Should I use delphi tframes for multi-pages forms?

Question

I have some forms in my application which have different \"states\" depending on what the user is doing; for exemple when listing through his files the form displays some data a

Answer 1

There's a better way to handle dealing with the frames that won't take up nearly as much memory. Dynamically creating the frames can be a very elegant solution. Here's how I've done it in the past.

On the form, add a property and a setter that handles the placement of it on the form:

TMyForm = class(TForm)
private
  FCurrentFrame : TFrame;
  procedure SetCurrentFrame(Value : TFrame);
public
  property CurrentFrame : TFrame read FCurrentFrame write SetCurrentFrame;
end;

procedure TMyForm.SetCurrentFrame(Value : TFrame)
begin
  if Value <> FCurrentFrame then
  begin
    if assigned(FCurrentFrame) then
      FreeAndNil(FCurrentFrame);
    FCurrentFrame := Value;
    if assigned(FCurrentFrame) then
    begin
      FCurrentFrame.Parent := Self;  // Or, say a TPanel or other container!
      FCurrentFrame.Align := alClient;
    end;
  end;
end;

Then, to use it, you simply set the property to a created instance of the frame, for example in the OnCreate event:

MyFrame1.CurrentFrame := TSomeFrame.Create(nil);

If you want to get rid of the frame, simply assign nil to the CurrentFrame property:

MYFrame1.CurrentFrame := nil;

It works extremely well.