What's the best way to draw shapes interactively at run time using Delphi? I need to be able to select, drag and resize the shapes. This will be used to mark up existing images and documents.
This looks like a good starting point, but I'm wondering if there's a more complete library (preferably free) available that will save some time.
Update:
If you're going with a custom solution from scratch, I've seen another example on Delphi Central that might be an even better starting point.
I will recommend you, read some links on my site. Are explained and all the source code is available; You can see and get some usefull for you.
Plugin system in Delphi - Part 2
Not directly what you need, is a plugin system for Delphi. But all the samples are based on a drawing tool that uses Shapes (Creating, selecting, resizing). You can review the code and extract what you need.
Sample manipulating of "Maps and Figures"
Sample of how to create, select and move components at runtime (in this case with TImage).
- Select shapes visually: Shows different ways to select shapes visually.
The web is in Spanish, but you can generate an authomatic translation on the web itself.
Anyway the code is commented.
Regards.
Excuse-me for my bad english.
One freeware option would be TssControlSizer. Just change the "control" property to the control you want to manipulate resize/move.
Not sure if you've moved on now with this Bruce but if you haven't, it might be worth looking at TMS Components Diagram Studio - it's certainly cheap, and looks quite powerful from the demo.
I would use Flex Graphics (commercial, $499 for one developer, with sources, $1500 for site-license, with source code). When I bought it, it was a lot less than that. So I guess, I wouldn't pay that now. It's a lightweight 'drawing/cad' package.
But as I already own it, I could import a page from the original document as an image, perhaps rendered in PNG or WMF, and then mark it up with lines, etc.
You could think of it as a light "cad" package. It has most primitive shapes, and you can easily create your own new objects or shapes in Delphi classes, that could be "smart shapes" like the ones in Visio.
http://www.flex-graphics.com/
Another commercial component set that I have heard only good things about is TRichView. They have a TRichViewEdit that looks like you could emulate a document markup environment easily with it.
Please check here:
TCAD -2d graphics component for delphi
http://www.codeidea.com
wish can help you.
Related
There are about four implementations I can think of that are capable of loading SVG graphics into a Delphi application.
One of those, by Mattias Andersson, who is the author of FMX.Canvas.VPR
, works with FireMonkey, but he's not yet prepared to release the code.
A second one, by Martin Walter, works with the VCL, but developer has quit Delphi and has no plans to convert to FireMonkey.
A third one, part of the AGGPAS framework, works with the VCL, but no FireMonkey.
A fourth one is in development by Jason Southwell, but no date has been fixed yet.
So my question: what road to take if I want an SVG component today, without trying to reinvent the wheel a fifth (and probably more) time?
I'm Mattias Andersson -- the author of FMX.Canvas.VPR; I can say that I'm still actively working on the SVG solution. I guess once I have properly added support for gradients and text rendering then I can release a first beta version. I'm relying on TXMLDocument and that is a bit restrictive in what you are permitted to do (IMO), so I've had to invent some workarounds (maybe a better option would have been to implement my own XML class from scratch.) Also, I've had to do some run-time patching of the FireMonkey classes in order to make everything work correctly. The good part is that I'm actually implementing things according to the SVG interface specifications.
The SVG component I've been working on has been released as part of our Apesuite for Firemonkey.
http://arcana.sivv.com/apesuite
Getting involved with Mattias Andersson in the development is the best option:
FMX.Canvas.VPR by Mattias Andersson looks promising and VPR is proven to be an excellent project
No spoon-fed SVG FireMonkey component working out-of-the-box is available as of the time of posting (extensive web search made in general).
You could also consider using Chromiumembedded. Just load the svg in the embedded browser. You can then mix Delphi code with javascript, mix in html and css, etc.
This way, you can just leave it up to Chrome how to draw stuff fast (for example whether to employ gpu acceleration or not).
You'll get proper svg support, it's easy to integrate into your application, it's flexible, and there is lots of documentation and example code available online.
Does it happen that no one ever needs histogram in Delphi ?
Google gave me a bunch of half-baked code snippets. But it means that each time you need one - you have to invent one more ad hoc bycicle.
Torry mostly told me about some very expensive closed source Math Statistics or Financial packages, that as a subproduct have histograms. But they are very expensive and since you have no source code, each time you install update onto IDE/RTL/VCL you're probably screwed, until the vendor would make (soon ? ever?) updated packages. Given thatvendor is still does exists.
S.O. told me nothing, nil.
For what i found...
