[SOLVED] How to convert a form to a frame?

How to convert a form to a frame?

I have a form which should have been a frame. I've tried to convert it to a frame, but it seems to stay a form no matter what I do. I've compared the DFM and PAS of a form with a frame and replaced all the uses, changed the inherited class, looked through DFM.

I can't see what is causing it to be a form. What causes a form to be a form? I want to convert it to a frame?

I don't want to create a new frame and copy/paste everything over to the frame. Surely there must be a way to simply convert a form to a frame? or frame to form?

Solution

To convert a VCL form to a frame you have to make these changes:

Change the ancestor from TForm to TFrame in the .pas file, eg:
```
type
  TForm2 = class(TForm)
```
change to
```
type
  TForm2 = class(TFrame)
```
In the uses part of your project's .dpr file, add a : TFrame next to your frame's name, like this:
```
Unit2 in 'Unit2.pas' {Form2},
```
change to
```
Unit2 in 'Unit2.pas' {Form2: TFrame},
```

Close and reopen Form2. The IDE complains about properties that can not be applied to a frame - click on the "Ignore" button.

That's it.

NOTE: You might want to change the class name of your converted frame if the class name gets misleading, but I consider this to be not in the scope of your original question.

NOTE: I've tested this answer on Delphi XE2.