System.Shell.chooseFile method

[ The Windows Gadget Platform/Sidebar is available for use in the operating systems specified in the Requirements section. It may be altered or unavailable in subsequent versions. ]

Displays a file picker dialog box and retrieves a System.Shell.Item object that represents the selected file.

Syntax

objRetVal = System.Shell.chooseFile(
  bForOpen,
  strFilter,
  strInitialDirectory,
  strFileInit
)

Parameters

bForOpen [in]

Boolean that specifies the type of file picker dialog box to display.

(true)

Open.

(false)

Save As.

Return value

A System.Shell.Item that represents the selected file.

Remarks

strFilter requires the double-colon terminator as the filter string must be terminated by two NULL characters.

The first string in each pair is a display string that describes the filter (for example, Text Files), and the second string specifies the filter pattern (for example, *.TXT). To specify multiple filter patterns for a single display string, use a semicolon to separate the patterns (for example, *.TXT;*.DOC;*.BAK). A pattern string can be a combination of valid file name characters and the asterisk (*) wildcard character. Do not include spaces in the pattern string.

The system displays the filters in the order specified by strFilter in the File Types combo box.

If strFilter is an empty string, the dialog box does not display any filters.

The chooseFile Open dialog box:

The chooseFile Save As dialog box:

Examples

The following example demonstrates how to specify .txt and .reg files for the file picker dialog box.

// Create a shell item object.
var oShellItem = System.Shell.chooseFile(true, "Text File:*.txt:Reg File:*.reg::", "C:\\", "");

Requirements