Mitov.com provides some histograms in PlotLab. which told to be free for non-commercial. Alas, it is again closed-source, and if the Histogram - quite fancy let's admit -is the onlything i need from it - why pay the whole price ?
One more example http://DSpatial.sf.net
Just few years ago i used it in Delphi 5, but even then i felt the author is loosing interest in the project. I made few enhancement, fixed some bugs, he merged them and that's all. The component was not very useful and lacked upon features, yet better than nothing. Now the project seems to be completely dead. Good old days, etc. But i do not want them back :-)
And Stack Overflow seemingly carries no single question about it. But maybe just no one bothered to create topic, after search found nothing ? I mean, Delphi was created for database access, histograms are one of basic ways to visualize data, and no one crosses them ? Something with nice style, with rich mouse tooltip like in HTML/CSS/JS on http://www.moskva.fm/stations/FM_95.2 ?
Or is this too domain-related and not ever possible to have good abstraction ?
TChart is a control that ships with most versions of Delphi. TChart can be used to make histograms (bar charts) in style. The following give you some ideas about how to use it: http://www.digitalcoding.com/tutorials/delphi/Simple-steps-to-create-Delphi-chart.html and http://delphi.about.com/od/adptips2006/qt/chart_selectbar.htm .
If you need something with code, google the pages at delphiforfun.org/programs/oscilloscope.htm . These are not controls. The oscilloscope article has a histogram with source. Some of the other projects at the site have other histogram graphs with source..not elegant but useful and free. Use them as a template to make your own control.
The link at http://delphiforfun.org/programs/Math_Topics/probability_distributions.htm shows how to make your own statistics displays with "histograms." This example makes use of TChart.
Here is some more stuff to try I found looking at my resource file:
http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/TAChart, http://members.home.nl/mvanwesten/en_lazarus.html , http://www.martinole.org/TAChart.html ...some of these are GPU components that supposedly work with some versions of Delphi. Perhaps this is your lucky day as there is some source code. The first and third listed probably will work reasonably for histograms. You may have to write your own statistics algorithms.
Found this thread while doing some searching. The ImageEn component suite has a THistogramBox component. It's the NOT prettiest thing in the world, but it's the only one I've found so far.
http://www.imageen.com
I came across a histogram example in a gdiplus package available for download from code central. I don't know if it will do what you need but when I saw it I remembered your SO question.
HTH.
If you were using firemonkey, you could just created a series of TRectangles in series. They can be made unclickable by turning hittest off. Or is that too easy and straightforward?
I need a control to add data trending to my application. Is anything available or do I need to use a graphing control and add my own trending features?
Trending is typically an included feature in 3rd party charting components (at least the ones i've seen) but it might be called something else such as linear regression or possiblly something like "least squares*." You should definitely not need to roll your own, unless you think it would be fun. ;-)
Google-ing for "Delphi Chart Regression" will turn up some interesting links.
(* Least squares is typically the method used to establish a trend line from a data set.)
In your shoes, I'd use the stats and charting tools from http://www.lohninger.com/delfcomp.html. It may be a bit more low-level than you want, but I've been very happy with this guys tools (which are reasonably priced, IMO, and, as I recall, can be downloaded for free on a trial basis...)
Check out the curvefit example (comes with an exe demo so no compiling or installing is necessary) here: http://www.lohninger.com/examples_part1.html It'll show you the kinds of charting as well as curve fitting. It's very instructive.
Try JvChart from the JEDI JVCL. If you don't like it, let me know, because I wrote most of it, and I always like to know what people think. It can do static and scrolling displays, and it is very easy to add a few lines and plot some data. A demo app is included in the JVCL\examples\JvChart folder.
There is also TJvSimScope, which is like an oscilloscope and is optimal for fast-scrolling charts showing data which changes on a per-second basis.
JVCL is open source and free
Look for TChart component on your component palette. If your Delphi version has it, then look for demo that uses it.
I am looking to build my own component and have no idea where to begin. I have some Delphi books but they are old and outdated, and am looking for some recommendations on tutorials/books to help me do this. The component will be pretty simple, basically 2 labels and an image. I need hundreds of these in an array, so I thought a component would be the best route. The text will adjust based on width etc, and have some mouseover events. So basically, where do I begin?
I am using Delphi 2009, this will be a win32 app.
Thanks!
You can order Ray Konopka's book Dev. Custom Delphi 3 Components - PDF for 25$. It's a specialized book on the subject and very good for a beginner too.
The main principles behind developing components is:
Whether the component is visual or
not (Does it need a Canvas to paint on)
Does it need a window handle or not (visual or non-visual)
Once you answered those questions you can look at Delphi's source code for examples.
