Message Dialog Components
Information Sheet

Contents

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Overview

This unit provides various customisable message dialog box components. Three components are installed on the component palette. The installed components are:

Help file

A OpenHelp compatible help file is supplied that provides help on all the components. The help file integrates with the help system of Delphi 4 to 7. Although it does not integrate with the Delphi 2005 and later IDE at can be used independently of the IDE, albeit with some loss of functionality.

An .als file is also supplied to assist in integration with Delphi 6 and 7.

Demo program

A demo program with associated explanatory help file is included in the download. The demo exercises each of the three components. It comes supplied with demo help files to enable experimentation with the components' HelpFile and HelpContext properties.

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Compatibility

The Message Dialog Components compile with Delphi 4 and later. They have been tested with Delphi 4, 6, 7 and 2006.

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Installation

The Message Dialog Components, documentation and demo program are supplied in a zip file. Before installing you need to extract all the files from the zip file, preserving the directory structure. The following files will be extracted:

You can now proceed to install the components and property editor using the emphasised files above. Installation methods vary between Delphi versions, so follow the instructions that apply to your version below. Note that $(DELPHI) represents the path where the appropriate version of Delphi was installed. Similarly $(BDS) refers to the installation path of a version of the Borland Development System.

Installation with Delphi 2005 & 2006

The components must be installed into a Delphi Win32 design package. It is assumed that you will be installing into an existing package. You may decide to install into the "user" package: $(BDS)\Lib\dclusr.dpk.

  1. Decide upon a suitable location into which to install the components. This may be a subdirectory of your Borland Studio Projects or $(BDS)\lib folders.
  2. Copy PJMessageDialog.pas and PJMessageDialog.dcr to the chosen installation folder.
  3. Start the Development System (selecting the Delphi Win32 personality if appropriate) then:
  4. If you wish you can now delete PJMessageDialog.pas from the chosen installation folder.
  5. The supplied help file cannot be integrated with the IDE's help system. However it can be used independently of the IDE, albeit with reduced functionality.
  6. The demo program can be loaded into Delphi and compiled and run as required.

Installation with Delphi 4 to 7

The components must be installed into a design package. It is assumed that you will be installing into an existing package. You may wish to use the "user" package named dclusr.dpk or dclusrXX.dpk (where XX is a version number). This package can be found in $(DELPHI)\Lib.

  1. Decide upon a suitable location into which to install the components. This may be a subdirectory of your $(DELPHI)\lib folder.
  2. Copy PJMessageDialog.pas and PJMessageDialog.pas to the chosen installation folder.
  3. Start Delphi then:
  4. If you wish you can now delete PJMessageDialog.pas.pas from the chosen installation folder.
  5. The provided help file can be integrated with the IDE's OpenHelp system. Delphi 6 and 7 also require the use of the supplied .als file. The simplest way to install help is to use my Component Help Installer Expert (v2.2.1 or later). If you prefer to install manually, this article explains the process.
  6. The demo program can be loaded into Delphi and compiled and run as required.

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Bugs

There are no known outstanding bugs.

There was a problem with TPJVCLMsgDlg displaying help in later versions of Delphi. This has been fixed in v2.1.

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Change log

A complete change log is provided in a text file that is included in the download.

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License

This source code is subject to the Mozilla Public License Version 1.1 (the "License"); you may not use this program except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/.

Software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing rights and limitations under the License.

The Original Code is Message Dialog Components.

The Initial Developer of the Original Code is Peter Johnson (http://www.delphidabbler.com/).

Portions created by the Initial Developer are Copyright © 2001-2005 Peter Johnson. All Rights Reserved.

All relevant trademarks are acknowledged.

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About the author

I'm Peter Johnson – a hobbyist programmer living in Ceredigion in West Wales, UK, writing write mainly in Delphi. My programs are available for download from: http://www.delphidabbler.com/.

Please let me know if you have any comments about the components, if you have found a bug, or you want to suggest any updates.