Action:
LoadForm loads a Form designed in the Form Editor, which initiates a Load event.
LoadForm frm [options] [, x, y]
frm:Form object
options:[Center | Client3D | Full | Default | Hidden | Tool | Help | Top | Palette | Fixed | NoCaption | NoTitle]
x, y:iexp
Sub Form_Load [(Index%)]
LoadForm name loads a Form which was designed earlier in the GFA-BASIC 32 Form editor. The name must be the name given in properties window. Eventually, the Load event sub is invoked.
At design time the initial layout of the form can be determined using the Form's StartUpMode and Visible properties. However not all the attributes of a window can be set at design time. To overcome this limitation a number of flags can be specified in the LoadForm command. These flags allow you to initially center the window or create full screen window.
At design time you can set the Owned property determining that the form is to be loaded as an owned window. When set and when executing LoadForm, the form will be owned by the current active window (Me). When Me = Nothing at the time of execution of LoadForm the Owned property is ignored.
The Owned property permits you to specify that the form being shown is to be owned by the current active form. When you use this option, you achieve two interesting effects: the owned form is always shown in front of its owner (parent), even if the parent has the focus, and when the parent form is closed or minimized, all forms it owns are also automatically closed or minimized. You can take advantage of this feature to create floating forms that host a toolbar, a palette of tools, a group of icons, and so on. This technique is most effective if combined with the window state options Fixed and/or Tool/Palette.
| Options | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Center | centers the form, overrules StartUpMode property |
| Full | creates a maximized window, overrules StartUpMode, excludes Hidden (full windows are always visible). |
| Default | default, overrules StartUpMode |
| Hidden | invisible, overrules Visible property |
| Client3D | set WS_EX_CLIENTEDGE, overrules Appearance |
| Tool | creates a WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW |
| Help | includes a Help button in the window caption |
| Top | creates a top window |
| Palette | creates a WS_EX_PALETTEWINDOW |
| Fixed | a non-sizable window |
| NoCaption | no title bar |
| NoTitle | no title bar, alias |
Using any of the additional parameters ignore the design time property Visible.
When the optional x and y are specified, the design time properties Left and Top are ignored.
The LoadForm command generates a Load event, which is not invoked immediately! The event sub is called when the form is made visible, which is not before a DoEvents or Sleep handles the events. The Load event sub can be used to perform initialization tasks like creating a menu, toolbar, and statusbar.
To load a MdiChild form, you must make sure to activate its owner/parent, the window/form with its property MdiParent set to True. Since LoadForm sets Me, and child windows are loaded after the parent window is created, this would hardly cause any problem.
// To run this example you must first create a Form...
// ... using the Form Editor and name that form frm1
LoadForm frm1
Do
Sleep
Loop Until Me Is Nothing
Sub frm1_Load
' Initialization code
Global Dim mnu$()
Array mnu$() = "&File"#10 "&New"#10 "&Open"#10 "&Save"#10 _
"Save &As"#10 "-"#10 "E&xit"#10 #10 _
"&Edit"#10 "&Undo"#10 "-"#10 "Copy"#10 "Cut"#10 "Paste"#10 #10 _
"&Help"#10 "&About"#10 #10
Menu mnu$()
EndSub
To create a form in code use the Form statement or the GFA-BASIC 16 commands OpenW, ChildW, ParentW, and Dialog, they create forms as well. However, these commands do not generate a Load event, though.
LoadForm frm
frm.OnTop = True
[Reported by Roger Cabo, 09/08/2022]Form Object, Form, OpenW, ChildW, ParentW, Dialog, SaveFormPos, LoadFormPos, ModifyStyle, ModifyExStyle, WinDpi, ScaleToDpi, ScaleXYWHToDpi, WM_DPICHANGED.
{Created by Sjouke Hamstra; Last updated: 11/08/2022 by James Gaite; Other Contributors: Jean-Marie Melanson}