I need a way to have a label (or something like it) print sideways. I would really like it to work at design time if at all possible.
Is there any controls / mechanisms that anyone knows of to do this? (Not .net controls please)
You would probably get better results by searching the Delphi ThirdPartyTools forum archives using CodeNewsFast ( http://www.codenewsfast.com ) full text search, or by posting question on that forum directly.
Here's one label control that does rotated text, I think many controls are enabled to do this now, in one way or another:
http://cc.embarcadero.com/Item.aspx?id=18645
Here's link to another freeware label component, from a guy that's always provided good quality stuff:
http://www.scalabium.com/anglelbl.htm
I haven't used Delphi in a few years and I don't remember exactly, but I think many of the third party component sets (e.g., DevEx, TMS) had rotation as one of the properties for labels on their edit controls back even five or more years ago.
Here's link with info on nitty gritty details on how to roll-your-own rotated text:
http://delphi.about.com/cs/adptips2003/a/bltip0703.htm
Related
On some programs there is an interesting possibility:
in case the work area is very large, there is the overall picture, which provided by the plan of all component.
Which component allows you to add this capability to my program?
I would like to implement this, at least for StringGrid and TChart.
To do this in a generic way, you have to do off-screen painting.
That is a lot of work, especially getting the details right.
JED Software once write something similar to show previews of forms in the IDE called Visual Forms and it took them a long time.
I am currently looking for an object similar to TListBox that will display a list of other objects. I'm finding it really hard to explain so here's a picture of the sort of thing I'm looking for:
Each item needs to be able to display multiple lines of variable text, display images, be clickable, be able to host buttons on it.
Is there an object like this already? If not, how would I create one?
Presuming that you want to do this in Windows, then any XE version of Delphi has the TCategoryPanelGroup control which is pretty much what you appear to be asking for.
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Replacing a component class in delphi
Does anyone have any tips for modifying the VCL components and making them so they are relatively default within the IDE? This means not necessarily descending from them, but changing functionality in places that don't seem to allow such things in a descendant object. And if they can be used in place of the standard components, that's a bonus as well.
For example, one of the things I'd like to do is an alpha blended mouseover on a TButton. I notice no OwnerDraw event and the code to modify how the button was drawn seems to not be in a place that I can override. Any suggestions, or would I have to strip TButton and all its ancestors out of the VCL code and modify it directly?
You can choose one of the following methods:
Override ReadState of your form, as explained here
Use an interposer class, as explained here and here
Assign a new WindowProc, as explained here.
You are making several questions related to developing custom V.C.L. controls.
Since, its a very extended topic, you may want to browse or search the internet about it.
As a fast question, there are several ways to develop or extend a control.
Sometimes, the same control can be developed in different ways,
other, it depends the kind of control, that you want to develop.
You also mention how to make a control, interact with the Delphi I.D.E.
Delphi controls work with packages, you can make a package with plain libraries without controls, you may want to start doing that, before making a control.
You can make a control, that doesn't interact at all, and only works by running the application, and later add interaction with the Delphi I.D.E.
In Delphi, when you develop a control and want to put it on form, while designing, internally, its like Delphi was your application, and already have your control.
If you want to change the appearance of all TButtons in your application, you can do it without modifying the VCL at all. I see no necessity to modify or even subclass a VCL control yourself, when a few hundred button components exist out there. For example, for alpha-blended mouseovers, just check out the TMS controls.
However, for do-it-yourself techniques; Method one (recommended as simple) is to simply take all the TButtons out of your application and replace it with something else. VCL component replacement (globally) is easily done via gExperts. To see how to combine a standard control appearance (how a button looks) with some overlaid elements drawn in Delphi code, see TBitBtn as a sample. Rather than subclassing TButton or TCustomButton, I recommend you examine TBitBtn sources, and start from it.
Method two (not recommended as simple) is to start using a skinning system which can draw a completely different appearance over standard controls.
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How can I prevent users from taking screenshots of my application window?
So far I have be able to stop the Prt Sc key press and able to clear the clipboard so that my application cannot be screen grab.
However as a test I tried used Corel PaintShop pro and an option it has is to import screen capture which is very different from screen grabbing using the clipboard and as I suspected my application did not stop this.
So I have found the following code at this site : http://www.bitwisemag.com/copy/delphi/delphi1.html
This uses a different way of grabbing what is on screen and I presume that Corels method is similar to this. Is there anyway of this method of screen grabbing from being used on my application.
Greg Hewgill - Cheers for this - I will read this post
to get a screenshot on Windows is trivial, eg GetWindowDC(NULL). The only way I can think of is similar to this answer: stackoverflow.com/questions/455623/… – Nick
Nick looks like the same post that Greg has mentioned - however cheers for your response
Why go to this trouble? People nowadays can simply take a photo with their phone and send that around? – Marjan Venema
That may be true Marjan but I am trying to stop spyware programs from click logging if that makes the matter clearer.
The only way I can think of is to use DirectX. When certain apps such as DVD players write to the screen using DirectX, Windows sees a black (not quite black, but close) rectangle where the video shows. Attemps to use PrintScr or GetWindowDC() return that black rectangle. High-end screen capture apps like Snag-It can use DirectX to render the image properly, but this would be a 99% solution for you, and as others have said, users can always take a photo anyway.
I wonder how difficult it would be to be able to have a custom background or be able to draw on the datamodule canvas somehow so that the relationships of all the datasets can be nicely represented with arrows and stuff. Way back in Delphi 7 or so I seem to remember some sort of datamodule designer which has disappeared (I always found it annoying anyway).
Does anyone know if this is possible through some sort of IDE plugin or something?
TDataModule is a direct descendant of TComponent, and as such, it doens't have a Canvas or any such painting provisioned in it. As is, there is no way to draw or paint on it.
It is conceivable that you could create a descendent that has a TCanvas, but you'd have to really hack into the IDE to get it to be drawn on at design-time. It is an interesting idea, however.
There used to be a "Diagram" tab on the designer for Datamodules. It did have the ability to put notes, boxes with text, and data relations. It was not very understood or used, and the feature was dropped, I guess. (Before my time at CodeGear...)
Or, you may change the datamodule to a form. Leave it visible during development, for testing, documentation and debugging; and turn it it invisible for production. On the form you may put a visio viewer component and some datagrids, accessed thru a tab rack, for quick browsing of the data.
I believe that some way to organize the components in visible groups on
screen could be nice... I have a report DM which have tons of datasets,
dataset providers and Rave DataSources (circa 40 components)....
If I could create some groups to differentiate which is used in
what report.
But this in DM designer itself, not on a separate drawing space...