Initial directory is not working for CFileDialog

Question

I am using CFileDialog, I have set the initial path like below , as shown in the code. It's not working . Correct me if I made a mistake.

   CFileDialog* filedlg = new CFileDialog(TRUE,(LPCTSTR)NULL ,  (LPCTSTR)NULL , OFN_HIDEREADONLY| OFN_ENABLESIZING , (LPCTSTR)NULL , FromHandle (hImgDlg) ,0 , FALSE  );

   filedlg ->m_ofn.lpstrInitialDir = "C:\\" ;

   if ( filedlg ->DoModal() == IDOK )
   {
       /***  do somthing here *****/
   }

What do you mean by "not working"? Do you get compiler errors? Runtime errors or crashes? The initial directory not what you expect it to be? — Some programmer dude, Apr 23 '13 at 08:44
Not showing the mentioned initial path it's automatically taken last selected path. — jack, Apr 23 '13 at 09:08
Are you on Windows 7 (or later), or on an earlier version of Windows? — Some programmer dude, Apr 23 '13 at 09:16
Another case to consider is when the lpstrInitialDir is set to a non-existent folder. In that case Windows7 defaults to the most recent folder. — Radim Cernej, Sep 29 '20 at 18:49

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 23 '13 at 10:10

6

If you see the reference for the OPENFILENAME structure, you will see that for the lpstrInitialDir field it states that:

If lpstrInitialDir has the same value as was passed the first time the application used an Open or Save As dialog box, the path most recently selected by the user is used as the initial directory.

This means that the lpstrInitialDir field can really only be used the first time you use the dialog in a program. The rest of the time it will use the last directory selected by the user.

answered Apr 23 '13 at 10:10

Some programmer dude

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Any other alternative API ? – jack Apr 23 '13 at 10:16
@user948231 Not that I know of. – Some programmer dude Apr 23 '13 at 10:17
Tanks you @joachim pileborg – jack Apr 23 '13 at 10:19
5

I just stumbled upon the same problem. I really wonder what kind of substance the guy responsible for this strange behaviour has smoked. – Jabberwocky Aug 08 '14 at 13:28
1

Just got defect request to fix such a behavior in my program, but no idea how to. – blackbada_cpp Feb 16 '15 at 09:49
Other than making a dummy CFileDialog and getting its initial directory, is there any way of getting the aforementioned last directory used by the user? – Bondolin Feb 29 '16 at 21:42

blackbada_cpp · Answer 2 · 2015-02-17T10:34:15.700

Two options: 1. Old-fashioned dialog style, specifying OFN::lpstrInitialDir

CFileLatinDialog dlg (TRUE, "", "" /*lpszFileName */,
   OFN_PATHMUSTEXIST | OFN_FILEMUSTEXIST | OFN_HIDEREADONLY,
   "All Files(*.*)|*.*||", this, 0,
   FALSE /*bVistaStyle*/);
dlg.m_ofn.lpstrInitialDir = "C:\\Models\\";

Vista style dialog, specifying lpszFileName parameter

CFileLatinDialog dlg (TRUE, "", "C:\\Models\\" /*lpszFileName */,
   OFN_PATHMUSTEXIST | OFN_FILEMUSTEXIST | OFN_HIDEREADONLY,
   "All Files(*.*)|*.*||", this);

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 28 '14 at 16:21

5

If you set the filename location, you can get the dialog to open to a specific location. I would only use this if you really needed the folder location to open or if you have a default filename that you use.

CFileDialog* filedlg = new CFileDialog(TRUE, (LPCTSTR)NULL,  (LPCTSTR)_T("C:\\MyFolder\\DefaultFileName.ext"), OFN_HIDEREADONLY | OFN_ENABLESIZING, (LPCTSTR)NULL, FromHandle (hImgDlg), 0, FALSE);

or you could use the Windows function GetModuleFileName:

CString csAppFolder;
TCHAR szPath[MAX_PATH]; 

// form the path to where we want to store the file
if (GetModuleFileName(NULL, szPath, MAX_PATH))
{
    PathRemoveFileSpec(szPath);
    csAppFolder = szPath;
}

CFileDialog* filedlg = new CFileDialog(TRUE, (LPCTSTR)NULL, (LPCTSTR)(csAppFolder + _T("\\DefaultFileName.ext")), OFN_HIDEREADONLY | OFN_ENABLESIZING, (LPCTSTR)NULL, FromHandle (hImgDlg), 0, FALSE);

answered Apr 28 '14 at 16:21

CaptainBli

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What you suggest is exactly the thing that doesn't work as expected on Windows 7. – Jabberwocky Aug 08 '14 at 13:29
Then I must be doing something further that allows me to get the directory each time I open it. I don't know what that would be. But specifying the actual file name on instantiation works. Its in production and I only develop on Win 7. I wonder why it is working. – CaptainBli Aug 08 '14 at 21:37
1

Why do you specify bVistaStyle=FALSE? In case of Vista Style dialog , specifying lpstrInitialDir helps – blackbada_cpp Feb 17 '15 at 10:16
I will have to give that a try, to see how that affects my app. Thanks. – CaptainBli Feb 19 '15 at 17:55

Initial directory is not working for CFileDialog

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