Duplicating components at Run-Time

Question

Is there a simple way to duplicate all child components under parent component, including their published properties?

For example:

• TPanel
  • TLabel
  • TEdit
  • TListView
  • TSpecialClassX

Of course the most important factor, it should duplicate any new component which I drop on the TPanel without modifying the code under normal circumstances.

I've heard of the RTTI, but never used it actually. Any ideas?

Answer 1

You can propably use the CLoneProperties routine from the answer to "Replace visual component at runtime", after you have created the dup components in a loop thru the parent's controls.

Update: some working code....

. I assume from your question that you want to duplicate the Controls that are contained in a WinControl (as a Parent is a TWinControl).
. As I did not know if you also wanted to hook the duplicated controls with the same Event Handlers as the originals, I made an option for that.
. And you may want to give a proper meaningful Name to the duplicated controls.

uses
  TypInfo;

procedure CloneProperties(const Source: TControl; const Dest: TControl);
var
  ms: TMemoryStream;
  OldName: string;
begin
  OldName := Source.Name;
  Source.Name := ''; // needed to avoid Name collision
  try
    ms := TMemoryStream.Create;
    try
      ms.WriteComponent(Source);
      ms.Position := 0;
      ms.ReadComponent(Dest);
    finally
      ms.Free;
    end;
  finally
    Source.Name := OldName;
  end;
end;

procedure CloneEvents(Source, Dest: TControl);
var
  I: Integer;
  PropList: TPropList;
begin
  for I := 0 to GetPropList(Source.ClassInfo, [tkMethod], @PropList) - 1 do
    SetMethodProp(Dest, PropList[I], GetMethodProp(Source, PropList[I]));
end;

procedure DuplicateChildren(const ParentSource: TWinControl;
  const WithEvents: Boolean = True);
var
  I: Integer;
  CurrentControl, ClonedControl: TControl;
begin
  for I := ParentSource.ControlCount - 1 downto 0 do
  begin
    CurrentControl := ParentSource.Controls[I];
    ClonedControl := TControlClass(CurrentControl.ClassType).Create(CurrentControl.Owner);
    ClonedControl.Parent := ParentSource;
    CloneProperties(CurrentControl, ClonedControl);
    ClonedControl.Name := CurrentControl.Name + '_';
    if WithEvents then
      CloneEvents(CurrentControl, ClonedControl);
  end;
end;

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
  DuplicateChildren(Panel1);
end;