Channel 9 Forums - The Sandbox - Vista style file dialogs for .Net 2.0 http://mschnlnine.vo.llnwd.net/d1/Dev/App_Themes/C9/images/feedimage.png Channel 9 Forums - The Sandbox - Vista style file dialogs for .Net 2.0 http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums Channel 9 keeps you up to date with the latest news and behind the scenes info from Microsoft that developers love to keep up with. From LINQ to SilverLight – Watch videos and hear about all the cool technologies coming and the people behind them. http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums en Thu, 23 May 2013 15:18:05 GMT Thu, 23 May 2013 15:18:05 GMT Rev9 9 -9 -1 The Sandbox - Vista style file dialogs for .Net 2.0 Microsoft Windows Vista has brand new common file dialogs, but unfortunately the OpenFileDialog, SaveFileDialog and FolderBrowserDialog classes from System.Windows.Forms do not use them; they still get the old-style dialogs (want to know why?).

Ookii.VistaDialogs is a .Net 2.0 class library that allows you to use these new-style dialogs exactly the same way as you use the normal dialogs. In addition, it has been created in such a way that you can target both Vista and older versions of Windows (which don't have this new-style dialog) without any additional effort on your part.

These classes have the exact same public interface as the original FileDialog classes in .Net, so all you need to do is replace all instances of the original classes with my classes in your code, and you're good to go. Like I said the classes fall back if the Vista style dialog is not supported, so it supports older versions of Windows as well.

For detailed usage instructions see the included readme.txt.

UPDATE 2006-12-02: Uploaded version 1.2.

Version history:
1.2:
  • Updated to use Interop files from the Windows SDK "VistaBridge" sample.
1.1:
  • Fixed a resource loading bug that could lead to incorrect UI strings on Vista when the Windows UI language does not match the system code page when certain properties of the VistaFileDialog classes were set.
1.0:
  • First release.

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Sandbox/Vista-style-file-dialogs-for-Net-20/230925#230925 Tue, 19 Sep 2006 15:48:16 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Sandbox/Vista-style-file-dialogs-for-Net-20/230925#230925 Sven Groot 9 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/Sven Groot/Discussions/RSS The Sandbox - Vista style file dialogs for .Net 2.0 Wow! This is sweet. You mention some hooks that needed to be installed to get all the functionality the current .NET classes provide. By using the new dialogs, those hooks are no longer required?

I hope this gets adopted as fast as possible and is already avaialble in .NET 3.0!

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Sandbox/Vista-style-file-dialogs-for-Net-20/18ae884e37c147d1911a9dea01070c8c#18ae884e37c147d1911a9dea01070c8c Mon, 02 Oct 2006 12:57:58 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Sandbox/Vista-style-file-dialogs-for-Net-20/18ae884e37c147d1911a9dea01070c8c#18ae884e37c147d1911a9dea01070c8c Christian Liensberger 9 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/littleguru/Discussions/RSS The Sandbox - Vista style file dialogs for .Net 2.0
littleguru wrote:
Wow! This is sweet. You mention some hooks that needed to be installed to get all the functionality the current .NET classes provide. By using the new dialogs, those hooks are no longer required?

Yes, that's the case.

.Net's own file dialog classes use the old API (naturally), and they must use a dialog hook. For example, the dialogs fire the FileOk event (which is a cancellable event) when the user clicks OK. With the old API, there is no way to determine when the OK button is pushed without using a hook. It is because .Net uses a hook that it gets the old dialogs, because the new dialogs don't support hooks. If you use the old API without using hooks, you get the new dialogs, but for .Net this is impossible if you want to preserve all functionality.

The new API is completely different from the old one. It provides far more powerful ways to customize the dialog, and it also provides a proper event model (in the COM way so an event interface that needs to be implemented on an event sink object which is then registered with the dialog). This is what I used to replicate the additional functionality. It's really a very nice API (the only drawback is that it's hell to interop with due to the lack of a type library and the use of handle values).

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Sandbox/Vista-style-file-dialogs-for-Net-20/19b190a4dae748e9a71c9dea01070cb8#19b190a4dae748e9a71c9dea01070cb8 Mon, 02 Oct 2006 20:33:26 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Sandbox/Vista-style-file-dialogs-for-Net-20/19b190a4dae748e9a71c9dea01070cb8#19b190a4dae748e9a71c9dea01070cb8 Sven Groot 9 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/Sven Groot/Discussions/RSS The Sandbox - Vista style file dialogs for .Net 2.0     Sven, I am sorry to tell you that you are actually reinventing the wheel, the Windows Vista SDK already comes with a great example of how to wrap the new vista dialog APIs in .net, they are both callable from windows forms and WPF applications, it is located in:

Your Installation Driver:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0\Samples\CrossTechnologySamples\VistaBridge

