File and Folder Browsers

• Sep 16, 2022
• 2 minutes to read

The DevExpress WinForms installation ships with two options for file and folder browsers:

• The XtraOpenFileDialog, XtraSaveFileDialog, and XtraFolderBrowserDialog class instances replace standard Windows “Save As”, “Open”, and “Browse For Folder” dialogs. DevExpress dialogs support Windows Vista and newer operating systems.

  Tip

  To force all DevExpress controls and components to use Xtra~ dialogs instead of standard dialogs, enable the WindowsFormsSettings.UseDXDialogs property.

• Custom folder browsers that can be shown as modal dialogs or embedded in Forms or UserControls. To create such browsers, use the FileExplorerAssistant component.

How to Show XtraSaveFileDialog

The following example demonstrates how to show the XtraSaveFileDialog.

C#

using System.IO;

private void simpleButtonSaveFileDialog_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
    Stream memoStream;
    xtraSaveFileDialog1.Filter = "txt files (*.txt)|*.txt";

    if(xtraSaveFileDialog1.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK) {
        if((memoStream = xtraSaveFileDialog1.OpenFile()) != null) {
            // Code to write the stream goes here.

            memoStream.Close();
        }
    }
}

VB.NET

Imports System.IO

Private Sub simpleButtonSaveFileDialog_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
    Dim memoStream As Stream
    xtraSaveFileDialog1.Filter = "txt files (*.txt)|*.txt"

    If xtraSaveFileDialog1.ShowDialog() = DialogResult.OK Then
        memoStream = xtraSaveFileDialog1.OpenFile()
        If memoStream IsNot Nothing Then
            ' Code to write the stream goes here.

            memoStream.Close()
        End If
    End If
End Sub

How to Show XtraOpenFileDialog

The following example demonstrates how to show the XtraOpenFileDialog.

C#

using System.IO;

private void simpleButtonOpenFileDialog_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
    xtraOpenFileDialog1.InitialDirectory = "c:\\";
    xtraOpenFileDialog1.Filter = "txt files (*.txt)|*.txt|All files (*.*)|*.*";

    if(xtraOpenFileDialog1.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK) {
        // Get the path of specified file.
        string filePath = xtraOpenFileDialog1.FileName;

        // Read the contents of the file into a stream.
        var fileStream = xtraOpenFileDialog1.OpenFile();
        using(StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(fileStream)) {
            // ...
        }
    }
}

VB.NET

Imports System.IO

Private Sub simpleButtonOpenFileDialog_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
    xtraOpenFileDialog1.InitialDirectory = "c:\"
    xtraOpenFileDialog1.Filter = "txt files (*.txt)|*.txt|All files (*.*)|*.*"

    If xtraOpenFileDialog1.ShowDialog() = DialogResult.OK Then
        ' Get the path of specified file.
        Dim filePath As String = xtraOpenFileDialog1.FileName

        ' Read the contents of the file into a stream.
        Dim fileStream = xtraOpenFileDialog1.OpenFile()
        Using reader As New StreamReader(fileStream)
            ' ...
        End Using
    End If
End Sub