Is it possible to display one object multiple times in a VirtualStringTree? - delphi

Question

I realize that I really need to rewrite my programs data structure (not now, but soon, as the deadline is monday), as I am currently using VST (VirtualStringTree) to store my data.
What I would like to achieve, is a Contact List structure. The Rootnodes are the Categories, and the children are the Contacts. There is a total of 2 levels.
The thing is though, that I need a contact to display in more than 1 category, but they need to be synchronized. Particularly the Checkstate.
Currently, to maintain sync, I loop thru my whole tree to find nodes that have the same ID as the one that was just changed. But doing so is very slow when there is a huge ammount of nodes.
So, I thought: Would it be possible to display one instance of the Contact Object, in multiple Categories?
Note: Honestly I am not 100% familiar with the terminology - what I mean by Instance, is one Object (or Record), so I will not have to look thru my entire tree to find Contact Objects with the same ID.
Here is an example:
As you see, Todd Hirsch appears in Test Category, and in All Contacts. But behind the scenes, those are 2 PVirtualNodes, so when I change a property on one of the node's (Like CheckState), or something in the node's Data Record/Class, the 2 nodes are not synchronized. And currently the only way I can synchronize them, is to loop thru my tree, find all the nodes that house that same contact, and apply the changes to them and their data.
To summarize: What I am looking for, is a way to use one object/record, and display it in several Categories in my tree - and whenever one node gets checked, so will every other node that houses the same Contact object.
Do I make any sense here?

