Project Groups: what changed

Revision 1 to 2. Removed lines have a minus sign; added lines have a plus sign.

Old	New		Line
1	1		## Install
2	2
3	3		The package is available since Lazarus 1.5.
4	4
5	5		- Go to Package \> Install/Uninstall Packages.
6	6		- Search in Available for installation'' forlazprojectgroups'''.
7	7		- Select it.
8	8		- Click on Install selection.
9	9		- Save and rebuild IDE. The IDE will ask for confirmation, then it build the package, links it in and restarts itself.
10	10
11	11		## Features
12	12
13	13		### Menu items
14	14
15	15		- New project group - creates a new project group with the active project as target. Same function as the editor More / New.
16	16		- Open project group - opens a dialog to select an .lpg file
17	17		- Open recent project group - list of recently opened groups
18	18		- Save project group - same function as the editor Save button.
19	19		- Saves project group as - same function as the editor More / Save As button.
20	20
21	21		### Editor
22	22
23		-	~~<figure>~~
24		-	~~<img src="ProjectGroupsEditor2.png" title="ProjectGroupsEditor2.png" />~~
25		-	~~<figcaption>ProjectGroupsEditor2.png</figcaption>~~
26		-	~~</figure>~~
	23	+	![](/wiki-images/d/da/ProjectGroupsEditor2.png)
27	24
28	25		#### Editor toolbar
29	26
30	27		- Save - saves the .lpg including the .lpg files of nested project groups.
31	28		- Add
32	29		- Add from file - Add projects (.lpi), packages (.lpk), Groups (.lpg), single Pascal mfile (.pas, .pp) or scripts (e.g. .sh, *.bat)
33	30		- Add current project - Add active project to project group
34	31		- Remove - removes target from the list and puts it into removed targets.
35	32		- Compile - compiles the selected target:
36	33		- Project/Build Mode: if the project and build mode is active it calls the IDE function, otherwise it uses lazbuild to compile the project. lazbuild automatically compiles outdated packages used by the project - same as the IDE.
37	34		- Package: ompile using lazbuild. It uses lazbuild to compile a package in order to build independent of any project. It uses the target OS and CPU of lazbuild. lazbuild automatically compiles outdated packages used by the package.
38	35		- Pascal module: builds the file using the IDE directives.
39	36		- Project Group: builds all targets of the project group
40	37		- Script: runs the script
41	38		- Compile Clean - same as Compile, except it passes -B to lazbuild when compiling, telling FPC to rebuild every unit it finds sources
42	39		- Earlier - moves the target one position up
43	40		- Later - moves the target one position down
44	41		- Reload - reloads the current .lpg, rebuilding the whole tree.
45	42		- More
46	43		- New - create a new project group. Closes the old and opens the new.
47	44		- Save As - saves the project group as a different file.
48	45		- Undo - undo the last Delete
49	46		- Redo - not yet implemented
50	47		- Options - Opens the options frame. Same as Tools / Options / Environment / Project Groups
51	48		- Info - Opens a dialog showing some information, e.g. all source paths of the project group
52	49
53	50		#### Popup menu
54	51
55	52		Right clicking on a node gives the following menu items depending on the selected node:
56	53
57	54		- Copy filename - copies the filename of the selected target to the clipboard
58	55		- Run - Open the target in the IDEthis loads the project in the IDE
59	56		- Compile
60	57		- Compile clean
61	58		- Compile from here - compiles this target and all targets below.
62	59		- Remove
63	60		- Earlier
64	61		- Later
65	62		- Open - same as double click
66	63		- Project: this opens the project in the IDE (closing the currently active).
67	64		- Package: opens the package editor of the package.
68	65		- Pascal file: opens it in the source editor
69	66		- Properties
70	67		- Project: as open, except it also opens the Project Options.
71	68		- Package: opens the package editor of the package.
72	69		- Pascal file: opens the dialog to setup the IDE directives for Build and Run.
73	70
74	71		## Concepts
75	72
76	73		### Projects
77	74
78	75		- The IDE has only one active project. The active project defines the active target OS, CPU and processor, the loaded packages, search paths and other compiler flags. And the active project has exactly one active build mode.
79	76		- When compiling the active project build mode the normal IDE function DoBuildProject is called.
80	77		- When compiling another build mode of the active project the active build mode is switched and DoBuildProject is called.
81	78		- When compiling a non active project the external tool lazbuild is called and output is shown in the Messages window. Hints/Warnings/Errors of files outside the active project or its packages might be interpreted wrong by the IDE.
82	79		- Note: You can add the same project multiple times. For example add ProjectA with build mode Debug active, then ProjectA again, except with build mode Release active.
83	80
84	81		### Package
85	82
86	83		- A package is affected by the active project, for example the project defines the target OS and CPU.
87	84		- When compiling a package the tool lazbuild is called to make sure the active project has no effect. lazbuild uses the target OS/CPU it was compiled with.
88	85
89	86		### Pascal file
90	87
91	88		- If you want to see output of the Run command, add the following directive to the file:
92	89
93	90		``` pascal
94	91		{%RunFlags Messages+}
95	92		```
96	93
97	94		- Hint: You can use instantfpc scripts to write Pascal scripts to do arbitrary things, like creating a zip, update documentation, install, uploading files. See [[InstantFPC]]
98	95
99	96		Example for an instantfpc script:
100	97
101	98		``` pascal
102	99		#!/usr/bin/instantfpc
103	100		{%BuildCommand instantfpc --skip-run -B -gl myscript.pas}
104	101		{%RunCommand instantfpc -gl myscript.pas}
105	102		{%RunFlags Messages+}
106	103		begin
107	104		writeln('Running MyScript ...');
108	105		end.
109	106		```
110	107
111	108		### Nested Project Group
112	109
113	110		You can add a project group as a sub target of the project group.
114	111
115	112		## Other features
116	113
117	114		- By default if the project group editor was open when closing the IDE, the editor will reopen on next start with the last open group. You can disable this in the options.
118	115		- You can redirect Compile/Build to compile the selected target in the project group editor. See Tools / Options / Project Groups / "Compile" and "Build" compile target
119	116		- Option "Show target paths": Disable: show file names without path, Enable: show file names with paths relative to directory of lpg
120	117		- Find in files now has the option to search in all files in the currently loaded project group
121	118
122	119		## Bugs / ToDos
123	120
124	121		- Not yet updating menu items enabled state.
125	122		- Changes in the IDE are not yet updating the project group editor. After altering you need to click Reload.
126	123		- Changes on disk are not yet recognized. Use Reload.
127	124		- Show active build mode, active project
128	125		- "New" button to create a package/project/file and add to project groups
129	126		- clean function, like the Run / Clean up and build dialog
130	127		- drag and drop within the editor
131	128		- reorder targets
132	129		- move targets between sub groups
133	130		- move file to another project/package
134	131		- save session in project group, allowing to quickly switch the active project
135	132		- load sub projects in IDE to use code navigation for files not in the active project
136	133		- find references in files
137	134
138	135		---
139	136		From the Free Pascal wiki, page "Project Groups", as it stood on 2020-09-17 after a change by Trev, out of the wiki's dump of 2024-05-26. Copyright stays with the author who wrote it, according to the old wiki's [[Licensing]] page. If you have concerns about this material, [message the admin](/wiki-contact).
140	137		Category: Lazarus
141	138		Category: Lazarus IDE plugins
142	139		Category: Packages

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