Colour Popup Menu Component

Contents

• Description
• Compatibility
• Installation
• Known Issues
• Update History
• License and Disclaimer
• About the Author

Description

This unit contains a component that provides a pop-up menu giving access to the 16 basic Windows colour. Also included are:

• a component editor that permits the component's main properties to be edited and for the menu to previewed.
• a property editor for accessing the 16 basic Windows colours
• a dummy property editor that prevents editing of the Items property that is inherited from ancestor classes but not used
• a help file that can integrate with the Delphi IDE.
• two property editors to work with the component and a component editor.
• a demo project showing how to use the component.

Compatibility

The unit is compatible with Delphi 4. It may work correctly in Delphi 5 but this has not been tested.

Installation

In these instructions $(DELPHI) is to be taken to represent the path where the appropriate version of Delphi was installed. For example, if you have Delphi 4 installed on the default installation path then $(DELPHI) is equivalent to C:\Program Files\Borland\Delphi4.

Installation with Delphi 4

1. Unzip the file pjcolourmenu.zip into a folder, preserving the folder structure.
2. Copy the files PJColourPopupMenu.pas, PJColourPopupMenu.dcr, PJColourPopupMenuEd.pas and PJColourPopupMenuEd.dfm to where you wish to install into Delphi. This will probably be a sub-folder of the $(DELPHI)\lib folder.
3. Install the unit's component, property editors and component editor into the palette by chosing the Component | Install Component menu option. The following instructions assume you are installing into the default "users components" package:
   • Select the "Into exisiting package" page of the Install Components dialogue box.
   • Browse to the folder where you saved PJColourPopupMenu.pas and PJColourPopupMenuEd.pas and select the files.
   • Ensure that the "Package file name" edit box contains $(DELPHI)\lib\dclusrXX.dpk (where XX=30 for Delphi 3 and XX=40 for Delphi 4).
   • Accept that the package will be rebuilt.
   • A dialog box should be displayed saying that TPJColourPopupMenu has been added to the component palette.
4. You can now delete PJColourPopupMenu.pas and PJColourPopupMenuEd.pas from the place where you copied them if you wish. The component will appear on a palette called PJ Stuff. You can move the component to a different palette as required, or alter the source code (before installing the program) by finding the Register procedure at the end of the code and changing the string 'PJ stuff' to the name of the required palette.
5. The simplest way to install the help file is to use the PJSoft Component Help Installer Expert, available from my website. To install manually, proceed as follows (where X=3 or 4 depending on the version of Delphi):
   • Copy PJColourPopupMenu.hlp to whichever folder you wish to install it to.
   • Edit DelphiX.cfg (in $(DELPHI)\Help), adding the line :Link PJColourPopupMenu.hlp to the end of the section labelled "Third party help".
   • Edit DelphiX.cnt (in $(DELPHI)\Help), adding the line :Index PJSoft Colour Popup Menu=PJColourPopupMenu.hlp towards the end of the index section.
   • Using RegEdit open the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Help and add a new string value named PJColourPopupMenu.hlp whose value is the path where you copied the help file (probably ($DELPHI)\Help).
6. Optionally install the demo project as follows:
   • Copy the files PJColourPopupMenuDemo.dpr, FmColourPopupMenuDemo.pas and FmColourPopupMenuDemo.dfm from the Demos sub-folder to a folder (or use them in the place where they were extracted).
   • Load the project into Delphi and compile it.
   • Read the file DemoReadMe.txt from the Demos folder for instructions on how to use the demo project.

Known Issues

No bugs reported to date.

Update History

Release 1.0 of 06/05/2001
PJColourPopupMenu v1.0 of 06/05/2001

• Component and property editors
• Component editor
• Demo project
• Help file

License & Disclaimer

This unit and help file are copyright © P.D.Johnson, 2001.

The source code and help files can be freely distributed on a not-for-profit basis providing that:

1. the source code is not altered.
2. this file is distributed with it unchanged

By not-for-profit I mean that you may recover out of pocket expenses incurred in distributing the code, but should not make a profit from this.

If you discover any bugs in this implementation, or if you have any update suggestions, please contact me on peter.johnson@openlink.org.

Please do modify the code for you own use. I'd like to see any changes you make - I could incorporate them into future versions. Please notify me of changes on at the above e-mail address.

This software is provided as is - no warranty is given as to its suitability for any purposes to which you may wish to put it.

About the Author

I'm Peter Johnson - a hobbyist programmer living in Ceredigion in West Wales, UK. I write mainly in Delphi, but occasionally dabble in C, C++ and Java. My programs are available for download on my web-site: http://www.pjsoft.contactbox.co.uk/.

I can be contacted by e-mail on peter.johnson@openlink.org.