I am supporting some legacy Delphi project. This project is divided into modules that stored in DLLs.
I need to compile one of the modules (last compiled in 2007). This module uses module DualListBox and has a variable of type TDualListBox:
uses DualListBox ....;
...
lbMasterOrders: TDualListBox;
lbChildOrders: TDualListBox;
The problem is, I don't know where to find module DualListBox. I can't find it on my machine, and I can't find it on the internet.
As far as I understand, the TDualListBox component must be something like ListBox that can Add rows at runtime.
At first, i thought that DualListBox is a part of RxLib, but RxLib's component is called DualListDialog and it's something completely else.
So maybe this is the self-written module by prev developer, that was deleted somehow.
But somehow the compiled DLL (that was comiled in 2007) is working perfectly fine. Maybe I can investigate where to find that module by decompiling that DLL?
If so, where should I look in the decompiled project? I'm using DeDe for decompiling.
The unit is called duallist and is automatically generated by Delphi 2007 (and also Delphi 10.1 and 10.2, don't know about other versions, but I would be surprised if they didn't have it) when you open a VCL project and click:
File
New
Other
Delphi Projects
Delphi Files
Dual list box
These units are usually taken from the object repository, which by default is located in the ObjRepos subdirectory of the Delphi installation.
Related
As the title suggest, I can't find that unit.
Is there an equivalent?
I am trying to port a unit from VCL to Firemonkey which contains OleServer in its uses clause, but I can't find any information on Embarcaderos website regarding this problem.
I have also tried to Google it, but no success.
Where can I find TOleServer and/or its unit OleServer that is compatible with Firemonkey?
Or how can I implement that unit in my Firemonkey project?
Hi i have the same problèm before and i made change in OleServer
Copy Vcl.OleSever to your project and rename it to FMX.OleServer
in implementation section do change like this:
implementation
uses
FMX.Controls;
resourcestring
sNoRunningObject = 'Unable to retrieve a pointer to a running object registered with OLE for %s/%s';
at the initialization section change to FMX.Controls.TControl
initialization
GroupDescendentsWith(TOleServer, FMX.Controls.TControl);
end.
Finally rename VCL.OleServer to FMX.OleServer in your imported library unit
Indeed the main issue with compiling TLB (typelibrary) units for COM/OLE Servers seems to be some unit renaming that has occured. Ideally the Delphi IDE should detect this automatically and fix it.
Based on Doug Rudd's comment above I fixed my "uses OleServer" to "uses Vcl.OleServer" in my TLB unit.
Since there's a "source" folder under Delphi installation folder even for the Pro version now (at least at 10.2.2 Tokyo version that I'm currently using), I could also easily spot (using GrepWin free tool) where the "EmptyParam" that was causing my TLB to not compile had gone. It is under System.Variants unit that one also needs to use in their TLB (before it was in System so you didn't need to use some unit for it).
Guess I could have imported the COM/OLE Server again to make new TLB import unit, but since it was hand-ended (to remove using of "Graphics", "StdVcl" and "OleCtrls" units that were bloating the executable size in older versions of Delphi) and that hand-edited imported TLB used to work fine for a command-line application, I didn't have any reason to reimport the Type Library.
You can see the changes I did to make my XSLer tool work with the latest Delphi at https://github.com/Zoomicon/tranXform/commit/e99f42049b8a4c1534d9edb78ed5e6493e6e5786. That XSLer command-line tool is using MSXML (Microsoft XML) automation server.
Sorry if this is a silly question but it's not something I've had to do before.
Is it possible to create a component class, say, a descendent of TPanel or TDBGrid, in a DLL, and then load that DLL at runtime in another application, which then creates those controls and uses them like normal Delphi components?
If so can you give me any pointers as to where to look to start doing this?
That's what packages are for. They are a kind of DLL that is improved to play well with Delphi classes (including components).
Just remember that you'll need to distribute RTL[ver].bpl, VCL[ver].bpl and any other necessary Runtime Packages alongside your executable and DLL.
Ideally you should test your application on a VM or system which has never had Delphi/RAD Studio installed on it. This way, if your distribution is missing any required Package files, the Execption dialog will tell you what files you need to include.
