Is it possible to, for instance, replace and free a TEdit with a subclassed component instantiated (conditionally) at runtime? If so, how and when it should be done? I've tried to set the parent to nil and to call free() in the form constructor and AfterConstruction methods but in both cases I got a runtime error.
Being more specific, I got an Access violation error (EAccessViolation). It seems François is right when he says that freeing components at frame costruction messes with Form controls housekeeping.
This more generic routine works either with a Form or Frame (updated to use a subclass for the new control):
function ReplaceControlEx(AControl: TControl; const AControlClass: TControlClass; const ANewName: string; const IsFreed : Boolean = True): TControl;
begin
if AControl = nil then
begin
Result := nil;
Exit;
end;
Result := AControlClass.Create(AControl.Owner);
CloneProperties(AControl, Result);// copy all properties to new control
// Result.Left := AControl.Left; // or copy some properties manually...
// Result.Top := AControl.Top;
Result.Name := ANewName;
Result.Parent := AControl.Parent; // needed for the InsertControl & RemoveControl magic
if IsFreed then
FreeAndNil(AControl);
end;
function ReplaceControl(AControl: TControl; const ANewName: string; const IsFreed : Boolean = True): TControl;
begin
if AControl = nil then
Result := nil
else
Result := ReplaceControlEx(AControl, TControlClass(AControl.ClassType), ANewName, IsFreed);
end;
using this routine to pass the properties to the new control
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;
use it like:
procedure TFrame1.AfterConstruction;
var
I: Integer;
NewEdit: TMyEdit;
begin
inherited;
NewEdit := ReplaceControlEx(Edit1, TMyEdit, 'Edit2') as TMyEdit;
if Assigned(NewEdit) then
begin
NewEdit.Text := 'My Brand New Edit';
NewEdit.Author := 'Myself';
end;
for I:=0 to ControlCount-1 do
begin
ShowMessage(Controls[I].Name);
end;
end;
CAUTION: If you are doing this inside the AfterConstruction of the Frame, beware that the hosting Form construction is not finished yet.
Freeing Controls there, might cause a lot of problems as you're messing up with Form controls housekeeping.
See what you get if you try to read the new Edit Caption to display in the ShowMessage...
In that case you would want to use
...ReplaceControl(Edit1, 'Edit2', False)
and then do a
...FreeAndNil(Edit1)
later.
You have to call RemoveControl of the TEdit's parent to remove the control. Use InsertControl to add the new control.
var Edit2: TEdit;
begin
Edit2 := TEdit.Create(self);
Edit2.Left := Edit1.Left;
Edit2.Top := Edit2.Top;
Edit1.Parent.Insertcontrol(Edit2);
TWinControl(Edit1.parent).RemoveControl(Edit1);
Edit1.Free;
end;
Replace TEdit.Create to the class you want to use, and copy all properties you need like I did with Left and Top.
You can actually use RTTI (look in the TypInfo unit) to clone all the matching properties. I wrote code for this a while back, but I can't find it now. I'll keep looking.
Related
i want to ask how to retain controlls when im making a copy of a control. for example i have an edit box that can be controlled with a slider for value change. when i make a copy using this code i achieve a copy of the items but the slider stops controlling editbox values. how can i fix that?
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;
Unless I'm misunderstanding you, your CloneProperties doesn't seem to have anything to do with the question you're asking. In your example of an edit control E1 and a slider S1, you can clone both of them to produce E2 and S2, but somewhere in your code there must be a statement that changes the value in E1 depending on the value of S1. However, in the way you've most likely written it, that statement doesn't apply to E2 and S2.
The simplest way around that is to write a method which takes the component instances and links the operation of the two together. e.g.
procedure TForm1.SetEditControlFromSlider(AnEdit : TEdit; ASlider : { TWhatever the slider actually is);
begin
// Set AnEdit's value from ASlider's properties
end;
Then, you can call this with Edit/Slider pairs like this
SetEditControlFromSlider(E1, S1);
[...]
SetEditControlFromSlider(E2, S2);
I can imagine you might not like having to do that.
