Delphi | The Road to Delphi

September 1, 2015
by Rodrigo 3 Comments

DITE supports RAD Studio 10 Seattle

I just updated the Delphi IDE Theme Editor adding support for RAD Studio 10 Seattle.

Remember which starting with Delphi XE8, DITE allows you edit the values (color and font) of the IDE modern theme. To use it just press the button “Additional Settings” and set values for the Main ToolBar and the IDE Font, finally press the button “Apply”. Also you can restore the default settings pressing the button “Restore”.

You can download the DITE from here.

May 19, 2015
by Rodrigo 4 Comments

VCL Styles Utils and NonClient Area – New features

I just added a set of new features to the VCL Styles Utils project

New NC Buttons styles

Two new styles was added to the TNCButton control (nsAlpha and nsGradient). So now you can add Alpha-blended and Gradient buttons to the title bar of the Forms.

To add a button in the NC Area, only you need add a TNCControls component to your form and then insert a TNCButton in the collection like so.

  NCControls:=TNCControls.Create(Self);
  NCControls.Add(TNCButton.Create(NCControls));
  NCControls[0].Style       := nsAlpha;
  NCControls[0].ImageStyle  := isNormal;
  NCControls[0].Images      := ImageList1;
  NCControls[0].ImageIndex  := 0;
  NCControls[0].BoundsRect  := Rect(30, 1, 120, 26);
  NCControls[0].Caption     := 'nsAlpha1';
  NCControls[0].Name        := 'nsAlpha1';
  NCControls[0].AlphaColor   := clWebLavender;
  NCControls[0].AlphaHotColor:= clWebAliceBlue;
  NCControls[0].FontColor   := clWhite;
  NCControls[0].HotFontColor:= clYellow;
  NCControls[0].OnClick     := ButtonNCClick;

Support for Custom VCL Styles in the NonClient Area

The TNCControls component was updated to support a different custom VCL Style in the NC Area. Check these screenshots with the glow style (this is the application VCL Style) in the body of the form and a custom VCL Style in the NC Area.

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To activate a custom style in the NC Area, only you need add a TNCControls component to your form and set the StyleServices property

  NCControls:=TNCControls.Create(Self);
  NCControls.StyleServices := TStyleManager.Style['Sky']; //Set the Sky vcl style to be used to draw the NC Area of the form

You can check the sample application here.

April 30, 2015
by Rodrigo Leave a comment

The VCL Styles Utils project now is hosted in Github

Quick post… just for inform which I just moved the VCL Styles Utils from google code to Github.

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Rodrigo.

November 4, 2014
by Rodrigo 20 Comments

VCL Styles Utils – Major Update (Dialogs, ProgressBar, DateTimePicker, ListView and more)

A Major updated was made to the VCL Styles Utils project. This version include several fixes and new features.

Vcl.Styles.Hooks

The Vcl.Styles.Hooks unit is the most updated part of this new release. This unit is the responsible of hook some of the UxTheme and WinApi methods like DrawThemeBackground, GetSysColor and GetSysColorBrush. Which allows take the control of the painting process for the system themed (and owner-draw) controls.

ListView

This new release fix the highlight color used on the selected items and also replace the themed checkBox by a styled checkbox.

ListView with VCL Styles

ListView with VCL Styles + Vcl.Styles.Hooks unit

Also was added support for style the Listview groups.

ListView with VCL Styles

ListView with VCL Styles + Vcl.Styles.Hooks unit

DateTime Controls

The Styling of the TMonthCalendar and TDatetimepicker components is one of the limitations of the VCL Styles, because such components are owner-draw by the system and doesn’t allow to customize the look and feel when the native themes are enabled (for more information read these TMonthCalendar and TDatetimepicker ) also only the newest versions of Delphi includes a partial styling support for such components. With this new release the styling of these controls is now possible.

TDateTimePicker and TMonthCalendar with VCL Styles

TDateTimePicker and TMonthCalendar with VCL Styles + Vcl.Styles.Hooks unit

ProgressBar

Improved support for the TProgressbar component without flicker and with Marquee style.

Select Directory Dialog

The styling for the select directory dialog was enhanced adding support for the open and close glyphs and fixing the color of the highlight bar.

VCL Styles Utils

VCL Styles Utils + Vcl.Styles.Hooks unit

Open/Save Dialog

The VCL Styles support of the Open and Save dialogs was improved adding styling for groups and highlight items. Also a fix for the select folder combobox was introduced.

VCL Styles Utils

VCL Styles Utils + Vcl.Styles.Hooks unit

October 9, 2014
by Rodrigo 7 Comments

VCL Styles Utils – Now supports the TTaskDialog component

I’m very pleased to introduce a very exciting new feature to the VCL Styles Utils project. This is the support for style the TTaskDialog component and all the TaskDialog based Message dialogs. This control available since RAD Studio 2007 is a wrapper for the Task Dialogs introduced in Windows Vista and allows to create very rich and flexible dialogs.

Take a look to some sample dialogs.