Freeware Component Descriptions

The following components are classified as freeware and are written using Delphi Version 5. You may use them in any way you like, except for one. You are not allowed to use these as a basis for distributing similar components for sale. You may use them in any program or application for your own use or for business. The author, me, makes no warranty nor guarantees on these components. You are using them at your own risk. For examples of using these components, see the examples page.

This component lets you build hard coded reports quickly and easily. With it's built-in preview, it gives your users the capability of viewing what they print without having to actually do it. The component basically mimics most of the methods that a standard TCanvas object has but it expands on the functionality to a much greater degree. You can define headers, footers and columns as well as change them while your printing. Printing can also be redirected to any TCanvas object for printing on things like forms and images. That makes it a powerful display tool for visual presentations. It nows has a built in message display panel which also contains a multi-color progress bar.
NOTE: In order to use this component, you must first install the TMWGlowButton component below. The built in preview form of this component uses the TMWGlowButton component for it's control buttons.

This button is a pretty cool replacement for the tired Delphi buttons that don't let you control anything like fonts, etc. It lets you control the normal color as well as the mouse over color, borders, fonts, and image placement. It also has some built in types that you can use for standard buttons like OK, Cancel, Print, etc.

Ever need to display a short message on the screen for a few seconds? Ever need a constant scrolling message box? This message panel component gives you that and much more. There are even different settings to handle "normal" messages as opposed to error messages. Set the color and font schemes for each situation and you're done. You can control the size and placement of the display panel as well as it's appearance. Try it, you'll like it!

After changing from mostly single user databases to Interbase, I had to start streamlining queries and data requests to reduce network traffic. Pulling multi-row datasets across a network isn't necessary in most cases, I've found, so I changed most queries to pull one specific record based on it's key field(s). Most clients, however, like to be able to search for specific information so I came up with a way to do that from any field on a form. This component is specifically designed to use Interbase and makes use of it's system tables for information. It provides an easy to use search mechanism for finding specific records based on the given criteria. You can manually control the search or let the component control itself using the current data-aware control. Searching can be done either forward or backward with repeated searches finding the next/previous matching record.

Building customized reports, I was always duplicating the code for user controlled report title information. I generally like to group similar reports on a user selectable report form. Although all reports generally have default titles, some users like to add their own information or change the default to something else. So I built a report header control that let's you give your users control over the titles, fonts and alignment (left, center, right) of the titles. You can give them the ability to add/delete titles as well as having a small preview window for viewing the information. More features are planned for this component, such as controlling the background color, color of edit boxes with and without focus, etc.

This little program lets you open an IB/FB database to edit the description of tables and fields. It displays a tree view of all the regular (non system) tables and their fields. A memo field to the right lets you edit the description for each table/field easily and save it to the database.

This setup program allows you to install the latest version of these freeware components automatically. The included components are: TTMWPrintObject, TTMWGlowButton, TTMWIBSearch, TTMWMessagePanel and TTMWReportHeader. You are able to choose which components you wish to install. NOTE: Before using this setup program, any previous versions of these components should be removed manually to avoid any interference in the new references.
This is a new installation program. As such, I would appreciate any feedback regarding bugs and/or suggestions pertaining to it. Thanks.