I write a lot of components and libraries for Delphi, most of which require the use of BPL Packaging so that they may be installed into the IDE.
This is simple enough and works well, right up until you want to maintain a single set of Package Project Files (in a single Project Group), but also want to compile and distribute those same packages for different Delphi versions.
Up to now I've been creating a different Package Project for each version of Delphi, and explicitly defining a Delphi Version Identifier as a suffix (e.g. Kinect_XE.bpl and Kinect_XE2.bpl).
I am aware that, in the Project Options for a Package Project, under Description, there are the fields LIB prefix and (more importantly for my needs) LIB suffix.
I am further aware that if I place a value in LIB suffix, it'll be appended to the end of the compiled BPL's filename.
My question, however, is first whether it is possible to have the IDE automatically populate the LIB suffix field with the IDE/RTL Version number, and if so... how?
I'm fairly certain this is possible, as it would appear that vcl120.bpl (and its counterparts for each respective version of Delphi) can be Referenced (as requirements) of your own packages using just vcl rather than having to type the full vcl120. It is, in fact, this same behaviour I'm hoping to achieve... where my packages can intra-reference eachother (as neccessary) without having to provide version-specific references to accommodate the suffixes.
Equally important is that resolving this will enable me to maintain a single set of Project Files in a single Project Group (with the obvious exception of XE2 where its Project Files don't necessarily behave very well with previous versions of Delphi due to the Platforms addition).
I suspect that I may need to put a value like $(VER) (or something similar) in the LIB suffix field, but this appears not to work and I've scoured Google looking for the correct solution.
Hope you can help!
UPDATE 1
I am now writing an IDE plugin to be used with (in the very least) Delphi 2007 to XE2, which gives DLL and BPL projects a new option called AutoSuffix. When toggled On, any IDE with the AutoSuffix plugin installed will immediately apply the correct IDE version suffix to the project.
The AutoSuffix plugin will be made available (freely) for everyone within the next 24 hours, and this question updated accordingly.
UPDATE 2
Okay... Delphi 2007 is being a pain! I've made AutoSuffix work with 2009 to XE2, so far, but 2007 requires a little more time (patience appreciated).
UPDATE 3
It would appear as though Embarcadero have heard our collective cry for simplier package unification between versions.
Mark is going to push this through to see if future versions of Delphi can accommodate a {$LIBSUFFIX AUTO} feature. I hope to hear back very soon whether this will be the case. If so, it certainly affects the way AutoSuffix will need to work on XE2 and older versions (as presently it doesn't provide the simple AUTO switch.. it has its own method).
My hope now is that EMB will take this request seriously, provide it as an integral feature going forward, so that it becomes a simple case of using AutoSuffix on existing versions to unify the process accross all versions!
AFAIK for Delphi up to XE2 there is no automatism for doing this.
Concerning the requires clause: when you require another package you are actually using the dcp, which doesn't inherit the LIBSUFFIX. Thus it is sufficient to require VCL.dcp during compile time, while VCL160.bpl is actually used during runtime. The DCP includes the complete BPL name to resolve that.
This makes the LIBSUFFIX approach superior to the simple "rename the package for each version of Delphi" one.
A solution like that suggested in QC83229 would make it easier to port a package to a newer Delphi version, but then you are still stuck with dproj files that are not backwards compatible.
I normally use different folders for each Delphi version, where only the project files are stored. For a new Delphi version I only have to copy a folder and change the LIBSUFFIX.
LIBSUFFIX directive is in *.dpk file, and you can edit *.dpk file manually.
You can write, for example
{$IFDEF CONDITIONALEXPRESSIONS}
{$IF CompilerVersion = 20.0}
{$LIBSUFFIX '120'}
{$IFEND}
{$IF CompilerVersion = 21.0}
{$LIBSUFFIX '140'}
{$IFEND}
{$ENDIF}
The bad thing is that IDE does not respect your manual edits of *.dpk file and deletes them then you make changes in a package. That is why some component vendors that use conditional defines in *.dpk file say in installation instruction if asked to save changes say 'NO'.
