First of all, I personally really dislike the folder browse dialog where you cannot copy/paste the folder name which you might already have in the clipboard.
In many cases for my own applications I see myself writing the same code over and over, which is:
- a textbox which holds the folder name. The user can copy/paste the folder name here.
- the textbox supports drag'n'drop and it will accept directories being dropped.
- the textbox gets colored depending if the folder exists or not to give immediate feedback (just in the cases I want it to be existent)
- a button labelled "...". This opens a *File*BrowseDialog. The filename is "file name will be ignored. The CheckFileExists property is set to false.
Now I'm going to put this into a reusable Control and as I want to do it right,
these are my questions
- While I'm personally fine with the file open dialog, what misunderstandings could arise from this approach? (Because actually the user will select a directory, not a file)
- Should I allow drag'n'dropping files onto the textbox and then extract the directory name from the file name?
- What would be best if the user tries to drop multiple files or folders?
Please do not only give your opinion, also try to mention a design principle which is followed or not followed.
