[How to] Functions to obtain file selection OR folder selection in GUI in Powershell

I needed to queue a list of files for processing (conversion to mp4 by external encoder, driven by SQL). So first needed to be able to obtain such list & then act on it. And I needed all these to be available in GUI, so the end user (operator) CAN see what they are selecting

A couple of nice functions to get:

• file select dialog box in PS

(then you can process that selection in any way that needs to be)

Code:

Function Get-FileName($initialDirectory) {
    [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.windows.forms") | Out-Null

    $OpenFileDialog = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.OpenFileDialog
    $OpenFileDialog.initialDirectory = $initialDirectory
    $OpenFileDialog.Multiselect = $true
    $OpenFileDialog.filter = "AVI (*.avi)| *.avi|MP4 (*.mp4)| *.mp4|MKV (*.mkv)| *.mkv|WMV (*.wmv)| *.wmv"
    $OpenFileDialog.ShowDialog() | Out-Null
    $OpenFileDialog.filenames
    }
$inputfile = Get-FileName "C:\"
$files = get-childitem $inputfile
}

• folder selection (not natively available in PS), which I picked up from here

Code:

Function BuildDialog {
    $sourcecode = @"
using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Reflection;
namespace FolderSelect
{
    public class FolderSelectDialog
    {
        System.Windows.Forms.OpenFileDialog ofd = null;
        public FolderSelectDialog()
        {
            ofd = new System.Windows.Forms.OpenFileDialog();
            ofd.Filter = "Folders|\n";
            ofd.AddExtension = false;
            ofd.CheckFileExists = false;
            ofd.DereferenceLinks = true;
            ofd.Multiselect = false;
        }
        public string InitialDirectory
        {
            get { return ofd.InitialDirectory; }
            set { ofd.InitialDirectory = value == null || value.Length == 0 ? Environment.CurrentDirectory : value; }
        }
        public string Title
        {
            get { return ofd.Title; }
            set { ofd.Title = value == null ? "Select a folder" : value; }
        }
        public string FileName
        {
            get { return ofd.FileName; }
        }
        public bool ShowDialog()
        {
            return ShowDialog(IntPtr.Zero);
        }
        public bool ShowDialog(IntPtr hWndOwner)
        {
            bool flag = false;

            if (Environment.OSVersion.Version.Major >= 6)
            {
                var r = new Reflector("System.Windows.Forms");
                uint num = 0;
                Type typeIFileDialog = r.GetType("FileDialogNative.IFileDialog");
                object dialog = r.Call(ofd, "CreateVistaDialog");
                r.Call(ofd, "OnBeforeVistaDialog", dialog);
                uint options = (uint)r.CallAs(typeof(System.Windows.Forms.FileDialog), ofd, "GetOptions");
                options |= (uint)r.GetEnum("FileDialogNative.FOS", "FOS_PICKFOLDERS");
                r.CallAs(typeIFileDialog, dialog, "SetOptions", options);
                object pfde = r.New("FileDialog.VistaDialogEvents", ofd);
                object[] parameters = new object[] { pfde, num };
                r.CallAs2(typeIFileDialog, dialog, "Advise", parameters);
                num = (uint)parameters[1];
                try
                {
                    int num2 = (int)r.CallAs(typeIFileDialog, dialog, "Show", hWndOwner);
                    flag = 0 == num2;
                }
                finally
                {
                    r.CallAs(typeIFileDialog, dialog, "Unadvise", num);
                    GC.KeepAlive(pfde);
                }
            }
            else
            {
                var fbd = new FolderBrowserDialog();
                fbd.Description = this.Title;
                fbd.SelectedPath = this.InitialDirectory;
                fbd.ShowNewFolderButton = false;
                if (fbd.ShowDialog(new WindowWrapper(hWndOwner)) != DialogResult.OK) return false;
                ofd.FileName = fbd.SelectedPath;
                flag = true;
            }
            return flag;
        }
    }
    public class WindowWrapper : System.Windows.Forms.IWin32Window
    {
        public WindowWrapper(IntPtr handle)
        {
            _hwnd = handle;
        }
        public IntPtr Handle
        {
            get { return _hwnd; }
        }

