Duplicating components at Run-Time - delphi

Question

Is there a simple way to duplicate all child components under parent component, including their published properties?
For example:
TPanel
TLabel
TEdit
TListView
TSpecialClassX
Of course the most important factor, it should duplicate any new component which I drop on the TPanel without modifying the code under normal circumstances.
I've heard of the RTTI, but never used it actually. Any ideas?

Answer 1

You can propably use the CLoneProperties routine from the answer to "Replace visual component at runtime", after you have created the dup components in a loop thru the parent's controls.
Update: some working code....
. I assume from your question that you want to duplicate the Controls that are contained in a WinControl (as a Parent is a TWinControl).
. As I did not know if you also wanted to hook the duplicated controls with the same Event Handlers as the originals, I made an option for that.
. And you may want to give a proper meaningful Name to the duplicated controls.
uses
TypInfo;
procedure CloneProperties(const Source: TControl; const Dest: TControl);
var
ms: TMemoryStream;
OldName: string;
begin
OldName := Source.Name;
Source.Name := ''; // needed to avoid Name collision
try
ms := TMemoryStream.Create;
try
ms.WriteComponent(Source);
ms.Position := 0;
ms.ReadComponent(Dest);
finally
ms.Free;
end;
finally
Source.Name := OldName;
end;
end;
procedure CloneEvents(Source, Dest: TControl);
var
I: Integer;
PropList: TPropList;
begin
for I := 0 to GetPropList(Source.ClassInfo, [tkMethod], #PropList) - 1 do
SetMethodProp(Dest, PropList[I], GetMethodProp(Source, PropList[I]));
end;
procedure DuplicateChildren(const ParentSource: TWinControl;
const WithEvents: Boolean = True);
var
I: Integer;
CurrentControl, ClonedControl: TControl;
begin
for I := ParentSource.ControlCount - 1 downto 0 do
begin
CurrentControl := ParentSource.Controls[I];
ClonedControl := TControlClass(CurrentControl.ClassType).Create(CurrentControl.Owner);
ClonedControl.Parent := ParentSource;
CloneProperties(CurrentControl, ClonedControl);
ClonedControl.Name := CurrentControl.Name + '_';
if WithEvents then
CloneEvents(CurrentControl, ClonedControl);
end;
end;
procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
DuplicateChildren(Panel1);
end;

Answer 2

have a read of this page
Run-Time Type Information In Delphi - Can It Do Anything For You?
Noting the section Copying Properties From A Component To Another
which has a unit, RTTIUnit with a Procedure, which seems to do part of what you want but i don't think it will copy any child components with out extra code.
(i think its ok to paste it here...)
procedure CopyObject(ObjFrom, ObjTo: TObject);
var
PropInfos: PPropList;
PropInfo: PPropInfo;
Count, Loop: Integer;
OrdVal: Longint;
StrVal: String;
FloatVal: Extended;
MethodVal: TMethod;
begin
//{ Iterate thru all published fields and properties of source }
//{ copying them to target }
//{ Find out how many properties we'll be considering }
Count := GetPropList(ObjFrom.ClassInfo, tkAny, nil);
//{ Allocate memory to hold their RTTI data }
GetMem(PropInfos, Count * SizeOf(PPropInfo));
try
//{ Get hold of the property list in our new buffer }
GetPropList(ObjFrom.ClassInfo, tkAny, PropInfos);
//{ Loop through all the selected properties }
for Loop := 0 to Count - 1 do
begin
PropInfo := GetPropInfo(ObjTo.ClassInfo, PropInfos^[Loop]^.Name);
// { Check the general type of the property }
//{ and read/write it in an appropriate way }
case PropInfos^[Loop]^.PropType^.Kind of
tkInteger, tkChar, tkEnumeration,
tkSet, tkClass{$ifdef Win32}, tkWChar{$endif}:
begin
OrdVal := GetOrdProp(ObjFrom, PropInfos^[Loop]);
if Assigned(PropInfo) then
SetOrdProp(ObjTo, PropInfo, OrdVal);
end;
tkFloat:
begin
FloatVal := GetFloatProp(ObjFrom, PropInfos^[Loop]);
if Assigned(PropInfo) then
SetFloatProp(ObjTo, PropInfo, FloatVal);
end;
{$ifndef DelphiLessThan3}
tkWString,
{$endif}
{$ifdef Win32}
tkLString,
{$endif}
tkString:
begin
{ Avoid copying 'Name' - components must have unique names }
if UpperCase(PropInfos^[Loop]^.Name) = 'NAME' then
Continue;
StrVal := GetStrProp(ObjFrom, PropInfos^[Loop]);
if Assigned(PropInfo) then
SetStrProp(ObjTo, PropInfo, StrVal);
end;
tkMethod:
begin
MethodVal := GetMethodProp(ObjFrom, PropInfos^[Loop]);
if Assigned(PropInfo) then
SetMethodProp(ObjTo, PropInfo, MethodVal);
end
end
end
finally
FreeMem(PropInfos, Count * SizeOf(PPropInfo));
end;
end;

Answer 3

You can write the source component into a stream and read it back into the target component.
MemStream := TMemoryStream.Create;
try
MemStream.WriteComponent(Source);
MemStream.Position := 0;
MemStream.ReadComponent(Target);
finally
MemStream.Free;
end;
You may get problems with duplicate component names though.

Answer 4

It's actually fairly easy to duplicate existing components at runtime. The difficult part is to copy all of their published properties to the new (duplicated) objects.
I'm sorry, but my code example is in C++Builder. The VCL is the same, just a different language. It shouldn't be too much trouble to translate it Delphi:
for (i = 0; i < ComponentCount; ++i) {
TControl *Comp = dynamic_cast<TControl *>(Components[i]);
if (Comp) {
if (Comp->ClassNameIs("TLabel")) {
TLabel *OldLabel = dynamic_cast<TDBEdit *>(Components[i]);
TLabel *NewLabel = new TLabel(this); // new label
// copy properties from old to new
NewLabel->Top = OldLabel->Top;
NewLabel->Left = OldLabel->Left;
NewLabel->Caption = Oldlabel->Caption
// and so on...
} else if (Comp->ClassNameIs("TPanel")) {
// copy a TPanel object
}
Maybe somebody has a better method of copying all of the published properties of the old control to the new one.