Date: 15.02.2006
(© by LMD Innovative, (http://www.lmd.de or http://www.lmdtools.com)

Introduction

LMD ElPack is a set of native visual components for Delphi and C++Builder to create powerful, customizable user interfaces incuding HTML, unicode and themes support. In addition LMD ElPack contains components and functions to perform different standard tasks like access to Windows registry, string operations etc. Most certainly the key control is the extensive TElXTree component (and its datasensitive version) which was completely reworked for ElPack 5.0 and which serves as replacement for ListView, TreeView, ListBox, CheckList, RadioGroup and any custom grid! From version 3.0 on LMD ElPack provides complete Unicode support including Unicode hints for components. Unicode support is not limited to Windows NT platforms - your Delphi applications can truely support Unicode even on Windows 9x/ME!
LMD ELPack can also provide the the fancy Windows XP themes look to your applications. This built-in support for Windows XP themes is again not limited to Windows XP operating systems - it even works on other operating systems like Windows 9x/ME!

3 different packages are available:

• LMD ElPack SE designed for users, who are interested in the free powerful ElTree component only
• LMD ElPack Standard is designed for users, who need full power of LMD ElPack and TElXTree but no database support and pro features.
• LMD ElPack Professional includes all features of Standard package and adds Shell Controls, DB-aware components and Printing system. Furthermore EldoS *ML Generator is included as bonus package.

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System Requirements

• Operating System and hardware requirements depend on the installed Delphi/C++ Builder version.
• Supports Win32 versions of Delphi/C++ Builder version 5 and higher (incl. C++ support in Borland Developer Studio 2006)
• Required Space: 15 MB to 60 MB, depends on selected installation options.
• Media Type: Online only
• Documentation: Includes online help files for Delphi/C++ Builder integration.

Features

• Includes up to 173 controls for everyday work (Professional version, Standard: 117). These components extend functionality of standard VCL controls and also introduce lots of new features and customizable look-and-feel.
• Unicode and themes support even on Win9X systems!
• Integrated HTML support for many controls!
• Full sourcecode of library in both Standard and Professional packages included
• Contains as bonus in Standard and Professional version license for LMD ElPack 4.0 CLX (up to 30 native CLX components)
• Many demo projects with sourcecode including the new Megademos!
• Free updates via Internet (Version 5.X)
• Free technical support via newsgroup (news.lmdtools.com), e-mail, fax or mail

• more than 15 new controls!
• Complete restructure of code base. Applications created with LMD ElPack 5 will be slightly smaller than applications created with LMD ElPack 4.X (though many new features were added). Despite those drastic changes your projects can be ported to ElPack 5 with no or only minor changes!
• New TElXTree and ElXStringGrid controls! Especially TElXTree supports now great new features like independent item cells, cascading styles, cell merging, rectangular ranges and random cell selection, fixed top and bottom rows, new multiline header with independent cells, adjustable gutter columns, support of calculation cells with formula support and more more! Same features are certainly available for data-aware versions as well.
• New extended DB controls like TELDBTreeNavigator for navigating within tree controls or TElWideDBLookupComboGrid and TElDBTreeLookupComboGridEdit for lookup comboboxes which can display grids for record selection.
• New TElInspectorDBDataSource control which allows simple and effective browsing through database tables!
• Improved Unicode support, especially for Win9X platforms and the Shell Controls.
• Shares now same common designtime package and additional designtime features like LMD-Tools! Both LMD-Tools 7.X and ElPack 5.X can now be simply installed into one common installation directory.
• New designtime editors like the HTML Caption editor which was integrated for all HTML supporting tools or DBRelation editor which allows visual specification of Master-Detail relationships.
• New Container classes like TElFormContainer/TLMDFormPageControl or TElHTMLContainer which allow centralized control and storage of forms and HTML text snippets. Many ElPack controls can be linked to these containers and thus can share such resources. Also internal hyperlinks between snippets within an HTML container are possible!
• Regular Expression evaluation support! Not only available in TElXTree cells, even for independent use in your application. LMD ElPack provides a pascal interface to the PCRE library, which is a set of functions that implement regular expression pattern matching using the same syntax and semantics as Perl. Use TElRegExpr control to test any king of regular expressions (e.g. test for eMail-addresses, text expressions etc.) or TElExpressionEval for evaluating math expressions (supporting custom functions, custom variables and so on!).
• Many minor enhancements like improved themes support, resizable inplace editors in grid, support of time settings (including clock display) in DateTime pickers and dialogs, improved TElTrayInfo and much more...

