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?

Accepted Answer

have a read of this page

Run-Time Type Information In Delphi - Can It Do Anything For You?

Noting the section Copying Properties From A Component To Another

which has a unit, RTTIUnit with a Procedure, which seems to do part of what you want but i don't think it will copy any child components with out extra code. (i think its ok to paste it here...)

```
procedure CopyObject(ObjFrom, ObjTo: TObject);    
  var
PropInfos: PPropList;
PropInfo: PPropInfo;
Count, Loop: Integer;
OrdVal: Longint;
StrVal: String;
FloatVal: Extended;  
MethodVal: TMethod;
begin
//{ Iterate thru all published fields and properties of source }
//{ copying them to target }

//{ Find out how many properties we'll be considering }
Count := GetPropList(ObjFrom.ClassInfo, tkAny, nil);
//{ Allocate memory to hold their RTTI data }
GetMem(PropInfos, Count * SizeOf(PPropInfo));
try
//{ Get hold of the property list in our new buffer }
GetPropList(ObjFrom.ClassInfo, tkAny, PropInfos);
//{ Loop through all the selected properties }
for Loop := 0 to Count - 1 do
begin
  PropInfo := GetPropInfo(ObjTo.ClassInfo, PropInfos^[Loop]^.Name);
 // { Check the general type of the property }
  //{ and read/write it in an appropriate way }
  case PropInfos^[Loop]^.PropType^.Kind of
    tkInteger, tkChar, tkEnumeration,
    tkSet, tkClass{$ifdef Win32}, tkWChar{$endif}:
    begin
      OrdVal := GetOrdProp(ObjFrom, PropInfos^[Loop]);
      if Assigned(PropInfo) then
        SetOrdProp(ObjTo, PropInfo, OrdVal);
    end;
    tkFloat:
    begin
      FloatVal := GetFloatProp(ObjFrom, PropInfos^[Loop]);
      if Assigned(PropInfo) then
        SetFloatProp(ObjTo, PropInfo, FloatVal);
    end;
    {$ifndef DelphiLessThan3}
    tkWString,
    {$endif}
    {$ifdef Win32}
    tkLString,
    {$endif}
    tkString:
    begin
      { Avoid copying 'Name' - components must have unique names }
      if UpperCase(PropInfos^[Loop]^.Name) = 'NAME' then
        Continue;
      StrVal := GetStrProp(ObjFrom, PropInfos^[Loop]);
      if Assigned(PropInfo) then
        SetStrProp(ObjTo, PropInfo, StrVal);
    end;
    tkMethod:
    begin
      MethodVal := GetMethodProp(ObjFrom, PropInfos^[Loop]);
      if Assigned(PropInfo) then
        SetMethodProp(ObjTo, PropInfo, MethodVal);
    end
  end
end
finally
  FreeMem(PropInfos, Count * SizeOf(PPropInfo));
end;
end;
```

Duplicating components at Run-Time

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