answer 2

You should use the FolderBrowserDialog class for this. Don't mind that it's in the System.Windows.Forms namespace.

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.

Answer 3

Kevin Moore's Bag-o-Tricks include a WPF sample FolderPicker that lets you select a folder.

Answer 4

I created a UserControl which is used like this:

  <UtilitiesWPF:FolderEntry Text="{Binding Path=LogFolder}" Description="Folder for log files"/>

The xaml source looks like this:

<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;
    <DockPanel>
        <Button Margin="0" Padding="0" DockPanel.Dock="Right" Width="Auto" Click="BrowseFolder">...</Button>
        <TextBox Height="Auto" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" DockPanel.Dock="Right" 
           Text="{Binding Text, RelativeSource={RelativeSource FindAncestor, AncestorType={x:Type UserControl}}}" />
    </DockPanel>
</UserControl>

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();
            }
        }
    }
 }