Why FolderBrowserDialog dialog does not scroll to selected folder?

Question

As show in this screen shot, the selected folder is not in the view. It needs to be scrolled down to view the selected folder.

Same dialog shows selected folder visible on different computer

I ran it on two computers both having windows 7. It works correctly on one but does not on 2nd. It looks something with windows environment instead some code issue? Can anyone suggest any fix?

There is no change in code. I used longer paths from different drives but results are same.

private void TestDialog_Click ( object sender, EventArgs e )
        {
            //Last path store the selected path, to show the same directory as selected on next application launch.
            //Properties.Settings.Default.LastPath

            FolderBrowserDialog dlgFolder = new FolderBrowserDialog ();

            dlgFolder.RootFolder = Environment.SpecialFolder.DesktopDirectory;

            dlgFolder.SelectedPath = Properties.Settings.Default.LastPath;

            if (dlgFolder.ShowDialog () == System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK)
            {

                Properties.Settings.Default.LastPath = dlgFolder.SelectedPath;               

                Properties.Settings.Default.Save ();
            }

        }

Answer 1

The fundamental problem is a poor design decision in the FolderBrowserDialog. First, we need to realize that the FolderBrowserDialog is not a .NET control, but is rather the Common Dialog and is part of Windows. The designer of this dialog elected not to send the TreeView control a TVM_ENSUREVISIBLE message after the dialog is displayed and an initial folder is selected. This message causes a TreeView control to scroll so that the currently selected item is visible in the window.

So, all we need to do to fix this is to send the TreeView that is part of the FolderBrowserDialog the TVM_ENSUREVISIBLE message and everything will be great. Right? Well, not so fast. This is indeed the answer, but there some things standing in our way.

• First, because the FolderBrowserDialog is not really a .NET control, it does not have an internal Controls collection. This means that we can't just find and access the TreeView child control from .NET.

• Second, the designers of the .NET FolderBrowserDialog class decided to seal this class. This unfortunate decision prevents us from deriving from it and overriding the window message handler. Had we been able to do this, we might have tried to post the TVM_ENSUREVISIBLE message when we got the WM_SHOWWINDOW message in the message handler.

• The third issue is that we can’t send the TVM_ENSUREVISIBLE message until the Tree View control actually exists as a real window, and it does not exist until we call the ShowDialog method. However, this method blocks, so we won’t have the opportunity to post our message once this method is called.

To get around these issues, I created a static helper class with a single method that can be used to show a FolderBrowserDialog, and will cause it to scroll to the selected folder. I manage this by starting a short Timer just prior to calling the dialogue's ShowDialog method, and then tracking down the handle of the TreeView control in the Timer handler (i.e., after the dialogue is displayed) and sending our TVM_ENSUREVISIBLE message.

This solution is not perfect because it depends on some prior knowledge about the FolderBrowserDialog. Specifically, I find the dialogue using its window title. This will break with non-English installations. I track down the child controls in the dialogue using their dialogue Item IDs, rather than title text or class name, because I felt this would be more reliable over time.

This code has been tested on Windows 7 (64 bit), and Windows XP.

Here is the code: (You may need: using System.Runtime.InteropServices;)

public static class FolderBrowserLauncher
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Using title text to look for the top level dialog window is fragile.
    /// In particular, this will fail in non-English applications.
    /// </summary>
    const string _topLevelSearchString = "Browse For Folder";

    /// <summary>
    /// These should be more robust.  We find the correct child controls in the dialog
    /// by using the GetDlgItem method, rather than the FindWindow(Ex) method,
    /// because the dialog item IDs should be constant.
    /// </summary>
    const int _dlgItemBrowseControl = 0;
    const int _dlgItemTreeView = 100;

    [DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
    static extern IntPtr FindWindow(string lpClassName, string lpWindowName);

    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    static extern IntPtr GetDlgItem(IntPtr hDlg, int nIDDlgItem);

    [DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
    static extern IntPtr SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, UInt32 Msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);

    /// <summary>
    /// Some of the messages that the Tree View control will respond to
    /// </summary>
    private const int TV_FIRST = 0x1100;
    private const int TVM_SELECTITEM = (TV_FIRST + 11);
    private const int TVM_GETNEXTITEM = (TV_FIRST + 10);
    private const int TVM_GETITEM = (TV_FIRST + 12);
    private const int TVM_ENSUREVISIBLE = (TV_FIRST + 20);

    /// <summary>
    /// Constants used to identity specific items in the Tree View control
    /// </summary>
    private const int TVGN_ROOT = 0x0;
    private const int TVGN_NEXT = 0x1;
    private const int TVGN_CHILD = 0x4;
    private const int TVGN_FIRSTVISIBLE = 0x5;
    private const int TVGN_NEXTVISIBLE = 0x6;
    private const int TVGN_CARET = 0x9;


    /// <summary>
    /// Calling this method is identical to calling the ShowDialog method of the provided
    /// FolderBrowserDialog, except that an attempt will be made to scroll the Tree View
    /// to make the currently selected folder visible in the dialog window.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="dlg"></param>
    /// <param name="parent"></param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public static DialogResult ShowFolderBrowser( FolderBrowserDialog dlg, IWin32Window parent = null )
    {
        DialogResult result = DialogResult.Cancel;
        int retries = 10;

        using (Timer t = new Timer())
        {
            t.Tick += (s, a) =>
            {
                if (retries > 0)
                {
                    --retries;
                    IntPtr hwndDlg = FindWindow((string)null, _topLevelSearchString);
                    if (hwndDlg != IntPtr.Zero)
                    {
                        IntPtr hwndFolderCtrl = GetDlgItem(hwndDlg, _dlgItemBrowseControl);
                        if (hwndFolderCtrl != IntPtr.Zero)
                        {
                            IntPtr hwndTV = GetDlgItem(hwndFolderCtrl, _dlgItemTreeView);

                            if (hwndTV != IntPtr.Zero)
                            {
                                IntPtr item = SendMessage(hwndTV, (uint)TVM_GETNEXTITEM, new IntPtr(TVGN_CARET), IntPtr.Zero);
                                if (item != IntPtr.Zero)
                                {
                                    SendMessage(hwndTV, TVM_ENSUREVISIBLE, IntPtr.Zero, item);
                                    retries = 0;
                                    t.Stop();
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }

                else
                {
                    //
                    //  We failed to find the Tree View control.
                    //
                    //  As a fall back (and this is an UberUgly hack), we will send
                    //  some fake keystrokes to the application in an attempt to force
                    //  the Tree View to scroll to the selected item.
                    //
                    t.Stop();
                    SendKeys.Send("{TAB}{TAB}{DOWN}{DOWN}{UP}{UP}");
                }
            };

            t.Interval = 10;
            t.Start();

            result = dlg.ShowDialog( parent );
        }

        return result;
    }
}