Is there a wiki article or some guide about converting a form into a component?

[vfclists]

Is there a wiki article or some online guide about converting a form into a component, whether with Delphi or FreePascal?

I'm not quite sure if I remember this correctly, but there seems to be a way of turning a form into a component.

I'm not sure whether doing so enables the form to be designed in the IDE, but at least the component properties can be set and after the form is created at runtime it can probably use some of its properties to configure itself.

Searching for "create a component from a form" doesn't produce any meaningful results.

[Joanna from IRC]

Do you mean like a customized descendant of tform like

Tmyform = class (tform)
{
Overridden methods here
}
End;

[vfclists]

Do you mean like a customized descendant of tform like

Tmyform = class (tform)
{
Overridden methods here
}
End;

No. More like a regular form I want to turn into a component so I can set some of its properties through the Object Inspector.

I'm not sure whether I should create a non-visual component and use it to create the form at runtime and set the forms properties through the component.

[Joanna from IRC]

I will be interested to know how that is done

[jamie]

Tframe ?

[vfclists]

Tframe ?

TFrame doesn't provide what I need, which is setting and reading properties at runtime.

That is why a TForm is preferable.

https://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php/topic,31680.0.html

[Joanna from IRC]

It is very easy to read and set most properties at runtime for a form created at runtime. Just use your autocomplete {ctrl space} to access the properties. You can view everything in the list no problem 

Oh maybe you mean you want to access the properties of the form while program is running? I don’t know how to do that besides creating a gui that mimics the object inspector. And having the change events in gui affect the properties programmatically.

[MarkMLl]

TFrame doesn't provide what I need, which is setting and reading properties at runtime.

That is why a TForm is preferable.

https://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php/topic,31680.0.html

Rubbish. You can do anything you want to an instantiated TFrame and its contents at runtime, what you /can't/ (or at least shouldn't) do is put one on your form at design time and fiddle with the content from the IDE.

This is discussed regularly, and /far/ more recently than the ancient thread you've cited. Frames are particularly useful if you want to set up some sort of tabbed notebook each page with the same starting content, but the procedure is to design the frame (using the IDE) but to instantiate and manipulate it entirely at runtime.

What you mustn't do is instantiate and manipulate using the IDE, because you risk getting yourself into a situation where you have to edit the .lfm as text to get rid of unwanted properties.

MarkMLl

[Joanna from IRC]

What you mustn't do is instantiate and manipulate using the IDE, because you risk getting yourself into a situation where you have to edit the .lfm as text to get rid of unwanted properties.

I’ve learned that the hard way . Assigning event proedures causes some spectacular crashes 

[vfclists]

<snip>

Oh maybe you mean you want to access the properties of the form while program is running? I don’t know how to do that besides creating a gui that mimics the object inspector. And having the change events in gui affect the properties programmatically.

I use an Object Inspector based component to set the properties at runtime and back then when I tried to use it to set the properties of objects on the frames it didn't work because they weren't exposed.

I don't know if things have changed since then as I replaced the frames with forms to gain that functionality.

[vfclists]

TFrame doesn't provide what I need, which is setting and reading properties at runtime.

That is why a TForm is preferable.

https://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php/topic,31680.0.html

Rubbish. You can do anything you want to an instantiated TFrame and its contents at runtime, what you /can't/ (or at least shouldn't) do is put one on your form at design time and fiddle with the content from the IDE.

This is discussed regularly, and /far/ more recently than the ancient thread you've cited. Frames are particularly useful if you want to set up some sort of tabbed notebook each page with the same starting content, but the procedure is to design the frame (using the IDE) but to instantiate and manipulate it entirely at runtime.

What you mustn't do is instantiate and manipulate using the IDE, because you risk getting yourself into a situation where you have to edit the .lfm as text to get rid of unwanted properties.

MarkMLl

I use an Object Inspector based component to set the properties at runtime and back then when I tried to use it to set the properties of objects on the frames it didn't work because they weren't exposed.

I don't know if things have changed since then as I replaced the frames with forms to gain that functionality.

Have there been changes in Lazarus which expose the properties of objects in frames to the objects since then? By that I mean at runtime.

[MarkMLl]

Have there been changes in Lazarus which expose the properties of objects in frames to the objects since then? By that I mean at runtime.

If it didn't work would I really be telling you that it was the only safe way to do it?

MarkMLl

[Joanna from IRC]

I use an Object Inspector based component to set the properties at runtime and back then when I tried to use it to set the properties of objects on the frames it didn't work because they weren't exposed.

I don't know if things have changed since then as I replaced the frames with forms to gain that functionality.

That makes sense that there would be something like an object inspector that can be used at runtime. Can you show how you do it? I’m curious.
Also the properties of controls are usually accessible at runtime however the form is the only controls that is intended to be freestanding so maybe that’s why you can’t use frame for this.

[mas steindorff]

I use an Object Inspector based component to set the properties at runtime and back then when I tried to use it to set the properties of objects on the frames it didn't work because they weren't exposed.

I don't know if things have changed since then as I replaced the frames with forms to gain that functionality.

Have there been changes in Lazarus which expose the properties of objects in frames to the objects since then? By that I mean at runtime.

I have just created a frame whos Tlabels, Tedit and Tcombo box components can be changed at runtime.  I also can change the visibility of these and TEdits as well.  I did expose these things though my own procedures and properties so I could add smarts (like both Tedit & matching Tlable are shown or not shown) but before I did, I was accessing the properties directly though the parent.

The IDE does this smart change too. Just set the index of a combo box to zero and watch the text field get updated to the 1st item in the list. I don't believe you will not get this smart multi-property action if you do the same thing at runtime.

[Joanna from IRC]

I think he wants something like the object inspector available at runtime so he can change the properties through a gui interface while the program is running. Am I right?