The FileListView control is a specialised extension of the standard ListView control that fully integrates, through data binding, with the FileList (see below) data source component.

FileListView Control in Details view

The FileListView control lists and displays the file system objects contained in a single file system folder. The list may contain the file system objects of the "virtual" Computer (My Computer on Windows XP) folder, in which case the list will contain disk drives or the list may contain the file system objects of a conventional folder, in which case the list will contain sub-folders and/or files. The FileListView control fully integrates, through data binding, with the FileList (see below) data source component. The FileListView control provides a DataSource property to enable developers to data bind the control to the FileList component.

Some of the key features of the FileListView control are listed below:

Data Binding

The FileListView control may be data bound to the FileList data source component to provide the automatic management and display of the file system item data provided by the FileList component.

When data binding to the FileList data source component, developers can use the same image lists for the FileListView control and the FileList component and specify the image key of the "stock" drive and folder images so that the FileList component initializes each of the file system drive and sub-folder items to use the relevant image.

When data binding to the FileList data source component and using the same image lists for the FileListView control and the FileList data source component, the FileList component will populate the image lists with the image associated with each file type that it loads. Each associated file type image is assigned the relevant file extension as its key e.g. the text file type will have a key value of ".txt". The FileListView control will use the file type images specified by the FileList data source component for each of the file items that it displays.

Linking to Other Controls

The FileListView control can be linked to and synchronized with other user interface controls, such as the FolderDropDownList or the FolderTreeView, using the linking capabilities of the FileList data source component.

To link the FileListView control to another control developers can data bind the FileListView control to the FileList data source and then link the FileList data source to the FolderList data source component. The FolderList data source component can then be data bound to either the FolderDropDownList or the FolderTreeView control.

Displays Drives, Sub-folders and Files

The FileListView control provides its own "item views" to accommodate the display of drive items from the Computer "virtual" folder and sub-folders and/or files from conventional folders. The DriveItems view is used to display drives and the FileFolderItems view is used to display sub-folders and/or files. These, extended, views are used in all of the more familiar view types provided by all list view controls i.e. List, Details, Icons, etc. The FileListView control automatically switches between its "item views" when the contents of the file system object list, provided by the FileList data source component, change.

Drive and Folder Images

Specify your own "stock" images for the various drive types and folders by assigning image lists to the SmallImages and LargeImages properties. Choose to use Windows XP, Windows Vista or your own style of image. Developers can use the same image lists with the FileList component when data binding and initialize the FileList component to assign the key of the relevant "stock" image to drive and sub-folder items as they are loaded.

Automatic Generation of Column Headers

By default, the FileListView control automatically generates the column headers required for the Details view of both of its own file system specific views i.e. drive item view and folder/file item view. Developers can customize the automatically generated column headers or the automatic generation feature can be turned off and developers can create their own column headers.

Automatic Generation of Context Menu

By default, the FileListView control automatically generates a context menu that is displayed when the user right clicks a display item or right clicks in the client area of the control, different context menu items are displayed for each of the two right click actions. The context menu raises Click events that can be handled, in client code, to process the relevant menu commands. Developers can customize the automatically generated context menu or the automatic generation feature can be turned off.

Sorting In All Views

The FileListView control provides sorting in all views, view switching and the placing of display items in to edit mode from its automatically generated context menu. Develops can provide their own sorting by handling the ColumnClick event and use either their own sorting logic or the functionality provided by the FileListView Sort method.

User Column Header Editing

The FileListView control provides the user with the functionality to choose, position and resize column headers from its automatically generated context menu. If the automatically generated context menu is not being used, developers can provide their own column header editing using the ChooseDetailsDialog component (see below).

Automatic Generation of Display Groups

By default, the FileListView control automatically generates display groups for its own drive item view if the operating system supports grouping in ListView controls. Developers can customize the automatically generated groups or the automatic group generation can be turned off.

Resizing of Column To Match Header

The FileListView control provides the AutoResizeListColumn method that can be used to resize the only column displayed, when in List view, to match the width of the column header and prevent the truncation of the label text. When the user switches view using the automatically generated context menu, the FileListView control calls this method internally to set the column width.