IMO, the cleanest solution is to avoid attempting to clone components altogether and create a TFrame containing the Edit, Slider and the code that connects them, and then add to your form as many instances of the frame as you need. It's as easy as falling off a log.
type
TEditFrame = class(TFrame) // needs to be in its own unit, Used by your form
Edit1: TEdit;
TrackBar1: TTrackBar;
procedure TrackBar1Change(Sender: TObject);
private
public
end;
[...]
procedure TEditFrame.TrackBar1Change(Sender: TObject);
begin
Edit1.Text := IntToStr(TrackBar1.Position)
end;
Then, you can add clones of the frame to TForm1 by
procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
AFrame : TEditFrame;
begin
Inc(FrameCount); // Field of TForm1
AFrame := TEditFrame.Create(Self);
AFrame.Name := AFrame.Name + IntToStr(FrameCount);
AFrame.Parent := Self;
AFrame.Top := AFrame.Height * FrameCount;
end;
Note that because the code which links the two components, TrackBar1Change, it compiled into the frame's unit, it is automatically shared by every instance of the frame you create, without any need to "clone" the code.
I need to use a TRichEdit at runtime to perform the rtf to text conversion as discussed here. I succeded in doing this but I had to set a dummy form as parent if not I cannot populate the TRichedit.Lines. (Error: parent is missing).
I paste my funciton below, can anyone suggest a way to avoid to define a parent? Can you also comment on this and tell me if you find a more performant idea?
Note: I need a string, not TStrings as output, this is why it has been designed like this.
function RtfToText(const RTF: string;ReplaceLineFeedWithSpace: Boolean): string;
var
RTFConverter: TRichEdit;
MyStringStream: TStringStream;
i: integer;
CustomLineFeed: string;
begin
if ReplaceLineFeedWithSpace then
CustomLineFeed := ' '
else
CustomLineFeed := #13;
try
RTFConverter := TRichEdit.Create(nil);
try
MyStringStream := TStringStream.Create(RTF);
RTFConverter.parent := Form4; // this is the part I don't like
RTFConverter.Lines.LoadFromStream(MyStringStream);
RTFConverter.PlainText := True;
for i := 0 to RTFConverter.Lines.Count - 1 do
begin
if i < RTFConverter.Lines.Count - 1 then
Result := Result + RTFConverter.Lines[i] + CustomLineFeed
else
Result := Result + RTFConverter.Lines[i];
end;
finally
MyStringStream.Free;
end;
finally
RTFConverter.Free;
end;
end;
UPDATE:
After the answer I updated the function and write it here for reference:
function RtfToText(const RTF: string;ReplaceLineFeedWithSpace: Boolean): string;
var
RTFConverter: TRichEdit;
MyStringStream: TStringStream;
begin
RTFConverter := TRichEdit.CreateParented(HWND_MESSAGE);
try
MyStringStream := TStringStream.Create(RTF);
try
RTFConverter.Lines.LoadFromStream(MyStringStream);
RTFConverter.PlainText := True;
RTFConverter.Lines.StrictDelimiter := True;
if ReplaceLineFeedWithSpace then
RTFConverter.Lines.Delimiter := ' '
else
RTFConverter.Lines.Delimiter := #13;
Result := RTFConverter.Lines.DelimitedText;
finally
MyStringStream.Free;
end;
finally
RTFConverter.Free;
end;
end;
TRichEdit control is an wrapper around the RichEdit control in Windows. Windows's controls are... well.. Windows, and they need an Window Handle to work. Delphi needs to call CreateWindow or CreateWindowEx to create the Handle, and both routines need an valid parent Window Handle to work. Delphi tries to use the handle of the control's parent (and it makes sense!). Happily one can use an alternative constructor (the CreateParanted(HWND) constructor) and the nice people at Microsoft made up the HWND_MESSAGE to be used as parent for windows that don't actually need a "window" (messaging-only).
This code works as expected:
procedure TForm2.Button2Click(Sender: TObject);
var R:TRichEdit;
L:TStringList;
begin
R := TRichEdit.CreateParented(HWND_MESSAGE);
try
R.PlainText := False;
R.Lines.LoadFromFile('C:\Temp\text.rtf');
R.PlainText := True;
Memo1.Lines.Text := R.Lines.Text;
finally
R.Free;
end;
end;
This is part of the way the VCL works, and you're not going to get it to work differently without some heavy workarounds. But you don't need to define a dummy form to be the parent; just use your current form and set visible := false; on the TRichEdit.
If you really want to improve performance, though, you could throw out that loop you're using to build a result string. It has to reallocate and copy memory a lot. Use the Text property of TrichEdit.Lines to get a CRLF between each line, and DelimitedText to get somethimg else, such as spaces. They use an internal buffer that's only allocated once, which will speed up the concatenation quite a bit if you're working with a lot of text.
I use DrawRichText to draw RTF without a RichEdit control. (IIRC this is called Windowless Rich Edit Controls.) Maybe you can use this also for converting - however I have never tried this.
