When I add, for example, a TPanel to a form and align it using alTop and then add a TMainMenu to the same form, the main menu position overrides the panel position such that the Main Menu remains topmost on the form with the panel appearing below it.
Is it possible to override the TMainMenu position so I can add a component like a Panel above it and the Main Menu below it?
Alternatives like TActionManager and/or TToolBar are not suitable because of BiDi compatibility issues.
No, the main menu is a Windows component and its location is fixed. This isn't a Delphi limitation but a restriction on how menus work with windows in Windows.
From MSDN (emphasis mine) :
Only an overlapped or pop-up window can contain a menu bar; a child window cannot contain one. If the window has a title bar, the system positions the menu bar just below it. A menu bar is always visible.
If you want menu-like behaviour in a component which you can freely place anywhere on your form, you would need to either write one yourself or look for third-party alternatives.
In my current project I have a TTbxDock with toolbars and panels (TTbxDockablePanel). After moving TBX-->SpTBX I can't place a panel (TSpTbxDockablePanel) on a TSpTbxDock. I see a runtime error message saying I can't place a panel on a dock.
Do I need to use a TSpTbxMultiDock instead for panels? Why?
Can I place toolbars on a TSpTbxMultiDock instead of a TSpTBXDock?
i.e. why such code is written:
procedure TSpTBXCustomMultiDock.ValidateInsert(AComponent: TComponent);
begin
inherited;
if not (AComponent is TSpTBXCustomDockablePanel) then
raise EInvalidOperation.CreateFmt('Cannot insert %s into MultiDock', [AComponent.ClassName]);
end;
procedure TSpTBXCustomDockablePanel.ValidateContainer(AComponent: TComponent);
begin
inherited;
if (AComponent is TTBDock) and not (AComponent is TSpTBXCustomMultiDock) then
raise EInvalidOperation.CreateFmt('Cannot insert %s into %s. Place it on a MultiDock instead', [Self.ClassName, AComponent.ClassName]);
end;
Why can't I just use one type of dock?
"I need to use TSpTbxMultiDock instead for panels? Why?"
The short answer is, because the TSpTBXMultiDock component is written to handle and dock only TSpTBXDockablePanels.
The long answer is that the TSpTBXMultiDock component is written to handle and dock only TSpTBXDockablePanels because the docking code relies on specific methods / properties in the controls it is docking. See TSpTBXCustomDockablePanel.SetParent, which looks after this: it accesses the properties and methods TSpTBXCustomMultiDock.
UpdateDockablePanelsDockPos
ClientAreaWidth
ClientAreaHeight
In other words, the docking and layout code needs to know certain information and ask the docked controls to do certain things. The easiest way to do this is to constrain the type of the controls it can dock to descendants of a specific class which declares and implements the required interface (using interface loosely, there is no (class) interface declared, it's just an informal set of methods / properties.)
From scanning the code quickly, I think only the first of these, UpdateDockablePanelsDockPos, is really essential. I may have missed something. But this method gets a list of all docked panels and updates each one's DockPos, which is the one-dimensional position of the dock in the panel. That is, for a horizontal panel it is the left / horizontal start, and for a vertical panel it is the top / vertical start. It also updates the total so the panel knows how big is has to be, or can be if it chooses.
I'm not quite sure I've answered your question. I feel I've given a correct answer but not a helpful answer (the above are technical reasons, not conceptual reasons), which requires insight into what you're doing. My guess is you are asking this because you're struggling with a TBX -> SpTBX migration and you want docking areas which can handle both toolbars and dockable panels. Luckily, both these lead to your second question...
"Can I place toolbars on a TSpTbxMultiDock?"
I'm stepping into remembered territory here and I can't guarantee that this part of the answer is correct, because I converted our app from TBX to SpTBX a long, long time ago.
First of all, no, you cannot place a TSpTBXToolbar on a dockable panel. Nor can you dock a TSpTBXDockablePanel on a TSpTBXDock. A toolbar can dock into a dock, and a dockable panel can dock into a multidock.
The reason for this is guesswork, but I would guess it's because of the different behaviour of the two docked controls and their purpose.
