vcl

Are there any "mind mapping" components for Delphi? (native VCL preferably)

I'm looking for a pre-written component (w/source) for a Delphi project that I'm working on, to generate mind-maps / concept-maps similar to these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:MindMeister_screenshot_OS_X.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:XMIND_2008_in_Windows_Vista.png Any ideas? ...

DLL plugin that creates a parented window doesn't handle messages correctly

I'm creating a plugin framework, where my application loads a series of plugin DLL's, then creates a new window and pass this new window's handle to the plugin. The plugin can, then, use this handle to create their own GUI. Everything seems to be working very well. The only problem is that when I press TAB on a plugin widget (An editbox...

Replace visual component at runtime in Delphi (win32)

Is it possible to, for instance, replace and free a TEdit with a subclassed component instantiated (conditionally) at runtime? If so, how and when it should be done? I've tried to set the parent to nil and to call free() in the form constructor and AfterConstruction methods but in both cases I got a runtime error. ...

AVI Animations for GUI

Hello I need to get some AVI animations for use with the Borland VCL TAnimate component, to display during operations such as 'online update', 'burning cd' and a few others. I have only come across the glyFX Animation Pack so far. Can anybody recomend other places to get nice avi animations? Thanks in advance. ...

How do I merge TMainMenu's that use separate imagelists and retain the correct images by each menu item?

I have a program with two TForm classes and have added a TMainMenu to them each. I am then trying to merge them dynamically at run-time. My problem is that when they merge the menu items in the merged in TMainMenu now display images stored in the imagelist in the form they were merged into rather than the images stored in their original...

Are there guidelines for updating C++Builder applications for C++Builder 2009?

I have a range of Win32 VCL applications developed with C++Builder from BCB5 onwards, and want to port them to ECB2009 or whatever it's now called. Some of my applications use the old TNT/TMS unicode components, so I have a good mix of AnsiStrings and WideStrings throughout the code. The new version introduces UnicodeString, and a bunch...

How to draw delphi group boxes to have transparent backgrounds

I'm trying to get something very subtle to work, it looks pretty awful right now. I'm trying to paint the background of a TGroupBox which I have overloaded the paint function of so that the corners are show through to their parent object. I've got a bunch of nested group boxes that look very decent without XPThemes. Is there a way to ...

How to implement find as you type on a TComboBox descendant

What is the correct way to implement the "find as you type" behavior on a TComboBox descendant component whose style is csOwnerDrawFixed? ...

Delphi 2009 Ribbon Controls - Glass Frame

I've been starting to use the new inbuilt Ribbon controls in Delphi 2009 and use the custom frame so the Application button and Mini-toolbar slide up onto the Window Frame, but I'm wondering if on Vista it should use the glass effect like Office 2007 does, and if so how I would enable this setting. Thanks for any help. ...

TCustomDataSet C++ Builder

I'm looking for an example of a TCustomDataSet implementation in C++ beyond the TTextDataset example that ships as an example project within C++ Builder. The TTextDataset is hard to learn from because the code is not documented very well and it only shows a single field example. I've created my own class that descends TDataSet and it m...

TListBox Drag and Drop problems with MultiSelect enabled

I have a TListBox with multiselect and ExtendedSelect both set to true. I need to be able to drag multiple items in the list box to re-arrange them. My problem is what happens when the user clicks on an item that is already selected without holding down the CTRL or SHIFT key. Case 1: DragMode is set to dmManual The selection is cleared...

How to make a Delphi TSpeedButton stay pressed if it's the only one in the group

I'm not sure why the TSpeedButton has this property but when a TSpeedButton is the only button of a given groupindex, it doesn't stay pressed, whether or not "AllowAllUp" is pressed. Maybe a Jedi control would suffice, but hopefully there's some fix. Any help or anecdotes are appreciated. BTW, I'm (still) using Delphi 7, not sure if t...

VCL alternative to IStorage

Hello To preface I am using Borland C++ and the VCL. I need some sort of structured storage object which can be saved to disk as a single file and can contain multiple named blobs of binary data which I can programatically enumerate, access and manipulate. The IStorage interface seems to be close what I want but I would prefer a VCL s...

How do you find the package a Delphi component comes from?

You used to be able to get the package a Delphi component was installed under from the palette. That functionality doesn't seem to be in the lastest versions, though. How can I find which package a component belongs to under D2007 or D2009? ...

Can Delphi applications have double shortcut keys like Visual Studio? (ie. Ctrl-k Ctrl-k)

As stated in the title, I need double shortcut keys for my application (ie. as Ctrl-k Ctrl-k is the Toggle Bookmark key in VS.NET ). I wonder if any of you has found a solution for this in Delphi? I suspect by modifying the very core of VCL one might do but is there any easier way? ...

Form.Release + NIL

Hello, if Form.Release is called after using the form, it will free all related memory but not set the form variable to nil. if not assigned (Form1) then begin Application.CreateForm(Tform1, Form1); try // Do something finally Form1.Release end; end; To be able to call the same code again, Form1 would ...

Preferred way to keep control centered on resize

What is your preferred way of keeping controls centered on its parent when the parent change width or height? ...

Disabling progress bar animation on Vista Aero

I'm using a Delphi 2009 VCL TProgressBar as a kind of "empty/full" gauge. On Vista, with Aero theme enabled, this has an animation associated with it, which is annoying and inappropriate for an gauge. Is there any way of disabling this (NOT by adjusting user's theme settings!) to prevent the animation on this control? Update: I under...

Delphi Menu Merging problem

I'm trying to merge two main menus together, but am having problems getting the right result with sub-items. I'm using the GroupIndex property on my MenuItems to control the merging/insertion. Menu1 (with groupindices) is like this File=10 Open=11 Close=12 Edit=20 Cut=21 Paste=22 Help=90 About=91 Menu2 is like this Edit=20 ...

Is there any way to get all the controls on a container control?

I've got a form with a bunch of controls on it, and I wanted to iterate through all the controls on a certain panel and enable/disable them. I tried this: var component: TComponent; begin for component in myPanel do (component as TControl).Enabled := Value; end; But that did nothing. Turns out all components are in the form's ...