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 Adding
a Wizard or Component to a Package
Now the Wizard must be either placed in a DLL or a Delphi
Package. I have never tried the DLL method of extending the IDE so I
will only be talking about adding Wizards to packages.
Open the Repository through the File > New menu item in the
IDE and choose Package.
Object Repository
Save the Package to a name of your choice then add the above
units into the Contains section of the package. Notice that
Delphi will sometimes fill in the
necessary packages the Requires section.
Package Editor
If it does not it can be like looking for a needle in a
haystack trying to find what package needs to be added to include a
particular unit. Most packages reside in the $(DELPHI)\Lib folder.
Starting with D6 Borland has tried to force the separation of runtime
and designtime code. In doing this they have stopped shipping the
source code for some units, moved units around as well as reorganized
the structure of existing packages.
Delphi 6 and 7 both have the ToolsApi.pas file
contained in the $(DELPHI)\Lib\Designide.dcp package so it may
be necessary to add this file to the Requires section of the package manually.
The next step is to make sure the Wizard Package is only
compiled into Design Time code. You may also insert a Description of
your package, this description is what is shown in the Package Editor
within the IDE. Lastly you may decide if the package should be only
rebuilt explicitly or should be rebuilt whenever the compiler needs
it recompiled. I always check the later.
Package Options
Now the Package may be installed into the
IDE. Compile the Package and push the Install button in the
Package editor. At this point the following files exist:
-
OTAWizards.dpk - Contains the text description of what units
are contained within the package as well as what other packages are
needed to compile our package. Also the options set in the Package
Options dialog are stored here.
-
Wizards.pas - Contains the actual code for the Wizard
-
WizardsReg.pas - Contains the code to register the Wizard with
the IDE
-
OTAWizards.bpl - Contains the compiled code that is loaded
into the IDE. This file can be found in the path that is defined in
the Tool > Environment Options > Library dialog under BPL
Output Path. By default it is in the $(DELPHI)\Projects\Bpl folder.
-
OTAWizards.dcp - Contains a binary image containing a package
header and the concatenation of all dcu files in the package. This
file can be found in the path that is defined in the Tool >
Enviroment Options > Library dialog under DCP Output Path.
By default it is in the $(DELPHI)\Projects\Bpl folder
The Package is now installed into the IDE. It now may be
installed/uninstalled through the IDE. 
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