The TIxItemListEditor is a specialized grid control for editing a collection of items using an object inspector style interface. Each item in the collection represents a name with one or more values along with various attributes that describe how the item appears and functions in the grid. Individual items can also manage their own collection of sub-items, thus allowing the creation of a hierarchy with the ability to expand and collapse nested items. The values are edited as strings, but for a given item, the TIxItemListEditor can be configured to provide a drop-down list of strings, or invoke a custom dialog box to be used to edit the string value. In addition, the Strings property provides a simple way of populating the Items collection with name-value pairs, where the name portion may be a dotted path (e.g. Font.Name=Tahoma) to create items and sub-items.

The TIxObjectInspector is essentially a specialized version of the TIxItemListInspector with the ability to scan one or more objects and automatically populate the control’s Items collection from the properties of the inspected objects. Property types are also automatically established so that property presets are utilized to enhance the display and editing capabilities of each item. The TIxObjectInspector even predefines a set of common categories which can be used to arrange properties into category groups. The TIxObjectInspector also offers additional services such as the ability to display and edit string list and collection properties directly in the grid, to add calculated properties to the collection, and to control item visibility by setting up filters.