Performance issues re-sizing large amount of components on form resize

Question

I feel my failure so far lies in search terms as information on this has to be pretty common. Basically I am looking for common solutions and best practices when performing resi

Answer 1

I don't know if this will make a significant difference, but instead setting PBSSRow[I].Width and PBSSRow[I].Top separately, make one call to PBSSRow[I].SetBounds instead. This will save you one Resize event for that SubComponent.

Answer 2

A few tips:

• TWinControl already ís a container, you do not need another panel inside it to add controls
• You do not need an TImage component to view a graphic, that can also with TPaintBox, or as in my example control below, a TCustomControl,
• Since all of your other panels are not recognizable (borders and bevels are disabled), loose them altogether and place the TMemo directly on your row control,
• SetSubComponent is only for design time usage. You do not need it. Nor the Register procedures for that matter.
• Put the global rows array inside your class definition, otherwise multiple TPBSSView controls will use the same array!
• TWinControl already tracks all its child controls, so you won't need the array anyway, see my example below,
• Make use of the Align property to save you from realigning manually,
• If the memo control is just for showing text, then remove it and paint the text yourself.

Try this one for starters:

unit PBSSView;

interface

uses
  Windows, Messages, Classes, Controls, SysUtils, Graphics, ExtCtrls, StdCtrls,
  Forms, PngImage;

type
  TPBSSRow = class(TCustomControl)
  private
    FGraphic: TPngImage;
    FStrings: TStringList;
    function ImageHeight: Integer; overload;
    function ImageHeight(ControlWidth: Integer): Integer; overload;
    function ImageWidth: Integer; overload;
    function ImageWidth(ControlWidth: Integer): Integer; overload;
    procedure WMEraseBkgnd(var Message: TWmEraseBkgnd); message WM_ERASEBKGND;
    procedure WMWindowPosChanging(var Message: TWMWindowPosChanging);
      message WM_WINDOWPOSCHANGING;
  protected
    procedure Paint; override;
    procedure RequestAlign; override;
  public
    constructor Create(AOwner: TComponent); override;
    destructor Destroy; override;
    procedure LoadImageFromStream(Stream: TMemoryStream);
    property Strings: TStringList read FStrings;
  end;

  TPBSSView = class(TScrollBox)
  private
    function GetRow(Index: Integer): TPBSSRow;
    procedure WMEnterSizeMove(var Message: TMessage); message WM_ENTERSIZEMOVE;
    procedure WMEraseBkgnd(var Message: TWmEraseBkgnd); message WM_ERASEBKGND;
    procedure WMExitSizeMove(var Message: TMessage); message WM_EXITSIZEMOVE;
  protected
    procedure PaintWindow(DC: HDC); override;
  public
    constructor Create(AOwner: TComponent); override;
    procedure AddRow(const FileName: TFileName);
    procedure FillRow(Index: Integer; ImageStream: TMemoryStream);
    property Rows[Index: Integer]: TPBSSRow read GetRow;
  end;

implementation

{ TPBSSRow }

constructor TPBSSRow.Create(AOwner: TComponent);
begin
  inherited Create(AOwner);
  Width := 300;
  Height := 50;
  FStrings := TStringList.Create;
end;

destructor TPBSSRow.Destroy;
begin
  FStrings.Free;
  FGraphic.Free;
  inherited Destroy;
end;

function TPBSSRow.ImageHeight: Integer;
begin
  Result := ImageHeight(Width);
end;

function TPBSSRow.ImageHeight(ControlWidth: Integer): Integer;
begin
  if (FGraphic <> nil) and not FGraphic.Empty then
    Result := Round(ImageWidth(ControlWidth) * FGraphic.Height / FGraphic.Width)
  else
    Result := Height;
end;

function TPBSSRow.ImageWidth: Integer;
begin
  Result := ImageWidth(Width);
end;

function TPBSSRow.ImageWidth(ControlWidth: Integer): Integer;
begin
  Result := ControlWidth div 2;
end;

procedure TPBSSRow.LoadImageFromStream(Stream: TMemoryStream);
begin
  FGraphic.Free;
  FGraphic := TPngImage.Create;
  Stream.Position := 0;
  FGraphic.LoadFromStream(Stream);
  Height := ImageHeight + Padding.Bottom;
end;

procedure TPBSSRow.Paint;
var
  R: TRect;
begin
  Canvas.StretchDraw(Rect(0, 0, ImageWidth, ImageHeight), FGraphic);
  SetRect(R, ImageWidth, 0, Width, ImageHeight);
  Canvas.FillRect(R);
  Inc(R.Left, 10);
  DrawText(Canvas.Handle, FStrings.Text, -1, R, DT_EDITCONTROL or
    DT_END_ELLIPSIS or DT_NOFULLWIDTHCHARBREAK or DT_NOPREFIX or DT_WORDBREAK);
  Canvas.FillRect(Rect(0, ImageHeight, Width, Height));
end;

procedure TPBSSRow.RequestAlign;
begin
  {eat inherited}
end;

procedure TPBSSRow.WMEraseBkgnd(var Message: TWmEraseBkgnd);
begin
  Message.Result := 1;
end;

procedure TPBSSRow.WMWindowPosChanging(var Message: TWMWindowPosChanging);
begin
  inherited;
  if (FGraphic <> nil) and not FGraphic.Empty then
    Message.WindowPos.cy := ImageHeight(Message.WindowPos.cx) + Padding.Bottom;
end;

{ TPBSSView }

procedure TPBSSView.AddRow(const FileName: TFileName);
var
  Row: TPBSSRow;
begin
  Row := TPBSSRow.Create(Self);
  Row.Align := alTop;
  Row.Padding.Bottom := 2;
  Row.Parent := Self;
end;

constructor TPBSSView.Create(AOwner: TComponent);
begin
  inherited Create(AOwner);
  VertScrollBar.Tracking := True;
end;

procedure TPBSSView.FillRow(Index: Integer; ImageStream: TMemoryStream);
begin
  Rows[Index].LoadImageFromStream(ImageStream);
end;

function TPBSSView.GetRow(Index: Integer): TPBSSRow;
begin
  Result := TPBSSRow(Controls[Index]);
end;

procedure TPBSSView.PaintWindow(DC: HDC);
begin
  {eat inherited}
end;

procedure TPBSSView.WMEnterSizeMove(var Message: TMessage);
begin
  if not AlignDisabled then
    DisableAlign;
  inherited;
end;

procedure TPBSSView.WMEraseBkgnd(var Message: TWmEraseBkgnd);
var
  DC: HDC;
begin
  DC := GetDC(Handle);
  try
    FillRect(DC, Rect(0, VertScrollBar.Range, Width, Height), Brush.Handle);
  finally
    ReleaseDC(Handle, DC);
  end;
  Message.Result := 1;
end;

procedure TPBSSView.WMExitSizeMove(var Message: TMessage);
begin
  inherited;
  if AlignDisabled then
    EnableAlign;
end;

end.

If this still performs badly, then there are multiple other enhancements possible.

Update:

• Flickering eliminated by overriding/intercepting WM_ERASEBKGND (and intercepting PaintWindow for versions < XE2),
• Better performance by making use of DisableAlign and EnableAlign.