Tab-modality in windows application - delphi

Using Delphi 2009 on Windows XP to develop desktop application.
Is there any way to make a windows dialog modal to a tab, instead of application. How can I achieve this? Threads? any frameworks supporting this?
Something similar to
Thanks in advance.
Kind Regards,
Pavan.

One way is to simulate this is:
Temporarily disable all child controls of the tab sheet
Create a Form
Set its Parent to the tab sheet
Set FormStyle := fsStayOnTop
Set BorderStyle := bsNone
This way you have a dialog on top of a tab sheet and it's the only thing that users can interact with on this tab sheet, but it doesn't block the main form ui or other tab sheets.

You might be able to use something like this to make a window modal
WindowList : Pointer;
WindowList := DisableTaskWindows(MyForm.Handle);
and
EnableTaskWindows(WindowList);
to un-modal it. This should allow you to simulate a modal form.

Related

JVCL Tabbed Docking: No Close Button on Tabs

I am using the jvDocking components and have been unable to figure out how to enable close buttons on the tabs of forms that have been docked together as a set of tabs. I have tried various combinations of options such as:
tJVDoclient.EnableCloseButton := True;
And
tjvDockVSnetStyle.TabServeroption.ShowClosebuttonOnTabs := True;
tjvDockVSnetStyle.TabServeroption.ShowClosebuttonOnGrabber := False;
I am using Delphi XE2 Update 4.
Does anyone have any ideas as to why I can't seem to get the close button to appear on tabs?
Thank you!
It should be shown with CERTAIN docking styles, if you set the ShowCloseButtonOnTabs property to true. It's inside the TabServerOption section of the Dock Style Component (ie TJvDockVIDStyle).
I just tried it though, and it's possible there is a bug in this component as it does not work any more.

Looking for a 3rd party tabcontrol in Delphi FireMonkey

I am looking for a alternative to Raize components' tab control.
I would like to have the ability to add close button at the top of each page and I want to use slanted tabs and colors on the tabs. Oh, and I'm using FireMonkey 2.
//I know that raize does not support firmonkey.
Firemonkey has it's own TTabControl in the Common Controls page (by default). You can style this using a TStylebook. For example, I'm quite confident it's possible to add a close button onto the tab itself.
After all, FMX is a vector-based framework and so all visual elements must exist within the style. You'll probably want to load a style into a TStylebook for this, as I'm unable to find a way to load the default style into one. Navigate down to tabitemstyle, and from there you'll be able to tweak the visual appearance of it. Simply add a close button as you'd like (alignment, layout, etc).
Back in your application code, you'll be looking to use the FindStyleResource routine in order to setup the code (XE2 uses FindBinding and as such you'd set the BindingName property instead). I'm going to assume your close button is called 'CloseButton' (without the quotes);
var
MyTab : TTabItem;
begin
MyTab := ((TabItem1 as TTabItem).FindStyleResource('CloseButton') as TButton).OnClick := TabClose;
end;
You'd want to add that code when you initially create the tab, or if creating all the tabs at design time, you'll want to run it at FormCreate. You're basically telling it that when CloseButton is clicked, that you want to call the notify event/procedure TabClose. This procedure is identical to a button click.
You could go so far as changing the StyleName property of the tab to be CloseButton+Index_of_tab.
Now, as for the code to close the tab itself, something like this untested example may work, though you'll want to iterate on it.
procedure TForm1.TabClose(Sender: TObject);
var
_mytab : Integer;
_activetab : Integer;
begin
_activetab := ((Sender as TTabItem).Parent as TTabControl).ActiveTab.Index;
_mytab := ((Sender as TTabItem).Parent as TTabControl).ActiveTab.Index;
((Sender as TTabItem).Parent as TTabControl).Tabs[_MyTab].Free;
((Sender as TTabItem).Parent as TTabControl).TabIndex := _activetab;
end;
Now, this is the clever part, and exploits the design of the framework. When you click on a style element that's inside another element, by default, it'll select the parent element. In this example, it'll select the tab that contains the close button the user clicked on. From this, it'll then close that tab (technically, it'll free it, I've not dealt with tabs much in development so you'll want to look into the proper method of 'closing' them).
There is one problem with this though; You'll probably want to find a better way of detecting the previously active tab if you wish to switch back to it. Right now, it'll simply open the tab that was after the tab you just closed (since the tabcount is now 1 less, the active tab index selects the next physical tab). You'll probably be able to do this by splitting the _activetab code off elsewhere.
I've done similar things with some of my own programs, and this is how I usually create 'hybrid' components. You're essentially exploiting the modular design of the framework to make it do what you want it to do, without having to rely on third party components.
Since FMX is a pretty young framework there aren't many 3rd party component vendors that support it yet.
I haven't seen any 3rd party TabControl component for FMX and a quick Google search suggests there aren't any. So you might be out of luck.
I know this is an old query but in case anyone is still looking for tabs with close buttons and slanted tab sides, check out TMSSoftware's TTMSFMXTabSet. I'm using it in a current development project and it is working fine.

