About Box Component
ReadMe

Contents

• Description
• Installation
• Demo Project
• Update History
• License
• Bugs and Feature Requests
• About the Author

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Description

This non-visual component encapsulates an About Box.

The component has string properties to display five different pieces of information in the about box. These properties are:

• Title – Contents appear in the window title. The default value is 'About'.
• ProgramName – The name of the program. This is the title of the application. The default value is the same as TApplications's Title property.
• Version – This version number of the program. Optional property – default is nothing.
• Copyright – A copyright message. Optional property – default is nothing.
• Notes – Up to three lines of notes. Optional property – default is nothing.

Alternatively, the about box can display information from a VERSIONINFO resource included in the program. This is accessed via a linked TPJVersionInfo component. The values of the ProgramName, Version, Copyright and Notes properties are ignored and relevant strings from the program's version information is used in their stead.

The dialogue's position can be specified relative to the screen, desktop or parent application. The dialogue has a single close button whose appearance and position is customised. The About box also displays the program's icon. The font used to display dialogue box text can be customised.

Required component

TPJAboutBoxDlg requires that a DelphiDabbler Version Information Component is installed in order to compile.

Compatibility

TPJAboutBoxDlg is believed to compile on all Win32 versions of Delphi. Earlier versions were tested with Delphi 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7 but, although every effort has been made to retain backward compatibility, this has not been tested for v3.6 and later. The latest version has been tested with Delphi 7, 2007, 2009, 2010, XE, and XE2 to XE4. Note: Delphi 1 support was dropped at v3.5.

This component is Windows 64 bit compatible and can be compiled into a 64 bit VCL package.

The unit name changed to PJAbout at release 3. Programs using earlier releases will need to be modified (or to have an alias set in Delphi's Project Options) before being recompiled using the new version.

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Installation

TPJAboutBoxDlg, its help files and demo program are supplied in a zip file. Before installing you need to extract all the files from the zip file, preserving the directory structure. The following files will be extracted:

• PJAbout.pas – Component source code.
• PJAbout.dfm – Form file containing the about box.
• PJAbout.dcr – Component palette glyph.
• PJAbout.hlp – Help file that integrates with the Delphi 3-7 IDE.
• PJAbout.als – Keyword file required when integrating the help file with Delphi 6 and 7.
• ReadMe.htm – This read-me file.
• ChangeLog.txt – Change log.
• MPL-2.txt – Mozilla Public License v2.0.
• Documentation.URL – Short-cut to the component's online documentation

In addition to the above files you will find the the source code of a demo project in the Demo sub-directory.

You can now install the component into the Delphi IDE. The files PJAbout.pas, PJAbout.dfm and PJAbout.dcr are required to do this (PJAbout.dcr is not required for 64 bit packages). For Delphi 3 onwards you must include these files in a design time package that is installed into the Delphi IDE. If you need help doing this see here.

Note that the help file included in the download can only integrate with the IDE in Delphi 3-7. For information on how to do this, see this article. Users of other versions of Delphi can either use the help file as a stand-alone file (in which case some links won't work) or you can use the online documentation.

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Demo Project

A demo program is included in the download that can be used to exercise the component. This program should be able to be compiled with any version of Delphi supported by the component, but this has only been tested in Delphi 7 or later.

See the read-me file included in the Demo directory for further details.

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Update History

A complete change log is provided in a text file that is included in the download.

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License

The About Box Component (PJAbout.pas) is released under the terms of the Mozilla Public License v2.0.

All relevant trademarks are acknowledged.

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Bugs and Feature Requests

Bugs can be reported or new features requested via the Issue Tracker.

If no similar report or request has been recorded already, use the New Issue link to add a new issue. Please select the most appropriate template from the Templates drop down list and add the Project-aboutbox label.

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About the Author

I'm Peter Johnson – a hobbyist programmer living in Ceredigion in West Wales, UK, writing write mainly in Delphi. My programs and code are available from: http://www.delphidabbler.com/.

I can be contacted via the website.