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

UPDATE 2023: Finally, with .NET 8, WPF gets a native, modern OpenFolderDialog:

var folderDialog = new OpenFolderDialog
{
    // Set options here
};

if (folderDialog.ShowDialog() == true)
{
    var folderName = folderDialog.FolderName;
    // Do something with the result
}

Does this mean that Microsoft finally invests resources in adding missing functionality to WPF? Of course not! Microsoft employees are busy enabling you to build cloud-native AI-based <insert more buzzwords here> Teams chat bots. Mundane tasks like fixing WPF to solve real-live, boring business needs are left to community volunteers like Jan, who added this folder browser dialog to .NET.

---

Old answer for .NET Framwork 4.8:

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

using (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.

---

EDIT: If you want something a bit more fancy than the plain, ugly Windows Forms FolderBrowserDialog, there are some alternatives that allow you to use the Vista dialog instead:

• Third-party libraries, such as Ookii dialogs (.NET 4.5+)

• The Windows API Code Pack-Shell:

    using Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack.Dialogs;
  
    ...
  
    var dialog = new CommonOpenFileDialog();
    dialog.IsFolderPicker = true;
    CommonFileDialogResult result = dialog.ShowDialog();
  

  Note that this dialog is not available on operating systems older than Windows Vista, so be sure to check CommonFileDialog.IsPlatformSupported first.

Answer 2

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">
    <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();
            }
        }
    }
 }

Answer 3

As stated in earlier answers, FolderBrowserDialog is the class to use for this. Some people have (justifiable) concerns with the appearance and behaviour of this dialog. The good news is that it was "modernized" in NET Core 3.0, so is now a viable option for those writing either Windows Forms or WPF apps targeting that version or later (you're out of luck if still using NET Framework though).

In .NET Core 3.0, Windows Forms users [sic] a newer COM-based control that was introduced in Windows Vista:

To reference System.Windows.Forms in a NET Core WPF app, it is necessary to edit the project file and add the following line:

<UseWindowsForms>true</UseWindowsForms>

This can be placed directly after the existing <UseWPF> element.

Then it's just a case of using the dialog:

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;

...

using var dialog = new FolderBrowserDialog
{
    Description = "Time to select a folder",
    UseDescriptionForTitle = true,
    SelectedPath = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.DesktopDirectory)
        + Path.DirectorySeparatorChar,
    ShowNewFolderButton = true
};

if (dialog.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
{
    ...
}

FolderBrowserDialog has a RootFolder property that supposedly "sets the root folder where the browsing starts from" but whatever I set this to it didn't make any difference; SelectedPath seemed to be the better property to use for this purpose, however the trailing backslash is required.

Also, the ShowNewFolderButton property seems to be ignored as well, the button is always shown regardless.

Answer 4

Ookii folder dialog can be found at Nuget.

PM> Install-Package Ookii.Dialogs.Wpf

And, example code is as below.

var dialog = new Ookii.Dialogs.Wpf.VistaFolderBrowserDialog();
if (dialog.ShowDialog(this).GetValueOrDefault())
{
    textBoxFolderPath.Text = dialog.SelectedPath;
}

More information on how to use it: https://github.com/augustoproiete/ookii-dialogs-wpf

Answer 5

For those who don't want to create a custom dialog but still prefer a 100% WPF way and don't want to use separate DDLs, additional dependencies or outdated APIs, I came up with a very simple hack using the Save As dialog.

No using directive needed, you may simply copy-paste the code below !

It should still be very user-friendly and most people will never notice.

The idea comes from the fact that we can change the title of that dialog, hide files, and work around the resulting filename quite easily.

It is a big hack for sure, but maybe it will do the job just fine for your usage...

In this example I have a textbox object to contain the resulting path, but you may remove the related lines and use a return value if you wish...

// Create a "Save As" dialog for selecting a directory (HACK)
var dialog = new Microsoft.Win32.SaveFileDialog();
dialog.InitialDirectory = textbox.Text; // Use current value for initial dir
dialog.Title = "Select a Directory"; // instead of default "Save As"
dialog.Filter = "Directory|*.this.directory"; // Prevents displaying files
dialog.FileName = "select"; // Filename will then be "select.this.directory"
if (dialog.ShowDialog() == true) {
    string path = dialog.FileName;
    // Remove fake filename from resulting path
    path = path.Replace("\\select.this.directory", "");
    path = path.Replace(".this.directory", "");
    // If user has changed the filename, create the new directory
    if (!System.IO.Directory.Exists(path)) {
        System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory(path);
    }
    // Our final value is in path
    textbox.Text = path;
}

The only issues with this hack are :

• Acknowledge button still says "Save" instead of something like "Select directory", but in a case like mines I "Save" the directory selection so it still works...
• Input field still says "File name" instead of "Directory name", but we can say that a directory is a type of file...
• There is still a "Save as type" dropdown, but its value says "Directory (*.this.directory)", and the user cannot change it for something else, works for me...