Copy to Clipboard and Create Drag and Drop Data

The FileListView control provides the CopyFileItemsToClipboard method that can be used to copy the selected items to the clipboard in a format that is supported by most file handling applications e.g. Windows (File) Explorer and the CopyFileItemsForDrag method that creates a data structure, from the selected items, that can be used in file drag and drop operations.

The FolderDropDownList control lists and displays a hierarchical node structure in a way that is similar to the standard combo box control.

FolderDropDownList Control

The purpose of the FolderDropDownList control is to allow the user to specify the path of a selected node and to facilitate such a selection the control is typically used in conjunction with another control, such as the FileListView control, to provide a user interface similar to the standard file open and save as dialogs.

Some of the key features of the FolderDropDownList control are listed below:

Data Binding

The FolderDropDownList control may be data bound to the FolderList data source component to provide the automatic management and display of the file system item data provided by the FolderList component.

When data binding to the FolderList component, developers can initialize the data source component with the image index or image key of the "stock" computer, drive and folder images contained in the FolderDropDownList control's image list. The FolderList component will initialize each of the file system items, as they are loaded, to use the relevant image.

Computer, Drive and Folder Images

Specify your own "stock" images for the "virtual" Computer (My Computer on Windows XP) folder, the various drive types and folders by populating and assigning an image list to the Images property. Choose to use Windows XP, Windows Vista or your own style of image.

Retrieving the Selection

The SelectedNode property can be used to retrieve the node that is currently selected i.e. the node that appears in the top section of the control and the SelectedPath property can be used to retrieve the full path of the currently selected node.

Linking to Other Controls

The FolderDropDownList control can be linked to and synchronized with other user interface controls, such as the FileListView control, using the linking capabilities of the FileList data source component.

To link the FolderDropDownList control to another control developers can data bind the FolderDropDownList control to the FolderList data source and then link the FileList data source to the FolderList data source component. The FileList data source component can then be data bound to the FileListView control.

Add and Remove Nodes From Code

When data bound to the FolderList data source component, the FolderDropDownList control automatically adds and removes file system nodes in response to user actions and the update events fired by the FolderList data source component. However, the FolderDropDownList control does not have to be data bound, nodes can be added to and removed from the control directly from code. The RootNode property gives calling code access to the hierarchical list maintained by the FolderDropDownList control and nodes can be added to or removed from the list to update the selected path display as the user navigates the hierarchy.

The FolderTreeView control is a specialised extension of the standard TreeView control that fully integrates, through data binding, with the FolderList (see below) data source component.

FolderTreeView Control

The FolderTreeView control lists and displays a hierarchical node structure that descends from a single, level zero, root node. The FolderTreeView control provides an ideal solution for displaying the hierarchical file system object data provided by the FolderList data source component. However, the FolderTreeView control uses the IHierarchicalDataSource interface and the other hierarchical data interfaces contained in the Blayd File System UI library and can therefore data bind to and display the data of any class that implements these interfaces.

Some of the key features of the FolderTreeView control are listed below:

Data Binding

The FolderTreeView control may be data bound to the FolderList data source component to provide the automatic management and display of the file system item data provided by the FolderList data source component.

When data binding to the FolderList component, developers can initialize the data source component with the image index or image key of the "stock" computer, drive and folder images contained in the FolderTreeView control's image list. The FolderList data source component will initialize each of the file system items, as they are loaded, to use the relevant image.

The FolderTreeView control can be data bound to any class that implements the IHierarchicalDataSource interface defined in the Blayd File System UI library. Therefore, developers can create their own, hierarchical, data source components and bind them to the FolderTreeView control.

Computer, Drive and Folder Images

Specify your own "stock" images for the "virtual" Computer (My Computer on Windows XP) folder, the various drive types and folders by populating and assigning an image list to the ImageList property. Choose to use Windows XP, Windows Vista or your own style of image.

