DDXFile v1.34

For developers who use MFC this is a freeware control which subclasses an edit control to allow you to easily specify a file. When the edit control is correctly setup it will look like:

The button beside the edit control sports a tooltip when the button is over it and when the button is hit a modified version of the common file open dialog is displayed to allow the user to select a filename as:

DDXFile Sample 2

Both the caption and file extension filter can be customized. In addition the control integrates with the AutoCompletion functionality of Windows, so that a drop down list appears underneath the edit control which allows the user to quickly select a specific file. Other methods allow the developer to customize whether overwrites are notified to the user and only existing files allowed. The code is most useful when you want to specify a filename from somewhere in the user interface but don't necessarily want to "Open" or "Save" a file. Note that the default button has the text "OK" as opposed to "Save" or "Open" which is what you normally would get with the standard common file dialogs.

Contacting the Author

Features

Simple DDX and DDV function which you can use in your MFC code.
All the code is fully UNICODE compliant.
Includes autocompletion functionality.
A simple test app is included.

Copyright

You are allowed to include the source code in any product (commercial, shareware, freeware or otherwise) when your product is released in binary form.
You are allowed to modify the source code in any way you want except you cannot modify the copyright details at the top of each module.
If you want to distribute source code with your application, then you are only allowed to distribute versions released by the author. This is to maintain a single distribution point for the source code.

Usage

To use DDXFile in your project simply include DDXFile.cpp and the IDS_DDXFILE_* and IDP_DDXFILE_* string resources from the test application in your application. Then #include DDXFile.h in which ever of your modules requires it and make the appropriate calls. Included is a simple dialog based application which shows how to use it. Basically at a minimum, all you need to do is add to your DoDataExchange function as follows:

void CTestgetfileDlg::DoDataExchange(CDataExchange* pDX)

{
//Let the base class do its thing

__super::DoDataExchange(pDX);

DDX_FilenameControl(pDX, IDC_FILENAME, m_ctrlGetFilename);

}

As of v1.21, the code now uses ATL's CComPtr class to provide some of the AutoCompletion functionality. This does mean that for MFC only client projects, you will need to add ATL support to your project.
As of v1.29 the classes are now designed for VC 2017 or later. They will not compile on earlier releases of VC.

History

v1.34 (1 April 2022)

Updated copyright details.
Updated the code to use C++ uniform initialization for all variable declarations.

v1.33 (3 May 2020)

Fixed more Clang-Tidy static code analysis warnings in the code.

v1.32 (14 March 2020)

Updated copyright details.
Fixed more Clang-Tidy static code analysis warnings in the code.

v1.31 (21 December 2019)

Fixed various Clang-Tidy static code analysis warnings in the code.

v1.30 (18 May 2019)

Updated copyright details.
Updated the code to clean compile on VC 2019

v1.29 (9 July 2018)

Updated copyright details.
Fixed a number of C++ core guidelines compiler warnings. These changes mean that the code will now only compile on VC 2017 or later.

v1.28 (24 September 2017)

Updated copyright details.
Replaced NULL throughout the codebase with nullptr. This means that the minimum requirement for the framework is now VC 2010.
Reworked the code in CGetFilenameControl::InitializeAutoComplete to use ATL::CComPtr::CoCreateInstance.
All the code has had SAL annotations added.

v1.27 (11 November 2015)

Verified the code compiles cleanly on VC 2015.
Updated the sample apps main icon.
Updated copyright details.

v1.26 (23 December 2014)

If the main edit control is now hidden, the buddy buttton is now also hidden. The corrolary of if the main edit control is now shown, then the buddy button is now also shown. Thanks to Rene Laviolette for requesting this update.

v1.25 (1 March 2014)

Updated copyright details.
Updated MFC message maps in sample app and in DDXFile module to use C++ standard for pointers to member methods.
Reworked DDX_FilenameControl to use DDX_Control for most of its functionality
Reworked how the code exposes the bVistaStyle support in the MFC CFileDialog class. The code now uses the MSC C++ __if_exists / __if_not_exists statements
Updated the code to clean compile on VC 2013 & 2012.
Updated the code to clean compile using /analyze

v1.24 (10 September 2011)