Answer 1

Of course you can. You need to separate nodes and data in your mind. Nodes in TVirtualStringTree do not need to hold the data, the can simply be used to point to an instance where the data can be found. And of course you can point two nodes to the same object instance.
Say you have a list of TPerson's and you haev a tree where you want to show each person in different nodes. Then you declare the record you use for your nodes simply as something like:
TNodeRecord = record
... // anything else you may need or want
DataObject: TObject;
...
end;
In the code where the nodes are initialized, you do something like:
PNodeRecord.DataObject := PersonList[SomeIndex];
That's the gist of it. If you want a general NodeRecord, like I showed above, then you would need to cast it back to the proper class in order to use it in the various Get... methods. You can of course also make a specific record per tree, where you declare DataObject to be of the specific type of class that you display in the tree. The only drawback is that you then limit the tree to showing information for that class of objects.
I should have a more elaborate example lying around somewhere. When I find it, I'll add it to this answer.
Example
Declare a record to be used by the tree:
RTreeData = record
CDO: TCustomDomainObject;
end;
PTreeData = ^RTreeData;
TCustomDomainObject is my base class for all domain information. It is declared as:
TCustomDomainObject = class(TObject)
private
FList: TObjectList;
protected
function GetDisplayString: string; virtual;
function GetCount: Cardinal;
function GetCDO(aIdx: Cardinal): TCustomDomainObject;
public
constructor Create; overload;
destructor Destroy; override;
function Add(aCDO: TCustomDomainObject): TCustomDomainObject;
property DisplayString: string read GetDisplayString;
property Count: Cardinal read GetCount;
property CDO[aIdx: Cardinal]: TCustomDomainObject read GetCDO;
end;
Please note that this class is set up to be able to hold a list of other TCustomDomainObject instances. On the form which shows your tree you add:
TForm1 = class(TForm)
...
private
FIsLoading: Boolean;
FCDO: TCustomDomainObject;
protected
procedure ShowColumnHeaders;
procedure ShowDomainObject(aCDO, aParent: TCustomDomainObject);
procedure ShowDomainObjects(aCDO, aParent: TCustomDomainObject);
procedure AddColumnHeaders(aColumns: TVirtualTreeColumns); virtual;
function GetColumnText(aCDO: TCustomDomainObject; aColumn: TColumnIndex;
var aCellText: string): Boolean;
protected
property CDO: TCustomDomainObject read FCDO write FCDO;
public
procedure Load(aCDO: TCustomDomainObject);
...
end;
The Load method is where it all starts:
procedure TForm1.Load(aCDO: TCustomDomainObject);
begin
FIsLoading := True;
VirtualStringTree1.BeginUpdate;
try
if Assigned(CDO) then begin
VirtualStringTree1.Header.Columns.Clear;
VirtualStringTree1.Clear;
end;
CDO := aCDO;
if Assigned(CDO) then begin
ShowColumnHeaders;
ShowDomainObjects(CDO, nil);
end;
finally
VirtualStringTree1.EndUpdate;
FIsLoading := False;
end;
end;
All it really does is clear the form and set it up for a new CustomDomainObject which in most cases would be a list containing other CustomDomainObjects.
The ShowColumnHeaders method sets up the column headers for the string tree and adjusts the header options according to the number of columns:
procedure TForm1.ShowColumnHeaders;
begin
AddColumnHeaders(VirtualStringTree1.Header.Columns);
if VirtualStringTree1.Header.Columns.Count > 0 then begin
VirtualStringTree1.Header.Options := VirtualStringTree1.Header.Options
+ [hoVisible];
end;
end;
procedure TForm1.AddColumnHeaders(aColumns: TVirtualTreeColumns);
var
Col: TVirtualTreeColumn;
begin
Col := aColumns.Add;
Col.Text := 'Breed(Group)';
Col.Width := 200;
Col := aColumns.Add;
Col.Text := 'Average Age';
Col.Width := 100;
Col.Alignment := taRightJustify;
Col := aColumns.Add;
Col.Text := 'CDO.Count';
Col.Width := 100;
Col.Alignment := taRightJustify;
end;
AddColumnHeaders was separated out to allow this form to be used as a base for other forms showing information in a tree.
The ShowDomainObjects looks like the method where the whole tree will be loaded. It isn't. We are dealing with a virtual tree after all. So all we need to do is tell the virtual tree how many nodes we have:
procedure TForm1.ShowDomainObjects(aCDO, aParent: TCustomDomainObject);
begin
if Assigned(aCDO) then begin
VirtualStringTree1.RootNodeCount := aCDO.Count;
end else begin
VirtualStringTree1.RootNodeCount := 0;
end;
end;
We are now mostly set up and only need to implement the various VirtualStringTree events to get everything going. The first event to implement is the OnGetText event:
procedure TForm1.VirtualStringTree1GetText(Sender: TBaseVirtualTree; Node:
PVirtualNode; Column: TColumnIndex; TextType: TVSTTextType; var CellText:
string);
var
NodeData: ^RTreeData;
begin
NodeData := Sender.GetNodeData(Node);
if GetColumnText(NodeData.CDO, Column, {var}CellText) then
else begin
if Assigned(NodeData.CDO) then begin
case Column of
-1, 0: CellText := NodeData.CDO.DisplayString;
end;
end;
end;
end;
It gets the NodeData from the VirtualStringTree and used the obtained CustomDomainObject instance to get its text. It uses the GetColumnText function for this and that was done, again, to allow for using this form as a base for other forms showing trees. When you go that route, you would declare this method virtual and override it in any descendant forms. In this example it is simply implemented as:
function TForm1.GetColumnText(aCDO: TCustomDomainObject; aColumn: TColumnIndex;
var aCellText: string): Boolean;
begin
if Assigned(aCDO) then begin
case aColumn of
-1, 0: begin
aCellText := aCDO.DisplayString;
end;
1: begin
if aCDO.InheritsFrom(TDogBreed) then begin
aCellText := IntToStr(TDogBreed(aCDO).AverageAge);
end;
end;
2: begin
aCellText := IntToStr(aCDO.Count);
end;
else
// aCellText := '';
end;
Result := True;
end else begin
Result := False;
end;
end;
Now that we have told the VirtualStringTree how to use the CustomDomainObject instance from its node record, we of course still need to link the instances in the main CDO to the nodes in the tree. That is done in the OnInitNode event:
procedure TForm1.VirtualStringTree1InitNode(Sender: TBaseVirtualTree;
ParentNode, Node: PVirtualNode; var InitialStates: TVirtualNodeInitStates);
var
ParentNodeData: ^RTreeData;
ParentNodeCDO: TCustomDomainObject;
NodeData: ^RTreeData;
begin
if Assigned(ParentNode) then begin
ParentNodeData := VirtualStringTree1.GetNodeData(ParentNode);
ParentNodeCDO := ParentNodeData.CDO;
end else begin
ParentNodeCDO := CDO;
end;
NodeData := VirtualStringTree1.GetNodeData(Node);
if Assigned(NodeData.CDO) then begin
// CDO was already set, for example when added through AddDomainObject.
end else begin
if Assigned(ParentNodeCDO) then begin
if ParentNodeCDO.Count > Node.Index then begin
NodeData.CDO := ParentNodeCDO.CDO[Node.Index];
if NodeData.CDO.Count > 0 then begin
InitialStates := InitialStates + [ivsHasChildren];
end;
end;
end;
end;
Sender.CheckState[Node] := csUncheckedNormal;
end;
As our CustomDomainObject can have a list of other CustomDomainObjects, we also set the InitialStates of the node to include HasChildren when the Count of the lsit is greater than zero. This means that we also need to implement the OnInitChildren event, which is called when the user clicks on a plus sign in the tree. Again, all we need to do there is tell the tree for how many nodes it needs to prepare:
procedure TForm1.VirtualStringTree1InitChildren(Sender: TBaseVirtualTree; Node:
PVirtualNode; var ChildCount: Cardinal);
var
NodeData: ^RTreeData;
begin
ChildCount := 0;
NodeData := Sender.GetNodeData(Node);
if Assigned(NodeData.CDO) then begin
ChildCount := NodeData.CDO.Count;
end;
end;
That's all folks!!!
As I have shown an example with a simple list, you still need to figure out which data instances you need to link to which nodes, but you should have a fair idea now of where you need to do that: the OnInitNode event where you set the CDO member of the node record to point to the CDO instance of your choice.