Most people won't notice these, although I would definitely prefer using an official WPF way if microsoft would get their heads out of their asses, but until they do, that's my temporary fix.

Answer 6

Ookii Dialogs includes a dialog for selecting a folder (instead of a file):

https://github.com/ookii-dialogs

Answer 7

For Directory Dialog to get the Directory Path, First Add reference System.Windows.Forms, and then Resolve, and then put this code in a button click.

    var dialog = new FolderBrowserDialog();
    dialog.ShowDialog();
    folderpathTB.Text = dialog.SelectedPath;

(folderpathTB is name of TextBox where I wana put the folder path, OR u can assign it to a string variable too i.e.)

    string folder = dialog.SelectedPath;

And if you wana get FileName/path, Simply do this on Button Click

    FileDialog fileDialog = new OpenFileDialog();
    fileDialog.ShowDialog();
    folderpathTB.Text = fileDialog.FileName;

(folderpathTB is name of TextBox where I wana put the file path, OR u can assign it to a string variable too)

Note: For Folder Dialog, the System.Windows.Forms.dll must be added to the project, otherwise it wouldn't work.

Answer 8

I found the below code on below link... and it worked Select folder dialog WPF

using Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack.Dialogs;

var dlg = new CommonOpenFileDialog();
dlg.Title = "My Title";
dlg.IsFolderPicker = true;
dlg.InitialDirectory = currentDirectory;

dlg.AddToMostRecentlyUsedList = false;
dlg.AllowNonFileSystemItems = false;
dlg.DefaultDirectory = currentDirectory;
dlg.EnsureFileExists = true;
dlg.EnsurePathExists = true;
dlg.EnsureReadOnly = false;
dlg.EnsureValidNames = true;
dlg.Multiselect = false;
dlg.ShowPlacesList = true;

if (dlg.ShowDialog() == CommonFileDialogResult.Ok) 
{
  var folder = dlg.FileName;
  // Do something with selected folder string
}

Answer 9

I'd suggest, to add in the nugget package:

  Install-Package OpenDialog

Then the way to used it is:

    Gat.Controls.OpenDialogView openDialog = new Gat.Controls.OpenDialogView();
    Gat.Controls.OpenDialogViewModel vm = (Gat.Controls.OpenDialogViewModel)openDialog.DataContext;
    vm.IsDirectoryChooser = true;
    vm.Show();

    WPFLabel.Text = vm.SelectedFilePath.ToString();

Here's the documentation: http://opendialog.codeplex.com/documentation

Works for Files, files with filter, folders, etc

Answer 10

The best way to achieve what you want is to create your own wpf based control , or use a one that was made by other people
why ? because there will be a noticeable performance impact when using the winforms dialog in a wpf application (for some reason)
i recommend this project
https://opendialog.codeplex.com/
or Nuget :

PM> Install-Package OpenDialog

it's very MVVM friendly and it isn't wraping the winforms dialog

Answer 11

The Ookii VistaFolderBrowserDialog is the one you want.

If you only want the Folder Browser from Ooki Dialogs and nothing else then download the Source, cherry-pick the files you need for the Folder browser (hint: 7 files) and it builds fine in .NET 4.5.2. I had to add a reference to System.Drawing. Compare the references in the original project to yours.

How do you figure out which files? Open your app and Ookii in different Visual Studio instances. Add VistaFolderBrowserDialog.cs to your app and keep adding files until the build errors go away. You find the dependencies in the Ookii project - Control-Click the one you want to follow back to its source (pun intended).

Here are the files you need if you're too lazy to do that ...

NativeMethods.cs
SafeHandles.cs
VistaFolderBrowserDialog.cs
\ Interop
   COMGuids.cs
   ErrorHelper.cs
   ShellComInterfaces.cs
   ShellWrapperDefinitions.cs

Edit line 197 in VistaFolderBrowserDialog.cs unless you want to include their Resources.Resx

throw new InvalidOperationException(Properties.Resources.FolderBrowserDialogNoRootFolder);

throw new InvalidOperationException("Unable to retrieve the root folder.");

Add their copyright notice to your app as per their license.txt

The code in \Ookii.Dialogs.Wpf.Sample\MainWindow.xaml.cs line 160-169 is an example you can use but you will need to remove this, from MessageBox.Show(this, for WPF.

Works on My Machine [TM]

Answer 12

None of these answers worked for me (generally there was a missing reference or something along those lines)

But this quite simply did:

Using FolderBrowserDialog in WPF application

Add a reference to System.Windows.Forms and use this code:

  var dialog = new System.Windows.Forms.FolderBrowserDialog();
  System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult result = dialog.ShowDialog();

No need to track down missing packages. Or add enormous classes

This gives me a modern folder selector that also allows you to create a new folder

I'm yet to see the impact when deployed to other machines

Answer 13

I know this is an old question, but a simple way to do this is use the FileDialog option provided by WPF and using System.IO.Path.GetDirectory(filename).

