HOWTO: Invoke the "Add to Favorites" Dialog Box in IE4

ID: Q182034

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Internet Explorer (Programming) versions 5.0, 4.0, 4.01

SUMMARY

The "Add to Favorites" dialog box provides a user interface for the user to save a Web page as a favorite. The ShellUIHelper::AddFavorite method can be used to invoke this dialog box from a Visual C++ or Visual Basic application or from script on a Web page.

Please note that you must install the Internet Client SDK before you can implement this code in Visual C++.

Also, you must install the desktop update that comes with Internet Explorer 4.0x in order to use the ShellUIHelper object.

MORE INFORMATION

The AddFavorite method takes two parameters. The first parameter is the URL of the Web page to save as a favorite. The second parameter is the title to be used for this favorite (optional).

When specifying the URL to save as a favorite, you must specify the protocol type (http://, file://, and so forth) If you do not specify the protocol, AddFavorite will return E_FAIL (0x80004005) in Visual C++, and a run-time error in Visual Basic or script.

Scripting


<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=VBSCRIPT>
   window.external.addFavorite "http://www.microsoft.com", "Microsoft"
</SCRIPT>

Visual C++

To invoke the "Add to Favorites" dialog box from a Visual C++ application that is hosting the WebBrowser control, insert the following code in your application:


   #include "ExDisp.h"

   IShellUIHelper* pShell = NULL;
   HRESULT hr = CoCreateInstance(CLSID_ShellUIHelper, NULL, CLSCTX_SERVER,
                                 IID_IShellUIHelper, (void**)&pShell);
   if (hr == S_OK)
   {
      COleVariant vtTitle("Microsoft");
      pShell->AddFavorite(OLESTR("http://www.microsoft.com"), &vtTitle);
      pShell->Release();
   }

NOTE: The \Inetsdk\Include directory must be listed first in the Directories tab of the settings for the project.

Visual Basic

To invoke this dialog box in a Visual Basic application, add a reference to Shdocvw.dll to your project if your application is not hosting the WebBrowser control:


   Dim shellHelper As New ShellUIHelper
   shellHelper.AddFavorite "http://www.microsoft.com", "Microsoft"

REFERENCES

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q183339 OC: window.external Supports All Methods of ShellUIHelper

For more information, see the MSDN Online Web Workshop:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop

Additional query words: IShellUIHelper AddFavorite


Keywords          : kbIE400 kbIE401 kbIE500 
Version           : WINDOWS:4.0,4.01,5.0
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbhowto

Last Reviewed: April 28, 1999