Category Archives: GUI

Tabs with a twist – rkSmartTab

19 Replies
SmartTabs in use

SmartTabs in use

Here is a new component of mine, rkSmartTabs. Its a simple but easy to use tab bar component. It was made for my explorer application but I guess others might find it usefull too. I do not have a demo yet but you can download an early beta of my explorer to see and and get a feel for how it works. rkSmartTabs is rendered using GDI+ so you must make it available for Delphi. Hope you find it useful. Feedback is always welcome.

Download rkSmartTabs

Download BlaiseExplorer (540KB)

Tip: Use Ctrl left and right arrow to open/close all groups.

Alternative progressbar

14 Replies

Showing Vista Progress Bar

I guess most of you have allready found a replacement for default progressbar in D2007. If not take a look at my solution. It have similar look to the system progressbar but without any animation.

The component will work in any delphi version but I have only tested it in D2007 and D2010.

It is licensed as freeware so no limitations on its use except you can not charge for it.

Download VistaProBar

Small but smart colorpicker

2 Replies
Small but smart colorpicker

The small but smart color picker

This is my attempt at making a small but smart color picker. It has two modes and can be used for live color updating. The mode shown in image is Alphamode:= True, second mode will then be Alphamode:= False which will be more aimed at web design.

To set the colorpickers color use:
SetColor(Color, Alpha, Update) or SetColor(Color, Update) where Update is a boolean which if false will set old color to color value.

Alpha is a value between 0 and 255.

To get color value use GetColor. Alpha value is stored in RGBAlpha.

Download: Color Picker (260kB)

Released rkSmartPath version 2

26 Replies
Smart Path v2 in action

Smart path demo application

After a lot of testing, tweaking and fixing version 2 of rkSmartPath is available.
Whats new:

* Now it is possible to disable edit of path
* Added owner draw event
* Using displayname for folders
* Added search event. Use path edit for searching/filtering
* Tweaks and fixes
* End arrow only if there is folders in last folder

What is rkSmartPath: it is a component for Delphi that will allow you to navigate the filesystem similar to explorer in Vista. Folder path is represented as buttons and arrows. Pressing a button will allow you to set that path, pressing an arrow will let you pick a folder in that folder. Try the demo and you see what I am talking about.

Download Project(265kB)

Update 03.02.2010:

TBXSmartPath

How it looks with Athen theme

Download TBX test version

Threaded thumbnails demo

5 Replies

Yet another thumbnails demo, this time showing how to make the thumbnails in a seperate thread. There is a small problem which I belive is caused by the Delphi jpeg unit which sometime will render a thumbnail empty. With empty I mean that it has the correct width and height but not the image itself but just a white rectangle. If you figure out how to fix it please tell me so I can fix it. It only happens once and awhile so it is not easy to pinpoint what is causing it.

This demo also fix some problems which was present in previus thumbnail demos so if you had problems with previus demos try this one.

Using a diffrent imagelib seems to solve the problem reagarding blank thumbnail. I strongly recomend ImageEn but also GraphicsEx is a good one.

You need rkView installed to run this demo. You find it under components.

Download project with source

Added 01.dec.2009:
The same demo using ImageEnIO for loading and making the thumbs. You need to have ImageEn installed to compile and run this demo.

Download project with source (21 kB)
Download compiled demo (1008 kB)

rkView component

22 Replies

rkView v1.1 is done and ready for download. ParentFont support have been added and a problem with scrollbar calculation have been fixed. Please do report back if the problem is not solved.

What is rkView?
rkView is my solution for a listview/gridview. I do not like the included TListview that comes with Delphi so I made my own. That way I have full control of how it works and act.

The best way to see what you can do with rkView is to download any of the thumbnail demos. More demos will come later. If you make a demo using rkView I would love to see it, maybe it could be included as a demo?

Download rkView

Roy M Klever

A smarter button

8 Replies

There is a lot of buttons out there I know but I have yet to find a button like this where you can have more than one button in “one button” (see screen shot). Especially at no cost.

RkSmartButton on display.

RkSmartButton on display.

I belive this is all you need to get started using rkSmartButton. I have tried to make it easy to use but there are a few things worth noticing… to show a popupmenu on any of the buttons you must set a flag in ButtonsPopup property which will look, something like this: 0010 “0” means do not show “1” means show. In this case only third button will get the popup. I also use this technic for enabling buttons and keeping hold of which one is down. No popup will be shown if CheckButtons is set. Popupmenu is shown after the button is pressed and hold down for the time given in PopupDelay property (like in Chrome). To get images on button add an imagelist and set the indexes in the ImageIndexes property. Use format like this: 0,1,2,7,4. To know which button was pressed use SelectedIndex property. Button number one gets the index of 0.

Thats it, hope you like it.

Next up is an update of SmartPathBar.

Download: Project with source

A smart pathbar component

6 Replies

I finaly did it, made my smart pathbar component. It took a while to get it done but well here it is: rkSmartPath, I know, not a good name but I needed a name so …  It is quite easy to use, just give it a path, adjust some settings and you are ready to go.  Lets have a look:

ScreenShot of demo program

ScreenShot of demo program

The screenshot show the HomeMenu. Some default items are present like the drives and new folder items. The desktop and my documents items are optional. Making a new folder is as easy as clicking the new folder (name can be changed) writing name of the folder and you are done. Clicking outside the buttons will lett you paste a path or edit the one shown, you can cancel at any time by pressing escape key. You can also add favourites to the HomeMenu.

I guess thats it, quite easy isnt it. Please tell me what you think of it, I know it is not perfect but what is.

Download: Project with Source