Author: Fernando Martins

Sometimes it's necessary to create a visual object, like a button or a label, at 
run time. Here I'll show how to do it with a simple example.

Answer:

To explain how to create a visual object at run-time, there's some simple notions 
that is necessary to understood. I'll try to explain it in a simple and fast way 
(so don't bother with any "less accurate" information). Simplifying things, objects 
have two things: properties and methods. A visual object is not different, it has 
properties, methods and can act on event handling. 

A visual object's life cycle is just like any other object life cycle, it must be 
created, will "live" and at the end will die. Follwoing this three basic life cycle 
steps: 

When creating a visual object, it's necessary to say who will be the parent, who 
will have it has a child. Example: when deploying a TPanel on a TForm, the TForm is 
the TPanels' parent, when deploying a TLabel on the TPanel, the TPanel is the 
TLabels' parent. 
To give the object some "life", it's necessary to code the answer to an event. 
Example: the OnKeyUp event on a TForm tells the TForm what to do when the user 
releases a key. 
When the object is no longer needed, it should be removed. Example: when you have a 
TLabel that you no long need, you delete it. 

So, let's take a simple case to exemplefy this. Let's create a TButton and give it 
some life. 

Start a new project, name your main form as "Form1" and specify these private 
variables: 

MyButton: TButton;
IsAlive: Boolean;

Deploy a TButton on Form1, caption it as "Manage Button" and on the OnClick event 
write the following code: 

1   // create the button
2   MyButton := TButton.Create(Form1);
3   with MyButton do
4   begin
5     // setting the buttons' parent
6     Parent := Form1;
7     // setting the alignment and size
8     Top := 50;
9     Left := 10;
10    Width := 100;
11    // showing it
12    Caption := "&It Works!";
13    Visible := True;
14  end;


This creates the button when the "Manage Button" is pushed. Run the application and 
click the "Manage Button". 

This is not really usefull util the button created ar run-time actually do 
anything, so let's give it life. Let's build a procedure able to respond to a 
OnClick event. On your Form1 private declaration write: 

procedure MyButtonOnClickEvent(Sender: TObject);

and write the following code for it: 

15  procedure TForm1.MyButtonOnClickEvent(Sender: TObject);
16  begin
17    ShowMessage("Well, it really works!");
18  end;


How do we know this will work? Well, if you check the TButton help, you will see 
that the OnClick event has the same signature as the MyButtonOnClickEvent that was 
just coded. Whenever you need to build an event, check the documentation on that 
object's event and make a procedure with the same signature. 

Now let's make the MyButtonOnClickEvent the OnClick event of the button, just add 

19  OnClick := MyButtonOnClickEvent;
20  
21  //to the code, it should look like this now: 
22  
23  // create the button
24  MyButton := TButton.Create(Form1);
25  with MyButton do
26  begin
27    // setting the buttons' parent
28    Parent := Form1;
29    // setting the alignment and size
30    Top := 10;
31    Left := 10;
32    Width := 100;
33    // making it respond to the OnClick event
34    onClick := MyButtonOnClickEvent;
35    // showing it
36    Caption := "&It Works!";
37    Visible := True;
38  end;


Now run it, click the "Manage Button" and then click the "It Works!" button! ;) 

Now that the button has some "life", all it needs is to "die" to have a full life 
cycle. So, let's kill it by calling the standard destructor. Let's change the 
"Manage Button" code to create and destroy the MyButton button: 

39  if IsAlive = False then
40  begin
41    // create the button
42    MyButton := TButton.Create(Form1);
43    with MyButton do
44    begin
45      // setting the buttons' parent
46      Parent := Form1;
47      // setting the alignment and size
48      Top := 10;
49      Left := 10;
50      Width := 100;
51      // making it respond to the OnClick event
52      onClick := MyButtonOnClickEvent;
53      // showing it
54      Caption := "&It Works!";
55      Visible := True;
56    end;
57    IsAlive := True;
58  end
59  else
60  begin
61    MyButton.Free; // kills the button
62    IsAlive := False;
63  end;
64  
65  //The IsAlive flag will tell us if the button is alive or not. To be positive that 
66  this has no faults, the IsAlive variable should be initialized, let's fo it on 
67  Form1'ow event: 
68  
69  IsAlive := False;


Now run the application. Click the "Manage Button", click the "It Works!" button, 
click the "Manage Button" again. 
Simple, isn't it ? :)