Delphi – How to get the Delphi IDE’s Main Form

delphiide

I'm writing a property editor for Delphi and I would like it to show up on the correct screen for multi-monitor support. In order to position it, I would like a reference to the "main" form for the Delphi IDE.

I've tried using the Application's MainForm property, and the Application object itself, but neither seems to work. I believe this is because the MainForm is actually the hidden TApplication instance referenced in this article by Nathanial Woolls (search for "application form"):

http://www.installationexcellence.com/articles/VistaWithDelphi/Original/Index.html

Does anyone know how to get a handle to the visible main form for the IDE. I'm trying to avoid something cheesy like iterating all forms and searching for "CodeGear RAD Studio" in the caption.

Best Answer

The IDE's main form is Application.MainForm. My quick test design package:

procedure DoStuff(Form: TCustomForm);
var
  S: string;
begin
  S := Form.Caption;
  Form.Caption := S + ' - this one';
  try
    ShowMessage(Format('%s [%s] on monitor %d', [Form.Name, Form.ClassName, Form.Monitor.MonitorNum]));
  finally
    Form.Caption := S;
  end;
end;

initialization
  DoStuff(Application.MainForm);

This in my case displays "AppBuilder [TAppBuilder] on monitor 0" and I can see the " - this one" suffix in the main form's caption. What doesn't seem to work in your case?

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