Recommendations for a docking library for Delphi / C++Builder?

Question

My team is currently thinking of moving our existing MDI-based application to a more modern, docking-based approach. We're still thinking, but we'd like to move it to something like VS2010's docking and visual look:

This has the following features:

• Shows a blended outline where the window will dock
• Docks into tabs, as well as side-by-side
• Allows docking by dragging and releasing over an image showing the dock position (I call this a 'docking widget' below)
• Looks pretty good too (theme / UI-wise)

I am having trouble finding a good-quality docking library to use with RAD Studio 2010 and am seeking advice on either what library/ies I haven't found, or how to use the ones I have found to achieve something like this.

• Update: I ended up buying AutomatedQA's docking library. I think it's the best. More details below in the section about it.

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• Update 2, July 2011: This question looked at every single docking library available for Delphi/C++Builder, so I'm trying to keep it up to date. Two changes that I'm aware of:
  • SmartBear, who now own AutomatedQA, have end-of-lifed AutomatedQA's docking library. This the one one I recommended buying. They are considering open-sourcing it.
  • The one problem I had with DevExpress docking (that made it not worthy buying) was its lack of support for VS2008/10-style docking, with a docking widget, transparent overlay as you dragged, etc. They are now implementing it. Because of this, and since AQDocking is no longer being sold, if I asked this question now my accepted answer would be to buy DevExpress Docking.

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I've found the following libraries. Here's an overview:

Inbuilt VCL docking

This allows forms to be docked on other forms or TWinControls, but appears to be quite basic. Forms drag using an XOR painted outline, which works very badly on Vista and Win7. There is a TTabDockSet control for tabbed docked forms, but I can't figure out how to control how the docked forms' titles render once docked. I think implementing docking side-by-side will have to be done manually, creating new docksite panels on the fly. The RAD Studio IDE's docking windows are a bit slicker than this (transparent rectangles when dragging a form, for example) which is odd, since I thought it used the VCL docking support.

JVCL docking

This looks a bit more of a decent solution that the inbuilt VCL docking. It supports docking on any edge or the client, and shows an alphablended rectangle where the form will dock.

It appears to be quite buggy (dropping a second form on top of a first is allowed, but freezes the program) and has no inbuilt tabbed dock support or any kind of drop-location widget.

LMD Docking Pack

This looks promising: while it doesn't seem to directly dock forms, it has docking panels and controls / frames are placed on that. Existing forms could be migrated to frames. It also has a docking widget and tabbed dock support.

However, the demo seems to be quite unreliable. I've got the latest evaluation version installed, and creating a new project with a dock site and several panels and pressing Run causes the following:

This is crashing in the form component streaming. Visually examining the DFM file doesn't show anything wrong, but there's an opaque binary blob for the layout information that may be causing it. This is not especially encouraging in an evaluation version.

DevExpress ExpressDocking

I had high hopes for this: I've never used any DevExpress controls before but they have a good reputation. But their demo program was really disappointing:

The control is flickery and doesn't seem to theme well with Windows, even using the XP style. It does have tabbed docking but it uses an XOR-ed outline - something that doesn't work well on XP or Vista. It also does not have any sort of docking widget. Frankly, it looks like it hasn't been updated since the Windows XP days. Update July 2011: This is being improved.

AutomatedQA / SmartBear docking library

This is the most promising of all the libraries so far.

I regularly use AQTime, an excellent profiler which appears to be written using their own docking library, and it works well. However, the latest version of the docking library trial download is for RAD Studio 2009, and the advice given for installing into 2010 is that it's unsupported, and you should recompile the source. The demo doesn't come with source, and we don't have RS2009, and the installer refuses to install unless we do, and even if we manged to get it to install we can't use it since we would need to recompile the non-existent source.

I've been in touch with their support team, and they pointed me to this thread. I also found another thread with customers asking much the same thing. I've replied and hope to hear better news. I'm not keen to recommend we buy a product I can't evaluate, especially when it's not supported for our IDE.

• Update: I have ended up buying this library. In spite of problems evaluating (it works in D2007, and I had a copy of that) it seems the easiest to use of all the libraries, and also the most powerful - it's easy to write a theme for it, for example. I'd definitely recommend it if you need to select a docking library too.

• Update July 2011: This library is no longer being sold, but may be open-sourced soon.

What have I missed?

That's everything I've found so far. What now?

• Have I missed any good docking libraries for Delphi / C++ Builder / RAD Studio 2010?
• Have I missed any features in the libraries I've lookd at so far? An answer like "You missed FooBar" or "JVCL does indeed have a docking widget, and you can use it like so..." would be pretty awesome to hear.
• What would you recommend as my next step?

Thanks for your input :)

Answer 1

I am a jedi JVCL developer, and I have used JvDocking in my own commercial in-house projects, and found it to be solid and reliable.

Also, it's free. It's easy to extend. It creates a look and feel about the same as visual studio 2008 era docking.

Answer 2

I haven't found a single library that does everything that I would like, so after doing some experimenting I found that I could do almost everything I wanted by using the Native VCL Docking (NVCLD) controls with a series of custom modifications and some additional controls.

The following is a list things that I've run across in getting the NVCLD to work the way I wanted. I haven't had many problems porting between versions, but that's because I've got the src as well.

If your not looking to roll your own or you really want to use a 3rd party library then you can probably stop reading the rest of this. :)

Additional Components:

1. TDockPanel

   This heavily modified docking panel is the workhorse my system. I found the original on the net but have modified it since to provide a little greater flexibility for my needs.

2. Custom Docking Forms (Base form)

   By using a custom base class for my docking forms and inheriting it when needed I have less modifications to do on all of the descendant forms.

Custom Modifications

These are modifications to the .pas files of the NVCLD components themselves. Most of these modifications no longer have to be done because of some enhancements made to the base controls starting with D2009. You should be able to just create a new descendant and implement the changes in the there instead of modifying the default src files directly.

1. Transparent Docking Forms

   By default (pre-2009 for sure) the NVCLD doesn't support the transparent form movement. There was a JVCL patch released a couple of years back that added that support to the JVCL which was simple to incorporate into a NVLCD patch.

2. Docking Manager

   The default docking manager (pre-2009 for sure) didn't allow for newer/custom button images or docking header changes. This was rectified in D2009 I believe when the necessary methods where made virtual.

3. Tabbed Docking

   To support the Additional docking components I needed to modify the DockTabSet.pas file to support additional docking properties used by the additional components. Most of this was corrected when the Docking Manager was modified as mentions previously.

As I stated most of these changes I made directly to the Delphi Src files and you shouldn't need to do that for newer versions of Delphi. My point is that with a little bit of work up front you can have a fairly robust docking system with out resorting to using a 3rd party library. Not that there is anything wrong with any of them, but I prefer not to use them unless I have no other choice or don't have the time to make it work my way.

Answer 3

I have used JCL, I have LMD, DevExpress and Automated QA Docking Library.

The closest you will find that will meet your need is the AutomatedQA Docking Library. I use it in my work for one of my projects.

Your next step, buy the AutomatedQA Library :)

from a Happy Customer.