Automatic Generation of Context Menu

By default, the FolderTreeView control automatically generates a context menu that is displayed when the user right clicks a node, The context menu raises Click events that can be handled, in client code, to process the relevant menu commands. Some of the context menu commands, such as Expand|Collapse, Rename and Refresh are automatically processed by the FolderTreeView control. Developers can customize the automatically generated context menu or the automatic generation feature can be turned off.

Linking to Other Controls

The FolderTreeView control can be linked to and synchronized with other user interface controls, such as the FileListView, using the linking capabilities of the FileList data source component.

To link the FolderTreeView control to another control developers can data bind the FolderTreeView control to the FolderList data source and then link the FileList data source to the FolderList data source component. The FileList data source component can then be data bound to the FileListView control.

Copy to Clipboard and Create Drag and Drop Data

The FolderTreeView control provides the CopyDataNodeToClipboard method that can be used to copy the selected node to the clipboard in a format that is supported by most file handling applications e.g. Windows (File) Explorer and the CopyDataNodeForDrag method that creates a data structure, from the selected node, that can be used in file drag and drop operations.

The ChooseDetailsDialog component provides a dialog box that allows the user to specify column header settings for an associated instance of the FileListView control. An instance of the ChooseDetailsDialog component is associated with an instance of the FileListView control by setting the ViewControl property, either in the designer or from code or by specifying a control instance in the call to the ShowDialog method. The ChooseDetailsDialog component cannot be used if it is not associated with a FileListView control instance because the component queries the associated FileListView control to determine which column headers to display.

When the FileListView control's AutoGenerateContextMenu property is set to true, the control uses the ChooseDetailsDialog component to automatically display the "Choose Details" dialog from the relevant option on its context menu. However, developers that are not using the automatic context menu generation feature can use the ChooseDetailsDialog directly from their own code to display the "Choose Details" dialog.

Some of the key features of the ChooseDetailsDialg component are listed below:

Automatic Display of All Available Columns

The ChooseDetailsDialog component displays all of the column headers that are available for the associated FileListView control's Details view. The user can choose which column headers to display in the associated FileListView control.

Optional Column Header Reorder and Resize

The AllowColumnReorder property can be used to specify whether or not the user can reorder the column headers in the associated FileListView control. The AllowColumnResize property can be used to specify whether or not the user can change the width of any selected column headers.

Automatic Update of Associated FileListView Control

By default, the ChooseDetailsDialog component will update its associated FileListView control with the settings made by the user in the dialog. However, the PerformUpdate property can be used to turn this feature off and the GetColumnHeaders method can then be used to retrieve the column header settings made by the user in the dialog.

The FileList data source component loads and manages a list of the sub-folders and files contained in a file sytem folder. The FileList component maintains its list of sub-folders and files in a list that can be data bound, for example, to the BindingSource component, the FileListView control and the DataGridView control and to any other component or control that supports the IListSource interface and the IBindingList interface.

Some of the key features of the FileList data source component are listed below:

Lists Devices, Folders and Files

The FileList data source component can list the contents of the "virtual" Computer (My Computer on Windows XP) folder, the contents of a drive root folder and the contents of conventional file system folders. Therefore, the list returned by the FileList component may be a list of drives or it may be a list of sub-folders and/or files. The FolderPath property is used to specify the file system folder to list. To list the contents of the "virtual" Computer folder and build a list of drives, assign the literal value "Computer". To list the contents of a drive and build a list of sub-folders and files, assign the drive root directory e.g. "C:\". To list the contents of a folder and build a list of sub-folders and files, assign the folder path e.g. "C:\FolderName\SubFolderName".

Drive and Folder Images

Specify your own "stock" images for the various drive types and folders by assigning image lists to the AssociatedImages and AssociatedLargeImages properties. Choose to use Windows XP, Windows Vista or your own style of image. Developers can use the same image lists with the FileListView control when data binding and initialize the FileList component to assign the key of the relevant "stock" image to drive and sub-folder items as they are loaded.

