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delphivcldelphi-12-athenstframetform

How to convert a form to a frame?

I have a form which should have been a frame. I've tried to convert it to a frame, but it seems to stay a form no matter what I do. I've compared the DFM and PAS of a form with a frame and replaced all the uses, changed the inherited class, looked through DFM.

I can't see what is causing it to be a form. What causes a form to be a form? I want to convert it to a frame?

I don't want to create a new frame and copy/paste everything over to the frame. Surely there must be a way to simply convert a form to a frame? or frame to form?

Solution

  • To convert a VCL form to a frame you have to make these changes:

    1. Change the ancestor from TForm to TFrame in the .pas file, eg:

      type
  TForm2 = class(TForm)

      change to

      type
  TForm2 = class(TFrame)

    2. In the uses part of your project's .dpr file, add a : TFrame next to your frame's name, like this:

      Unit2 in 'Unit2.pas' {Form2},

      change to

      Unit2 in 'Unit2.pas' {Form2: TFrame},

    Close and reopen Form2. The IDE complains about properties that can not be applied to a frame - click on the "Ignore" button.

    That's it.

    NOTE: You might want to change the class name of your converted frame if the class name gets misleading, but I consider this to be not in the scope of your original question.

    NOTE: I've tested this answer on Delphi XE2.