Class to select directory

CDirDialog : this class encapsulates the SHBrowseForFolder API. You can use this class to browse for folders. I had seen many posting asking this question. So, I put together this small wrapper class. In order to use it , Set the title by setting the text in m_strTitle. If you dont set this the title will have "Open".

Set the initial directory to start from using m_strInitDir. If you dont set this, it will start from desktop.

Then call DoBrowse (). If it returns TRUE, you can see the m_strPath for the selected directory. If it returns FALSE, user has dismissed the dialog with a cancel OR there was some problem retrieving the folder. I have not put in any error code. If, somebody wants to they are welcome to do it.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// DirDialog.h: interface for the CDirDialog class.
//
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

#if
!defined(AFX_DIRDIALOG_H__62FFAC92_1DEE_11D1_B87A_0060979CDF6D__INCLUDED_)
#define AFX_DIRDIALOG_H__62FFAC92_1DEE_11D1_B87A_0060979CDF6D__INCLUDED_

#if _MSC_VER >= 1000
#pragma once
#endif // _MSC_VER >= 1000

class CDirDialog
{
public:
     CDirDialog();
     virtual ~CDirDialog();
     int DoBrowse ();
     CString m_strPath;
     CString m_strInitDir;
     CString m_strTitle;
     int  m_iImageIndex;

};

#endif //
!defined(AFX_DIRDIALOG_H__62FFAC92_1DEE_11D1_B87A_0060979CDF6D__INCLUDED_)


///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// DirDialog.cpp: implementation of the CDirDialog class.
//
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

#include "stdafx.h"
#include "DirDialog.h"
#include "shlobj.h"
#ifdef _DEBUG
#undef THIS_FILE
static char THIS_FILE[]=__FILE__;
#define new DEBUG_NEW
#endif

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Construction/Destruction
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

CDirDialog::CDirDialog()
{////////////////////////////////////////////

}

CDirDialog::~CDirDialog()
{///////////////////////////////////////////

}

int CDirDialog::DoBrowse ()
{/////////////////////////////////////////

    LPMALLOC pMalloc;
    if (SHGetMalloc (&pMalloc)!= NOERROR)
    {
        return 0;
    }

    BROWSEINFO bInfo;
    LPITEMIDLIST pidl;
    ZeroMemory ( (PVOID) &bInfo,sizeof (BROWSEINFO));

     if (!m_strInitDir.IsEmpty ())
     {
          OLECHAR       olePath[MAX_PATH];
          ULONG         chEaten;
          ULONG         dwAttributes;
          HRESULT       hr;
          LPSHELLFOLDER pDesktopFolder;
          // // Get a pointer to the Desktop's IShellFolder interface. //
          if (SUCCEEDED(SHGetDesktopFolder(&pDesktopFolder)))
          {

               //
               // IShellFolder::ParseDisplayName requires the file name be in Unicode.
               //
               MultiByteToWideChar(CP_ACP, MB_PRECOMPOSED, m_strInitDir.GetBuffer (MAX_PATH), -1,
                    olePath, MAX_PATH);

               m_strInitDir.ReleaseBuffer (-1);
               //
               // Convert the path to an ITEMIDLIST.
               //
               hr = pDesktopFolder->ParseDisplayName(NULL,
                    NULL,
                    olePath,
                    &chEaten,
                    &pidl,
                    &dwAttributes);
               if (FAILED(hr))
               {
                    pMalloc ->Free (pidl);
                    pMalloc ->Release ();
                    return 0;
               }
               bInfo.pidlRoot = pidl;
          }
     }
          bInfo.hwndOwner = NULL;
          bInfo.pszDisplayName = m_strPath.GetBuffer (MAX_PATH);
          bInfo.lpszTitle = (m_strTitle.IsEmpty()) ? "Open":m_strTitle;
          bInfo.ulFlags = BIF_RETURNFSANCESTORS|BIF_RETURNONLYFSDIRS;


          if ((pidl = ::SHBrowseForFolder (&bInfo)) == NULL)
          {
               return 0;
          }
          m_strPath.ReleaseBuffer ();
          m_iImageIndex = bInfo.iImage;

          if (::SHGetPathFromIDList(pidl,m_strPath.GetBuffer (MAX_PATH)) == FALSE)
          {
               pMalloc ->Free (pidl);
               pMalloc ->Release ();
               return 0;
          }

    m_strPath.ReleaseBuffer ();

    pMalloc ->Free (pidl);
    pMalloc ->Release ();
     return 1;
}

Enhancement

I downloaded Girish Bharadwaj's wrapper class for SHBrowseForFolder, CDirDialog, a few days ago. Because it seems useful to me to set the selected folder to a default value other than 'desktop' when the dialog opens, I extended Girish Bharadwaj's implementation with a callback function that sets the selected folder when the dialog is initialized. It's set to the value stored in the new member variable m_strSelDir or defaults to 'desktop' if m_strSelDir was not set. The attached zip contains the changed files DirDialog.h and .cpp.

Download file (2KB)