Answer 14

It seems that the Microsoft.Win32 .NET library does not support selecting folders (only files), so you are out of luck in WPF (as of 7/2022). I feel the best option now is Ookii for WPF: https://github.com/ookii-dialogs/ookii-dialogs-wpf. It works great and as expected in WPF minus Microsoft support. You can get it as a NuGet package. Code behind XAML View:

public partial class ExportRegionView : UserControl
{
    public ExportRegionView()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }
    private void SavePath(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        var dialog = new Ookii.Dialogs.Wpf.VistaFolderBrowserDialog();
        dialog.Description = "SIPAS Export Folder";
        dialog.UseDescriptionForTitle = true;
        if (dialog.ShowDialog().GetValueOrDefault())
        {
            ExportPath.Text = dialog.SelectedPath;
        }
    }
}

XAML: <Button Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="3" Style="{DynamicResource Esri_Button}" Click="SavePath" Margin="5,5,5,5">Path</Button>

Answer 15

Microsoft.Win32.OpenFolderDialog is part of .NET 8.0-preview7 and will be available in .NET 8:

• Feature request

• Approved API proposal

• Pull request

• Release .NET v8.0.0-preview.7.23375.1

Answer 16

You could use smth like this in WPF. I've created example method. Check below.

public string getFolderPath()
{
           // Create OpenFileDialog 
           Microsoft.Win32.OpenFileDialog dlg = new Microsoft.Win32.OpenFileDialog();

           OpenFileDialog openFileDialog = new OpenFileDialog();
           openFileDialog.Multiselect = false;

           openFileDialog.InitialDirectory = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments);
           if (openFileDialog.ShowDialog() == true)
           {
               System.IO.FileInfo fInfo = new System.IO.FileInfo(openFileDialog.FileName);
               return fInfo.DirectoryName;
           }
           return null;           
       }

Answer 17

Latest .NET 8 got special OpenFolderDialog - you can use it!

Answer 18

This is much simpler answer. WPF is using OpenFolderDialag from Microsoft.Win32

using Microsoft.Win32;

 public void ExportCSV_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
 {
      var dialog = new OpenFolderDialog();

      if (dialog.ShowDialog() == true)
      {
          string filePath = dialog.FolderName;
      }
 }

Answer 19

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System.Windows.Data;
using System.Windows.Documents;
using System.Windows.Input;
using System.Windows.Media;
using System.Windows.Media.Imaging;
using System.Windows.Navigation;
using System.Windows.Shapes;

namespace Gearplay
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Логика взаимодействия для OpenFolderBrows.xaml
    /// </summary>
    public partial class OpenFolderBrows : Page
    {
        internal string SelectedFolderPath { get; set; }
        public OpenFolderBrows()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            Selectedpath();
            InputLogicalPathCollection();
             
        }

        internal void Selectedpath()
        {
            Browser.Navigate(@"C:\");
            
            Browser.Navigated += Browser_Navigated;
        }

        private void Browser_Navigated(object sender, NavigationEventArgs e)
        {
            SelectedFolderPath = e.Uri.AbsolutePath.ToString();
            //MessageBox.Show(SelectedFolderPath);
        }

        private void MenuItem_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
          
           
        }
        
        string [] testing { get; set; }
        private void InputLogicalPathCollection()
        {            // add Menu items for Cotrol 
            string[] DirectoryCollection_Path = Environment.GetLogicalDrives(); // Get Local Drives
            testing = new string[DirectoryCollection_Path.Length];
            //MessageBox.Show(DirectoryCollection_Path[0].ToString());
            MenuItem[]  menuItems = new MenuItem[DirectoryCollection_Path.Length]; // Create Empty Collection
            for(int i=0;i<menuItems.Length;i++)
            {
                // Create collection depend how much logical drives 
                menuItems[i] = new MenuItem();
                menuItems[i].Header = DirectoryCollection_Path[i];
                menuItems[i].Name = DirectoryCollection_Path[i].Substring(0,DirectoryCollection_Path.Length-1);
                DirectoryCollection.Items.Add(menuItems[i]);
                menuItems[i].Click += OpenFolderBrows_Click;
                testing[i]= DirectoryCollection_Path[i].Substring(0, DirectoryCollection_Path.Length - 1);
            }

            

        }
        
        private void OpenFolderBrows_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {

            foreach (string str in testing)
            {
                if (e.OriginalSource.ToString().Contains("Header:"+str)) // Navigate to Local drive
                {
                    Browser.Navigate(str + @":\");
                   
                }


            }


        }

        private void Goback_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {// Go Back
            try
            {
                Browser.GoBack();
            }catch(Exception ex)
            {
                MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
            }
        }

        private void Goforward_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        { //Go Forward
            try
            {
                Browser.GoForward();
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
            }

        }

        private void FolderForSave_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            // Separate Click For Go Back same As Close App With send string var to Main Window ( Main class etc.) 
            this.NavigationService.GoBack();
        }
    }
}