Detecting when second form is closed/hidden

[GeneCode]

In my application, i have 2 forms:
1.MainForm
2.SettingsForm

A button A on MainForm opens the SettingsForm.
A button B on SettingsForm calls Close on itself (ie close form).

What I want to know is how to tell MainForm that a user has clicked button B?

[Handoko]

Maybe what you need is ShowModal:
https://wiki.freepascal.org/Form_Tutorial#Difference_between_Show_and_ShowModal

What I want to know is how to tell MainForm that a user has clicked button B?

No, that is not good enough. Because users can close the Setting form without clicking button B. For example: Alt+F4 can be used for closing form on most OSes.

[440bx]

What I want to know is how to tell MainForm that a user has clicked button B?

Under Windows, when button B is clicked you could post a custom/"user defined" message to the MainForm window thus informing it that button B has been clicked.

[Zvoni]

Uh? Why not just use the "OnClose"-Event of Form2?
Inside the Event just call a public Procedure of Form1 (i do hope you're not closing Form1 when calling Form2).
I wouldn't be surprised if there's even a "direct" way to fire the Event from Form2 inside Form1

[lucamar]

I always use Assigned(SomeForm) to know if some form has been created (and if not, create it) and SomeForm.IsVisible or SomeForm.Visible to know whether it's showing or not. For example:

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]

1. if not Assigned(SomeForm) then
2.   Application.CreateForm(TSomeForm, SomeForm);
3. if not SomeForm.Visible then
4.   SomeForm.ShowOnTop;

[Remy Lebeau]

Uh? Why not just use the "OnClose"-Event of Form2?

Agreed.  And/or the OnShow and OnHide events, too.

I wouldn't be surprised if there's even a "direct" way to fire the Event from Form2 inside Form1

Sure there is - you can simply assign methods of Form1 as the actual event handlers for Form2's events.

[Zvoni]

I wouldn't be surprised if there's even a "direct" way to fire the Event from Form2 inside Form1

Sure there is - you can simply assign methods of Form1 as the actual event handlers for Form2's events.

Remy, got an example for that? I was fiddling around with that idea, but couldn't get it to work

[wp]

Try the project in the attachment. I think it is important to note that this demo follows that principle that the MainForm "knows" the secondary forms, but each secondary form does not "know" the MainForm. Otherwise it is too easy to end up with circular references. Providing an event handler for the secondary form by the main form is the technique to accomplish that.

[Zvoni]

WP +1
Thx!

[GeneCode]

I actually ended up with using a global variable. On main form i have a timer repeated every 1 sec (sort of heartbeat), so on second form on closing, i put

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]

1.     global_Reload := true;

Then on timer callback on main form, i have the following

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]

1.   if (global_Reload) then begin
2.     global_Reload := false;
3.     LoadIPAddresses;
4.   end;  

Bit hacky but works. I guess zvoni way is best to have public procedure on MainForm and call it from second form. Ill give it a try later. Thanks all.

[madref]

I am using this construction:

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]

1.   for maxid := 1 to Screen.FormCount - 1 do begin
2.   // begin at 1 Because main form is always open.
3.     if Screen.Forms[maxid].Visible then begin
4.       Form_Message.MsgWindow(mVraag1, bOk,
5.         'First close the active window' + sCrLf +
6.         'before opening a new one !!', PrgNaam);
7.       exit;
8.     end;  // if
9.   end;  // for
10.  

[Thaddy]

You can also use the observer/observed functionality, see https://www.freepascal.org/docs-html/rtl/classes/ifpobserved.fponotifyobservers.html
This feature is a bit under-rated, but very powerful.
Have one form implement the observer and the other one IFPObserved, In the OnMinimize and OnClose event from the observed form, notify the observer form. Since TForm derives from Tpersistent, most of this functionality is free...
You can use ooCustom as observer notification and the data parameter to set minimize or close actions.

A basic implementation for Tstrings to get you started is here: http://free-pascal-general.1045716.n5.nabble.com/attachment/5711985/0/fpobserver_demo.pas

[GeneCode]

You can also use the observer/observed functionality, see https://www.freepascal.org/docs-html/rtl/classes/ifpobserved.fponotifyobservers.html
This feature is a bit under-rated, but very powerful.
Have one form implement the observer and the other one IFPObserved, In the OnMinimize and OnClose event from the observed form, notify the observer form. Since TForm derives from Tpersistent, most of this functionality is free...
You can use ooCustom as observer notification and the data parameter to set minimize or close actions.

A basic implementation for Tstrings to get you started is here: http://free-pascal-general.1045716.n5.nabble.com/attachment/5711985/0/fpobserver_demo.pas

Oh wow. This is so familiar like in XCode development (NSNotificationCenter).
Thanks for sharing.... definitely will look into this.

[Thaddy]

[Oh wow. This is so familiar like in XCode development (NSNotificationCenter).
Thanks for sharing.... definitely will look into this.

That is indeed also the observer pattern in action 
As I wrote: under rated but very powerful for such things. Also rather easy to implement in a few lines of code.