This has been the most helpfull for me to get started with TRichEdit, but not with the conversion. This however works as expected and you don't need to set the Line Delimiter:
// RTF to Plain:
procedure TForm3.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
l:TStringList;
s:WideString;
RE:TRichEdit;
ss:TStringStream;
begin
ss := TStringStream.Create;
s := Memo1.Text; // Input String
RE := TRichEdit.CreateParented(HWND_MESSAGE);
l := TStringList.Create;
l.Add(s);
ss.Position := 0;
l.SaveToStream(ss);
ss.Position := 0;
RE.Lines.LoadFromStream(ss);
Memo2.Text := RE.Text; // Output String
end;
// Plain to RTF:
procedure TForm3.Button2Click(Sender: TObject);
var
RE:TRichEdit;
ss:TStringStream;
begin
RE := TRichEdit.CreateParented(HWND_MESSAGE);
RE.Text := Memo2.Text; // Input String
ss := TStringStream.Create;
ss.Position := 0;
RE.Lines.SaveToStream(ss);
ss.Position := 0;
Memo1.Text := ss.ReadString(ss.Size); // Output String
end;
I'm using the TStringList "l" in the conversion to plain because somehow the TStringStream puts every single character in a new line.
Edit: Made the code a bit nicer and removed unused variables.
I wonder how caught a row of a listview and transform object.
I carry an .xml file and play in a listview , after loading this file you need to double-click in a row, take all of the data line and throw in a LabelEdit , as shown in the code below .
procedure TForm1.LstbxDadosDblClick(Sender: TObject);
begin
if Assigned(TMensagem(LstbxDados.Items.Objects[LstbxDados.ItemIndex])) then
begin
with TMensagem(LstbxDados.Items.Objects[LstbxDados.ItemIndex]) do
begin
EdtPara.Text := Para;
EdtDe.Text := De;
EdtCabecalho.Text := Cabecalho;
EdtCorpo.Text := Corpo;
end;
end;
end;
TMensagem = class
private
FCorpo: String;
FCabecalho: String;
FPara: String;
FDe: String;
public
property Para : String read FPara write FPara;
property De : String read FDe write FDe;
property Cabecalho: String read FCabecalho write FCabecalho;
property Corpo : String read FCorpo write FCorpo;
end;
Many ways to edit an object where the current object can change at any time (like with a double click). Here is one of the easiest: save when the current object changes and save at the very end. Here is a quick and dirty solution.
Add a member to the form or global in the implementation section
FLastMensagem: TMensagem;
May want to initialize to nil on create or initialization (left to you). Now in the event save data when the TMensagem object changes
procedure TForm1.LstbxDadosDblClick(Sender: TObject);
var
LNewMensagem: TMensagem;
begin
LNewMensagem := TMensagem(LstbxDados.Items.Objects[LstbxDados.ItemIndex]));
if Assigned(LNewMensagem) then
begin
// When we switch, capture the dialog before updating it
if Assigned(FMensagem) and (LNewMensagem <> FLastMensagem) then
begin
FLastMensagem.Para := EdtPara.Text;
FLastMensagem.De := EdtDe.Text;
FLastMensagem.Cabecalho := EdtCabecalho.Text;
FLastMensagem.Corpo := EdtCorpo.Text;
end;
EdtPara.Text := LNewMensagem.Para;
EdtDe.Text := LNewMensagem.De;
EdtCabecalho.Text := LNewMensagem.Cabecalho;
EdtCorpo.Text := LNewMensagem.Corpo;
//Set the last dblclicked
FLastMensagem := LNewMensagem
end;
end;
Of course the very last edit needs to be saved, that you can do in say a form close (not sure what your full design is). For example
procedure TForm1.FormClose(Sender: TObject; var Action: TCloseAction);
begin
if Assigned(FLastMensagem) then
begin
FLastMensagem.Para := EdtPara.Text;
FLastMensagem.De := EdtDe.Text;
FLastMensagem.Cabecalho := EdtCabecalho.Text;
FLastMensagem.Corpo := EdtCorpo.Text;
end;
end;
I need to use a TRichEdit at runtime to perform the rtf to text conversion as discussed here. I succeded in doing this but I had to set a dummy form as parent if not I cannot populate the TRichedit.Lines. (Error: parent is missing).
I paste my funciton below, can anyone suggest a way to avoid to define a parent? Can you also comment on this and tell me if you find a more performant idea?
