Layout editor (mis)behavior

rbuser

Hi,

After upgrading to to RbPro 11 ((RbPro 11.06, Delphi 2006, Vista SP2) we
encounter these two issues with the layout edtor:



1.
In RbPro11 the pipeline name and pipeline field comboboxes on the edit
toolbar are editable. Why is this? You can now enter a non existing
fieldname or accidentally change or delete it.
Also it changes the behavior of the control, autosearch does not work when
in dropdown state, PageUp/Down and Home/End does not work because they go to
the edit box.
Is there a way to get standard combobox behavior back? I expect a lot of
complaints from our customers about this. I had a look at the


2.
When you change selection from a non-dbcontrol to a DbControl the layout
editor shows a annoying resize effect, the whole edit area jumps up and down
a little. Very distracting, especially on a slower pc or a terminal server
client. Somehow when changeing the items on the edit toolbar it is
temporarely made to lowl. You can prevent it by placing the format toolbar
on the same row. Is there a more general way to prevent this, ie by setting
a fixed height for a toolbar?



Regards,

Max Paay
Quadrant Software bv.
The Netherlands.






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nardmoseley

Thanks for the feedback.

The combobox is editable because customers demanded it.

The toolbar combobox control is part of the tbx library we are using to
implement the theming. As you have observed, tt has slightly different
behaviors from the Delphi Combobox. There is no solution for this at this
time.

I researched the toolbar resizing effect. The standard configuration is for
the Edit and Format toolbars to be docked side by side - on the same row. In
this configuration I do not notice any distractions. Only when the edit
toolbar is on a row by itself do I notice. There is no a simple solution for
this. I will put this on a list to be researched going forward.

--
Nard Moseley
Digital Metaphors
www.digital-metaphors.com

rbuser

Hi Nard, thanks for the reply


I understand that you are dependent on the Tbx lib but for us the
differences are just to big to leave this in. So we are forced to build our
own combobox item.


We have made the comboboxes on the edit toolbar wider to accomodate longer
names. The format toolbar is quite wide too, so i expect users to move the
edit toolbar to its own row.
So i realy want a solution for it and i think i came up with something that
works for now. What i do is simply preventing that the height of the toolbar
is made smaller then the last value. In case youre interrested:

in proc TppTBView.CalculatePositions

add an extra var
SaVedBaseHeight: integer;

at the start of the proc save the current ABaseSize.Y
SavedBaseHeight := ABaseSize.Y;

at the end of the proc replace
ABaseSize.X := 23;
ABaseSize.Y := 22;
if TotalSize.X < 23 then TotalSize.X := 23;
if TotalSize.Y < 22 then TotalSize.Y := 22;
with
ABaseSize.X := 23;
ABaseSize.Y := 22;
if (FOrientation = tbvoHorizontal) and (SavedBaseHeight > ABaseSize.Y)
then
ABaseSize.Y := SavedBaseHeight;
if TotalSize.X < 23 then TotalSize.X := 23;
if TotalSize.Y < ABaseSize.Y then TotalSize.Y := ABaseSize.Y;

so if the toolbar is empty it is not reset to the default min height of 22
but keeps its last height. Not a final solution of course but it seems to
work OK for now. I think the real course is in the selection controler.
Somehow when changing the selection the toolbar is temporary shown with no
items, there are Begin/EndUpdates but that seems not to prevent it.
My solution works only on horizontal toolbars. It is not a very likely case
but you can place the edit toolbar on a vertical dock. If you place it on
the left dock then things get worse. The resize effect is bigger but now the
selected control is moved a little on each selection. Also the edit toolbar
is not realy ready for this, the caption and hints from the buttons are
wrong. So for now i have disabled moving the edit toolbar the a vertical
dock. ( DockableTo := [dpTop, dpBottom] in TppEditToolbar.Create)


Regards,

Max Paay
Quadrant Software bv.
The Netherlands.










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