As far as I know, Delphi Component Design, by Danny Thorpe, is still the best book on the subject. Component design hasn't changed significantly in the last 15 years, so whatever books you have probably aren't as outdated as you think. There are three things to keep in mind while reading older references:
Names of certain units have changed. There's no DsgnIDE anymore, for example. It's DesignIDE instead.
Design-time code is strictly separated from run-time code now. This means you can't use DesignIDE in your component's unit, or else you're barred from using run-time packages. Older Delphi versions didn't have this technical restriction (although it's always been a legal restriction), so old code examples you find might need to change a little bit.
Strings are Unicode now, so as with all old code examples you find, there might be some invalid assumptions about character sizes that you'll need to recognize.
The biggest obstacle to writing components is that you're expected to use various protected members of the classes you descend from, but those frequently aren't documented, so you'll have to be much more willing to go read the VCL source code for examples of how various methods are used.
The easiest way to do what you want is to create a new form. Drop the labels and image and arrange them the way you want; if it suits your need, put them on a panel so they can be moved around as a unit.
Select all the components you want included (and including the panel if you chose to use one), and then click the Component item on the IDE's main menu, and select the "Create Component Template". (It's only enabled if you have selected components on the current form.) A dialog will appear asking you for a name for the new component, and the Component Palette page on which you want it to appear.
Take a look at this article, which describes how to build new components made up of a group of existing components.
Don't worry about your books being old.
Just about everything from the old days still works fine and what little doesn't is generally due to name conflicts or the addition of Unicode in the 2009 version.
They aren't Microsoft, they don't go breaking old code without good reason. In fact, take some code from the old DOS days--assuming it doesn't try to manipulate the screen it's likely to run with minimal fixup.
Don't worry about your old books! Since v3, Delphi hasn't changed much. This is why most of the programs compiled with D3 still compiles in D7 or even newer versions. And if it doesn't compile, probably you need to change a line or two, here and then.
I would recommend you to search other VERY simple components on Internet and see how they are made. Then make your own and post it here. Let other take a look at it and suggest improvements or spot bugs.
About your control's design:
1) maybe you DON'T need those two labels. You can just paint the text directly on the image. If you have lots of those components as you say, you may save a little bit of memory.
2) you may NOT want to have lots and lots and lots of images loading in one form. The overhead may be significant. What you can do is to load the pictures ONLY in images that are visible on screen - and you will put on screen ONLY 5-10 images (or whatever number of images you can show on the form without going out of screen). As the user scrolls down, you keep the same same TImage controls on screen but you load new (next) images in them.
3) You may not want to store labels and TImage in an array (I suppose it is an TImage because it seems you want to show them on the screen else you won't need labels - you need to explain your problem in more details if I got it wrong). But you can store a TBitmap and the text (that you want to display in labels) instead.
So, you may need to calculate how much CPU/disk overhead your hundreds of controls will create and how much memory they need. If you stay well under 1GB and the loading time is under 10 seconds, then it is relatively ok. IF not, you may want to think about your control's design before starting to actually implement it.
Hope this was helpful.
See ya.
I've been using Balsamiq to create mockups. I'm using the trial version, so I have all screens in one mockup instead of multiple files. I want to send an export of these mockups to my team so they can comment on them. They need to be able to easily add arrows, callouts, text, etc. I know you can do some of that in Balsamiq, but it isn't really made for these types of comments. I have used Paint.net and added these in separate layers, but it isn't the most easy to use application for some non-technical people. I like the editor in Snagit as it easily allows mark up an image, but that is a paid app and I am looking for a free tool (that runs on Windows).
This tool doesn't necessarily need a screenshot capture tool as there are plenty of options available, but this wouldn't preclude a tool.
The things I would like to be able to easily do are:
Add arrows to show what button was clicked to move from one screen to another
Add callout text to offer suggestions to reword a section or move an item
Use different color/size markup items
I've found Pencil, but that seems like overkill - I don't need full image editing, just the ability for someone to quickly and easily provide feedback.
Maybe you can try ForeUI, if you like it, please drop me a mail to vivi[at]foreui.com, I can send you a license for free :-)
Not free but if you already have MS Office with OneNote installed it's great for stuff like this imho. I think there's a free reader as usual.
If you really want quick and easy feedback use a pen and paper.
Print the screens and hand them out those on the team that need a say in the UI. Have them markup to their heart's content and hand them back to you. I know it makes me sound like a luddite, but it really is the most effective way.