Using AnchorDocking
lazarus / 5-Lazarus Extra Components

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creaothceann · 2016-01-21 00:40

I have a main form and several helper forms, created automatically in
the project.lpr file. At program start I want to attach the helper
forms to the bottom of the main form so that they are in a
TPageControl.

After some reading (here and the example at
components/anchordocking/miniide/miniide1.lpi) my code looks like
this:

Code: [Select]procedure TForm_Main.Form_OnCreate(Sender : TObject);
begin
DockMaster.OnShowOptions :=
@AnchorDockOptionsDlg.ShowAnchorDockOptions;
DockMaster.MakeDockSite(Self, [akBottom], admrpChild, False);
end;


procedure TForm_Main.Form_OnShow(Sender : TObject);
begin
if (not _shown) then begin  // private variable
        _shown := True;
        DockMaster.MakeDockable(HelperForm1);
        DockMaster.MakeDockable(HelperForm2);
end;
end;
This creates the docking site on the main form and shows the helper
forms with the docking header, and it's possible to drag'n'drop the
forms onto the main form.

It seems that I have to use the function DockMaster.ManualDock to do
this with code. After countless random tries (wiki being extremely
cryptic) I got this:

Code: [Select]procedure TForm_Main.Form_OnShow(Sender : TObject);
var     Site1 : TAnchorDockHostSite;
        Site2 : TAnchorDockHostSite;
begin
if (not _shown) then begin
        _shown := True;
        // show forms
        DockMaster.MakeDockable(HelperForm1);
        DockMaster.MakeDockable(HelperForm2);
        // attach them to main window
        Site1 := DockMaster.GetAnchorSite(HelperForm1);
        Site2 := DockMaster.GetAnchorSite(HelperForm2);
        DockMaster.ManualDock(Site1, Self, alBottom, NIL);
        DockMaster.ManualDock(Site2, Self, alClient, HelperForm1);
end;
end;
This works (rather non-intuitively), but only as long as I leave at
least one helper form attached to the main form. As soon as all have
been dragged off, the main form's docking site seems nonexistent. Is
there a way to fix that?

My configuration:
- 64-bit Win7 Ultimate SP1
- 64-bit Lazarus 1.6RC2, FPC3

PS: For the record, AnchorDockPkg has to be added to the program's
uses-section after the Interfaces unit, otherwise there's a SIGSEV
when the program is closed.


EDIT: How can I close or hide one of the dockable helper forms?
Form.Close and Form.Visible := False don't work. Do I really have to
Free them?

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bastynator · 2016-07-03 18:33

Did you try to load the layout by a xml?
That worked for me 

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]window.onload = function(){var x1 =
document.getElementById("main_content_section"); if (x1) { var x =
document.getElementsByClassName("geshi");for (var i = 0; i procedure
TMainIDE.LoadLayout(Filename: string);var  XMLConfig:
TXMLConfigStorage;begin  try    // load the xml config file   
XMLConfig:=TXMLConfigStorage.Create(Filename,True);    try      //
restore the layout      // this will close unneeded forms and call
OnCreateControl for all needed     
DockMaster.LoadLayoutFromConfig(XMLConfig,true);    finally     
XMLConfig.Free;    end;  except    on E: Exception do begin     
MessageDlg('Error',        'Error loading layout from file
'+Filename+':'#13+E.Message,mtError,        [mbCancel],0);    end; 
end;end;