Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

You make use of COM technology why can't I make a component with Visual Basic using your CDK?

Can SetCompWinTitle and SetCompWinIcon be used in a component without a window ?

How can I initialize the system after connecting the component with the THRSim11?

How can I make an installation program for my component with InstallShield?

Step 1

Run the InstallShield Express program after you've installed it from the Borland C++ CD-ROM.

Step 2

Select: Create a new Setup Project

Step 3

Enter your Project Name and select your Project Path (InstallShield will create your setup files there)

Step 4

Now you'll see the Setup Checklist. Click on the grey buttons to the left of each item to modify it.

Step 5

After you've clicked on the button next to Application Information, you'll see this window. Enter the information of your program here. Notice that you must type the path name <ProgramFilesDir>\THRSim11\Plug-ins\ in the Default Destination Directory input box followed by your component name, to be sure your component will be noticed by the THRSim11 (you can however install your component in an other directory, as long as the registry key is pointing at that directory, but it's better if you don't.)

Step 6

Edit the other two tab sheets of Set the Visual Design as shown in the pictures above.

Step 7

The Specify InstallShield Objects for Borland C++ section can be skipped if you don't make use of any special libraries (the RTL:dynamically linked, OCF: linked and embedded and OWL:dynamically linked libraries are already installed by the THRSim11). So we go to the Specify Components and Files section. Here you can select the files which you want to be included in the install project. The essential files you need to select are shown in the picture below (select all the *.dsw, *.h, *.rc, *.cpp, *.ide, *.reg and *.dll file types you made or modified) The easiest way to include them in your project is with the windows explorer, so click on the Launch Explorer... button. After you've selected the files you can drag them to the InstallShield window and drop them in the File Groups: section of the window.



No changes have to be made to the Group Name and Destination Directory, the Components sheet and the Setup Types sheet can also be left unchanged.

Step 8

At this point you can setup the type of dialog boxes the setup program will display. In the picture above you'll see the most appropriate dialog boxes selected to get a simple and effective setup program, but of course if you want to you can select other dialog boxes as well. The only thing left to do is to select the readme and license text-files by selecting the Settings sheet in the Readme Information and Software License Agreement options (you can see this also in the above picture).

Step 9

Now we are ready to add the registry keys. Click on the Keys option in the Make Registry Changes section. The next window appears:



You must now click on the Add Key... button, to add a registry key.



Enter the registry key in the field below New Key:.



After you've add the key, you must give the key a value. Select the key (in our case the {68129a01-8bb4-11d3-adaa-006067496245}-key) and then select the Registry - Values sheet.



Click on the Modify Value... button and type the value of the key in the field below Value Data. Insert the remaining keys (Click here to see what keys need to be added to the registry) in the same way. After inserting all the keys the Registry - Keys sheet must now look something similar like the next picture.

Step 10

Because we don't have to specify folders and icons (this is because our program isn't a stand alone program) we can skip this section and run the disk builder.



After we've runned the disk builder we can test the installation by clicking on the Test Run command. If everything went smoothly, your component is now ready to be distributed.
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How do I create a component with a colored background? (Borland C++ specific)

How can I make a component counter in the title of my component window? (Borland C++ specific)

private:
   static int number_of_components_started;

After that we have to initialize (outside the class) the static variable like this:

int number_of_components_started = 0;

Next we have to make some adjustments to the CreateComponentWindow memberfunction:

HWND Component::CreateComponentWindow(HWND parent) {
   if (ComponentWindow==0) {
      ++number_of_components_started;
      ComponentWindow = new MyComponentWin(/*...*/);
      ComponentWindow->Create();
      ostrstream o;
      o<<"My Component ("<<number_of_components_started<<")"<<ends;
      SetCompWinTitle(o.str());
   }
   return ComponentWindow->GetHandle();
}

If you want to make a component without a window and a component counter in the title, you'll still have to override the CreateCompomponentWindow memberfunction but we don't let it create a window:

HWND Component::CreateComponentWindow(HWND parent) {
   ++number_of_components_started;
   ostrstream o;
   o<<"My Component ("<<number_of_components_started<<")"<<ends;
   SetCompWinTitle(o.str());
   return 0;
}

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It would be nice if the original window size could be restored after resizing, what code do I need in order to get this? (Borland C++ specific)

void ComponentWindow::CmRestoreWSize() {
   TRect wr(Parent->GetWindowRect()); 
   TRect pr(Parent->Parent->GetWindowRect()); 
   TRect cr(Parent->GetClientRect()); 
   int hMarge(wr.Width()-cr.Width()); 
   int vMarge(wr.Height()-cr.Height()); 
   int x(wr.left-pr.left-2); 
   int y(wr.top-pr.top-2);
   TRect r(x, y, x+hMarge+WIDTH, y+vMarge+HEIGHT); 
   Parent->MoveWindow(r, true); 
}

Where the WIDTH stands for the (ideal) width of your component window and the HEIGHT stands for the (ideal) height of your component window.
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Why is it that the message box created by a TValidator object doesn't contain any text when you enter a wrong value in an input dialog box? (Borland C++ specific)

// work-around to call TRangeValidator from DLL
class TDLLRangeValidator: public TRangeValidator {
public:
   TDLLRangeValidator(long min, long max): TRangeValidator(min, max) {
   }
   virtual void Error(TWindow* p) {
      ostrstream message;
      message<<"Value is not in the range "<<GetMin()<<" to ";<<GetMax()<<".";<<ends;
      p->MessageBox(message.str(), "Range Error",
      MB_OK|MB_ICONEXCLAMATION|MB_APPLMODAL);
   }
};   
  

You can use this class instead of the TRangeValidator class in the same way you would use the TRangeValidator class. Back to top