New style FileSelectFolder

[trancexx]

Newer systems have nicer looking "Browse for folder" UI than older does. AutoIt internally calls older version.

Since some time AutoIt can natively access, by definition early bound objects, using special technique of late binding. Function that does this is ObjCreateInterface(). Considering most of the Windows is COM based the advantages are big, you just have to learn how to take them.

This small example (attached FileSelectFolder.au3) shows how to create object of IFileDialog interface and by calling its methods customize and invoke "select folder" dialog. In case of older systems where IFileDialog isn't available the function will call internal AutoIt's FileSelectFolder(), so it should be safe to use in any environment.

Example of usage is from the help file for normal dialog:

#include "FileSelectFolder.au3"

Local Const $sMessage = "Select a folder"

; Display an open dialog to select a folder.
Local $sFileSelectFolder = FileSelectFolder2($sMessage, "")
If @error Then
    MsgBox(4096, "", "No folder was selected.")
Else
    MsgBox(4096, "", "You chose the following folder:" & @CRLF & $sFileSelectFolder)
EndIf

...And the UDF:

FileSelectFolder.au3

Edited November 3, 2013 by trancexx

[wakillon]

Tested your example successfully with actual release,

but with the latest beta a window appear on the top left of the screen and a second ( or may be the same, it's too fast for me!)  is set at the midle of the screen...

[mLipok]

Where I can read about possible value for this parameter: "$iFlag" ?

[trancexx]

wakillon position is remembered per app in case of default parent window (0) - I believe. Beta AutoIt is new application, try moving the UI to new position. Normally you would "attach" it to your GUI by passing parent window handle.

[trancexx]

Where I can read about possible value for this parameter: "$iFlag" ?

That's for built-in function. It's ignored here if everything is ok.

[wakillon]

wakillon position is remembered per app in case of default parent window (0) - I believe. Beta AutoIt is new application, try moving the UI to new position. Normally you would "attach" it to your GUI by passing parent window handle.

 

Ok thanks.

[mLipok]

Is there any way you display a list of files in such a way as to display a list of files in the "Detail view" ?

Edited October 21, 2013 by mlipok

[Kilmatead]

(Thanks for this; considering what an evil thing the default folder-select is, I'm surprised there aren't more responses here.)

A little bit of experimentation using BitOR($FOS_PICKFOLDERS, $FOS_ALLOWMULTISELECT, $FOS_CREATEPROMPT) for the options is not exactly having the effect I was after.

While multiple folders can be selected (and will even display as a quoted/space-separated list in the edit control), that multi-string is not returned as expected - would extra calisthenics be required for this?

And, manually entered folders (to replicate the missing "Create Folder" button) will actually invoke the prompt ("Does not exist - Create it?") as expected, except it's always followed by an "invalid folder" error, even if the path is manually supplied.

Or is this just asking too much of the poor IFileDialog?

[DatMCEyeBall]

This seems... Awesome!

But would it break on lower systems with windows XP?

Could I use it in a release app where the environment is unsupervised?

Edited October 22, 2013 by DatMCEyeBall

[trancexx]

(Thanks for this; considering what an evil thing the default folder-select is, I'm surprised there aren't more responses here.)

A little bit of experimentation using BitOR($FOS_PICKFOLDERS, $FOS_ALLOWMULTISELECT, $FOS_CREATEPROMPT) for the options is not exactly having the effect I was after.

While multiple folders can be selected (and will even display as a quoted/space-separated list in the edit control), that multi-string is not returned as expected - would extra calisthenics be required for this?

And, manually entered folders (to replicate the missing "Create Folder" button) will actually invoke the prompt ("Does not exist - Create it?") as expected, except it's always followed by an "invalid folder" error, even if the path is manually supplied.

Or is this just asking too much of the poor IFileDialog?

Aha multiple folders, yes I can do that.

...Will update the OP.

Why poor?

[Kilmatead]

Thanks again.

Why poor?

 

I hate COM (with a passion), so always imagine these objects as sad little entities being poked and prodded by a bunch of kooks with sticks until they do what we want them to.  So, even though I hate them, anthropomorphically they deserve some semblance of sympathy: hence, "poor".

[trancexx]

Thanks again.

 

I hate COM (with a passion), so always imagine these objects as sad little entities being poked and prodded by a bunch of kooks with sticks until they do what we want them to.  So, even though I hate them, anthropomorphically they deserve some semblance of sympathy: hence, "poor".

Then unfortunately you can't understand Windows systems.

AutoIt was never object-friendly, the worst internal AutoIt code was objects related one. It was implemented on very basic level and even that was poorly done. With latest development, even though "latest" in AutoIt means shit, plenty of things have been changed, improved, rewritten. it's worth using now, really.

...But like almost everything with AutoIt, ignorance wins at the end and somehow finds way to pull it back into the little black box. Luckily, some good things manage to survive the process. 

[Kilmatead]

Then unfortunately you can't understand Windows systems.

There's a lot to be said for humour.    I never said I couldn't use it, it's just that I hate it; like Liver and Onions - sure, I can eat it if I have to, but I'd have to have a gun to my head.

At least I can grasp the context of it better in AutoIt than in VBS where I was forced to learn some of it in the first place (with that gun to my head).  There's a reason God gives us nice juicy DLL calls with pointers we can sink our teeth into.  I dislike the "let me hold your hand" approach because it always seems to jump right off the cliff just when you feel you're getting the hang of it - but then again, I suppose that's the moral of scripting in a nutshell... anything worth doing is worth doing the hard way.  (That, and the documentation [in Windows itself, not AutoIt] is atrocious.)

Maybe it's just me.

(Thanks for the update - works great.  I suppose the "create folder" option is not possible...)

[trancexx]

...For example, right click on the UI and choose New->Folder.

MSDN documents flags' behavior.

You can make event handler and likely deal with it programmatically too. I haven't tried.

[Kilmatead]

...For example, right click on the UI and choose New->Folder.

There's that proverbial gun again, pointed at my head.  Sorry, forest for the trees...

I thought of an event handler first, but never having done that outside of a GUI I created myself, I probably imagine it to be worse than it is.

[BrewManNH]

I started playing with this, and I have a question. How do you make the FileSelectFolder2 window resizable? I get the double ended arrow when I hover over the lower right corner, and the bottom of the window, but clicking and dragging doesn't affect the size, it's frozen at max.

[LarsJ]

trancexx does not do anything to make the window resizable. The window is created with IFileDialog.Show (inherited from IModalWindow). This method creates a modal dialogbox which is resizable by default. When I run the example in the first post the window is resizable. I'm on Win 7 64 bit. Isn't the window resizable when you run this example?

[Valuater]

Nice Work!!!

8)

[BrewManNH]

 I get the double ended arrow when I hover over the lower right corner, and the bottom of the window, but clicking and dragging doesn't affect the size, it's frozen at max.

 

trancexx does not do anything to make the window resizable. The window is created with IFileDialog.Show (inherited from IModalWindow). This method creates a modal dialogbox which is resizable by default. When I run the example in the first post the window is resizable. I'm on Win 7 64 bit. Isn't the window resizable when you run this example?

On the computer I tested this on, it wasn't resizable. I just tested it on another computer and it can be resized. Weird.

[DigitalFacade82]

This is awesome. Thanks so much trancexx   
Now one could almost be totally unaware that they are using a AutoIT built application. I like how "polished" things are becoming, no thanks to people like your self.

Maybe someday in the not so distant future AutoIT can be remembered as not just a hacker/virus building tool and as something that great applications are be built from.