Updated copyright details.
Verified code compiles cleanly on VC 2010
Fixed an access violation bug in CDDXFileModifyButton::PreTranslateMessage if the IDS_DDXFILE_EDIT_TEXT string resource is not loaded

v1.23 (21 December 2008)

Updated copyright details
Removed VC 6 style AppWizard comments from the code
InitializeAutoComplete now returns a HRESULT instead of a BOOL
Updated DDX_FileControl code to be consistent with DDX_Control in VC 2008
The code has now been updated to support VC 2005 or later only
Code now compiles cleanly using Code Analysis (/analyze)
The code now can use the Vista style of file dialog provided by VC 2008
Fixed a bug in the sample app where the various checkbox UI states were not initially in sync with the control.

v1.22 (19 November 2007)

Minor update to display HRESULT's correctly.
Minor tidy up to remove old style AppWizard comments

v1.21 (20 August 2006)

Control now takes advantage of the AutoCompletion functionality (IAutoComplete et al) built into Windows to improve the UI experience. If enabled then a drop down list will appear underneath the edit control which allows the user to quickly select a specific file. The code uses the COM interfaces (IAutoComplete) to AutoCompletion instead of the more simplified functionality provided by SHAutoComplete. This allows the code to customize the auto completion UI so that only file system folders are selectable.

v1.20 (11 August 2006)

Reworked all the use of string resources. Now all the string resources used by the control are all loaded in one single virtual function. In addition if you do not want to use inheritance, all the strings can be customized via Get/Set methods.
Broke the DDV functionality into seperate discreet DDV functions
The dialog control id of the edit button can now be specified via the SubclassEdit and DDX_FilenameControl functions

v1.19 (29 July 2006)

Initial enabled state of the edit control is now reflected into the edit button when AddEditButton is called.

v1.18 (19 July 2006)

Updated copyright details
Optimized CDDXFileModifyButton constructor code
Updated documentation to use the same style as the web site.
Optimized CDDXFileFileNameDialog constructor code
Addition of a CDDXFILE_EXT_CLASS preprocessor macro to allow the classes to be easily added to an extension dll.
Removed now defunct Win32s support code
Removed support for showing the old style Win3.1 file open dialog
Changed the names of the constants used for DDX_GetFilenameControl
Replaced all calls to CFile::GetStatus with GetFileAttributes
Verified code clean compiles in VC2005

10 January 2003

Minor update to the documentation, no code changes.

v1.17 (9 January 2003)

Updated copyright details.
Changed a class name from "CModifyButton" to the better named "CDDXFileModifyButton".
Enabled state of control is now reflected to buddy button edit control. Thanks to "matro" for pointing out this problem.
Made the "CGetFilenameControl::Edit" virtual for easier customisation
Made all strings used by the classes easier to modify by making them virtual methods of the class
Changed a class name from "CGetFileNameDialog" to the better named "CDDXFileFileNameDialog"
Made the "CGetFilenameControl::AddEditButton" method virtual for easier customisation.

v1.16 (27 December 2001)

Fixed an issue where the browse button would do nothing when you type in for example "c:\". Thanks to Stephen Agate for spotting this.

v1.15 (24 May 2001)

Fixed a problem with the Z-Order of the control being set incorrectly.
Updated copyright message.

v1.14 (18 July 2000)

Width of the edit button is now determined from the text which it displays.

v1.13 (17 May 2000)

The width of the underlying edit control is now shrunk when the "..." button is created. This makes layout of the control using the resource designer a lot simpler.

v1.12 (14 May 2000)

The "..." button now supports being tabbed into i.e. the WS_TABSTOP style

v1.11 (11 December 1999)

Cosmetic item where now a 1 pixel space is included between the edit control and the "..." button

v1.1 (17 September 1998)

Updated all the documentation to be HTML based as with my other shareware / freeware.
Unicode enabled all the code and provision of Unicode build configurations.
VC 5 mak files provided now as standard
Provision of a DDV function.
General tidy up of the sample app including removing all the AppWizard generated comments.
All code now compiles cleanly at warning level 4.
Replaced all TRACE0 calls with TRACE.
Changed name of main function from DDX_GetFileControl to DDX_FilenameControl.
Module name has been changed from ddxgetfile to ddxfile.
Sample app now allows read only state of widget to be toggled.
Addition of a DDX_FileValue function.
Change the ID's of the strings in the resource table which the code uses.

