Copyright: © Thomas C. Garaio


Inhalt

Introduction

Overview

Beta cycle

Installing

How to use it

Tips

Reference

TFloatPnl - Properties

TFloatPnl - Events

Registration

How to register

License

License agreement for registered users


Overview

Thank you for your interests for our first VCL! This document describes the current functionality of the component.

TFloatPnl is a component that gives the functionalty of the Microsoft Office ©  Floating Toolbars.

Features of the current version:

Features

Dockable toolbars (top, bottom. Left, right).

More than one toolbar is dockable on the same line.

Use of TimageList for the Buttons

Property „Items" includes all the button definitions in a readable text format

Floating Toolbar

Build-in Components: Font selection, Font Size selection

Show/Hide Toolbars Dialog

FREE – FREE – FREE – FREE

Free DCU-Component only for the beta cycle,

source available via SWREG for 49 USD.

SWREG #12098


Beta cycle

Features of Beta 3

Type	Description
Add	Property „items" has changed. There are two new parameters added to the list:  GroupIndex and Down (See the VCL-Help for details; this properties are published from the automatically placed TSpeedbuttons.
Bugfix	I had some problems with the property Visible. I couldn't derive a specific version for my control by simply using the inheritence feature of delphi (because property read/write procedures cannot be „dynamic"). My solution: The Visible property is no longer published. I use instead of them the property VisibleDock. Use this for showing/hiding the component. Maybe someone else will find a better solution.
Bugfix	The fontlist is now sorted correctly. (Thanks to Russ for the tip!!)
Add	Show/Hide Toolbars Dialog
Know bugs:

Type	Description
VisibleDock	In some cases more than one toolbars will be hidden after setting VisibleDock to false of one specific toolbar.


Installing

1. 	Copy the files *.dcu and *.pas into your Library directory

2. 	Install the component TFloatPnlReg.Pas

3. 	Rebuild the library


How to use it

1. 	Place a TFloatPnl component on your form.

2. 	Place a TImageList component on your form

3. 	Load specific bitmaps into the TImageList object.

4. 	Set the Property SmallImageList of the TFloatPnl object to the TimageList object

5. 	Edit the Items property of the TFloatPnl object as follows (example)

1;New Button;-1;C_NEW;;;0;0

2;Open Button;-1;C_OPEN;;;0;0

3;Save Button;-1;C_SAVE;;;0;0

Description:

Each line includes the definition of a button. All the argument are delimited by a semicolon. The argument are:

Argument	Description	Example
Image-ID	Reference to the ID of the Image in the ImageList. 0=first image	1
Hint	Hint Text	This is a Demo hint
Enabled	Enables or disables the button (-1/1 or 0)	-1
Name	Name of the button. *MUST BE UNIQUE*	C_DEMOBUTTON
Build-In-Constant	Currently two Build-In constants are available: C_FONT and C_SIZE, which display a dropdown with Fonts or Fontsizes.	C_FONT
Default-Value	Default-Value for the Drop-Down	Arial
GroupIndex	Defines of the button is in a control group. (See VCL-Help for more details.) 0 = no group
Down	Defines, which button in the group is currently down. You can set this at designtime (See VCL-Help for more details.). Possible Values: -1/1 or 0	0


Tips

How to change button properties at runtime


How to change button properties at runtime

To apply property changes using the following code fragment:

{Declare a variable of type TFlButton}

Var

flb : TFlButton;

Begin

{Load the structure of the button you want to change, here: no. 1}

  flb := tfloatpanel1.GetFlButton(1);

{Now change the property, for instance: set enabled to false}

  flb.enabled;

  tfloatpanel1.SetFlButton(1,flb)  ; {write it down...}

{Now take all the other button-structures and change them. After you've

 finished this, process the following:}

  tfloatpanel1.PlaceControls; {repaints the toolbar...}


TFloatPnl - Properties

Property	Description
Caption	Caption of the Window which is visible when the toolbar is floating.
DropPos	Drop position after creating the control. The following values are possible: dpLeft, dpTop, dpBottom, dpRight, dpFloat
SmallImageList	Point to the TimageList (see example which includes all the standard icons of Microsoft Word ©.
Items	Includes the definitions of all buttons in a readable text format. See above for an example.
Example of Items:

1;New Button;-1;C_NEW;;;0;0

2;Open Button;-1;C_OPEN;;;0;0

3;Save Button;-1;C_SAVE;;;0;0

Description:

Each line includes the definition of a button. All the argument are delimited by a semicolon. The argument are:

Argument	Description	Example
Image-ID	Reference to the ID of the Image in the ImageList. 0=first image	1
Hint	Hint Text	This is a Demo hint
Enabled	Enables or disables the button (-1/1 or 0)	-1
Name	Name of the button. *MUST BE UNIQUE*	C_DEMOBUTTON
Build-In-Constant	Currently two Build-In constants are available: C_FONT and C_SIZE, which display a dropdown with Fonts or Fontsizes.	C_FONT
Default-Value	Default-Value for the Drop-Down	Arial
GroupIndex	Defines of the button is in a control group. (See VCL-Help for more details.) 0 = no group
Down	Defines, which button in the group is currently down. You can set this at designtime (See VCL-Help for more details.). Possible values: -1/1 or 0.	0


TFloatPnl - Events

Event	Description
OnButtonClick	Fired when the user clicks on a button. The sender object point to the button. You can get the name of the button as follows (example): ShowMessage((Sender as TComponent).name);
OnChange	Fired when the text in the combo has changed.  Example:  ShowMessage((Sender as TComboBox).text);  Displays the text of the ComboBox, if the text changed.


How to register

Please fill out the following fields:

Firstname: 	____________________________________

Lastname:	____________________________________

Company:	____________________________________

Street:	____________________________________

Zip:	____________________________________

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Country:	____________________________________

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Send this info at my email-account:

Internet: tg@garaio.com    *or*

CIS: 100444,3505

The source is available via swreg (swreg: 12098). Price 49 USD + 5 USD S&H. The price includes all the beta version including the realeased version 1.0.


License agreement for registered users

WITH THE REGISTRATION YOU RECEIVE THE RIGHT TO DISTRIBUTE PROGRAMS YOU CREATED USING TFLOATPANEL. YOU MAY NOT DISTRIBUTE MODULES  WHICH MAY BE USED BY A THIRD PARTY (VBX,VCL,DLL).

UPON REGISTRATION YOU RECEIVE  ALL SOURCE FILES. THEY MAY BEALTERED, BUT YOU MAY NOT DISTRIBUTE THEM TO ANY OTHER PERSON WHO HAS NOT REGISTERED!

THIS DOCUMENTATION AND THE VCL ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUTNOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND/OR SUITABILITY FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

THE USER ASSUMES THE ENTIRE RISK OF ANY DAMAGE CAUSED BY THIS SOFTWARE.