How to Activate XP Themes.

jfleming49

Using Delphi XE2 and LMD 2012 under Windows XP SP3.

My application now has XP Themes activated, and as would be expected, all Delphi and most third-party controls now have the style of the selected theme, for sake of argument: Aqua Light Slate. However, none of the many LMD Tools components have changed their appearance.

On the main form I have included LMDClass and LMDXPRes, and in the mainform OnCreate event the code:

   LMDApplication.UseXPThemes := True;

 

Why does this not work ??

What more must I do to get XP themes working with LMDTools 2012 ???

Rafael Maricca (LMD)

Aqua Light Slate sounds like VCL Styles, not XP Themes. 

Are you sure you mean XP Themes? Or do you mean VCL Styles? In any case there is no special action to support VCL Styles. Simply make sure that ThemeMode property of controls do not disable Themes support-

I am not sure which LMD controls did already support VCL Styles in LMD 2012 releases, but in the two folloing releases many more controls received VCL Styles support (.g. LMD GridPack received full VCL Styles support in LMD 2014 release). If there are controls in LMD 2012 which do not support VCL Styles, either ThemeMode is wrong or the control simply does not support VCL Styles at this time.

jfleming49

Rafa,

You are, of course, correct: I'm referring to VCL Styles, not XP Themes.

The most-used components directly causing a problem now are TLMDEdit, TLMDSimplePanel, TLMDButton and TLMDSimpleLabel, as shown in the attached example program.

The standard delphi components have the correct appearance depending on the chosen style. The LMD ones do not all change their appearance: only the Spin Edit and Simple Buttons seem to change. Behaviour is independent of the setting or not of TLMDApplication.UseXPThemes.

JF

 

jfleming49

Uploading a 2 kb file just goes on and on and on, so I can assume that doesn't work.

Here is the dfm file MainForm:

