Duplicating components at Run-Time

Question

Is there a simple way to duplicate all child components under parent component, including their published properties?

For example:

• TPanel
  • TLabel
  • TEdit
  • TListView
  • TSpecialClassX

Of course the most important factor, it should duplicate any new component which I drop on the TPanel without modifying the code under normal circumstances.

I've heard of the RTTI, but never used it actually. Any ideas?

Answer 1

It's actually fairly easy to duplicate existing components at runtime. The difficult part is to copy all of their published properties to the new (duplicated) objects.

I'm sorry, but my code example is in C++Builder. The VCL is the same, just a different language. It shouldn't be too much trouble to translate it Delphi:

for (i = 0; i < ComponentCount; ++i) {
    TControl *Comp = dynamic_cast<TControl *>(Components[i]);
    if (Comp) {
        if (Comp->ClassNameIs("TLabel")) {
            TLabel *OldLabel = dynamic_cast<TDBEdit *>(Components[i]);
            TLabel *NewLabel = new TLabel(this);  // new label
            // copy properties from old to new
            NewLabel->Top = OldLabel->Top;
            NewLabel->Left = OldLabel->Left;
            NewLabel->Caption = Oldlabel->Caption
            // and so on...
        } else if (Comp->ClassNameIs("TPanel")) {
            // copy a TPanel object
        }

Maybe somebody has a better method of copying all of the published properties of the old control to the new one.

Answer 2

have a read of this page

Run-Time Type Information In Delphi - Can It Do Anything For You?

Noting the section Copying Properties From A Component To Another

which has a unit, RTTIUnit with a Procedure, which seems to do part of what you want but i don't think it will copy any child components with out extra code. (i think its ok to paste it here...)

procedure CopyObject(ObjFrom, ObjTo: TObject);    
  var
PropInfos: PPropList;
PropInfo: PPropInfo;
Count, Loop: Integer;
OrdVal: Longint;
StrVal: String;
FloatVal: Extended;  
MethodVal: TMethod;
begin
//{ Iterate thru all published fields and properties of source }
//{ copying them to target }

//{ Find out how many properties we'll be considering }
Count := GetPropList(ObjFrom.ClassInfo, tkAny, nil);
//{ Allocate memory to hold their RTTI data }
GetMem(PropInfos, Count * SizeOf(PPropInfo));
try
//{ Get hold of the property list in our new buffer }
GetPropList(ObjFrom.ClassInfo, tkAny, PropInfos);
//{ Loop through all the selected properties }
for Loop := 0 to Count - 1 do
begin
  PropInfo := GetPropInfo(ObjTo.ClassInfo, PropInfos^[Loop]^.Name);
 // { Check the general type of the property }
  //{ and read/write it in an appropriate way }
  case PropInfos^[Loop]^.PropType^.Kind of
    tkInteger, tkChar, tkEnumeration,
    tkSet, tkClass{$ifdef Win32}, tkWChar{$endif}:
    begin
      OrdVal := GetOrdProp(ObjFrom, PropInfos^[Loop]);
      if Assigned(PropInfo) then
        SetOrdProp(ObjTo, PropInfo, OrdVal);
    end;
    tkFloat:
    begin
      FloatVal := GetFloatProp(ObjFrom, PropInfos^[Loop]);
      if Assigned(PropInfo) then
        SetFloatProp(ObjTo, PropInfo, FloatVal);
    end;
    {$ifndef DelphiLessThan3}
    tkWString,
    {$endif}
    {$ifdef Win32}
    tkLString,
    {$endif}
    tkString:
    begin
      { Avoid copying 'Name' - components must have unique names }
      if UpperCase(PropInfos^[Loop]^.Name) = 'NAME' then
        Continue;
      StrVal := GetStrProp(ObjFrom, PropInfos^[Loop]);
      if Assigned(PropInfo) then
        SetStrProp(ObjTo, PropInfo, StrVal);
    end;
    tkMethod:
    begin
      MethodVal := GetMethodProp(ObjFrom, PropInfos^[Loop]);
      if Assigned(PropInfo) then
        SetMethodProp(ObjTo, PropInfo, MethodVal);
    end
  end
end
finally
  FreeMem(PropInfos, Count * SizeOf(PPropInfo));
end;
end;

Answer 3

You can propably use the CLoneProperties routine from the answer to "Replace visual component at runtime", after you have created the dup components in a loop thru the parent's controls.

Update: some working code....

. I assume from your question that you want to duplicate the Controls that are contained in a WinControl (as a Parent is a TWinControl).
. As I did not know if you also wanted to hook the duplicated controls with the same Event Handlers as the originals, I made an option for that.
. And you may want to give a proper meaningful Name to the duplicated controls.

uses
  TypInfo;

procedure CloneProperties(const Source: TControl; const Dest: TControl);
var
  ms: TMemoryStream;
  OldName: string;
begin
  OldName := Source.Name;
  Source.Name := ''; // needed to avoid Name collision
  try
    ms := TMemoryStream.Create;
    try
      ms.WriteComponent(Source);
      ms.Position := 0;
      ms.ReadComponent(Dest);
    finally
      ms.Free;
    end;
  finally
    Source.Name := OldName;
  end;
end;

procedure CloneEvents(Source, Dest: TControl);
var
  I: Integer;
  PropList: TPropList;
begin
  for I := 0 to GetPropList(Source.ClassInfo, [tkMethod], @PropList) - 1 do
    SetMethodProp(Dest, PropList[I], GetMethodProp(Source, PropList[I]));
end;

procedure DuplicateChildren(const ParentSource: TWinControl;
  const WithEvents: Boolean = True);
var
  I: Integer;
  CurrentControl, ClonedControl: TControl;
begin
  for I := ParentSource.ControlCount - 1 downto 0 do
  begin
    CurrentControl := ParentSource.Controls[I];
    ClonedControl := TControlClass(CurrentControl.ClassType).Create(CurrentControl.Owner);
    ClonedControl.Parent := ParentSource;
    CloneProperties(CurrentControl, ClonedControl);
    ClonedControl.Name := CurrentControl.Name + '_';
    if WithEvents then
      CloneEvents(CurrentControl, ClonedControl);
  end;
end;

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
  DuplicateChildren(Panel1);
end;

Answer 4

You can write the source component into a stream and read it back into the target component.

MemStream := TMemoryStream.Create;
try
  MemStream.WriteComponent(Source);
  MemStream.Position := 0;
  MemStream.ReadComponent(Target);
finally
  MemStream.Free;
end;

You may get problems with duplicate component names though.