How to improve the use of Delphi Frames

Question

I've used frames in Delphi for years, and they are one of the most powerful features of the VCL, but standard use of them seems to have some risk such as:

1. It's easy to accidentally move or edit the frame sub-components on a frame's host form without realising that you are 'tweaking' with the frame - I know this does not affect the original frame code, but it's generally not what you would want.

2. When working with the frame you are still exposed to its sub-components for visual editing, even when that frame is years old and should not be touched.

So I got to thinking....

1. Is there a way of 'grouping' components such that their positions are 'locked'? This would be useful for finished forms as well as frames. Often other developers return code to me where only the form bounds have changed and even they did not intend any change.

2. Is there any way of turning a frame and its components into a single Delphi component? If so, the frame internals would be completely hidden and its useability would increase further.

I'm interested in any thoughts...

Brian.

Ruthenian

2021 note: frames don't play nice with VCL styles (aka skins). Skins are not correctly applied in some cases and the whole GUI looks like it was built by someone with brain damage. – Yielding

Answer 1

Registering your frames as a component solves both 1. and 2.:

1. the components on the frame are locked when you put that frame control on a form or other frame
2. you will get a component (actually: control) that you can design visually

But: there are a few catches (which can be solved, see article link), of which the most important is this one:

When you put components on your frame, and later drop that frame as a component on a Delphi form or frame, the components are visible in the Structure Pane.

The problem is that because they are visible in the structure pane, you can delete them, causing access violations.

The trick to solve this to not forget the 'sprig'.
I learned that valuable lesson from Ray Konopka during DelphiLive 2009.

Since the lesson is so valuable, I wrote a blog post on it that describes it in detail.

The essential portion is this little piece of code (more details in the blog post):

procedure RegisterFramesAsComponents(const Page: string; const FrameClasses: array of TFrameClass);
var
  FrameClass: TFrameClass;
begin
  for FrameClass in FrameClasses do
  begin
    RegisterComponents(Page, [FrameClass]);
    RegisterSprigType(FrameClass, TComponentSprig);
  end;
end;

Hope this helps.

--jeroen

Rodi

@Jeroen: Very sneaky, well done. Off to look at your blog post. Brian. – Ruthenian

@Brian: If it works out for you, then please reconsider the accepted answer. – Rodi

Hi. Could you clarify who is the "TComponentSprig"? – Yielding

@ExternalServerError if the blog article is not clear enough, maybe the explanation by Ray Konopka is more clear: codeverge.com/public.delphi.vcl.writing/… – Rodi

@ExternalServerError, that's right: it is why Ray explains about a sprig, not a spring. A sprig is a kind of branch conduit between components and the IDE designers. There is hardly any documentation about it, but if you look at the Delphi 7 VCL hierarchy poster, you can find out some of the names used and from there Google for their context. scribd.com/document/17544777/Delphi-7-VCLHierarchyPoster – Rodi

Answer 2

Yes, just register them as components. :-)

Design your frame normally and after this register it. Also be sure to not have unwanted dependencies on different units since these are linked when your 'component' is used. Also you can add published properties in order to use them in the Object Inspector later. See for example the following code generated by the IDE (see also my comments):

unit myUnit;

uses
 ...

type
  TmyComp = class(TFrame) //set your frame name to be the name your component 
    ToolBar1: TToolBar; //different components added in the form designer
    aliMain: TActionList;
    ...
  published //this section is added by hand
    property DataSource: TDataSource read FDataSource write SetDataSource; //some published properties added just for exemplification
    property DefFields: string read FDefFields write SetDefFields;
    ...
  end;


procedure Register; //added by hand

implementation

{$R *.DFM}

procedure Register;
begin
  RegisterComponents('MyFrames', [TmyComp]); //register the frame in the desired component category
end;

Compile the above in a package of your choice, install it and check you component palette. :-)

HTH

Chloechloette

@Plainth: Excellent pointer, thanks. I've noted the answer from the respondent below too about the 'sprig'. Brian. – Ruthenian

@john I have made exactly this on XE2, it works selecting from the component pallet when placing over a TForm. However I cannot create a standalone unit for myFrame. I have tried doing that by creating a TFrame and then changing the reference to TFrame to TMyFrame. It didnt work, my new published properties did not show up. What could be missing? – Bein

Answer 3

I'm almost always creating frame instances in code. This is easy and worked well for me so far.

Temperament

Answer 4

Just for increasing contribution, note that if you go to Structure window and right-click on the TFrame name that you chose, and click on the Add to Palete menu option. This will make a component out of your Frame and you don't need to create any Register procedure. ;-)

Ravenous

Answer 5

I also ran into that problem when trying to use frames as components. There are various possibilities to fix the obvious issues, but they all undermine the principle of information hiding (all the frame's subcomponents are exposed as published properties, which means everyone can access them).

