CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++delphicontrolsvcl
Salvador
Salvador

Reputation: 16492

Enumerate the VCL controls in a external application

is possible via the Windows API's to enumerate and iterate the VCL controls on a form (TForm) belonging to a external Win32 application written in C ++ Builder or Delphi.

Bye.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 1008

Answers (3)

Jeroen Wiert Pluimers
Jeroen Wiert Pluimers

Reputation: 24523

Up until Delphi 2006, you could use the vcltest3.dll for this. But now you have to go the way Rob Kennedy proposes.

Upvotes: 0

Bruce McGee
Bruce McGee

Reputation: 15334

You could look at the DFMs, which are stored as resources in the executable.

Anders Ohlsson put together a VCL Scanner application that does just this a while ago. The source code is also available.

Upvotes: 0

Rob Kennedy
Rob Kennedy

Reputation: 163357

No. First of all, consider that the Windows API has no idea what the "VCL" is. It doesn't know "TButton" or "TStringGrid," and it certainly doesn't know "TImage" or "TLabel," which don't even have window handles.

You could use EnumChildWindows to get handles to the windowed controls. You could look at their class names to determine that they came from "TButton" or "TStringGrid," but even then, you would not have access to any object-related facilities. You wouldn't have an object reference, and so you could not read any properties or call any methods.

TestComplete, from Automated QA, offers access to a program's forms and classes from an external program, which sounds like what you might be trying to do. It works by having a unit that you include in the Delphi program, and that unit essentially provides a back door for the TestComplete program to use to query the program's internals. That requires cooperation from the application developer; you can't sic TestComplete on an arbitrary program.

Upvotes: 7

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