object MainForm: TMainForm
  Left = 1976
  Top = 84
  Caption = 'MainForm'
  ClientHeight = 444
  ClientWidth = 612
  Color = clBtnFace
  Font.Charset = DEFAULT_CHARSET
  Font.Color = clWindowText
  Font.Height = -11
  Font.Name = 'Tahoma'
  Font.Style = []
  OldCreateOrder = False
  OnCreate = FormCreate
  PixelsPerInch = 96
  TextHeight = 13
  object Label1: TLabel
    Left = 16
    Top = 36
    Width = 90
    Height = 13
    Caption = 'Standard Delphi'
    Font.Charset = DEFAULT_CHARSET
    Font.Color = clWindowText
    Font.Height = -11
    Font.Name = 'Tahoma'
    Font.Style = [fsBold]
    ParentFont = False
  end
  object Label2: TLabel
    Left = 128
    Top = 9
    Width = 34
    Height = 13
    Caption = 'Panel:'
    Font.Charset = DEFAULT_CHARSET
    Font.Color = clWindowText
    Font.Height = -11
    Font.Name = 'Tahoma'
    Font.Style = [fsBold]
    ParentFont = False
  end
  object Label4: TLabel
    Left = 16
    Top = 131
    Width = 101
    Height = 13
    Caption = 'LMD Components:'
    Font.Charset = DEFAULT_CHARSET
    Font.Color = clWindowText
    Font.Height = -11
    Font.Name = 'Tahoma'
    Font.Style = [fsBold]
    ParentFont = False
  end
  object LMDSimpleLabel1: TLMDSimpleLabel
    Left = 128
    Top = 113
    Width = 290
    Height = 15
    Font.Charset = DEFAULT_CHARSET
    Font.Color = clWindowText
    Font.Height = -11
    Font.Name = 'Tahoma'
    Font.Style = [fsBold]
    ParentFont = False
    Caption = 'TLMDSimplePanel (Bevel: bmStandard, IsLowered):'
    Options = []
  end
  object LMDSimpleLabel2: TLMDSimpleLabel
    Left = 128
    Top = 242
    Width = 417
    Height = 15
    Font.Charset = DEFAULT_CHARSET
    Font.Color = clWindowText
    Font.Height = -11
    Font.Name = 'Tahoma'
    Font.Style = [fsBold]
    ParentFont = False
    Caption =
      'TLMDSimplePanel (Bevel: bmCustom, Inner: bvLowered, Outer: bvRai' +
      'sed):'
    Options = []
  end
  object Label5: TLabel
    Left = 16
    Top = 52
    Width = 92
    Height = 13
    Caption = '      Components:'
    Font.Charset = DEFAULT_CHARSET
    Font.Color = clWindowText
    Font.Height = -11
    Font.Name = 'Tahoma'
    Font.Style = [fsBold]
    ParentFont = False
  end
  object Panel1: TPanel
    Left = 128
    Top = 24
    Width = 285
    Height = 69
    BorderWidth = 1
    BorderStyle = bsSingle
    TabOrder = 0
    object Label3: TLabel
      Left = 8
      Top = 44
      Width = 71
      Height = 13
      Caption = 'TLabel in panel'
    end
    object Button1: TButton
      Left = 8
      Top = 3
      Width = 97
      Height = 29
      Caption = 'Button1'
      TabOrder = 0
    end
    object Edit1: TEdit
      Left = 168
      Top = 7
      Width = 85
      Height = 21
      TabOrder = 1
      Text = 'Edit1'
    end
  end
  object LMDSimplePanel1: TLMDSimplePanel
    Left = 128
    Top = 128
    Width = 420
    Height = 96
    Bevel.Mode = bmStandard
    Bevel.StandardStyle = lsLowered
    TabOrder = 1
    object LMDSimpleLabel3: TLMDSimpleLabel
      Left = 12
      Top = 71
      Width = 179
      Height = 15
      Caption = 'TLMDSimpleLabel in TLMDSimplePanel'
      Options = []
    end
    object LMDButton1: TLMDButton
      Left = 12
      Top = 12
      Width = 85
      Height = 21
      Caption = 'LMDButton1'
      TabOrder = 0
    end
    object LMDEdit1: TLMDEdit
      Left = 136
      Top = 12
      Width = 105
      Height = 21
      Bevel.Mode = bmWindows
      Caret.BlinkRate = 530
      TabOrder = 1
      CustomButtons = <>
      PasswordChar = #0
      Text = 'TLMDEdit'
    end
    object LMDSpinEdit1: TLMDSpinEdit
      Left = 136
      Top = 44
      Width = 129
      Height = 21
      Bevel.Mode = bmWindows
      Caret.BlinkRate = 530
      TabOrder = 2
      AutoSelect = True
      CustomButtons = <>
      Value = 0
    end
  end
  object LMDSimplePanel2: TLMDSimplePanel
    Left = 128
    Top = 263
    Width = 420
    Height = 96
    Bevel.StyleInner = bvLowered
    Bevel.StyleOuter = bvRaised
    Bevel.WidthInner = 2
    Bevel.Mode = bmCustom
    TabOrder = 2
    object LMDSimpleLabel4: TLMDSimpleLabel
      Left = 12
      Top = 71
      Width = 179
      Height = 15
      Caption = 'TLMDSimpleLabel in TLMDSimplePanel'
      Options = []
    end
    object LMDButton2: TLMDButton
      Left = 12
      Top = 12
      Width = 93
      Height = 21
      Caption = 'LMDButton2'
      TabOrder = 0
    end
    object LMDSpinEdit2: TLMDSpinEdit
      Left = 136
      Top = 44
      Width = 133
      Height = 21
      Bevel.Mode = bmWindows
      Caret.BlinkRate = 530
      TabOrder = 1
      AutoSelect = True
      CustomButtons = <>
      Value = 0
    end
    object LMDEdit2: TLMDEdit
      Left = 136
      Top = 12
      Width = 101
      Height = 21
      Bevel.Mode = bmWindows
      Caret.BlinkRate = 530
      TabOrder = 2
      CustomButtons = <>
      PasswordChar = #0
      Text = 'TLMDEdit'
    end
  end
end

followed by the pas file:

unit FormMainForm;

interface

uses
  Winapi.Windows, Winapi.Messages, System.SysUtils, System.Variants, System.Classes, Vcl.Graphics,
  Vcl.Controls, Vcl.Forms, Vcl.Dialogs, Vcl.StdCtrls, Vcl.ExtCtrls,

