Let’s suppose you want to display files with extensions in Better ListView, but allow user to rename just the file name, leaving the file extension intact after the editing.

The code for this is very simple. Just turn on label editing and handle two events: BeforeLabelEdit and AfterLabelEditCancel:

C#

[csharp gutter=”false” toolbar=”false”]
betterListView.LabelEdit = true;

betterListView.BeforeLabelEdit += BetterListViewBeforeLabelEdit;
betterListView.AfterLabelEditCancel += BetterListViewAfterLabelEditCancel;

…

void BetterListViewBeforeLabelEdit(object sender, BetterListViewLabelEditCancelEventArgs eventArgs)
{
string labelOriginal = eventArgs.Label;

// keep only file name in the modified label
string labelNew = Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(labelOriginal);

eventArgs.Label = labelNew;
}

void BetterListViewAfterLabelEditCancel(object sender, BetterListViewLabelEditCancelEventArgs eventArgs)
{
string labelOriginal = eventArgs.Label;

// add extension when editing is complete
string labelNew = String.Concat(
labelOriginal,
Path.GetExtension(eventArgs.SubItem.Text));

eventArgs.Label = labelNew;
}
[/csharp]

Visual Basic

[vb gutter=”false” toolbar=”false”]
BetterListView.LabelEdit = True

AddHandler Me.betterListView.BeforeLabelEdit, AddressOf BetterListViewBeforeLabelEdit
AddHandler Me.betterListView.AfterLabelEditCancel, AddressOf BetterListViewAfterLabelEditCancel

…

Private Sub BetterListViewBeforeLabelEdit(sender As Object, eventArgs As BetterListViewLabelEditCancelEventArgs)
Dim labelOriginal As String = eventArgs.Label

‘ keep only file name in the modified label
Dim labelNew As String = Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(labelOriginal)

eventArgs.Label = labelNew
End Sub

Private Sub BetterListViewAfterLabelEditCancel(sender As Object, eventArgs As BetterListViewLabelEditCancelEventArgs)
Dim labelOriginal As String = eventArgs.Label

‘ add extension when editing is complete
Dim labelNew As String = [String].Concat(labelOriginal, Path.GetExtension(eventArgs.SubItem.Text))

eventArgs.Label = labelNew
End Sub
[/vb]

Naturally, this feature can be used not only for file names, but whenever you would like to edit different view on the data then the displayed one.

Full version of Better ListView supports even custom embedded editing controls and you have complete control over the label editing process.

There are two controls derived from BetterListView. One for the navigation pane (folder tree on left side) and one for the file view (on the right side).

The FolderListView control allows browsing through virtual folders as well as folders on removable drives. We needed this control in our products because .NET does not provide any similar managed control (there is only FolderBrowserDialog, but we actually need a control).

You can use it for your purposes as well, it is available in Better ListView Samples source code.

Many features of Better ListView can be used to enhance file browsing, for example:

• Drag and Drop – moving or copying files
• Label Edit – renaming files
• Thumbnails – display thumbnails of image files
• Custom Tooltips – display extra information on each file item
• Groups – organize files into groups (e.g. by size)
• Check Boxes – select folders and sub-folders properly with three-state check boxes
• Images – every file type could display different image (extracted icon)
• Context Menus – do extra operations with files, like displaying file properties
• Searching – doing keyboard search is very easy to search for some file
• Sorting – sort files according to multiple properties (this is demonstrated in the sample)
• Background Image – show that the user is located in special folder by ambient image on the background