        private IntPtr _hwnd;
    }
    public class Reflector
    {
        string m_ns;
        Assembly m_asmb;
        public Reflector(string ns)
            : this(ns, ns)
        { }
        public Reflector(string an, string ns)
        {
            m_ns = ns;
            m_asmb = null;
            foreach (AssemblyName aN in Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetReferencedAssemblies())
            {
                if (aN.FullName.StartsWith(an))
                {
                    m_asmb = Assembly.Load(aN);
                    break;
                }
            }
        }
        public Type GetType(string typeName)
        {
            Type type = null;
            string[] names = typeName.Split('.');

            if (names.Length > 0)
                type = m_asmb.GetType(m_ns + "." + names[0]);

            for (int i = 1; i < names.Length; ++i) {
                type = type.GetNestedType(names[i], BindingFlags.NonPublic);
            }
            return type;
        }
        public object New(string name, params object[] parameters)
        {
            Type type = GetType(name);
            ConstructorInfo[] ctorInfos = type.GetConstructors();
            foreach (ConstructorInfo ci in ctorInfos) {
                try {
                    return ci.Invoke(parameters);
                } catch { }
            }

            return null;
        }
        public object Call(object obj, string func, params object[] parameters)
        {
            return Call2(obj, func, parameters);
        }
        public object Call2(object obj, string func, object[] parameters)
        {
            return CallAs2(obj.GetType(), obj, func, parameters);
        }
        public object CallAs(Type type, object obj, string func, params object[] parameters)
        {
            return CallAs2(type, obj, func, parameters);
        }
        public object CallAs2(Type type, object obj, string func, object[] parameters) {
            MethodInfo methInfo = type.GetMethod(func, BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
            return methInfo.Invoke(obj, parameters);
        }
        public object Get(object obj, string prop)
        {
            return GetAs(obj.GetType(), obj, prop);
        }
        public object GetAs(Type type, object obj, string prop) {
           PropertyInfo propInfo = type.GetProperty(prop, BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
            return propInfo.GetValue(obj, null);
        }
        public object GetEnum(string typeName, string name) {
            Type type = GetType(typeName);
            FieldInfo fieldInfo = type.GetField(name);
            return fieldInfo.GetValue(null);
        }
    }
}
"@
    $assemblies = ('System.Windows.Forms', 'System.Reflection')
    Add-Type -TypeDefinition $sourceCode -ReferencedAssemblies $assemblies -ErrorAction STOP
}

Much nicer is to convert it to a module as per this
so it only needs to be imported in your script like

Code:

Import-Module BuildDialog

BuildDialog
    $fsd = New-Object FolderSelect.FolderSelectDialog
    $fsd.Title = "What to select";
    $fsd.ShowDialog() | Out-Null

$watch_path = $fsd.FileName
$files = Get-ChildItem -Include @("*.avi", "*.mkv", "*.mp4", "*.wmv") -Path $watch_path -Recurse;

Then you can work on either (file selection or folder selection) and process it in any way needed

For a user presented selection to chose from, I used solution from here by Martin Brandl (I am sure there are many many more way to do it, but this one worked well for me & is simple)

Code:

# define a task list with the messages to display and the functions to invoke:
$taskList = @(
    [PSCustomObject]@{Message = 'File Selection'; Task = { FileSelect }}
    [PSCustomObject]@{Message = 'Folder Selection'; Task = { FolderSelect }}
  )

# let the user pick a task:
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow "Choose a task:"

$taskList | foreach -Begin { $i = 1;} -Process {
    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow ('{0}. {1}' -f ($i++), $_.Message)
}

do
{
    $value = Read-Host 'Choose a number from the task list'

}
while($value -match '\D+' -or $value -le 0 -or $value -gt $taskList.Count)

# invoke the task:
& $taskList[$value-1].Task

sebus