Simulate F1 kepress on active control to load help system - Delphi

We are adding a help button to the toolbar of our application.
When the user clicks on this button, we need to load the help system for the control that they were on
For example, if they are on the address box of the contacts form, I need to load the help system for this using its context id
I was thinking about trying to mimic an F1 keypress which would then take care of the context id element of things and load the help file
However, I cant get this to work because it tries to load the help based on the active control not the one I was on, i.e. the contact address
Is there a way to do this? Essentially I need to send an F1 keypress from previously active control (assuming that the currently active control is my toolbar button)
We are using Delphi 2010
Cheers
Paul
I think you need a tool button OnClick handler that can be as simple as this:
procedure TMyForm.ToolButton1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
if Assigned(ActiveControl) then begin
Application.HelpContext(ActiveControl.HelpContext);
end;
end;
What makes this work is the fact that the controls on a toolbar do not ever become the active control.
There's something wrong with your toolbar. The system toolbar doesn't ordinarily get the focus — it's never the active control. If you're using a real TToolBar and TToolButton, you won't have this problem. Even TSpeedButton won't have this problem. Use the right control for the job.
Also, don't try to "simulate" a keyboard event. Just call Application.HelpContext directly.

Minimize Delphi Application with Live Popup Menu

I'm attempting to run this in a timer:
Application.Minimize;
ShowWindow( Application.handle, SW_HIDE );
It's been in the code forever and we just discovered that it doesn't work when you have a popupmenu active, it doesn't minimize the MDI parent window.
I figure if I can close the popup menu before running this code, then I'll be ok. Problem is, this code is in an MDI Parent and I have no idea where the current popup menu is. It doesn't matter if it's part of another form's tool bar, this forms tool bar, the product of a right click or that seemingly pointless key next to the space bar.
So, is there a way to hide the active popup menu in my entire program?
Also, if there's a better hunk of code than what I'm using to minimize that'll circumvent this issue, that'd be awesome info too.
To close a popup menu you can use
if GetCapture <> 0 then
SendMessage(GetCapture, WM_CANCELMODE, 0, 0);
in your code before you try to minimize the form.

Multiple form Delphi applications and dialogs

I have a Delphi 7 application that has two views of a document (e.g. a WYSIWYG HTML edit might have a WYSIWYG view and a source view - not my real application). They can be opened in separate windows, or docked into tabs in the main window.
If I open a modal dialog from one of the separate forms, the main form is brought to the front, and is shown as the selected window in the windows taskbar. Say the main form is the WYSIWYG view, and the source view is poped out. You go to a particular point in the source view and insert an image tag. A dialog appears to allow you to select and enter the properties you want for the image. If the WYSIWYG view and the source view overlap, the WYSIWYG view will be brought to the front and the source view is hidden. Once the dialog is dismissed, the source view comes back into sight.
I've tried setting the owner and the ParentWindow properties to the form it is related to:
dialog := TDialogForm.Create( parentForm );
dialog.ParentWindow := parentForm.Handle;
How can I fix this problem? What else should I be trying?
Given that people seem to be stumbling on my example, perhaps I can try with a better example: a text editor that allows you to have more than one file open at the same time. The files you have open are either in tabs (like in the Delphi IDE) or in its own window. Suppose the user brings up the spell check dialog or the find dialog. What happens, is that if the file is being editing in its own window, that window is sent to below the main form in the z-order when the modal dialog is shown; once the dialog is closed, it is returned to its original z-order.
Note: If you are using Delphi 7 and looking for a solution to this problem, see my answer lower down on the page to see what I ended up doing.
I'd use this code... (Basically what Lars said)
dialog := TDialogForm.Create( parentForm );
dialog.PopupParent := parentForm;
dialog.PopupMode := pmExplicit;
dialog.ShowModal();
I ultimately ended up finding the answer using Google Groups. In a nutshell, all the modal dialogs need to have the following added to them:
procedure TDialogForm.CreateParams(var Params: TCreateParams);
begin
inherited;
Params.Style := Params.Style or WS_POPUP;
Params.WndParent := (Owner as TWinControl).Handle;
end;
I'm guessing this does the equivalent of Lars' and Marius' answers in Delphi 7.
Is the dialog shown using ShowModal or just Show? You should probably set the PopupMode property correct of the your dialog. pmAuto would probably your best choice. Also see if you need to set the PopupParent property.
First of all, I am not completely sure I follow, you might need to provide some additional details to help us understand what is happening and what the problem is. I guess I am not sure I understand exactly what you're trying to accomplish and what the problem is.
Second, you shouldn't need to set the dialog's parent since that is essentially what is happening with the call to Create (passing the parent). The dialogs you're describing sound like they could use some "re-thinking" a bit to be honest. Is this dialog to enter the properties of the image a child of the source window, or the WYSIWYG window?
I'm not sure I quite understand what you are getting at, but here's a few things I can suggest you can try...
This behaviour changes between different versions of Delphi. I'd suggest that this is due to the hoops they jumped through to support Windows Vista in Delphi 2007.
If you are using Delphi 2007, try removing the line from the project source file that sets the Application.MainFormOnTaskBar boolean variable.
With this removed, you should be able to use the various Form's BringToFront / SendToBack methods to achieve the Z-ordering that you are after.
I suspect that what you've discovered has been discussed on this link
Of course, I may have just missed your point entirely, so apologies in advance!

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