How To Invoke the "Add to Favorites" Dialog Box in IE4

Retired KB Content Disclaimer

View products that this article applies to.

This article was previously published under Q182034

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.

Back to the top

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.

Back to the top

Scripting

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

Back to the top

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.

Back to the top

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"

Back to the top

REFERENCES

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

183339 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/183339/EN-US/ ) OC: window.external Supports All Methods of ShellUIHelper

For more information, see the MSDN Online Web Workshop:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop (http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/)

Back to the top

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 128-Bit Edition
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 Service Pack 2

Back to the top

kbhowto KB182034

Back to the top

Retired KB Content Disclaimer

This article was written about products for which Microsoft no longer offers support. Therefore, this article is offered "as is" and will no longer be updated.

Back to the top