The ShellTreeView component is a window, which displays a hierarchical tree view of the system’s shell folders. Every entry shows the icon and the name of the folder. By double clicking an entry, the user can show or hide a list of the subfolders of the selected folder. Alternatively, the user can click the [+] or [-] buttons in front of an entry.
To show the button of the root of the hierarchy, set the ShowRoot property to True.
If the user clicks an entry with the right mouse button, the context menu of the selected folder pops up. The contents of the menu are folder dependent and system defined.
You can set the root folder of the tree view with the RootFolder property. The directory of the selected folder is in the Directory property and the attributes in the FolderAttributes property. To automatically display the directory in an associated Label, set the DirLabel property.
TShellTreeView is a rather exact copy of the left pane of the Windows Explorer.
TShellTreeView is a descendant of TCustomTreeView and contains, additionally to the properties already mentioned, also most properties, methods and events of this component. The properties and methods which were not published, like Images, Items, ShowLines, ShowButtons or Sorted, are either inappropriate or shouldn’t be changed directly.
Additionally to the properties all components have, TShellTreeView has the following new or overridden properties:
Contains the currently selected directory.
property Directory: string;
The property contains the selected directory for the ShellTreeView component. If the selected folder is not a file system folder (e.g. My Computer or Control Panel), the string is empty. The FolderAttributes property contains the shell attributes for this folder.
Contains the Label that shows the current directory.
property DirLabel: TLabel;
This property makes it easy to fill a Label component with the directory of the currently selected folder. If the selected folder changes, the Caption of the Label is changed accordingly.
Contains the attributes for the currently selected folder.
property FolderAttributes: TFolderAttributes;
The property FolderAttributes is read only. It contains representations of the shell attributes of the selected folder in the tree view. These attributes should not be confused with the file attributes of a folder.
The TFolderAttribute enumeration type describes the possible attributes a shell folder can have.
type
TFolderAttribute = (faCanCopy, faCanDelete, faCanLink, faCanMove, faCanRename,
faDropTarget, faHasPropSheet, faGhosted, faLink, faReadOnly, faShare,
faHasSubFolder, faFileSystem, faFileSysAncestor, faFolder, faRemovable,
faValidate);
TFolderAttributes = set of TFolderAttribute;
The following table shows the possible values and their meanings.
Value | Description |
---|---|
faCanCopy | Folder can be copied |
faCanDelete | Folder can be deleted |
faCanLink | It is possible to create a shortcut for the folder |
faCanMove | Folder can be moved |
faCanRename | Folder can be renamed |
faDropTarget | Folder can be a drop target |
faHasPropSheet | Folder has a property sheet |
faGhosted | Folder should be displayed with a “ghosted” icon |
faLink | Folder is a shortcut |
faReadOnly | Folder is read-only |
faShare | Folder is shared with other applications |
faHasSubFolder | Folder has subfolders (and is therefore expandable in the left pane of the Explorer) |
faFileSystem | Folder is part of the file system |
faFilesysAncestor | Folder contains file system folders |
faFolder | Folder is a folder (defined for future use) |
faRemovable | Folder is a removable media |
faValidate | Validate cached information |
Contains the root folder for the tree.
property RootFolder: TRootFolder default rfDesktop;
This enables you to set the root folder of the tree view to a folder other than the Desktop folder. This can be one of the predefined Shell folders. The default value is rfDesktop for the Desktop folder.
type
TRootFolder = (rfDesktop, rfPrograms, rfControls, rfPrinters, rfPersonal,
rfFavorites, rfStartUp, rfRecent, rfSendTo, rfBitBucket, rfStartMenu,
rfDesktopDirectory, rfDrives, rfNetwork, rfNethood, rfFonts, rfTemplates);
TRootFolder can have the following values:
Value | Description |
---|---|
rfDesktop | Desktop |
rfPrograms | Program files |
rfControls | System Control |
rfPrinters | Printer |
rfPersonal | Personal |
rfFavorites | Favorites |
rfStartUp | Autostart |
rfRecent | Recent Documents |
rfSendTo | SendTo (for Send to) |
rfBitBucket | Recycle bin |
rfStartMenu | Start menu |
rfDesktopDirectory | Desktop directory |
rfDrives | My Computer |
rfNetwork | Network |
rfNethood | Network Neighborhood |
rfFonts | Fonts |
rfTemplates | New file templates |
Enables showing the root as a node.
property ShowRoot: Boolean;
The ShowRoot property specifies whether lines connecting root (top-level) items are displayed. To show lines connecting root items, set the tree view’s ShowRoot and ShowLines properties to True.
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The coding examples presented here are for illustration purposes only. The author takes no responsibility for end-user use. All content herein is copyrighted by Rudy Velthuis, and may not be reproduced in any form without the author's permission. Source code written by Rudy Velthuis presented as download is subject to the license in the files.