API Reference

The following functions are provided:

DDX_FilenameControl
DDX_FilenameValue
DDV_FilenameControlNotFolder
DDV_FilenameControlMustFile
DDV_FilenameControlOverwritePrompt
DDV_FilenameControlNotEmpty

DDX_FilenameControl

bool DDX_FilenameControl(CDataExchange* pDX, int nIDC, CGetFilenameControl& rControl, UINT nModifyButtonID = 0xFFFFFFFF);

Parameters

pDX is the usual CDataExchange object which will be passed into your DoDataExchange function.

nIDC is the dialog ID of the edit control to subclass.

rControl will contain upon return the window control which manages the compound edit and button controls.

nModifyButtonID is a control id of the modify button.

Remarks

Associates an existing edit control with dialog ID "nIDC" to a compound filename picker control. Normally you would calls to this function in your dialog class's DoDataExchange member function. The function returns TRUE if the setup of the edit control succeeded otherwise FALSE is returned.

DDX_FilenameValue

void DDX_FilenameControl(CDataExchange* pDX, CGetFilenameControl& rControl, CString& sFile);

Parameters

pDX is the usual CDataExchange object which will be passed into your DoDataExchange function.

rControl is the folder control to get or set the filename for.

sFile is the actual file to get or set into the control depending on the direction of data exchange occurring.

Remarks

Gets the actual string value which the control contains.

DDV_FilenameControlNotFolder

void DDV_FilenameControlNotFolder(CDataExchange* pDX, const CGetFilenameControl& rControl, UINT nFailureResourceID, UINT nHelpID = 0xFFFFFFFF);

Parameters

pDX is the usual CDataExchange object which will be passed into your DoDataExchange function.

rControl is the filename control to validate for.

nFailureResourceID is the resource id of the string which will be displayed as a failure message.

nHelpID is the help context ID for the message.

Remarks

This DDV function ensures that the value selected does not specify a folder.

DDV_FilenameControlMustExist

void DDV_FilenameControlMustExist(CDataExchange* pDX, const CGetFilenameControl& rControl, UINT nFailureResourceID, UINT nHelpID = 0xFFFFFFFF);

Parameters

pDX is the usual CDataExchange object which will be passed into your DoDataExchange function.

rControl is the filename control to validate for.

nFailureResourceID is the resource id of the string which will be displayed as a failure message.

nHelpID is the help context ID for the message.

Remarks

This DDV function ensures that the value selected specifies an existing file.

DDV_FilenameControlOverwritePrompt

void DDV_FilenameControlOverwritePrompt(CDataExchange* pDX, CGetFilenameControl& rControl, UINT nHelpID = 0xFFFFFFFF);

Parameters

pDX is the usual CDataExchange object which will be passed into your DoDataExchange function.

rControl is the filename control to validate for.

nHelpID is the help context ID for the message.

Remarks

This DDV function prompts the user if an overwrite is allowable if the file already exists. Validation fails if the end user selects No to the message.

DDV_FilenameControlNotEmpty

void DDV_FilenameControlNotEmpty(CDataExchange* pDX, const CGetFilenameControl& rControl, UINT nFailureResourceID, UINT nHelpID = 0xFFFFFFFF);

Parameters

pDX is the usual CDataExchange object which will be passed into your DoDataExchange function.

rControl is the filename control to validate for.

nFailureResourceID is the resource id of the string which will be displayed as a failure message.

nHelpID is the help context ID for the message.

Remarks

This DDV function ensures that the value selected is not an empty string.

Contacting the Author

PJ Naughter
Email: pjna@naughter.com
Web: http://www.naughter.com
1 April 2022