I solved it by implementing a generic "frame control" component:

unit RttiBrow.Cbde.FrameControl;

interface

uses
  Classes, Controls, Forms, Messages, ExtCtrls;

type
  TFrameClass = class of TFrame;

  TComponentFrame = class (TFrame)
  private
    function GetClientHeight: Integer;
    function GetClientWidth: Integer;
    procedure SetClientHeight(const Value: Integer);
    procedure SetClientWidth(const Value: Integer);
    function GetOldCreateOrder: Boolean;
    procedure SetOldCreateOrder(const Value: Boolean);
    function GetPixelsPerInch: Integer;
    procedure SetPixelsPerInch(const Value: Integer);
    function GetTextHeight: Integer;
    procedure SetTextHeight(const Value: Integer);
  published
    { workarounds for IDE bug }
    property ClientWidth: Integer read GetClientWidth write SetClientWidth stored False;
    property ClientHeight: Integer read GetClientHeight write SetClientHeight stored False;
    property OldCreateOrder: Boolean read GetOldCreateOrder write SetOldCreateOrder stored False;
    property PixelsPerInch: Integer read GetPixelsPerInch write SetPixelsPerInch stored False;
    property TextHeight: Integer read GetTextHeight write SetTextHeight stored False;
  end;

  TComponentFrame<TFrameControl: class { TControl }> = class (TComponentFrame)
  private
    function GetController: TFrameControl; inline;
  protected
    property Controller: TFrameControl read GetController;
  public
    constructor Create (AOwner: TComponent); override;
  end;

  TFrameControl<T: TFrame> = class (TWinControl)
  private
    FFrame: T;
    function PlainFrame: TFrame;
  protected
    procedure CreateParams (var Params: TCreateParams); override;
    property Frame: T read FFrame;
  public
    constructor Create (AOwner: TComponent); override;
    property DockManager;
  published
    property Align;
    property Anchors;
    property BiDiMode;
    property Color;
    property Constraints;
    property Ctl3D;
    property UseDockManager default True;
    property DockSite;
    property DoubleBuffered;
    property DragCursor;
    property DragKind;
    property DragMode;
    property Enabled;
    property Font;
    property ParentBiDiMode;
    property ParentBackground;
    property ParentColor;
    property ParentCtl3D;
    property ParentDoubleBuffered;
    property ParentFont;
    property ParentShowHint;
    property ShowHint;
    property TabOrder;
    property TabStop;
    property Touch;
    property Visible;
    property OnAlignInsertBefore;
    property OnAlignPosition;
    property OnCanResize;
    property OnConstrainedResize;
    property OnDockDrop;
    property OnDockOver;
    property OnDragDrop;
    property OnDragOver;
    property OnEndDock;
    property OnEndDrag;
    property OnEnter;
    property OnExit;
    property OnGesture;
    property OnGetSiteInfo;
    property OnMouseActivate;
    property OnMouseDown;
    property OnMouseEnter;
    property OnMouseLeave;
    property OnMouseMove;
    property OnMouseUp;
    property OnResize;
    property OnStartDock;
    property OnStartDrag;
    property OnUnDock;
  end;


implementation

uses
  Windows;

{ TFrameControl<T> }

constructor TFrameControl<T>.Create(AOwner: TComponent);
begin
  inherited;
  FFrame := T (TFrameClass (T).Create (Self));
  PlainFrame.Parent := Self;
  PlainFrame.Align := alClient;
end;

procedure TFrameControl<T>.CreateParams(var Params: TCreateParams);
begin
  inherited;
  Params.Style := Params.Style or WS_CLIPCHILDREN;
  Params.ExStyle := Params.ExStyle or WS_EX_CONTROLPARENT;
end;

function TFrameControl<T>.PlainFrame: TFrame;
begin
  Result := FFrame; // buggy compiler workaround
end;


{ TComponentFrame }

function TComponentFrame.GetOldCreateOrder: Boolean;
begin
  Result := False;
end;

function TComponentFrame.GetPixelsPerInch: Integer;
begin
  Result := 0;
end;

function TComponentFrame.GetTextHeight: Integer;
begin
  Result := 0;
end;

procedure TComponentFrame.SetClientHeight(const Value: Integer);
begin
  Height := Value;
end;

procedure TComponentFrame.SetClientWidth(const Value: Integer);
begin
  Width := Value;
end;

procedure TComponentFrame.SetOldCreateOrder(const Value: Boolean);
begin
end;

procedure TComponentFrame.SetPixelsPerInch(const Value: Integer);
begin
end;

procedure TComponentFrame.SetTextHeight(const Value: Integer);
begin
end;

function TComponentFrame.GetClientHeight: Integer;
begin
  Result := Height;
end;

function TComponentFrame.GetClientWidth: Integer;
begin
  Result := Width;
end;


{ TComponentFrame<TFrameControl> }

constructor TComponentFrame<TFrameControl>.Create(AOwner: TComponent);
begin
  inherited;
  Assert (AOwner <> nil);
  Assert (AOwner.InheritsFrom (TFrameControl));
end;

function TComponentFrame<TFrameControl>.GetController: TFrameControl;
begin
  Result := TFrameControl (Owner);
end;


end.

With this class, adding a frame as a component becomes a two-stage process:

  // frame unit
type
  TFilteredList = class;

  TFrmFilteredList = class (TComponentFrame<TFilteredList>)
    // lots of published sub-components and event methods like this one:
    procedure BtnFooClick(Sender: TObject);
  end;

  TFilteredList = class (TFrameControl<TFrmFilteredList>)
  private
    procedure Foo;
  public
    // the component's public interface
  published
    // the component's published properties
  end;

procedure Register;
...
procedure Register;
begin
  RegisterComponents ('CBDE Components', [TFilteredList]);
end;

procedure TFrmFilteredList.BtnFooClick(Sender: TObject);
begin
  Controller.Foo;
end;

procedure TFilteredList.Foo;
begin
end;
...

When using this approach, the user of your component won't see your sub-components.

Halimeda