HTML/INTERNET

  1. How to create a "hot link" in About box

How to create a "hot link" in About box

Recently I have seen an interesting effect in some programs. You know,
almost every program has an About box, and within that there is a plain WWW
address like "http://www.somewhere.com". When I move the mouse over that
address, it suddently turns blue and  become a hotlink! When I click on it
my browser is launched automatically and the site is connected.
Would anyone tell me how to archive that effect in my own application?
[Robert E. Baker, bobbaker@cris.com]

Create your label component with the URL (I call mine URLLabel) as it's caption. I also make the text a different color to make it stand out from any other labels on the form. Then, on the OnClick even for the label, enter the following code:


procedure TTOKAboutBox.URLLabelClick(Sender: TObject);
var TempString : array[0..79] of char;
begin
   StrPCopy(TempString,URLLabel.Caption);
   OpenObject(TempString);
end;

And also place the following procedure where the OnClick event can see it:
procedure TTOKAboutBox.OpenObject(sObjectPath : PChar);
begin
 ShellExecute(0, Nil, sObjectPath, Nil, Nil, SW_NORMAL);
end;

Put ShellAPI in your uses clause

As far as the cursor goes, I set the URLLabel.Cursor property to crAppStart.


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