Question

We have a phGantTimePackage COM developer license and developed an application for one of our customers using vb6.
Now we were asked to convert it into a vb.net app. They also want
to use this application within browsers (asp.net). My question is: Can i do this with the COM module or do i have to use GTP.NET?
And if we have to use GTP.NET: do we have to buy a new license?

Answer

You can use the phGantTimePackage in VB.NET, the .NET interop functionality makes this just as easy as in vb6.

Depending on what your customer has in mind, you can choose to integrate the phGantTimePackage into IE as an client side activeX control. This will limit the potential users due to security settings etc.

Or you can choose to switch to GTP.NET. GTP.NET can act as a server side ASP.NET control that will show up in any html browser but with limited edit possibilites (out of the box, with your extensions it can still be used for editing). GTP.NET has a much fuller Object-oriented api than the com version of phGantTimePackage has, so it has more possibilies and is more flexible.

If you choose to go with GTP.NET you can still upgrade your phGantTimePackage license for only half the price of a new GTP.NET license.

Question

How should I handle time zone discontinuities?

E.g. straight Flight from SYD/LAX arrives before it leaves in local time.

User does not want to display date time in UTC/GMT.

Answer

A bit tricky… Depending on what you really want I would suggest one of the following:

Create two time items for each flight, with two different TimeItemCellLayout colors. Say that you choose Green for flight start and Yellow for flight landing… Then you can allow the Landing to take place before the start. I’m not sure if the average user would understand this behaviour, but you can clarify it with tooltips or TimeItemTexts.

or

Implement the OnDateScalerDrawString event and extra info into the date scale showing seperate time zones… Maybe you want to ovveride the entire DateScale presentation for this, then implement the Gantt.OnDateScalerPaintForeground event…

Question

What is the SubCol field of TimeItem and how is it used?

Answer

The SubCol property of phDataEntity_GantTime and  phDataEntity_SchemaTime in the phGantTimePackage and on the GTP.TimeItem in GTP.NET controls sub-columns or, in the Gantt case, sub-rows of a single GanttRow.

The SubCol property is the one set by the CollisionDetection logic (when CollisionDetect=true) to visualize the time items side by side rather than on top of each other.

You may also use the SubCol property yourself if you turn off the CollisionDetecion. Setting the SubCol property to Zero is equal to “no subcolumn” and 1 is the first of the SubColumns. You can control the number of sub columns by setting GTP.GanttRow.SubColumns=x or in the phGantTimePackage you would use IphGantRow3.SetUseSubCols(x)

Delphi2005 Runs both .NET and win32.

To get the phGantTimePackage VCL for win32 Delphi2005, download this: https://plexityhide.com/pub/d2005dcu.zip

To run the .NET components in GTP.NET download the normal GTP.NET installation https://plexityhide.com/pub/GTP.NET.msi

To tap into some truly powerfull stuff, download our ECOII Samples for Delphi2005 and GTP.NET; https://plexityhide.com/pub/SamplesECO.zip

Question

I set a time element using objTimeElement.selected = True.  The handles appear on the object showing that it is indeed selected.  However, the method CurrentDataEntityGantArea does not return a reference to that object.  I think I understand why – multiple items can be selected, but only one of them can be the current data item.  The question then is how can I set the currentDataEntityGantArea from Code?

Answer

Correct. The selection is one thing, and the Focused or Current time item is another thing.

Selection state is controlled with dataEntity.Selected=true/false
And Focus/Current is controlled with IphGantX3.SetCurrentDataEntityGantArea(dataentity).

Question

How far off are you from having a version of the components to work with Delphi 2005?

Answer

Its already working; take a look at this ECOII sample https://plexityhide.com/pub/SamplesECO.zip

This is made with the newer GTP.NET

To Get the phGantTimePackage compiled for Delphi2005 ; download this: https://plexityhide.com/pub/d2005dcu.zip

Question

I am testing the VCL gantt components and am wondering why the treeview shows the plus (+) sign on nodes that do not have children?

Answer

As long as the Expanded property on the dataentities is set to false it will show the plus sign. Simply set Expanded=true on the nodes; if the childnode list have items the minus will show, otherwise the standard “nothing” will show.

Question

 Is there any better documentation that explains what each property, method, and event is used for.  I have been working on a sample app in demo mode for two days and am needing to do some very specific things but cannot get the right answers from the help.

Answer

The VCL components has a complete but very very brief help file. This is true and we are aware of this. Hopefully this can be compensated somewhat by the samples that are available here: https://plexityhide.com/pub/VCLNative.zip

Question

How can I do a container row in activeX? I´m workin in Visual foxpro ver.8.0. Please send me a example.
im working with the demo version.
Thank you.

Answer

There is, currently, no built in support for conatiner rows. You can create the time item looking like a container (set time style= tsSpan), but you need to implement the desired logic to grow and shrink based on sub nodes time items yourself. You can do this by catching the event IphGantX3.OnValueChangedGantTime, check if the time item lies under a container node, find max and min for all time items under the container and change the value if needed.

Question

Thank you for your replies, our company is in one step to buy your product! Your support are great!
One more question about phGantTimePackage:
How can I show a progress by a task as it is in the Microsoft Project?

Answer

There are two possible solutions depending on your needs.

First; Implement user draw on the time item and draw it yourself, and draw the progress bar as part of the time item.

Second solution; Add another, thinner, time item in another layer. This solution will allow you users to change the progress by click and drag, but you need to move the progress bar time item when the main time item is moved.