Derive IntraWeb forms from parent and not TIWAppForm directly - error in IDE

Question

I have forms in my application that I derive from a common ancestor, like:

TAtFormBaseIW = class( TIWAppForm ) and TAtFormExplorerIW = class( TAtFormBaseIW )

This works for certain forms, but not for others.

Let me make a wild guess: it seems to work for all forms that where created in Delphi prior to IW 10, but not for forms I created with IW 10. What happens with newer forms: HWenever I want to load them into the IDE, they are interpreted as win32 forms, some properties are ignored (all typical win32 properties such as ClientWidth), and I am told that I cannot put IW components on these forms.

Making them direct descendants of TIWAppForm, saving them and using a normal text editor to change them back works. After a recompile they show up fine in the browser, but never in the IDE.

Any idea of what is happening?

Answer 1

Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. This problem has nothing to do with IntraWeb, but with the way a derived form should be added to the project.

Instead of just changing TIWAppForm to TAtFormBaseIW, after having added a new form to the project, I should do this:

Select in the IDE

File / New / Other / Inheritable Items

and then the base form you want to derive your form from.

If you want to turn an existing form into a derivate, also change the leading key word object in the dfm file to inherited.

You can read about this here.