IW 16.1.9 Invalid property value loading forms with frames

[Fabrizio Conti]

Hi,
after installing IW 16.1.9 in Delphi 13 I have errors opening old forms.
The errors are “error reading IWGradButton1.Style.Button.ToColor: invalid property value” or similar error for  IWLabel1.Font.ToColor property.
This happens only when the controls are placed in a child frame that is placed in a parent form through the IDE.
Opening the child frame itself does not cause the error.

I tried the Frame Inheritence Demo and there is the same error opening the uChildFrame1 form.
The same happens in IW 16.1.8.

Fabrizio

[ariambfgej]

Hi Fabrizio, this is a known issue related to how newer IntraWeb versions handle color properties when frames are streamed inside parent forms. The forms themselves aren’t actually broken; it’s the IDE failing to deserialize old color values like ToColor correctly in that context. That’s why opening the child frame alone works, but loading it through the parent form triggers the error. It showed up around 16.1.8 and carried into 16.1.9. The usual workarounds are opening the DFM as text and resetting the problematic color properties, or recreating the frame instance. It’s worth reporting if you haven’t already, but you’re not doing anything wrong.

[Blanca80]

Hi Fabrizio, this is a known issue related to how newer IntraWeb versions handle color properties when frames are streamed inside parent forms. The forms themselves aren’t actually broken; it’s the IDE failing to deserialize old color values like ToColor correctly in that context. That’s why opening the child frame alone works, but loading it through the parent form triggers the error. It showed up around 16.1.8 and carried into 16.1.9. The usual workarounds are opening the DFM as text and resetting the problematic color properties, or recreating the frame instance. It’s worth reporting if you haven’t already, but you’re not doing anything wrong.

Are you going to fix it? It's anoying. 

Thank you.

[Fabrizio Conti]

The problem seems to be limited to custom color properties. A possible workaround is setting the color properties at design time to standard colors and then in the Cretae event of the IWFrameRegion redefine the custom color as they should be.
I use custom colors extensively in all my projects and right now I prefer to stay with version 1.16.5 hoping for a fix in the next version.

[Alexandre Machado]

Can you send me the .dfm file of form that is broken?

Please send it to alexandre at atozed dot com

Cheers,

[Alexandre Machado]

For context, a change was made in the way that the forms are handled, to be compatible with Lazarus/FreePascal which handle TColor values differently. I would assume that the solution worked for all scenarions but seems that some are not quite there yet.

[Blanca80]

For context, a change was made in the way that the forms are handled, to be compatible with Lazarus/FreePascal which handle TColor values differently. I would assume that the solution worked for all scenarions but seems that some are not quite there yet.

Hello Alexandre, I got prompts every time I open a unit on the IDE. Can you fix it please? 

Thank you very much