Toolbars:
Are meant to contain SpTBX items (buttons, dropdown, etc, not any normal VCL controls, buttons, etc) and can dynamically change from being toolbars to menus etc, eg as the form is resized and the toolbar shrinks.
Stack: as well as having any amount of space between them (unlike docked panels, which always sit adjacent to each other) toolbars can have space between them; they sit whereever the user put them. They also often sit in several rows, and the one dock expands and contains several rows.
Are designed to shrink: a form can get too small or a user can drag a toolbar over another, and a toolbar will show only the items it can, and either hide the others or show a chevron (a tiny >> button to open a menu containing the other items.)
Dockable panels:
Are meant to hold complex controls, including standard VCL controls - they're meant as a toolbar and docking system-compatible way to build complex docked forms. (We design ours as frames and client-align a frame to the dockable panel.)
Rarely are on several rows. This is up to you as the UI implementer, but many panels docked next to each other could rapidly fill up form space. We keep LimitToOneRow turned on for dockable panels, so they they can only fill up one dimension (ie, on the left and right side of the form, dockable panels can only sit above and below each other, not to the left and right of each other.)
Resizing behaviour is different: they are always adjacent with no gap in between (toolbars can be positioned anywhere) and usually stretch one or more of the panel to fill the whole size of the dock (toolbars don't, unless MenuBar is set (see below)) and in fact toolbars are designed to shrink, not grow, and show a chevron and a drop-down menu. Panels don't have that behaviour.
After that diversion, back to your question. When we were converting our app I remember wondering what would happen if a user wanted to create a layout such that there were toolbars, then a dockable panel, and then toolbars again, in order to get as close as possible to mixing the two types. Doing so would require a dock, then a multidock, and then a dock again, but in practice this actually leads to users being able to create quite complex and confusing layouts. One problem with dockable UIs is that many users find them confusing (honestly, you'd be surprised), and can accidentally move or dock items where they don't want them. (It's good practice to contrain the menu bar to the top, for example - don't allow that one to be moved. It's just confusing.)
Our current design is that each side of our main window has two docks: one normal dock and then next to that that (closer to the center of the form) a multidock. The resulting behaviour is that all toolbars, such as menus and normal toolbars, can only dock next to the edge of the window. Dockable panels are then closer to the inside of the form than that. Keeping pairs of docks and multidocks next to each other on each form edge lets both types of controls be docked at any side of the form, but constrains toolbars to always be on the very edge of the form. This makes UI sense, actually: dockable panels tend to contain more complex things inside them than a toolbar, and it follows that they are more central controls. Of course, if one particular edge of the form has only a dockable panel on it, not a dockable toolbar, then the toolbar dock is invisible (width or height of 0) and so the panel sits next to the edge of the window too.
Written as text, it's hard to explain the previous two paragraphs (how this scheme works, and why this is okay / good.) You need to try it in practice and have a sense for user's behaviour. But basically, I recommend having both types of docks on your form, and keep the TSpTBXMultiDocks aligned 'inside' or 'inner to' the normal toolbar docks. Hopefully this image helps.
Other
You might be interested in the following properties:
DockableTo (toolbar and dockable panel): constrains which sides (top, bottom, left, right) a toolbar or panel can dock. Use this to make some controls only able to be docked in certain specific docks - a main menu to only dock on the top, for example.
DefaultDock (again, both): when users double-click to dock, rather than drag-docking, where does it go?
CurrentDock: I think you've already found this, but set it in the designer to move a toolbar or panel between docks, and read at runtime (or, I suppose, set at runtime if you programatically want to move things to specific docks.)
DockMode: controls whether a toolbar or panel can float (be undocked and be its own window), or not, including whether it can change docks. An example of using this is the main-menu constraint again.
FixedDockSize (panels only): stops the panel being resizable, either by the user or by the docking code referred to above.
MenuBar (toolbars only): gives the toolbar slightly different behaviour, I think that it always takes up the full width of the dock and doesn't allow other toolbars to be docked next to it. It may also change how items render slightly.
I'm attempting to create an application menu and toolbar in Delphi XE3 that looks like the following (from a program I have):
I'm able to replicate a portion of this look by doing the following:
Create a new VCL Forms application
Add a TMainMenu and insert template menus for File/Edit/etc.
