Dear Xailer users,

The next Xailer release will include a new functionality that we hope can be very useful to all of, which is the automatic creation of user controls.

At present Xailer already permits the creation of user controls that can be used on the IDE and your end user applications. In fact, the project \Samples\Controls\Samples.xpj is a clear example of that feature. That sample creates all the controls that can be found on the ‘Samples‘ toolbar tab. To use it you only need to include on your projects the library \Xailer\lib\Samples. However, few users have tried to create their own controls, surely due the conviction that is a complicated and tedious process.

In order to facilitate things a little the new version of Xailer includes an automatic user control creation system. Based on any customized control you can create a new clone control that
can be used on any future project. The idea is to set on that new control all the properties that you have set, including the necessary resources.

Operation is very simple: First you select the cutomized control, then from its context menu select the option ‘User control creation…‘. Then the following dialog will be shown:

You only need to set the new class name, the tooltip to be shown when is preselected on the IDE controls toolbar, the image to use on that toolbar and the name of the tab. You can even leave all the fields with their default values if you want it.

The IDE will create, if not present, a new project with the name ‘MyControls‘ on your ‘User files\Components‘ (view General options) and will introduce all the user controls you create. That project will be the responsible of the creation of MyControls.dll for the IDE and the libraries to be used by MinGw or Borland C++. Note that the dialog has a check box to open immediately that project after control creation.

In order to use your new controls you should load the new DLL on the IDE using the menu option Components->Components manager.

The Xailer IDE controls automatically the necessary resources. When the control is created, all its resources are copied to MyControls project and when that control is used on any project the resources are copied again to your project. This job is done completely on the background in a very transparent way.

We hope that with this new functionality you will have no more excuses to create you own controls. 😉 Any comment will be highly appreciated.

Best regards,