Note: I need a string, not TStrings as output, this is why it has been designed like this.
function RtfToText(const RTF: string;ReplaceLineFeedWithSpace: Boolean): string;
var
RTFConverter: TRichEdit;
MyStringStream: TStringStream;
i: integer;
CustomLineFeed: string;
begin
if ReplaceLineFeedWithSpace then
CustomLineFeed := ' '
else
CustomLineFeed := #13;
try
RTFConverter := TRichEdit.Create(nil);
try
MyStringStream := TStringStream.Create(RTF);
RTFConverter.parent := Form4; // this is the part I don't like
RTFConverter.Lines.LoadFromStream(MyStringStream);
RTFConverter.PlainText := True;
for i := 0 to RTFConverter.Lines.Count - 1 do
begin
if i < RTFConverter.Lines.Count - 1 then
Result := Result + RTFConverter.Lines[i] + CustomLineFeed
else
Result := Result + RTFConverter.Lines[i];
end;
finally
MyStringStream.Free;
end;
finally
RTFConverter.Free;
end;
end;
UPDATE:
After the answer I updated the function and write it here for reference:
function RtfToText(const RTF: string;ReplaceLineFeedWithSpace: Boolean): string;
var
RTFConverter: TRichEdit;
MyStringStream: TStringStream;
begin
RTFConverter := TRichEdit.CreateParented(HWND_MESSAGE);
try
MyStringStream := TStringStream.Create(RTF);
try
RTFConverter.Lines.LoadFromStream(MyStringStream);
RTFConverter.PlainText := True;
RTFConverter.Lines.StrictDelimiter := True;
if ReplaceLineFeedWithSpace then
RTFConverter.Lines.Delimiter := ' '
else
RTFConverter.Lines.Delimiter := #13;
Result := RTFConverter.Lines.DelimitedText;
finally
MyStringStream.Free;
end;
finally
RTFConverter.Free;
end;
end;
TRichEdit control is an wrapper around the RichEdit control in Windows. Windows's controls are... well.. Windows, and they need an Window Handle to work. Delphi needs to call CreateWindow or CreateWindowEx to create the Handle, and both routines need an valid parent Window Handle to work. Delphi tries to use the handle of the control's parent (and it makes sense!). Happily one can use an alternative constructor (the CreateParanted(HWND) constructor) and the nice people at Microsoft made up the HWND_MESSAGE to be used as parent for windows that don't actually need a "window" (messaging-only).
This code works as expected:
procedure TForm2.Button2Click(Sender: TObject);
var R:TRichEdit;
L:TStringList;
begin
R := TRichEdit.CreateParented(HWND_MESSAGE);
try
R.PlainText := False;
R.Lines.LoadFromFile('C:\Temp\text.rtf');
R.PlainText := True;
Memo1.Lines.Text := R.Lines.Text;
finally
R.Free;
end;
end;
This is part of the way the VCL works, and you're not going to get it to work differently without some heavy workarounds. But you don't need to define a dummy form to be the parent; just use your current form and set visible := false; on the TRichEdit.
If you really want to improve performance, though, you could throw out that loop you're using to build a result string. It has to reallocate and copy memory a lot. Use the Text property of TrichEdit.Lines to get a CRLF between each line, and DelimitedText to get somethimg else, such as spaces. They use an internal buffer that's only allocated once, which will speed up the concatenation quite a bit if you're working with a lot of text.
I use DrawRichText to draw RTF without a RichEdit control. (IIRC this is called Windowless Rich Edit Controls.) Maybe you can use this also for converting - however I have never tried this.
This has been the most helpfull for me to get started with TRichEdit, but not with the conversion. This however works as expected and you don't need to set the Line Delimiter:
// RTF to Plain:
procedure TForm3.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
l:TStringList;
s:WideString;
RE:TRichEdit;
ss:TStringStream;
begin
ss := TStringStream.Create;
s := Memo1.Text; // Input String
RE := TRichEdit.CreateParented(HWND_MESSAGE);
l := TStringList.Create;
l.Add(s);
ss.Position := 0;
l.SaveToStream(ss);
ss.Position := 0;
RE.Lines.LoadFromStream(ss);
Memo2.Text := RE.Text; // Output String
end;
// Plain to RTF:
procedure TForm3.Button2Click(Sender: TObject);
var
RE:TRichEdit;
ss:TStringStream;
begin
RE := TRichEdit.CreateParented(HWND_MESSAGE);
RE.Text := Memo2.Text; // Input String
ss := TStringStream.Create;
ss.Position := 0;
RE.Lines.SaveToStream(ss);
ss.Position := 0;
Memo1.Text := ss.ReadString(ss.Size); // Output String
end;
I'm using the TStringList "l" in the conversion to plain because somehow the TStringStream puts every single character in a new line.
Edit: Made the code a bit nicer and removed unused variables.
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?
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;
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;
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.
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.