  LMDClass,

  LMDBaseControl, LMDBaseGraphicControl, LMDBaseLabel, LMDCustomSimpleLabel,
  LMDSimpleLabel, LMDControl, LMDCustomControl, LMDCustomPanel,
  LMDCustomBevelPanel, LMDSimplePanel, LMDCustomMaskEdit, LMDCustomExtSpinEdit,
  LMDSpinEdit, LMDBaseEdit, LMDCustomEdit, LMDEdit, LMDCustomButton, LMDButton;

type
  TMainForm = class(TForm)
    Panel1: TPanel;
    Label1: TLabel;
    Label2: TLabel;
    Button1: TButton;
    Edit1: TEdit;
    Label3: TLabel;
    LMDSimplePanel1: TLMDSimplePanel;
    Label4: TLabel;
    LMDSimpleLabel1: TLMDSimpleLabel;
    LMDSimplePanel2: TLMDSimplePanel;
    LMDSimpleLabel2: TLMDSimpleLabel;
    Label5: TLabel;
    LMDButton1: TLMDButton;
    LMDButton2: TLMDButton;
    LMDEdit1: TLMDEdit;
    LMDSpinEdit1: TLMDSpinEdit;
    LMDSpinEdit2: TLMDSpinEdit;
    LMDEdit2: TLMDEdit;
    LMDSimpleLabel3: TLMDSimpleLabel;
    LMDSimpleLabel4: TLMDSimpleLabel;
    procedure FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
  private
    { Private declarations }
  public
    { Public declarations }
  end;

var
  MainForm: TMainForm;

implementation

{$R *.dfm}

procedure TMainForm.FormCreate (Sender: TObject);
begin
  LMDApplication.UseXPThemes := True;
end;

end.

Sorry for the inconvenience sending the samplr this way, but attaching a zip file to my post doesn't seem to work for some reason.

JF

 

Rafael Maricca (LMD)

I don't see any problems (note: you forgot to set the ParentBackground property of the panels, so that panels take background color of the parent container). See image:

Again: Setting UseXPThemes is not required (and legacy also. One would use now LMDApplication.ThemeGlobalMode).

Note for the future:

Simply send zip file to mail@lmdsupport.com and rename the file to myfile(dot)zip

jfleming49

Rafa,

That made a big improvement, but as you will see from the image, there is still something wrong with the labels and edits. Should the label colours adjust to take into account the change in colour of the background, as do the standard Delphi labels?? Likewise, the edits??

 I have not been able to reproduce your result, no matter which VCL style I choose. The one used in the image above best shows the discrepancies. Could it be that I'm still using the 2012 version ?? Have these components been improved in this respect in later versions ???

I have noted for future reference your indication as to how to send zip files and such. Thanks.

jfleming49

Any further suggestions on this one ???  From Rafa, or anyone else ???

If there is no solution for this, I'm facing having to eliminate LMD components from over 200 forms, with many panels, buttons with multi-line labels, some buttons being longer vertically than horizontally and with a text one letter per line, multi-line labels, spin edits, labelled edits, etc., etc., etc.

Would upgrading to LMDTools 2014 solve this problem ??  I can't recommend that course without first knowing it IS the solution. To recommend it and then have to wriggle out later when it doesn't work is not an option.

To remove LMD altogether from the program is also out of the question. Too expensive, and at my expense, to boot.

--

JF

PD: The style used in the above image is most likely not the style that will finally be used. That decision is open as yet. First do a partial conversion, then choose a style, then complete the job.

 

Rafael Maricca (LMD)

>>Any further suggestions on this one ??? <<

I am sorry, but for several controls you won't achieve same look. 

For example LMD Labels never support themes or theme colors. So upgrading to LMD 2014 would not help.

jfleming49

Disappointed to hear that labels don't support theme colours, Rafa. However, it may not be a big deal.

Can you confirm, as the image you posted earlier seems to show, that edits (simple, labelled and spin) in LMDTools 2014 do conform ??? If so, the solution could be as simple as choosing a light-coloured style, as you have used above. The labels in black on that form look OK. And buttons behave correctly anyway.

What VCL Style did you use for the image you posted in post #5 of this thread ??? 

JF

 

Rafael Maricca (LMD)

>>Can you confirm, as the image you posted earlier seems to show, that edits (simple, labelled and spin) in LMDTools 2014 do conform ??? <<

As mentioned before, there are subtle differences (like the background color of edit controls). 

>>What VCL Style did you use for the image you posted in post #5 of this thread ??? <<

This was Aqua Light Slate as you mentioned in your first post.