Question

Obviously this is trivial to do with win32 api – CreateDirectory(). But I’m trying to host an IShellView, and would like to do this the most shell-oriented way. I would have thought that there would be a createobject or createfolder or some such from an IShellFolder. But neither IShellView nor IShellFolder nor even IFolderView seem to have anything quite like this.

Is there a Shell-programming way to create a new folder? Or do I need to create a folder using a pathname, the old-fashioned way?

If I have to do it via CreateDirectory(), then my next question might be: any ideas as to how to get the IShellView / IFolderView to actually see this new object and display it to the user?

Motivation: Creating my own File Dialog replacement and I want to provide the “new folder” toolbar icon functionality of the standard XP-style file dialog.

EDIT: I went ahead and created something that basically works, using CreateDirectory. However, I’m still hoping that there’s a better way to do this, but so that you can see how that works, and to offer better ideas as to solve this issue better:

    PidlUtils::Pidl pidl(m_folder);
    CFilename folderName(GetDisplayNameOf(pidl), "New Folder");
    for (int i = 2; folderName.Exists(); ++i)
        folderName.SetFullName(FString("New Folder (%d)", i));
    if (!CPathname::Create(folderName, false))
        throw CContextException("Unable to create a new folder here: ");

    // get the PIDL for the newly created folder
    PidlUtils::Pidl pidlNew;
#ifdef UNICODE
    const wchar_t * wszName = folderName.c_str();
#else
    wchar_t wszName[MAX_PATH];
    MultiByteToWideChar(CP_ACP, 0, folderName.GetFullName(), -1, wszName, MAX_PATH);
#endif
    m_hresult = m_folder->ParseDisplayName(NULL, NULL, wszName, NULL, pidlNew, NULL);
    if (FAILED(m_hresult))
        throw CLabeledException(FString("Unable to get the PIDL for the new folder: 0x%X", m_hresult));

    // upgrade our interface so we can select & rename it
    CComQIPtr<IShellView2> sv2(m_shell_view);
    if (!sv2)
        throw CLabeledException("Unable to obtain the IShellView2 we need to rename the newly created folder.");

    // force it to see thew new folder
    sv2->Refresh();

    // select the new folder, and begin the rename process
    m_hresult = sv2->SelectAndPositionItem(pidlNew, SVSI_EDIT|SVSI_DESELECTOTHERS|SVSI_ENSUREVISIBLE|SVSI_POSITIONITEM, NULL);
    if (FAILED(m_hresult))
        throw CLabeledException(FString("Unable to select and position the new folder item: 0x%X", m_hresult));

Answer 1

Shell folders usually implement the IStorage interface, so this is pretty simple. For example, the following creates a folder named “abcd” on the desktop:

  CComPtr<IShellFolder> pDesktop;
  HRESULT hr = SHGetDesktopFolder(&pDesktop);
  if (FAILED(hr)) return;
  CComQIPtr<IStorage> pStorage(pDesktop);
  if (!pStorage) return;
  CComPtr<IStorage> dummy;
  hr = pStorage->CreateStorage(L"abcd", STGM_FAILIFTHERE, 0, 0, &dummy);