Component Overview

[ElPack Ext] [ElPack Tree] [ElPack Tools] [ElPack HTML] [ElPack Pro] [ElPack DB] [ElPack DBTree] [ElPack DB List]

 

Tab "ElPack Ext"			SE	Std	Pro	CLX
	TElXHeader Represents a fully rewritten header control, that provides developers and end users more features than the VCL THeader control. The user can drag the sections in ElHeader, sections can have sort marks etc. ElHeader supports Unicode. Against the TElHeader control which was already available in previous ElPack releases this control supports the extended features of TElXTree (e.g. merged header cells etc.).
	TElFormContainer TElFormContainer allows specification of form arrays or HTML pages for use with TElFormDisplay and TElPageControl components This control simplifies reuse of certain form/HTML page arrays.
	TElFormDisplay This small but very useful component displays forms like a panel within the component. This is not only useful for faster loading of forms but also much more resource friendly than e.g. using a TNotebook. Besides forms are much easier reusable in other projects than pages of a TNoteBook or similar component. Different forms can be stored externally e.g. in TLMDFormContainer. This way simplifies reuse of certain form arrays (which can be mixed with HTML pages).
	TElFormPageControl This control provides all features of TLMDElPageControl, but similar to TLMDFormDisplay this control can display standard TForm descendants instead if internal stored pages. Such forms can be stored e.g. externally in TLMDFormContainer and thus shared among different controls.

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Tab "ElPack Tree"			SE	Std	Pro	CLX
	TElXTree TElXTree represents a 100% native VCL replacement for ListView, TreeView, ListBox, CheckList, RadioGroup and any Custom Grid! It replace the former TElTree control providing exciting new features. Both ElXTree and ElTree are fully customizable visual components, that can represent virtually any type of data (both in hierarchical and list forms). It is excellent for exploring databases, directory structures, registries, or any other type of data, that are built like a tree. You don't need to use the combination of TTreeView and TListView anymore - TElTree gives you all their power. ElTree is also very useful for building multi-columned list boxes, radio groups and CheckLists. Common features are: complete Unicode support HTML formatting with hyperlinks and images in every cell right-to-left tree order support and right-to-left text support (for Hebrew and Arabic languages) checkboxes and radiobuttons (both Windows and custom glyphs are supported). filtered display of items. Unique! You can set items as hidden and it won't be displayed or (optionally) processed when selecting a range of items. This allows you to use just one control instead of several controls on the same place. additional columns for every item multiple selections custom background images auto-sizing support. When the user double-clicks the resize area of the header section ElTree can resize the section according to the optimal width of the underlying column. customizable colors and fonts for every cell items of different height (optional) non-scrollable column button-like style for items. Every item is drawn as a button, and focused item is drawn like pushed button customizable drag'n'drop OLE drag'n'drop support smart line hints item lookup (optional automatic lookup for every column) inplace editing for every cell owner-drawn items and cells smart pictures displaying draggable and resizable columns filtering support (every header section can have a filter mark and fire an event when the mark is clicked) almost complete compatibility with TTreeView ElXTree adds among other features following notable enhancements: independent item cells; cascading styles; cell joining; rectangular range and random cell selection; fixed top and bottom rows; multiline header with independent cells; adjustable gutter column.

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Tab "ElPack Tools"			SE	Std	Pro	CLX
	TElExpressionEval Use this control to evaluate any kind of math expression (custom functions, custom variables and so on are supported!).
	TElRegExpr Use this control to handle any kind of regular expressions (e.g. test for eMail-addresses, text expressions etc.).

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Tab "ElPack HTML"			SE	Std	Pro	CLX
	TElHTMLContainer Container for HTML snippets, providing a simple HTML-Editor for fast input of text. Furthermore automatic links between different text snippets in a container are supported when used with other TElHTML[..] controls like TLElHTMLView (thus simple hypertext funtionality is possible without much effort).

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Tab "ElPack Pro"			SE	Std	Pro	CLX
	TElXTreePrinter TElXTreePrinter is a specialized component derived from TElPrinter to print content of ElXTree controls.

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Tab "ElPack DB"			SE	Std	Pro	CLX
	TElDBTreeNavigator TElDBTreeNavigator represents a specialized DBNavigator control, which provides additional features and support functionality browsing data which is displayed by a TElDBXTree control.
	TElInspectorDBDataSource Use this control to fill property inspector control with content of database tables. Using this control interactive browsing of database records is possible!

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Tab "ElPack DBTree"			SE	Std	Pro	CLX
	TElDBXTree Use this visual component to display hierarchical data from your databases. The hierarchies are built using TElXRelDataSource class: the information about data sets and relations between data sets is taken from an instance of TElXRelDataSource component. TElDBXTree is a descendant of ElXTree, so when displaying the data you can use all functionality fo ElXTree. You can display the data from several fields, show images, show hints taking them from the database and so on.
	TElXRelDataSource This container control designed for TElDBXTree allows specification of several data sources relations between them. Supported datasources are all TDataSet descendants (TQuery, TTable). Relations between data are built on Master-Detail or SelfReference principle and are stored in TElRelations collection.
	TElDBXTreeStringGrid This grid provides grid-like features of TElDBXTree and is simplier to use when only grid display is required.
	TElDBTreeLookupComboGridEdit TElDBTreeLookupComboGridEdit is an inplace editor used with TElDBTree and TElDBTreeStringGrid components. It provides an instance of TElWideDBLookupComboGrid control for editing operation.

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Tab "ElPack DB List"			SE	Std	Pro	CLX
	TElWideDBLookupComboGrid The TElWideDBLookupComboGrid works similar to a DBLookupComboBox but allows selection of field values from a displayed grid.

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