Delphi control that could mimic "Add-ons|Extension list" of Firefox?

Question

My aim is to update the look of the GUI in my app. Currently my GUI contains a lot of listboxes which are used to edit some objects in an old fashioned way, that is, user double-clicks an item and a dialog is shown to modify the corresponding object.

I think a good modern approach is how Firefox displays the extensions installed (a snapshot below).

My question is about how to build such a GUI in Delphi(win32) easily? Are there any components you use mimicing such behaviour or will I just need to code this from stratch using panels? (IMO a very cumbersome job I'd like to avoid - the selection logic, resizings, etc...)

Answer 1

You can do something similar (not exactly) with standard components; TDBCtrlGrid, TSpeedButton,...

alt text http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/9585/imagen29ox3.png

Answer 2

If you're using Delphi 2007 or Delphi 2009, you might be able to do something similar using TCategoryButtons (from the 'Additional' component palette page). Drop it on a form and right click to display the popup menu, and then click "Categories Editor...". Add a category with the resulting dialog, set it's caption, and optionally set up Items it contains. Not exactly the same, but it might do what you need.

You could also use a dialog with a TTreeView (if you have categories of objects) or TListView to emulate the Delphi 2007 Projects->Options dialog. Clicking an item in the TreeView or ListView displays the proper page of a TPageControl to configure the object.