TMS FNC UI Pack 6.9 BETA

Intro

Working with large datasets can be challenging. When your grid contains thousands or even millions of rows, displaying them all at once isn't just impractical—it can bring your application to a crawl. That's where the built-in paging functionality in TTMSFNCDataGrid comes to the rescue, providing a powerful yet simple way to split data into manageable chunks while maintaining excellent performance.

Why Paging Matters

When building data-driven applications, you'll often encounter scenarios where displaying all data at once simply isn't feasible:

✅ Improved Performance: Only render visible rows, dramatically reducing memory usage and rendering time

✅ Better User Experience: Users can navigate through data intuitively without overwhelming scrollbars

✅ Reduced Load Times: Fetch and display data in chunks rather than loading everything upfront

✅ Professional Appearance: Give your application a polished, enterprise-ready look with built-in navigation controls

Quick Start: Enabling Paging

Getting started with paging is remarkably simple. Here's the minimal code needed to enable paging in your grid:

procedure TForm1.SetupBasicPaging;
begin
  // Enable paging
  Grid.Paging := True;
  
  // Make footer visible to show paging controls
  Grid.Footer.Visible := True;
  Grid.Footer.Paging.Visible := True;
end;

That's it! With just three lines of code, your grid now automatically splits data into pages and displays navigation controls in the footer.

The Paging Interface

When paging is enabled, TTMSFNCDataGrid provides a comprehensive set of navigation controls in the footer:

Navigation Buttons

• First Page: Jump to the beginning
• Previous Page: Move backward one page
• Next Page: Advance forward one page
• Last Page: Jump to the end

Page Selector A dropdown combobox displaying all available pages, allowing users to jump directly to any page.

Page Information A text display showing current position (e.g., "Page 3 of 15").

Customizing the Paging Experience

The default paging controls look great out of the box, but you can customize virtually every aspect to match your application's design:

procedure TForm1.CustomizePagingControls;
begin
  // Configure paging control appearance
  Grid.Footer.Paging.Size := 35;  // Height of paging area
  
  // Control which elements are visible
  Grid.Footer.Paging.ShowPageSelector := True;
  Grid.Footer.Paging.ShowPageInfo := True;
  Grid.Footer.Paging.ShowNavigationButtons := True;
  
  // Customize control widths
  Grid.Footer.Paging.PageSelectorWidth := 120;
  Grid.Footer.Paging.NavigationButtonWidth := 30;
  Grid.Footer.Paging.PageInfoWidth := 180;
end;

Programmatic Navigation

While the visual controls are convenient for users, you'll often need to navigate pages programmatically. TTMSFNCDataGrid provides a rich API for this:

// Basic navigation
Grid.FirstPage;          // Go to first page
Grid.LastPage;           // Go to last page
Grid.NextPage;           // Move forward one page
Grid.PreviousPage;       // Move backward one page

// Direct page access
Grid.GoToPage(5);        // Jump to page 6 (0-based index)
Grid.PageIndex := 3;     // Alternative: set page directly

// Query current state
ShowMessage(Format('Currently on page %d of %d', 
  [Grid.PageIndex + 1, Grid.PageCount]));

Responding to Page Changes

To create a responsive application, you'll want to react when users navigate between pages. The grid provides several events for this:

procedure TForm1.GridPageChanged(Sender: TObject; 
  AOldPageIndex, ANewPageIndex: Integer);
begin
  // Update status bar
  StatusBar.Panels[0].Text := Format('Viewing page %d of %d', 
    [ANewPageIndex + 1, Grid.PageCount]);
    
  // Log navigation for analytics
  LogPageView(ANewPageIndex);
  
  // Update related UI elements
  UpdateDataSummary;
end;

Installing the Latest Beta Version

Want to try out the latest paging features before they're officially released? Here's how to install a beta version using TMS Smart Setup:

Step 1: Download the Beta Package

Download the beta zip file from your account.

Step 2: Extract to the Correct Location

Navigate to your TMS Smart Setup installation directory and locate the tms.fnc.uipack folder. Extract the contents of the beta zip file directly into this folder, replacing existing files when prompted.

Step 3: Rebuild the Package

Open a command prompt (or terminal) in the TMS Smart Setup installation directory and run:

tms.exe build -full

This command rebuilds the entire TMS FNC UI Pack with the beta updates. The process may take a few minutes.

Step 4: Restart Your IDE

Close and restart Delphi or C++Builder. The beta version is now installed and ready to use!

Note: Beta versions may contain experimental features. Always test thoroughly before deploying to production environments.

Take Your Data Grid to the Next Level

Whether you're building a simple data browser or a complex enterprise application, paging is an essential feature for managing large datasets effectively. With TTMSFNCDataGrid's built-in paging support, you get professional-grade functionality without writing complex code.

The combination of automatic page management, customizable UI controls, and a rich programmatic API makes it trivial to add pagination to your applications—and your users will thank you for the improved performance and usability.

Ready to enhance your data grids with powerful paging capabilities?

TTMSFNCDataGrid is part of the TMS FNC UI Pack, available for Delphi and C++Builder.