Add a TCoolBar to the form
Add a TToolBar to the TCoolBar
Add a TToolButton to the TToolBar for each of File/Edit/etc. and choose the Group property
Delete the Menu property from the form (so no program menu shows)
Assign the MenuItem property for each TToolButton to the corresponding File/Edit/etc.
Add a second TToolBar to the TCoolBar beneath the first one
Here's what it looks like:
It's somewhat similar but is still missing all the style elements to modify the look of the new application menu.
My question is, does anyone know of how to achieve a similar look, perhaps with a third-party component library? It seems likely that the original developer used a third-party VCL library. I'd like the drop shadow in addition to the styled menus and TCoolBar.
I've tried Raize Components, TMS Advanced Toolbars & Menus, and am in the process of trying DevExpress VCL components. None of them seem to provide a solution, but perhaps I'm not familiar enough with them yet to figure it out.
Delphi has come with an ActionBands demo that can show you how to obtain this appearance "out of the box" for your menus using TActionMainMenuBar (and TActionToolBar). Just change the Style menu to XP Style in the demo:
The rest of your steps seem pretty well complete. For the images on the menu items and toolbar buttons, see the use of ImageList components in association with the TActions on the menu and toolbar in the demo.
With 10 years of experience in development, I could not put new buttons on the Toolbar FireMonkey. Could anyone help me?
There is no component editor menu-item to add buttons or seperators, but you can drag buttons from the toolpallet to the toolbar. Or select the toolbar in the form and press F6. Type the name of the control you want on the toolbar and press enter.
TToolBar is now simply a container. You must drop your own controls onto it.
To add a control to a ToolBar, make sure that your ToolBar is selected on the form, select your child control in the Tool Palette, and then click the location in the ToolBar that you wish your child control to appear.
Another way to do this is to ensure that the ToolBar is selected and double-click the control in the Tool Palette. Whatever control is selected becomes the parent.
Many of the new FireMonkey UI controls are now simply containers, including TStatusBar.
To add a text line to TStatusBar, you must add your own TLabel or other control.
I found that the best way to put an image on a button was to literally drop a TImage onto the button and unset the TImage's HitTest property.
All FireMonkey controls are containers and can have child controls now. It might take a little longer to configure your UI, but you have a lot of flexibility.
Use the TLayout control for dividing up the parent control and aligning your controls. Use the Margin and Padding properties to adjust the spacing.
I am building an user interface. My program will consist of 4 main parts:
1) Top Menu - TMainMenu. A top of a window
2) Main Menu - TTreeView. A left of a window. Each item of TreeView=corresponded TabSheet of TPageCotrol.
3) Work space - TPageControl. No tabs. An left space.
Each TabSheet has it's own ToolBar and other controls. It will be 5 menus (5 items in TreeView) = 5 TabSheets -> 5 ToolBars and other controls on each TabSheet.
It almost exactly looks like here (it could be: TreeView as Main Menu; MainMenu as Top Menu; Work Area - ToolBar and other controls):
I would like to use an user interface like here:
Where the CoolBar are represented with the Top Menu and the ToolBar (it suits my purpose to use 5 ToolBars instead of 1 ToolBar on each TabSheet). But after a discussion here it seems impossible to copy this CoolBar with the MainMenu and the ToolBar.
My question: how to build an efficient user interface using as examples the UI of uTorrent and the UI of Windows Firewall?
Are there good alternatives, ideas of a building of the UI? How would you make your interface if you need those 4 parts as me?
Now I have something like this:
Thanks!
You'll have to have 5 panels in your client area.
As you select a node in the treeview on the left you will need to call
pnlInboundRules.BringToFront;
The difficult thing is then how to update the single toolbar with the items that should appear on it based on what "tab" you've selected.
You would have to delete the toolbar buttons, and add new buttons for that "page".
Ian suggest panels, I would go with PageControl and set it's tabs TabVisible to false at runtime(*). The reason is that it is much more easy to manage at design time. When user select an item from treeview, activate corresponding TabSheet...
*) I actually haven't done this with stock TPageControl so I don't rememeber would it work this way, ie would it activate TabSheet which have it's TabVisible set to false. It might be that you have to set TabHeight to 0 or use some other trick to hide tabs at runtime.