So the problem with iamjoosy's answer is - even though it works - that as soon as you scroll through this Tree with the drawn buttons/images/whatever, the ones that are supposed to leave the Tree again are still existing, being painted at the lowest/highest location where you left them off. Depending on the amount you just scrolled, it leaves a smaller or larger clutter of buttons in that column. AfterCellPaint doesn't move them anymore, since the cells of that now invisble Node below the bottom/above the top are not painted anymore.
What you can do is traverse all tree nodes (probably very expensive if you have a lot of nodes) and check if they are actually in the visible area of the tree and hide the panels (you might need your buttons inside panels to be painted on top of the tree instead of behind) with your buttons/whatevers accordingly:
procedure TMyTree.MyTreeAfterCellPaint(Sender: TBaseVirtualTree;
TargetCanvas: TCanvas; Node: PVirtualNode; Column: TColumnIndex;
CellRect: TRect);
var
InitialIndex: Integer;
// onInitNode I AddOrSetValue a "DataIndexList" TDictionary<PVirtualNode, LongInt>
// to preserve an original index "InitialIndex" (violating the virtual paradigm),
// because I need it for something else anyways
Data: PMyData;
ANode: PVirtualNode;
begin
if Node <> nil then
begin
if Column = 2 then
begin
ANode := MyTree.GetFirst;
while Assigned(ANode) do
begin
DataIndexList.TryGetValue(ANode, InitialIndex);
if not ( CheckVisibility(Sender.GetDisplayRect(ANode, Column, False)) ) then
begin
MyBtnArray[InitialIndex].Visible := False;
MyPanelArray[InitialIndex].Visible := False;
end
else
begin
MyBtnArray[InitialIndex].Visible := True;
MyPanelArray[InitialIndex].Visible := True;
end;
ANode := MyTree.GetNext(ANode);
end;
DataIndexList.TryGetValue(Node, InitialIndex);
Data := MyTree.GetNodeData(Node);
MyPanelArray[InitialIndex].BoundsRect := Sender.GetDisplayRect(Node, Column, False);
end;
end;
end;
function TMyTree.CheckVisibility(R: TRect): Boolean;
begin
// in my case these checks are the way to go, because
// MyTree is touching the top border of the TForm. You will have
// to adjust accordingly if your placement is different
if (R.Bottom < MyTree.Top) or (R.Bottom > MyTree.Top + MyTree.Height) then
Result := False
else
Result := True;
end;
Needless to say that you can do the traversing with visibilityCheck inside many other OnEvents successfully. It doesn't have to be in AfterCellPaint; maybe another event might be a lot better performance wise.
To create RunTime copies of your one original Panel+Button, to place inside your ButtonArray or whichever structure you're using, you will have to copy their RTTI as well. This procedure is taken from http://www.blong.com/Conferences/BorConUK98/DelphiRTTI/CB140.zip (further RTTI information at http://www.blong.com/Conferences/BorConUK98/DelphiRTTI/CB140.htm) and "uses TypInfo":
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;
Seeing this old answer of mine later, I now have a different solution running for the VisibilityCheck, which is a lot more reliable and easier:
function TFoo.IsNodeVisibleInClientRect(Node: PVirtualNode; Column: TColumnIndex = NoColumn): Boolean;
begin
Result := VST.IsVisible[Node] and
VST.GetDisplayRect(Node, Column, False).IntersectsWith(VST.ClientRect);
end;