My suggestion would be to add this as a configurable option to project option sets (see QC #86491.) Rather than updating all the packages it would be sufficient to update a single option set file.
In fact, it seems the DllSuffix tag is recognized by the option set files in Delphi XE/XE2. Adding <DllSuffix>160</DllSuffix> to the <PropertyGroup> section of an option set file will cause the suffix to be appended to the package in the project manager. However, you still have to open the project options and click OK in order for it to be saved to the .dpk file.
I agree that it would be extremely useful with this feature (I would think also for the packages in the RTL.)
{$LIBSUFFIX AUTO} feature was added in Delphi 10.4.1:
In previous versions (version 10.3 and earlier) of C++Builder and
Delphi developers building packages needed to manually set their
package’s library suffix setting. The DocWiki “What’s new in version
10.4.1” mentions a new IDE projects option for setting the library suffix:
“Package AUTO libsuffix: packages can now have an automatic version
suffix, instead of manually updating and specifying the right version
suffix with each new release. (The compiler quietly supported this in
10.4, but full support for the feature in the IDE and package project settings is introduced in 10.4.1.)”
I am trying to port some Delphi XE code to XE2, it uses a unit called InvRules.pas, which according to the XE2 docs, has no namespace prefix.
It also isn't in the soap folder where I expect it:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Embarcadero\RAD Studio\9.0\source\soap
The simplest answer is that it's been removed (accidentally or on purpose) from XE2.
Has anyone figured out what's up? This unit contains functions like GetStackTypeSize, and RetOnStack, which are used sometimes in custom TRIOHelper type classes.
This unit is no longer used by the soap runtime so it's not being shipped anymore. In previous releases, it was part of the soaprtl runtime package. There were some significant changes made to the soap runtime for the XE2 release to make the code portable to x64 and less reliant on BASM code that was essentially duplicated in the RTTI support units. The change log entry associated with the commit states:
Refactor out InvRules, use RTTI to get type sizes.
Remove InvRules, PrivateHeap from soap package.
If you have code which relies on the helper routines in this unit you should be fine using the source from a previous release. You may also want to diff the Invoker.pas, InvokeRegistry.pas, OPToSOAPDomConv.pas and Rio.pas units between XE and XE2 to see how the code changed so it no longer relies on the InvRules.pas unit.
I am upgrading from Delphi 6 to Delphi XE. In Delphi 6 I was using HTML help files (.chm) and used the StoHtmlHelp to make it so that I could call context sensitive help like we used to call .hlp files. I'm upgrading to Delphi XE so I need to use that native HTML help support.
I know I'm supposed to add HTMLHelpViewer to the uses clause of the project, but when I do I get a compiler warning that it couldn't find the file.
Could not compile used unit 'HTMLHelpViewer.pas'
Does anyone know why Delphi isn't finding this file by default? It should be built in.
Not being able to compile a file and not finding a file arent't the same thing. If Delphi is trying to compile HTMLHelpViewer.pas you must either:
have the vcl source folder(s) on your library path (not recommended), or
another HTMLHelpViewer.pas file is somewhere on your library path, that path comes before the standard Delphi lib folder, and that HTMLHelpViewer.pas file contains something that Delphi XE is not happy about.
The first is not likely and it would be very strange indeed if Delphi could not compile one of its units (apart from system.pas).
The second seems more likely... And if that unit used to compile, the complaints from Delphi XE could well be due to differences between Delphi 6 and Delphi XE.
You don't actually need to add it the uses clause of the .dpr file – you just need to use it from some unit in your project.
Having said that, you may actually prefer to add it to your .dpr file, and if so then do it like this:
uses
Forms,
HtmlHelpViewer,
MyUnit in 'MyUnit.pas',
I'm guessing that you have something like this:
uses
Forms,
HtmlHelpViewer in 'C:\Program Files\Borland\Delphi6\Source\VCL\HtmlHelpViewer.pas',
MyUnit in 'MyUnit.pas',
This will fail because you are asking XE to compile D6 source.
For RTL/VCL units its best to omit the path to the file and let the compiler find it (it knows where to look).