How to catch the moment when the parent control has been resized?

Question

I have a visual component derived from TWinControl. I need to do some work in my component when its parent control has been resized. In general case, the "Align" property of my component is alNone.

How to catch the event of resizing the parent control? Is it possible?

Answer 1

If a TWinControl (the parent) is changed in size, then TWinControl.Realign is called in the WM_SIZE handler. This bubbles via TWinControl.AlignControls into iterating over all the child controls which have the Align property set to anything else then alNone. When set to alCustom, SetBounds of the child controls will be called with unchanged arguments, even if their size has or has not changed due to anchor involvement.

So, set Align to alCustom and you have the notification of the parent's resize:

  TChild = class(T...Control)
  private
    FInternalAlign: Boolean;
    function GetAlign: TAlign;
    procedure ParentResized;
    procedure SetAlign(Value: TAlign);
  protected
    procedure RequestAlign; override;
  public
    constructor Create(AOwner: TComponent); override;
    procedure SetBounds(ALeft, ATop, AWidth, AHeight: Integer); override;
  published
    property Align: TAlign read GetAlign write SetAlign default alCustom;
  end;

constructor TChild.Create(AOwner: TComponent);
begin
  inherited Create(AOwner);
  Align := alCustom;
end;

function TChild.GetAlign: TAlign;
begin
  Result := inherited Align;
end;

procedure TChild.ParentResized;
begin
end;

procedure TChild.RequestAlign;
begin
  FInternalAlign := True;
  try
    inherited RequestAlign;
  finally
    FInternalAlign := False;
  end;
end;

procedure TChild.SetAlign(Value: TAlign);
begin
  if Value = alNone then
    Value := alCustom;
  inherited Align := Value;
end;

procedure TChild.SetBounds(ALeft, ATop, AWidth, AHeight: Integer);
begin
  if not FInternalAlign then
    if (Align <> alCustom) or ((ALeft = Left) and (ATop = Top) and
        (AWidth = Width) and (AHeight = Height)) then
      ParentResized;
  inherited SetBounds(ALeft, ATop, AWidth, AHeight);
end;

The only drawback I can think of for now is that the Align property can never be alNone, which could confuse the user of your component. It is easily possible to show or return alNone when the internal inherited property is still set to alCustom, but that is not an advice and would confuse only more. Just consider the alCustom setting as a feature of this component.

Note: with this construction, the user of your component is still able to implement custom alignment himself.

And here is my test code. Maybe you want add some testing for yourself.

unit Unit1;

interface

uses
  Windows, SysUtils, Classes, Controls, Forms, Dialogs, StdCtrls, ExtCtrls;

type
  TForm1 = class(TForm)
    TestButton: TButton;
    Panel1: TPanel;
    procedure FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
    procedure TestButtonClick(Sender: TObject);
  private
    FChild: TControl;
  end;

var
  Form1: TForm1;

implementation

{$R *.dfm}

type
  TChild = class(TGraphicControl)
  private
    FInternalAlign: Boolean;
    function GetAlign: TAlign;
    procedure ParentResized;
    procedure SetAlign(Value: TAlign);
  protected
    procedure Paint; override;
    procedure RequestAlign; override;
  public
    constructor Create(AOwner: TComponent); override;
    procedure SetBounds(ALeft, ATop, AWidth, AHeight: Integer); override;
  published
    property Align: TAlign read GetAlign write SetAlign default alCustom;
  end;

{ TChild }

constructor TChild.Create(AOwner: TComponent);
begin
  inherited Create(AOwner);
  Align := alCustom;
end;

function TChild.GetAlign: TAlign;
begin
  Result := inherited Align;
end;

procedure TChild.Paint;
begin
  Canvas.TextRect(ClientRect, 2, 2, 'Parent resize count = ' + IntToStr(Tag));
end;

procedure TChild.ParentResized;
begin
  Tag := Tag + 1;
  Invalidate;
end;

procedure TChild.RequestAlign;
begin
  FInternalAlign := True;
  try
    inherited RequestAlign;
  finally
    FInternalAlign := False;
  end;
end;

procedure TChild.SetAlign(Value: TAlign);
begin
  if Value = alNone then
    Value := alCustom;
  inherited Align := Value;
end;

procedure TChild.SetBounds(ALeft, ATop, AWidth, AHeight: Integer);
begin
  if not FInternalAlign then
    if (Align <> alCustom) or ((ALeft = Left) and (ATop = Top) and
        (AWidth = Width) and (AHeight = Height)) then
      ParentResized;
  inherited SetBounds(ALeft, ATop, AWidth, AHeight);
end;

{ TForm1 }

procedure TForm1.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
begin
  FChild := TChild.Create(Self);
  FChild.SetBounds(10, 10, 200, 50);
  FChild.Parent := Self;
end;

procedure TForm1.TestButtonClick(Sender: TObject);
var
  OldCount: Integer;
begin
  OldCount := FChild.Tag;

  Width := Width + 25;                                                     //1
  MoveWindow(Handle, Left, Top, Width + 25, Height, True);                 //2
  SetWindowPos(Handle, HWND_TOP, Left, Top, Width + 25, Height,
    SWP_NOMOVE or SWP_NOSENDCHANGING or SWP_SHOWWINDOW);                   //3

  FChild.Anchors := [akLeft, akTop, akRight];
  Width := Width + 25;                                                     //4
  MoveWindow(Handle, Left, Top, Width + 25, Height, True);                 //5
  SetWindowPos(Handle, HWND_TOP, Left, Top, Width + 25, Height,
    SWP_NOMOVE or SWP_NOSENDCHANGING or SWP_SHOWWINDOW);                   //6

  FChild.Anchors := [akLeft, akTop];
  Panel1.Anchors := [akLeft, akTop, akRight];
  FChild.Parent := Panel1;                                                 //7
  Width := Width + 25;                                                     //8
  MoveWindow(Handle, Left, Top, Width + 25, Height, True);                 //9
  SetWindowPos(Handle, HWND_TOP, Left, Top, Width + 25, Height,
    SWP_NOMOVE or SWP_NOSENDCHANGING or SWP_SHOWWINDOW);                   //10

  FChild.Align := alRight;
  Width := Width + 25;                                                     //11
  MoveWindow(Handle, Left, Top, Width + 25, Height, True);                 //12
  SetWindowPos(Handle, HWND_TOP, Left, Top, Width + 25, Height,
    SWP_NOMOVE or SWP_NOSENDCHANGING or SWP_SHOWWINDOW);                   //13

  if FChild.Tag = OldCount + 13 then
    ShowMessage('Test succeeded')
  else
    ShowMessage('Test unsuccessful');
end;

end.