DbAltGrid Suite

Did you ever wish of having a grid that lets you display and edit data not as rows and columns, but as records? A grid that would allow you to build unique user interface solutions? We offer you a new approach to the data grid interface. We offer you DbAltGrid components suite.

DbAltGrid is fully compatible with common DBGrid shipped with VCL. TDbAltGrid class is a TCustomDBGrid descendant, as TDBGrid is. By converting to DbAltGrid, you will not get any code conflict or loss in grid functionality.

DbAltGrid adds the following features to the common DBGrid:

• Multiple lines per record. Unlike DBGrid, which displays each record in a single row, DbAltGrid allows a free-form layout for each record in the dataset. You can customize layout not only at design-time but also at runtime. This approach provides an extremely efficient screen space use.
• Hierarchical columns structure. Now you can sort your columns into logical categories, consolidate them and assign each column to a shared parent column. You can imitate a tree-like column structure that way. Such interface is similar to object and array field types in the Oracle 8 database, but you can emulate this powerful technique with any other database now.
• Enhanced column resizing and moving. It is possible to resize and move any column both horizontally and vertically at design-time as well as at runtime. DbAltGrid animates the column being moved with position indicators for sharper look and feel.
• Row resizing. A end-user can adjust height of rows to meet his/her specific needs. Furthermore, user can adjust height of each line in row separately.
• Row height and column width can be fine tuned with a mouse double-click. It is possible to change column widths automatically proportionally to the client width of a grid.
• Images in column headers. DbAltGrid has now got an Images property, which allows you to attach an ImageList to display pictures in column headers.
• Clickable button-like depressible column headers. Header arrows indicate the sorting column and the sorting order used as well as sorting possibility for any column.
• Automatic word-wrap in data cells. Ellipsis indicates when the text does not fit data cell or header. In that case you can see the full text in a hint window.
• Fast, smooth and flicker free painting. Off-screen painting even by custom drawing in OnDrawColumnCell event handler.
• Smart key mapping. Optional Enter to Tab key automatic conversion. If you want, pressing the DownArrow key when the current record is the last record in the dataset does not result in appending a new empty record. It is made possible with a hot key use. In the MultiSelect mode a user can control whether to select a row or a particular cell.
• Alternate row coloring. Odd and even rows can be filled with alternate background colors like in ledger books.
• Header cursor. Focus rectangle is drawn in the title cell of the selected column.
• Supports object fields and other advanced features of TClientDataSet.
• You can save and load the grid properties to and from a text file, a stream, a resource file/compiled resource, or the system registry at design-time as well at runtime. So it is possible to transfer settings from DBGrid to DbAltGrid and vice versa.

DbAltGrid offers a new approach to the problem of controlling data displayed and edited in a grid. DbAltGrid uses separate template components to define such a control. DbAltGrid comes with a standard template set for the most common chores, including displaying and editing numeric, Boolean, date, time, memo, RTF memo, and graphic fields. One of them allows you to indicate a string in cell as a hyperlink. There is also a unique template for displaying child columns summary as RTF text. It's fairly easy to descend new templates from our base TdagTemplate class. This makes DbAltGrid infinitely customizable with templates of your own design!

The template components that we designed for DbAltGrid follow our strict policy of minimal resource usage. You need only one instance of template component of an appropriate kind in your application, irrespective of grids and fields number. When you do not need functionality of any template component, you do not add extra footprint to your executable file.

DbAltGrid Suite version 1.2 is available for Borland Delphi 4, 5 and Borland C++ Builder 4, 5. Please visit http://www.dbaltgrid.com for additional information.

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