The Konopka Signature VCL Controls (formerly Raize Components) was one of the first component libraries to fully embrace VCL Styles. In fact, for a while KSVC supported VCL Styles better than the stock VCL controls. Unfortunately, little attention was given to the library since Embarcadero acquired it back in 2015 and the controls started to fall behind with respect to VCL Styles. While Embarcadero rebuilt the components for each new version of RAD Studio, no additional effort was put into updating the controls to handle the changes begin made to the VCL. As a result, when RAD Studio 10.4 (Sydney) was released, there were severe display issues with KSVC resulting from the changes Embarcadero made to how the Form Designer and IDE supports VCL Styles. Fortunately, a new update to the Konopka Signature VCL Controls is finally available for RAD Studio 10.4.2 users. The new version (6.5.0) is available via the GetIt Package Manager in RAD Studio 10.4.2.

The primary focus of the new version is to address all of the VCL Style deficiencies. Most importantly, the controls now display correctly at design-time. In 10.4 and 10.4.1, the components would be displayed on the Form Designer using the VCL Style currently used by the IDE itself and not the default Windows style used on the Form Designer. To address this, the ActiveStyle functionality and related drawing methods in the RzCommon unit have been updated to handle the new changes to StyleServices introduced in RAD Studio 10.4.

In addition, many components in the library did not support the StyleElements property. Where appropriate, the StyleElements property as well as the new StyleName property have been implemented. The StyleName property was added in 10.4 to support per-control styling. With version 6.5.0, the controls in KSVC can now be styled on a per control basis.

There were a number of other issues addressed in this new version:

  • Fixed issue where first item in a TRzCheckList may not be indented correctly when using a VCL Style with a larger check box style.
  • Fixed issue where check box background in a TRzCheckList would be displayed in the wrong color under certain VCL Styles.
  • Fixed issue in TRzCheckList where loading strings from a file or stream that contained empty strings would cause an exception.
  • Fixed display issue in TRzImageComboBox where the font color of the selected item was displayed in the wrong color under certain VCL Styles.
  • Added new UseDrawingStyle property to TRzDBGrid. When it is True (the default) the appearance of the grid is controlled by the built-in
  • DrawingStyle property. When UseDrawingStyle is set to False, the appearance of the grid is controlled by the various properties such as LineColor. Plus, the customizations are also applied when VCL Styles are used.
  • Update grid painting methods to handle changes made in base TCustomGrid.
  • Fixed issue where TRzLabel would not pickup the font color of the selected VCL Style if the label’s Font.Color property was changed from the default value.
  • Fixed auto sizing issue in TRzCalculator.
  • Fixed issue in TRzCalendar where control would allow navigating beyond 1/1/0001 and 12/31/9999, which would lead to an exception.
  • Fixed display issues in TRzProgressBar that occur under certain styles.
  • Fixed positioning issue in String List Editor.
  • Fixed display issues in tabs that could occur with certain VCL Styles.
  • Fixed cannot focus hidden window issue when an exception is raised while changing tabs in the TRzPageControl.
  • Fixed issue where the thumb image would get clipped under certain VCL Styles.
  • Updated the code used to determine the appropriate track color when running under VCL Styles.
  • Fixed display issue in TRzTrackBar that could occur if another control obscured the track bar.

As you can see, this is a pretty significant update to the components. If you are using RAD Studio 10.4 or 10.4.1, I first encourage you to get the update to 10.4.2, and then use the GetIt Package Manager to download and install the new version of KSVC.