Folder chooser dialog in VC++

Before Visual Studio 2010 , there was no built in class to support Folder chooser dialog in VC++.

Win32 function SHBrowseForFolder() can be used for this purpose.
Following code snippet shows how we can use it.

void OpenDirectory(std::wstring& selectedDirectory)
{
	BROWSEINFO   bi;
	ZeroMemory(&bi, sizeof(bi));
	TCHAR   szDisplayName[MAX_PATH];
	szDisplayName[0] = ' ';

	bi.hwndOwner = NULL;
	bi.pidlRoot = NULL;
	bi.pszDisplayName = szDisplayName;
	bi.lpszTitle = _T("Title");
	bi.ulFlags = BIF_RETURNONLYFSDIRS;
	bi.lParam = NULL;
	bi.iImage = 0;

	LPITEMIDLIST   pidl = SHBrowseForFolder(&bi);
	TCHAR   szPathName[256];


	if (NULL != pidl)
	{
		BOOL bRet = SHGetPathFromIDList(pidl, szPathName);
				
		if (bRet)
		{
			selectedDirectory = &szPathName[0];
		}

	}
}

Usage

CDialogEx::OnOK();
std::wstring sDir;
OpenDirectory(sDir);
std::wstring sMessage(L"Directory Selected is: ");
sMessage += sDir;
AfxMessageBox(sMessage.c_str());	

From VS 2010 onward we have the built in class CFolderPickerDialog for folder choose purpose.

following code snipplet shows how we can use it From VS 2010 on wards

void OpenDirectory2(std::wstring& sInitialDirectory, std::wstring& selectedDirectory)
{
	
	/// <summary>
	/// CFolderPickerDialog constructor</summary>
	/// <param name="lpszFolder">Initial folder</param>
	/// <param name="dwFlags">A combination of one or more flags that allow you to customize the dialog box</param>
	/// <param name="pParentWnd">A pointer to the file dialog-box object's parent or owner window</param>
	/// <param name="dwSize">The size of the OPENFILENAME structure</param>
	//explicit CFolderPickerDialog(LPCTSTR lpszFolder = NULL, DWORD dwFlags = 0, CWnd* pParentWnd = NULL, DWORD dwSize = 0, BOOL fNonFileSystemFolders = FALSE);
	
	CFolderPickerDialog FolderSelectDialog(sInitialDirectory.c_str());

	if (FolderSelectDialog.DoModal() == IDOK)
	{
		CString cBuff = FolderSelectDialog.GetPathName();
		selectedDirectory = std::wstring(cBuff);
	}
}

Usage

std::wstring sInitialDirectory(L"c:\\");
OpenDirectory2(sInitialDirectory, sDir);
sMessage.clear();
sMessage = L"Directory Selected is: ";
sMessage += sDir;
AfxMessageBox(sMessage.c_str());