Hide

SftDirectory 3.5 - ActiveX File/Folder Control

Display
Print

Using SftDirectory with Visual Basic 6

Adding SftDirectory To A Project
Special Considerations
- Color Properties

Adding SftDirectory To A Project

The SftDirectory control must be added to the Toolbox before it can be used in a project. The Toolbox normally displays the standard Visual Basic controls and any other ActiveX controls that have been added previously.

New Project

The control is added to the Toolbox using the Project, Components... menu command, which displays the following dialog:

Add To Toolbox

Select the control "SftDirectory 3.5 Directory Control" by placing a check mark next to it and click OK. This adds the control to the Toolbox. If you don't see the control in the list, make sure Selected Items Only is not checked. Once you click Apply or OK and an error message is displayed, the product SftDirectory is not correctly installed or the control may have been unregistered accidentally. Quit Visual Basic and use the entry Maintenance, Register SftDirectory in Windows Registry in the SftDirectory 3.5 program group to register the control. Restart Visual Basic and try to add the control to the Toolbox again.

This adds the SftDirectory control to the Toolbox:

Now the control can be added to a form by clicking on the SftDirectory button of the Toolbox.

Add SftDirectory To Form

All required steps have now been completed to use SftDirectory.

Add the following sample code to initialize the control:

Private Sub Form_Load()
    SftDirectory1.TopMostFolder = "C:\"
    SftDirectory1.Headers.Style = headersSftDirectoryButton
    SftDirectory1.ColumnEntry(0).HeaderText = "Folders"
End Sub

In this example, the control is initialized at run-time using code. Of course it is also possible (and much easier) to set up all properties using the property pages. You can access the property pages by right-clicking on the control and select the Properties... entry of the popup menu.

You can run the sample application and it displays a list of folders located on your C: drive.

After adding the control to the form, right click on the control and select the Properties... entry of the popup menu. This displays the Property Dialog for the control.

Please note that you can right-click on a property or double-click on the description of a property to access its complete help information.

This control has many properties and methods which you can use. This is a very simple example and doesn't even begin to exploit the capabilities of this control. Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the objects offered by the SftDirectory control. Each object represents a specific area of the control and can be fully customized. Also make sure to run the demo which is included with this product and take a look at the included samples.

Special Considerations

Color Properties

The valid range for a color value is 0 to 16,777,215 (&HFFFFFF). The high order byte of a number in this range equals 0; the lower 3 bytes, from least to most significant byte, determine the amount of red, green, and blue, respectively. The red, green, and blue components are each represented by a number between 0 and 255 (&HFF). If the high byte is not 0, the system colors as defined in Control Panel's settings are used. The Windows API GetSysColor defines all valid constants. Please see your development environment's documentation for applicable color constants.

SftDirectory1.CurrentFolder.BackColor = vbHighlight
SftDirectory1.CurrentFolder.BackColor = vbRed
SftDirectory1.CurrentFolder.BackColor = &HFF ' red
Dim c As Long
c = SftDirectory1.CurrentFolder.BackColor

Last Updated 08/13/2020 - (email)
© 2024 Softel vdm, Inc.