This recipe is a bit more complex than the previous recipes, so I'll not explain all the code but only the fundamental parts. You can find the complete code in the book's code repository (Chapter1\RECIPE05).

Let's say we want to create a tabbed interface for our software that is used to manage product orders, sales, and invoices. All the forms must be usable at the same time without having to close the previous one. Before we begin, the following screenshot is what we want to create:

The main form containing seven embedded child forms

The project is composed by a bounce of forms. The main form has a TTabControl component that allows switching between the active forms. All embedded forms inherit from EmbeddableForm. The most important is the Show method shown as follows:

procedure TEmbeddableForm.Show(AParent: TPanel);
begin
  Parent := AParent;
  BorderStyle := bsNone;
  BorderIcons := [];
  Align := alClient;
  Show;
end;

All the other forms descend from the EmbeddableForm method and are added to the TTabControl component on the main form with a line of code similar to the following:

procedure TMainForm.MenuOrdersClick(Sender: TObject);
begin
  AddForm(TForm1.Create(self));
end;

The MainForm AddForm method is in charge of adding an actual instance of a form into the tabs, keeping a reference of it. The following code shows you how this is done:

//Add a form to the stack
procedure TMainForm.AddForm(
  AEmbeddableForm: TEmbeddableForm);
begin
  AEmbeddableForm.Show(Panel1);
  //each tab show the caption of the containing form and   
  //hold the reference to it
  TabControl1.Tabs.AddObject(
         AEmbeddableForm.Caption, AEmbeddableForm);
  ResizeTabsWidth;
  ShowForm(AEmbeddableForm);
end;

Other methods are in charge of bringing an already created form to the front when a user clicks on the related tab and then to close a form when the related tab is removed (check the ShowForm and WMEmbeddedFormClose methods).

There is a bit of code, but the concepts are simple:

Embedding a form into another TWinControl is not difficult and allows you to create flexible GUIs without using TPageControl and frames. For the end user, this multitabbed GUI is probably more familiar because all the modern browsers use it, and probably your user already knows how to use a browser with different pages or screens opened. From the developer point of view, the multitabbed interface allows for much better programming patterns and practices. This technique can also be used for other scenarios where you have to embed one screen into another.

More flexible (and complex) solutions can be created involving the use of Observers, but in simple cases, this recipe's solution based on Windows Messaging is enough.

More information about the Observer design pattern can be found at http://sourcemaking.com/design_patterns/observer/delphi.

Another interesting solution (that does not rely on Windows Messaging and so is also cross platform) may be based on the System.Messaging.TMessageManager class. More info about TMessageManager can be found at http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/Libraries/XE6/en/System.Messaging.TMessageManager.

The code in this recipe can be used with every component that uses TStringList to show items (TListBox, TComboBox, and so on) and can be adapted easily for other scenarios.

In the recipe code, you'll also find a nice way to show status messages generated by the embedded forms and a centralized way to show application hints in the status bar.