Sheva

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Sandbox/Vista-style-file-dialogs-for-Net-20/d45fee13c03446a0bef09dea01070cfa#d45fee13c03446a0bef09dea01070cfa Wed, 04 Oct 2006 13:09:25 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Sandbox/Vista-style-file-dialogs-for-Net-20/d45fee13c03446a0bef09dea01070cfa#d45fee13c03446a0bef09dea01070cfa Zhou Yong 9 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/footballism/Discussions/RSS The Sandbox - Vista style file dialogs for .Net 2.0 This is really amazing. Nice work and neat code Big Smile

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Sandbox/Vista-style-file-dialogs-for-Net-20/db57801693f44c518e729dea01070d3b#db57801693f44c518e729dea01070d3b Mon, 16 Oct 2006 07:43:48 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Sandbox/Vista-style-file-dialogs-for-Net-20/db57801693f44c518e729dea01070d3b#db57801693f44c518e729dea01070d3b Waleed El-Badry 9 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/VBCoder/Discussions/RSS The Sandbox - Vista style file dialogs for .Net 2.0 Here is the MSDN link for the SDK sample mentioned above if you don't want to install the whole Windows SDK:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms756482.aspx

However, the example application shows many things and depends on WPF, so to be able to compile/run it, you'll need it anyway.

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Sandbox/Vista-style-file-dialogs-for-Net-20/63a60fb46f2246ac96f49dea01070d7d#63a60fb46f2246ac96f49dea01070d7d Sat, 02 Dec 2006 01:58:58 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Sandbox/Vista-style-file-dialogs-for-Net-20/63a60fb46f2246ac96f49dea01070d7d#63a60fb46f2246ac96f49dea01070d7d Karby 9 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/Karby/Discussions/RSS The Sandbox - Vista style file dialogs for .Net 2.0 Thanks for reminding me about this thread. Smiley

I still had an update to upload. It fixes a bug, and uses the interop classes from the sample Footballism mentioned instead of my own.

EDIT: If you're wondering why I don't just use the library from that sample instead of writing my own, it's because the library from the sample doesn't take non-Vista OSs into account, so you'd still have to write your own fallback code unless you want to support only Vista. With my library you get that for free, and since it uses the exact same public interface as the original FileDialog classes it's trivial to plug it into an existing application.

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Sandbox/Vista-style-file-dialogs-for-Net-20/3f3c64554a044f0a8b669dea01070da7#3f3c64554a044f0a8b669dea01070da7 Sat, 02 Dec 2006 18:17:15 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Sandbox/Vista-style-file-dialogs-for-Net-20/3f3c64554a044f0a8b669dea01070da7#3f3c64554a044f0a8b669dea01070da7 Sven Groot 9 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/Sven Groot/Discussions/RSS The Sandbox - Vista style file dialogs for .Net 2.0 Yup, what Sven said Smiley.

I'm actually the VistaBridge developer (or the main one, at any rate - there have been several contributors over the past several months that are adding content), and Sven speaketh the truth. The VistaBridge sample lib currently has very little fallback for pre-Vista OS versions, and that is somewhat by design, at least in terms of our priorities around geting exposure to the new Vista APIs. I'm working on a version 1.1 (which really should be 0.9, but hey) that will be on my blog in "a while" that has a bit more fallback behavior, but it won't be super-rich - 1.1 will have more feature work rather than revisiting what is there now, so don't expect miracles there.

More info at me blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/jtchris/

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Sandbox/Vista-style-file-dialogs-for-Net-20/3d034b3613f04dceb3109dea01070de9#3d034b3613f04dceb3109dea01070de9 Mon, 04 Dec 2006 17:54:43 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Sandbox/Vista-style-file-dialogs-for-Net-20/3d034b3613f04dceb3109dea01070de9#3d034b3613f04dceb3109dea01070de9 jeffchri 9 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/jeffchri/Discussions/RSS The Sandbox - Vista style file dialogs for .Net 2.0 Hi Jeff, great to hear from the guy behind the sample. Smiley

It's clear that the VistaBridge sample and my own Ookii.VistaDialogs serve a different purpose: VistaBridge aims to make new functionality available to .Net apps, while with Ookii.VistaDialogs I just wanted to get the file dialogs to look "right" on Vista (especially since I've grown very fond of the "favorite links" bar Cool ) in such a way I could easily put it in apps targetting multiple versions of Windows.

Both approaches are valid, of course.

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Sandbox/Vista-style-file-dialogs-for-Net-20/642f461b8ad44885a7f39dea01070e14#642f461b8ad44885a7f39dea01070e14 Mon, 04 Dec 2006 22:20:02 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Sandbox/Vista-style-file-dialogs-for-Net-20/642f461b8ad44885a7f39dea01070e14#642f461b8ad44885a7f39dea01070e14 Sven Groot 9 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/Sven Groot/Discussions/RSS