Displaying an Auto-Created VCL Form

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Using RAD Studio, the following procedure creates a modal form at design time that is displayed later during program execution.

Building this VCL application consists of the following steps:

1. Create the project directory.
2. Create two forms for the project.
3. Link the forms.
4. Create a control on the main form to display the modal form; then write the event handler.
5. Build and run the application.

To create the two forms

1. Choose File > New > Other > Delphi Projects or C++Builder Projects and double-click the VCL Forms Application icon. The VCL Forms Designer displays Form1.
2. Choose File > New > Other > Delphi Projects > Delphi Files or File > New > Other > C++Builder Files and double-click the Form icon. The VCL Forms Designer displays Form2.

To link Form1 to Form2

1. Select Form1 and choose File > Use Unit. The Uses Unit dialog displays.
2. Select Form2 (the form that Form1 needs to reference) in the dialog.
3. Click OK.

For Delphi, a uses clause containing the unit name Unit2 is placed in the implementation section of Unit1.

For C++, the #include "Unit2.h" directive is added to Unit1.h.

To display Form2 from Form1

1. Select Form1, if necessary; then, from the Standard page of the Tool Palette, place a button on the form.
2. In the Object Inspector with Button1 selected, double-click the OnClick event on the Events tab. The Code Editor displays with the cursor in the TForm1.Button1Click (Delphi) or TForm1::Button1Click (C++) event handler block.
3. Enter the following event handling code:

Form2.ShowModal; 

Form2->ShowModal();

To build and run the application

1. Save all files in the project; then choose Run > Run. The application executes, displaying Form1.
2. Click the button.Form2 displays.
3. Click the X in the upper right corner of Form2. Form2 closes and Form1 becomes the active form.

See Also

• VCL Overview
• Building a VCL Forms Application
• Dynamically Creating a VCL Modal Form