Automatically Assigns Associated File Type Image

The FileList component will populate the image lists referenced by the AssociatedImages and AssociatedLargeImages properties with the small and large image associated with each file type that it loads. Controls, such as the FileListView, that are data bound to the FileList component can use the same image lists and the images they contain when displaying the list items.

Assign the File Type Associated Image Directly

The FileList component can be initialized to assign the image associated with a file type directly to each file system item in its list. If the AssignImages property is set to true the FileList component will assign the actual image data to each file system item as it is loaded and initialized. Generally it is more efficient to use the AssociatedImages property to specify images for file system items. However, if you are data binding to a component or control that can handle bound image properties, such as the DataGridView control for example, you may want each file system item to contain the actual image rather than just its key.

Link To Other Data Source Components

The LinkedDataSource property can be used to link and synchronize the FileList data source component with another data source. A linked data source can be any class that implements the IHierarchicalDataSource interface defined in the Blayd File System UI library, for example, the FolderList data source component. When linked, data source components use notification events to synchronize their actions. If linked data source components are also data bound to user interface controls, the controls will also receive notification events when the list data changes, prompting them to update their display.

Date/Time and Number Formatting

The FileList component uses a default format when initializing file system item date/time and number properties. However, developers can use the DateTimeFormat and NumberFormat properties to specify their own, custom, formats for all file system items loaded by the FileList.

Use As a Base Class

The FileList data source component and its supporting classes i.e. FileItemBindingList and FileItem are all extensible, therefore developers can extend these classes to develop their own, custom, file system data sources.

The FolderList data source component loads and manages a hierarchical list of file system folders and provides data binding functionality to user interface components and controls through its IHierarchicalDataSource interface implementation. The hierarchical list created by the FolderList component descends from a single, level zero, root node. The root node contains a collection of level one nodes, each level one node contains a collection of level two nodes, etc. etc. down through the folder hierarchy.

Some of the key features of the FolderList data source component are listed below:

Lists Devices and Folders

The root node can be specified as the "virtual" Computer (My Computer on Windows XP) folder in which case the level one nodes will all be the drives. The root node can also be specified as a specific drive, "C", "D", etc. in which case the level one nodes will all be folders. The literal value "System" can also be specified to instruct the FolderList component to load the drive containing the operating system as the root node, regardless of its drive letter. The root node can also be specified as a specific folder, by setting the RootFolderPath path property, in which case the level one nodes will all be folders i.e. sub-folders of the root node folder.

On Demand Loading For Better Performance

The FolderList component supports "on demand" loading of sub-folders, the DeferredLoad property can be used to specify that the FolderList component only loads one level of sub-folders, rather than the entire hierarchy, during the initial load. This technique improves performance and reduces resource usage when loading the folder hierarchy of large disks with lots of folders, however, it does require calling code or data bound controls to explicitly load sub-folders as or just before they are accessed or displayed. The FolderTreeView control, which can be data bound to the FolderList component fully supports the "on demand" loading provided by the FolderList component.

Stock Device and Folder Image Index or Key

The FolderList component provides various properties that can be used to specify either the image index or image key of the "stock" computer, drive and folder images contained in the image list maintained by the user interface control to which the FolderList is data bound. The FolderList data source component will determine the type of each of file system item as it is loaded, e.g. local drive, CD-DVD drive, remote drive, folder, etc. and assign the relevant image index or key. A data bound user interface control can then interpret these values and assign the relevant image from its own image list as it displays each file system item.

Use as a Data Binding Source or Directly From Code

Although the FolderList data source component is primarily intended to provide file system data, through data binding, to user interface controls it can be used entirely from code. Developers can use the FolderList data source component directly from their own code to load and manage file system device and folder data. Developers can also develop their own user interface controls to data bind to the FolderList data source component by including code in their control to interact with the various hierarchical data interfaces implemented in the Blayd File System UI library.

Use As a Base Class

The FolderList data source component and its supporting classes i.e. FolderNodeCollection and FolderNode are all extensible, therefore developers can extend these classes to develop their own, custom, file system data sources.