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

• Internet Client SDK, version 4.0
• Microsoft Internet Explorer (Programming), versions 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++.

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

   <OBJECT ID="ShellUIHelper" WIDTH=0 HEIGHT=0
      CLASSID="CLSID:64AB4BB7-111E-11d1-8F79-00C04FC2FBE1">
   </OBJECT>

   <SCRIPT LANGUAGE=VBSCRIPT>
      ShellUIHelper.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();
   }

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

Internet Client SDK Help:

   http://www.microsoft.com/msdn/sdk/inetsdk/help/