Global Application Settings

• Jul 25, 2024
• 6 minutes to read

This topic lists all application-wide appearance and behavior settings available for DevExpress controls and forms.

Skins and Palettes

TdxSkinController is a non-visual component that allows you to configure application-wide appearance settings, such as skins, palettes, scrollbar-related options, etc. These look & feel settings are common to all DevExpress controls and forms except for TdxLayoutControl and the majority of Views in the TdxNavBar control. Since these controls have independent look & feel settings, you need to apply the same skin and palette to them to maintain visual consistency of your application.

To manage global appearance settings in an application, you need to add a TdxSkinController component to a form. Multiple TdxSkinController instances share the same settings.

Main Skin Controller Settings

The list below outlines key members of the TdxSkinController class that allow you to configure application-wide appearance settings.

NativeStyle

Specifies if DevExpress controls and application forms use operating system-dependent draw routines to render all UI elements. If this option is enabled, all skin and color palette settings have no effect.

ScrollMode | ScrollbarMode

Allow you to switch between supported scrollbar types and scrolling modes for all controls that support them.

SkinName | SkinPaletteName

Specify skin and color palette applied to the application if the NativeStyle property is set to False. Only vector skins can switch between color palettes.

TouchMode

Specifies if Touch Mode is enabled.

Refer to the TdxSkinController class description for detailed information on all available options.

DevExpress Controls with Independent Skin Settings

Global appearance settings specified through a TdxSkinController component do not affect the Layout Control.

Toolbar UIs and Bar Manager

To apply global skin settings to a toolbar UI in your application, make sure that the TdxBarManger component’s Style property is set to bmsUseLookAndFeel.

Ribbon Control

The TdxRibbon control automatically updates its skin and palette settings from a TdxSkinController component in the application. To apply an individual skin and Microsoft Office-inspired color accent, set the Ribbon control’s UseGlobalSkin property to bFalse and use ColorSchemeName and ColorSchemeAccent properties.

Layout Control Skins

The TdxLayoutControl ships with the TdxLayoutSkinLookAndFeel component that manages global appearance settings for layout controls, groups, and items in an application.

To ensure visual consistency of your application if it uses one or more layout controls, add a TdxLayoutSkinLookAndFeel component to your project and assign the component to the LayoutLookAndFeel property of all layout controls. Assign the TdxSkinController.SkinName property value to the component’s LookAndFeel.SkinName property to apply the skin defined at the global level to all associated layout controls.

If a vector skin is active, the affected layout controls use the color palette whose name is assigned to the TdxSkinController.SkinPaletteName property.

Skin Support in Navigation Bar Views

Only the following Views of the TdxNavBar control support global skin settings:

• Accordion
• Hamburger
• Skin Explorer Bar
• Skin Navigation Pane

Global skin settings have no effect on all other Navigation Bar Views because these views rely on their own draw routines.

DevExpress Skins and Standard VCL Components

The TdxSkinController component can also apply skins to the following standard VCL controls:

• TPanel
• TFrame
• TButton
• TCheckBox
• TDBCheckBox
• TRadioButton

If you use both standard and DevExpress controls in one application and you need to leave standard controls unskinned, handle the TdxSkinController.OnSkinControl event.

Tip

While the TdxSkinController component supports these standard VCL controls, we recommend that you use their DevExpress counterparts to ensure the best user experience.

Skin Interaction with VCL Styles

The DevExpress Skin Engine and the VCL Styles technology are not compatible because they rely on different UI element rendering mechanisms.

Important

• We do not recommend that you use Embarcadero RAD Studio® VCL Styles in any application project that uses DevExpress controls.

• We strongly recommend that you use only DevExpress skins to ensure the best possible appearance of DevExpress-powered VCL applications.

Code Example: Apply a Skin and its Palette

The following code example applies the WXICompact skin and its Sharpness palette to an application:

Delphi

  dxSkinController1.BeginUpdate;
  try
    dxSkinController1.NativeStyle := False;
    dxSkinController1.SkinName := 'WXICompact';
    dxSkinController1.SkinPaletteName := 'Sharpness';
  finally
    dxSkinController1.EndUpdate;
  end;

C++

  dxSkinController1->BeginUpdate();
  try
  {
    dxSkinController1->NativeStyle = false;
    dxSkinController1->SkinName = "WXICompact";
    dxSkinController1->SkinPaletteName = "Sharpness";
  }
  __finally
  {
    dxSkinController1->EndUpdate();
  }

Diacritic Marks and Related String Comparison Settings

A diacritic mark is a glyph added to a base letter. The majority of European languages uses diacritic marks to stress vowels and designate different sounds for the same base letter in an alphabet.

DevExpress data controllers and text field-based editors treat a base letter with different diacritic marks as different characters for all comparison operations that allow you to search, sort, and filter data. You can set the TdxDiacriticStringOptions.ComparisonMode class property to TdxDiacriticStringComparisonMode.Insensitive in the initialization section of the main application to treat all variations of the same letter in an alphabet as the same character for string comparison.

Code Example: Configure Diacritic Settings

The following code example configures global diacritic mark-related settings at application startup:

Delphi

uses
  dxCore;
// ...
begin
  TdxDiacriticStringOptions.ComparisonMode := TdxDiacriticStringComparisonMode.Insensitive;
  TdxDiacriticStringOptions.NormalizationMode := TdxDiacriticStringNormalizationMode.System;
  // ...
  Application.Initialize;
  Application.MainFormOnTaskBar := True;
  Application.CreateForm(TMyForm, MyForm);
  Application.Run;
end.

C++

#include <vcl.h>
#include "dxCore.hpp"
#pragma hdrstop
#include <tchar.h>
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
USEFORM("Unit1.cpp", TMyForm);
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
int WINAPI _tWinMain(HINSTANCE, HINSTANCE, LPTSTR, int)
{
  try
  {
    TdxDiacriticStringOptions::ComparisonMode = TdxDiacriticStringComparisonMode::Insensitive;
    TdxDiacriticStringOptions::NormalizationMode = TdxDiacriticStringNormalizationMode::System;
    // ...
    Application->Initialize();
    Application->MainFormOnTaskBar = true;
    Application->CreateForm(__classid(TMyForm), &MyForm);
    Application->Run();
  }
  // ...
}

Refer to the TdxDiacriticStringOptions class description for detailed information on all available options.

Right-to-Left Layout

Certain languages, such as Hebrew or Arabic, use a right-to-left (RTL) writing system that requires a mirrored UI layout and a reversed text direction.

Enable RTL Layout

To use RTL display mode in an application or control, assign bdRightToLeft to the application’s BiDiMode property or the control’s BiDiMode property.

Code Example: Enable RTL Application-Wide

The following code example enables the RTL layout for all controls that support it:

Delphi

begin
  Application.BiDiMode := bdRightToLeft;
  // ...
  Application.Initialize;
  Application.MainFormOnTaskBar := True;
  Application.CreateForm(TMyForm, MyForm);
  Application.Run;
end.

C++

#include <vcl.h>
#pragma hdrstop
#include <tchar.h>
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
USEFORM("Unit1.cpp", TMyForm);
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
int WINAPI _tWinMain(HINSTANCE, HINSTANCE, LPTSTR, int)
{
  try
  {
    Application->BiDiMode = bdRightToLeft;
    // ...
    Application->Initialize();
    Application->MainFormOnTaskBar = true;
    Application->CreateForm(__classid(TMyForm), &MyForm);
    Application->Run();
  }
  // ...
}

Refer to the following topic for additional information and a list of supported controls: Right-to-Left Layout.