Does WPF have a native file dialog?
WPF does have built-in (although not native) file dialogs. Specifically, they are in the slightly unexpected Microsoft.Win32
namespace (although still part of WPF). See the OpenFileDialog
and SaveFileDialog
classes in particular.
Do however note that these classes are only wrappers around the Win32 functionality, as the parent namespace suggests. It does however mean that you don't need to do any WinForms or Win32 interop, which makes it somewhat nicer to use. Unfortunately, the dialogs are by default style in the "old" Windows theme, and you need a small hack in app.manifest
to force it to use the new one.
You can create a simple attached property to add this functionality to a TextBox. Open file dialog can be used like this:
<Grid> <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <ColumnDefinition Width="*"/> <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/> </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <TextBox i:OpenFileDialogEx.Filter="Excel documents (.xls)|*.xls" Grid.Column="0" /> <Button Grid.Column="1">Browse</Button></Grid>
The code for OpenFileDialogEx:
public class OpenFileDialogEx{ public static readonly DependencyProperty FilterProperty = DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached("Filter", typeof (string), typeof (OpenFileDialogEx), new PropertyMetadata("All documents (.*)|*.*", (d, e) => AttachFileDialog((TextBox) d, e))); public static string GetFilter(UIElement element) { return (string)element.GetValue(FilterProperty); } public static void SetFilter(UIElement element, string value) { element.SetValue(FilterProperty, value); } private static void AttachFileDialog(TextBox textBox, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs args) { var parent = (Panel) textBox.Parent; parent.Loaded += delegate { var button = (Button) parent.Children.Cast<object>().FirstOrDefault(x => x is Button); var filter = (string) args.NewValue; button.Click += (s, e) => { var dlg = new OpenFileDialog(); dlg.Filter = filter; var result = dlg.ShowDialog(); if (result == true) { textBox.Text = dlg.FileName; } }; }; }}
I used the solution presented by Gregor S. and it works well, although I had to convert it to a VB.NET solution, here is my conversion if it helps anyone...
Imports SystemImports Microsoft.Win32Public Class OpenFileDialogEx Public Shared ReadOnly FilterProperty As DependencyProperty = DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached("Filter", GetType(String), GetType(OpenFileDialogEx), New PropertyMetadata("All documents (.*)|*.*", Sub(d, e) AttachFileDialog(DirectCast(d, TextBox), e))) Public Shared Function GetFilter(element As UIElement) As String Return DirectCast(element.GetValue(FilterProperty), String) End Function Public Shared Sub SetFilter(element As UIElement, value As String) element.SetValue(FilterProperty, value) End Sub Private Shared Sub AttachFileDialog(textBox As TextBox, args As DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs) Dim parent = DirectCast(textBox.Parent, Panel) AddHandler parent.Loaded, Sub() Dim button = DirectCast(parent.Children.Cast(Of Object)().FirstOrDefault(Function(x) TypeOf x Is Button), Button) Dim filter = DirectCast(args.NewValue, String) AddHandler button.Click, Sub(s, e) Dim dlg = New OpenFileDialog() dlg.Filter = filter Dim result = dlg.ShowDialog() If result = True Then textBox.Text = dlg.FileName End If End Sub End Sub End SubEnd Class