FileControls

Description

Yes, it's true, the VB file controls are outdated, weak, finicky, blah, blah, blah. They also work fairly well, when you just need a simple pick list. The problem has always been, they're very tedious to set up properly. This project solves that, by providing a drop-in ready UserControl module for use in either VB5 or VB6. The UserControl contains a DriveListBox, a DirListBix and an ordinary ListBox, stacked vertically:

The image control (thin dashed rectangle) you see near the bottom is used at runtime as a sliding window splitter, to adjust the size of the DirListBox and ListBox controls.

You might notice the two radio buttons on the test form? Those toggle the control's Style property, which determines whether the DriveList is shown on top or bottom. In all cases, the DirListBox is in the middle.

Other properties of interest include:

  • BackColor: sets/returns the color used for the bars between constituent controls.
  • Drive: sets/returns currently selected drive.
  • FileCount: returns the number of files found in current Path that match Pattern.
  • FileName: returns name of currently selected file.
  • Files: psuedo-array of all the files in the currently selected folder.
  • FullFileName: returns full name, including path, of currently selected file.
  • Path: sets/returns currently selected folder.
  • Pattern: sets/returns the (optionally multipart) file specification.
  • Spacing: sets/returns the number of pixels between constituent controls.

Note: There are two string functions, Replace and Split, coded up for use in VB5 which really ought to be commented out if used in VB6! The demo, as packaged, has them so commented just to be safe. If you try running the demo and an error is generated in one of these two places, you are running VB5 and need to uncomment these two functions. They may be found at the bottom of the CTL file.

Color-coded with vbMarkUp - try it today!
Public Property Let Pattern( _
   ByVal NewValue As String)
   ' Assign delimited list to child control,
   ' replacing all commas with semi-colons, 
   ' and eliminating spaces.
   m_Pattern = Replace$( _
      Replace$(NewValue, " ", ""), ",", ";")
   Call UpdateFileList
   PropertyChanged "Pattern"
End Property
Private Sub UpdateFileList()
   Dim Specs As Variant
   Dim FileName As String
   Dim FilePath As String
   Dim Attr As Long
   Dim i As Long

   ' Clear current settings.
   File1.Clear
   m_FullFileName = ""

   ' Parse out current pattern specifications.
   Specs = Split(m_Pattern, ";")
   FilePath = Me.Path

   ' Find all matching files and add to list.
   For i = LBound(Specs) To UBound(Specs)
      FileName = Dir(FilePath & Specs(i))
      Do While Len(FileName)
         ' Make sure this isn't a directory.
         Attr = GetAttr(FilePath & FileName)
         If (Attr And vbDirectory) = 0 Then
            File1.AddItem FileName
         End If
         FileName = Dir()
      Loop
   Next i
End Sub

That native ListBox control was chosen over the FileListBox for several reasons. Principle among them being its support for the IntegralHeight property. Setting that to False allows us to far more cleanly adjust the vertical dimensions of the overall UserControl. Of course, this design means that we need to replicate the Pattern property (basic idea shown above) the FileListBox brings to the game. The side-benefit of this design is that we are free to inject any other criteria we wish into the UpdateFileList routine. Perhaps you only want to show files of a certain size or age? This is where'd you do that!

This control isn't necessarily meant for industrial usage, but I think you'll find it really useful in all those quick knock-offs you no doubt toss together "just to get the job done!" Enjoy.

  





Published

This sample hasn't been published anywhere except here on this website, but first rights to such publication are jealously guarded - you have been warned. <g>

APIs Usage

No APIs were harmed in the making of this sample.

Download

Download FileControls.zip   Please, enjoy and learn from this sample. Include its code within your own projects, if you wish. But, in order to insure only the most recent code is available to all, I ask that you don't share the sample by any form of mass distribution.

Download FileControls.zip, 7Kb, Last Updated: Tuesday, July 11, 2006

See Also

The following resources may also be of interest: