How to prevent shortcuts from firing when form is not active - delphi

I open forms inside tabs of a page control. These forms may contain actions with shortcuts. And I want these shortcuts to be fired only when the tab that contain this form is active.
I tried to override form's IsShortCut but it's not called. Form's OnShortCut is not called either.
I would like to avoid putting code on each action to check this.
I'm using Delphi 2010.

Set the State for the action lists on your hidden tabs to asSuspended. Only the action list on your visible tab should have a state of asNormal. That will prevent the shortcut keys from working. It also prevents those actions from updating, which may or may not be a good thing for your application.

Try setting the form's Enabled to false whan you switch away, and True when you switch onto it's tab. That should disable all the content on the form, including shortcuts.

Put all the shortcuts into actions and those actions into one action list per form. Then you can disable the action lists of the forms that are currently not active. (I don't recall the exact TActionList property to set or method to call or activating/deactivating it, but it is there.)

Related

how to respond to a key press when focused on a radiogroup in delphi

In delphi:
How can you respond to a key press when the current focus is on a radiogroup which does not have an onkeypress event. I was hoping to use the forms onkeypress event but it doesnt see to fire.
You can make this possible by setting the form's KeyPreview property to True.
However, I'm not sure you are actually doing things right, since this is a fairly uncommon problem.
You didn't write what keyboard shortcut you want to respond to. But please remember that
Letters are used to navigate the GUI. For instance, pressing A might select the &All radio button or click the &Add push button. Similarly, Alt+A does the same if the current control allows character input, allows you to open the &Add-ons menu item, etc.
If you want to add a proper shortcut like Ctrl+O, it is much better to use a TActionList with an action having this shortcut. This action can be mapped to menu items, buttons, etc., or simply exist in the background not being attached to any visual control. In very simple applications, you might want to use a stand-alone menu item with such a shortcut instead.

How to have one button do both "enable" and "disable" in ASP.net MVC

I am new to ASP.Net MVC, and still trying to wrap my head around the controller and passing data to the view and back.
Here is my question. I have a model in my view with a property that is "isEnabled", which can be true or false.
I have an edit button, and an enable/disable button. Edit just takes me to a new view with a form.
I want the enable/disable button to change the property of the model to enabled or disabled.
Right now I have two separate buttons. When I click on them, it fires the appropriate action from the controller (EnableModel, DisableModel), and just reloads the current view.
How can I make it so, if the model is disabled the button shows and fires the enable action, and when it is enabled, the button shows and fires the disable action.
So here are the options I thought of.
1. Two buttons, I hide them as needed. I can use an if statement to check if the model is showing or not in razor.
2. Use javascript two to the above
3. Use javascript to physically change the button
What would be the best method?
Alright so looking back can't believe I ever even asked this haha.
I went the javascript route. I had a single button, and a simple onClick javascript class that would handle the toggling.

TToolbar Button with dropdown menu greyed out

I'm having issues getting a TToolbar Button to appear "enable"
The button has an Action assigned to it - which is fire by the OnClick event
It is also setup with a Drop Down Menu, which has 2 options on it, both of which are enabled, and both of which fire off when clicked.
Despite all this the TToolbar Button steadfastly remains greyed out, but accepts the clicks.
Any suggestions?
You're doing things wrong. :-)
When using actions, you don't use the button's OnClick event - you put the code in the action's OnExecute event instead (because that's what's executing - the action - and not the button). When an action is assigned to the control, the control cannot be enabled until there's a handler for the TAction.OnExecute.
The reason for using actions is so you can put the code in a single place (events related to the action), and then every single control attached to that action uses that common code to perform the same functionality. Editing the code in that single location means all controls attached to that action see the same changes.
If there's nothing attached to the TAction.OnExecute event, the control has nothing to do if it was selected (clicked), and so there's no reason to enable it in the first place.
In case someone else comes across this, I just had this problem (using Delphi 10.2 Tokyo).
For some reason, the "EnableDropdown" property on the TToolButton caused the button to to be greyed out when set to true. Setting this property to false seems to have resolved the problem for me (the dropdown menu remains functional anyway).

Modify a Delphi DFM resource to close upon showing?

Is it possible to edit a DFM (Delphi's form script format) in such a way that a form closes itself when shown?
I don't code in Delphi, so I'm not familiar with how these forms work, but it seems I could put code (but not standard Delphi code as it seems) in the OnShow or OnCreate events of the form. However, after trying several statements like Close, Exit, FormNameExit, Destroy, etc. won't work (a log will be created, stating the error that the value of the OnShow property was invalid, etc.)
The normal way of closing the form is through a button, but the button doesn't have a OnClick event, just a property, "ModalResult = 1".
Is there a way to make the window close upon opening, some standard function I could put on the OnCreate or OnShow events of the form? Or maybe, creating a checkbox on the form itself, that gives ModalResult = 1? (don't know if this works)
Thanks for any suggestion!
=)
(Note: maybe it's obvious, but I don't have the source.)
Not in DFM. You would have to modify the source.
The OnShow and OnCreate lines you're seeing are only used to give the name of a method that's already defined in the source code. You can't add much functionality at all by modifying the DFM file.
Perhaps the form already has a matching event handler that closes it: the OnClick handler for a close button or menu item, maybe? If so, you could try setting it as the OnShow or OnCreate handler.
You might be able to add a TButton to the form and set its ModalResult -- I don't recall whether you actually need a field in the form class for each control in the DFM -- but that would only work if the form is shown modally, and you'd still have to click it to make the form close.
EDIT: Seeing some of your comments added while I typed my text-wall clarifies things a bit.
I'm guessing that you you're using a resource editor to edit the DFM and modify the behaviour of the app without actually touching the source code?
In this case, the best you could try is to set the Visible property to False. However, this will have no benefit if the developer 'actively displays the form in code'. (He could have done this by calling Show, ShowModal or even by explicitly setting the Visible property.)
Unfortunately, if this is the case, then there's nothing you can do without modifying the actual source code. This is because the DFM is processed when the form is loaded; i.e. before the developer's code that shows the form. Even looking for a place to set ModalResult is useless, because the current ModalResult is cleared when ShowModal is called.
I don't think I understand exactly what you're trying to do, because it doesn't make sense.
It seems to me that you want the form to be automatically closed as soon as it is shown; and that doesn't make sense. :S
So, if I have understood you correctly, please explain why you would want to do this; there may be a better solution for your actual problem.
However, some general concepts...
If you want a form to close, you should link it to some action that closes the form. Either put a button on the form, or a menu item.
Standard forms have a standard Windows mechanism to close them by default. (I.e. the X on the top-right.)
There are two ways of showing forms, and the way in which it is shown does have an effect on how it will be closed. It can be shown modally (which means it is the only form of the application which will interact with the user), or it can be shown normally (which allows the user to switch between other forms of the application).
The point of showing a form modally is that it blocks the flow of your code until the user has finished doing something that was required; it often involves the user providing some form of answer or confirmation.
When shown modally, the form should rather be closed with a ModalResult.
When shown normally, the ModalResult has no effect.
Whenever a form is 'closed', there are a few ways in which this can be done.
The form can simply be hidden; it's still there, but invisible. Next time you want to show the form, you just make it visible again.
The form can be destroyed; meaning that it no longer exists in memory. If this is done, then next time you want to use the form, you have to recreate it.
The attempt to close the form can be actively prevented (Not usually advisable; but may be necessary in specific cases - if for example some information on the form is incorrect).
The form may be simply minimised (this is often done with MDI child forms).
NOTE: There are also a number of attributes on forms (FormStyle being the most important) that have an effect on how it behaves, displays, and can be closed. (E.g. MDI Child forms will by default either minimise, or do nothing when closed.)
NB:If the main form of an application is properly closed, then the application will shut down.
Now, some of the technicalities...
As mentioned earlier a form can be displayed either modally, or normally; using either MyForm.Show; or ModalResult := MyForm.ShowModal;
NOTE: If the form was shown modally, you then need to check the ModalResult to find out the user's answer and act accordingly.
If you displayed the form modally, you should set the ModalResult and the form will close itself. An easy way to do this is to assign a ModalResult to the buttons on the form; then the button will automatically set the form's ModalResult when clicked.
If you displayed the form normally, then all you need to do is call MyForm.Close at the appropriate point in time. NB: Note their are other ways to 'close' a form, but it is better to use this method because it allows you to handle the OnCloseQuery event which is a mechanism to confirm whether the form is allowed to close.
NOTE: While closing the form, there are two events that Delphi can call which you can handle in order to modify how the closing of the form behaves:
OnCloseQuery is called to confirm whether the form is allowed to close.
OnClose is called to find out how the form should close (as explained previously).
Coming back to your question (which sounds like you want the form closed automatically). Rather than closing the form automatically; just don't bother showing it. This is very easy to do. All forms have a Visible property; if set to True, Delphi will automatically show the form normally when it is created. So all you need to do is ensure the property is False.
You really can't do much without the source but move files around or change existing properties. If you have a MAP file for the program and there are existing events in place (onCreate/OnShow) you could patch the executable to invoke different code for those events, but it won't be easy and you have to insure that you don't inject more code than was there previously or make any external calls to routines which don't exist.

Delphi - Duplicate tpanel and tbuttons on second form

On my main form I have a TPanel containing buttons that act as a toolbar. I want to clone/copy this toolbar and the buttons and their functionality to a second form.
Cloning the menu was simple using newmenu.merge(mainmenu). That was an excellent shortcut to duplicating a Tmainmenu.
But I am at a loss on how to easily duplicate my toolbar without having to manually assign the events and keep a timer to compare and track which buttons are enabled and disabled in comparison to the real mainmenu on the main form. Depending on what the application is doing the main toolbar buttons will be enabled and disabled at various times.
Any ideas here? Thanks for any suggestions or tips to make this easier.
Duplicating the controls
In the Form Designer, select the panel and press Ctrl+C to copy it and all its children to the clipboard. Go to the second form and press Ctrl+V to paste.
If you're still working on the design and want to keep it consistent between both forms, then create a TFrame and design your toolbar layout there. Then put an instance of that frame on both your forms. Changes to the frame design will be reflected in the forms.
See Working with frames in the help.
Making sure both sets of buttons are enabled consistently
Create a data module. Put a TActionList on it. Add an action to it for each button on your main form. Assign event handlers to the actions' OnUpdate events. In them, set the actions' Enabled properties. Finally, assign each button's Action property to refer to the corresponding action object. The buttons will automatically get enabled and disabled with the actions. No timer required.
Furthermore, you can handle the actions' OnExecute events, too. Clear each button's OnClick property, and then move the button's OnClick code into the corresponding action's OnExecute handler. It will automatically get called when you click the button, even though the OnClick property is empty.
When you assign the Caption or Hint property of a TAction, the corresponding properties of any associated controls also change. Likewise for images, if the control supports them. Actions can be assigned to menu items, too.
See Using action lists in the help.
Acting like a toolbar
Just use TToolbar. That's what it's for.
Or, once you're used to actions, put a TActionManager in your project and use it with TActionToolbar and TActionMainMenuBar. See Organizing actions for toolbars and menus in the help.
Are the buttons attached to actions? If so, you can use the OnUpdate event of the TActionList to specify what should and should not be enabled. If not, it isn't too much work to convert to using actions.
If you go this route to convert to using a ActionList, consider putting the ActionList in a datamodule where different units and forms could reference it.
You can Use ClipBoard Object For Copy Your Panel.
Clipboard.SetComponent(Panel1);
Clipboard.GetComponent(Form2,GroupBox1);

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