FireMonkey Native Controls

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This topic describes the native controls of FireMonkey.

FireMonkey Native Control Presentation

FireMonkey provides native presentation for certain visual components.

• Set the ControlType property to Styled in order to have the standard FireMonkey presentation of the control. Styled is the default value of ControlType.
• Set the ControlType property to Platform to have the native styling of that control.

Supported Platforms

Platforms that support native controls include, iOS, Windows and Android. The value of ControlType property on any other platform does not have any effect.

Available FireMonkey Native Controls

See the platform specific topic for more information:

• Android: Available FireMonkey Native Android Controls.
• iOS: Available FireMonkey Native iOS Controls.
• Windows: Available FireMonkey Native Windows Controls.

Visual Changes to Native Controls

When the ControlType property of a visual component is set to Platform, the presentation of this control in the Form Designer changes to indicate that it is a native control and an small phone-like icon appears in the bottom right corner.

See the platform specific topic for more information:

• Android: Visual Changes to Native Android Controls.
• iOS: Visual Changes to Native iOS Controls.
• Windows: Visual Changes to Native Windows Controls.

Adding Native Controls to Your Application

To add native controls to your application:

1. Drop a component that supports native presentation on the form (list of supported controls).
2. In the Object Inspector Properties, set the ControlType property to Platform. The presentation of the component at design-time changes (see Visual Changes to Native Controls).
3. Run your application on a supported platform.

Alternatively, you may change the value of ControlType at run time. To select the native presentation for a TEdit control, add the following code to your application:

Delphi:

Edit1.ControlType := TPresentedControl.TControlType.Platform;

C++:

Edit1->ControlType = TPresentedControl::TControlType::Platform;

Combining Native Controls With Non-native Controls

We do not recommend that you combine non-native controls with native controls, because the native controls do not support the Z-order of the form: a native control is always on top of other controls on your form. However, there are some non-native controls that you may combine with native controls because they support the Z-order of native controls.

See the platform specific topic for more information:

• Android: Combining Native Controls With Non-native Controls.
• iOS: Combining Native Controls With Non-native Controls.
• Windows: Combining Native Windows Controls With Non-native Controls.

Advantages of the Native Controls

Some controls support additional functionality when you use them as native controls.

See the platform specific topic for more information:

• Android: Advantages of the Native Android Controls.
• iOS: Advantages of the Native iOS Controls.
• Windows: Advantages of the Native Windows Controls.

Limitations of Native Controls

Before using the native controls you should consider the limitations.

See the platform specific topic for more information:

• Android: Limitations of Native Android Controls.
• iOS: Limitations of Native iOS Controls.
• Windows: Limitations of Native Windows Controls.

Topics

• FireMonkey Native iOS Controls
• FireMonkey Native Windows Controls

See Also

• TPresentedControl.ControlType
• Customizing FireMonkey ListView Appearance

Samples

• FireMonkey Native Controls sample