FolderBrowserDialog.RootFolder Property

Definition

Namespace:

System.Windows.Forms

Assembly:

System.Windows.Forms.dll

Source:

FolderBrowserDialog.cs

Gets or sets the root folder where the browsing starts from.

C#

[System.ComponentModel.Browsable(true)]
[System.ComponentModel.TypeConverter(typeof(System.Windows.Forms.SpecialFolderEnumConverter))]
public Environment.SpecialFolder RootFolder { get; set; }

Property Value

Environment.SpecialFolder

One of the Environment.SpecialFolder values. The default is Desktop.

Attributes

BrowsableAttribute TypeConverterAttribute

Exceptions

InvalidEnumArgumentException

The value assigned is not one of the Environment.SpecialFolder values.

Examples

The following code example creates an application that enables the user to open rich text (.rtf) files within the RichTextBox control.

C#

// The following example displays an application that provides the ability to 
// open rich text files (rtf) into the RichTextBox. The example demonstrates 
// using the FolderBrowserDialog to set the default directory for opening files.
// The OpenFileDialog class is used to open the file.
using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.IO;

public class FolderBrowserDialogExampleForm : System.Windows.Forms.Form
{
    private FolderBrowserDialog folderBrowserDialog1;
    private OpenFileDialog openFileDialog1;

    private RichTextBox richTextBox1;

    private MenuStrip mainMenu1;
    private ToolStripMenuItem fileMenuItem, openMenuItem;
    private ToolStripMenuItem folderMenuItem, closeMenuItem;

    private string openFileName, folderName;

    private bool fileOpened = false;

    // The main entry point for the application.
    [STAThreadAttribute]
    static void Main()
    {
        Application.Run(new FolderBrowserDialogExampleForm());
    }

    // Constructor.
    public FolderBrowserDialogExampleForm()
    {
        this.mainMenu1 = new MenuStrip();

        this.fileMenuItem = new ToolStripMenuItem();
        this.openMenuItem = new ToolStripMenuItem();
        this.folderMenuItem = new ToolStripMenuItem();
        this.closeMenuItem = new ToolStripMenuItem();

        this.openFileDialog1 = new OpenFileDialog();
        this.folderBrowserDialog1 = new FolderBrowserDialog();
        this.richTextBox1 = new RichTextBox();

        this.mainMenu1.Items.Add(this.fileMenuItem);

        this.fileMenuItem.Text = "File";
        this.fileMenuItem.DropDownItems.AddRange(
            new ToolStripItem[] {
                this.openMenuItem,
                this.closeMenuItem,
                this.folderMenuItem
            }
        );

        this.openMenuItem.Text = "Open...";
        this.openMenuItem.Click += new EventHandler(this.openMenuItem_Click);

        this.folderMenuItem.Text = "Select Directory...";
        this.folderMenuItem.Click += new EventHandler(this.folderMenuItem_Click);

        this.closeMenuItem.Text = "Close";
        this.closeMenuItem.Click += new EventHandler(this.closeMenuItem_Click);
        this.closeMenuItem.Enabled = false;

        this.openFileDialog1.DefaultExt = "rtf";
        this.openFileDialog1.Filter = "rtf files (*.rtf)|*.rtf";

        // Set the help text description for the FolderBrowserDialog.
        this.folderBrowserDialog1.Description =
            "Select the directory that you want to use as the default.";

        // Do not allow the user to create new files via the FolderBrowserDialog.
        this.folderBrowserDialog1.ShowNewFolderButton = false;

        // Default to the My Documents folder.
        this.folderBrowserDialog1.RootFolder = Environment.SpecialFolder.Personal;

        this.richTextBox1.AcceptsTab = true;
        this.richTextBox1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(8, 40);
        this.richTextBox1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(280, 312);
        this.richTextBox1.Anchor = (
            AnchorStyles.Top |
            AnchorStyles.Left |
            AnchorStyles.Bottom |
            AnchorStyles.Right
        );

        this.ClientSize = new System.Drawing.Size(296, 360);
        this.Controls.Add(this.mainMenu1);
        this.Controls.Add(this.richTextBox1);
        this.MainMenuStrip = this.mainMenu1;
        this.Text = "RTF Document Browser";
    }

    // Bring up a dialog to open a file.
    private void openMenuItem_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        // If a file is not opened, then set the initial directory to the
        // FolderBrowserDialog.SelectedPath value.
        if (!fileOpened) {
            openFileDialog1.InitialDirectory = folderBrowserDialog1.SelectedPath;
            openFileDialog1.FileName = null;
        }

        // Display the openFile dialog.
        DialogResult result = openFileDialog1.ShowDialog();

        // OK button was pressed.
        if (result == DialogResult.OK)
        {
            openFileName = openFileDialog1.FileName;
            try
            {
                // Output the requested file in richTextBox1.
                Stream s = openFileDialog1.OpenFile();
                richTextBox1.LoadFile(s, RichTextBoxStreamType.RichText);
                s.Close();

                fileOpened = true;
            }
            catch (Exception exp)
            {
                MessageBox.Show("An error occurred while attempting to load the file. The error is:"
                                + System.Environment.NewLine + exp.ToString() + System.Environment.NewLine);
                fileOpened = false;
            }
            Invalidate();

            closeMenuItem.Enabled = fileOpened;
        }

        // Cancel button was pressed.
        else if (result == DialogResult.Cancel)
        {
            return;
        }
    }

    // Close the current file.
    private void closeMenuItem_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        richTextBox1.Text = "";
        fileOpened = false;

        closeMenuItem.Enabled = false;
    }

    // Bring up a dialog to choose a folder path in which to open or save a file.
    private void folderMenuItem_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        // Show the FolderBrowserDialog.
        DialogResult result = folderBrowserDialog1.ShowDialog();
        if (result == DialogResult.OK)
        {
            folderName = folderBrowserDialog1.SelectedPath;
            if (!fileOpened)
            {
                // No file is opened, bring up openFileDialog in selected path.
                openFileDialog1.InitialDirectory = folderName;
                openFileDialog1.FileName = null;
                openMenuItem.PerformClick();
            }
        }
    }
}

Remarks

Only the specified folder and any subfolders that are beneath it will appear in the dialog box and be selectable. The SelectedPath property, along with RootFolder, determines what the selected folder will be when the dialog box is displayed, as long as SelectedPath is an absolute path that is a subfolder of RootFolder (or more accurately, points to a subfolder of the shell namespace represented by RootFolder).

Applies to