Book Image

Expert Delphi

By : Paweł Głowacki

Book Image

Expert Delphi

By: Paweł Głowacki

Overview of this book

Delphi is the most powerful Object Pascal IDE and component library for cross-platform native app development. It enables building natively compiled, blazingly fast apps for all major platforms including Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, and Linux. If you want to build server-side applications, create web services, and have clear GUIs for your project, then this book is for you. The book begins with a basic primer on Delphi helping you get accustomed to the IDE and the Object Pascal language and will then quickly move on to advanced-level concepts. Through this book, we’ll help you understand the architecture of applications and will teach you the important concepts of the FireMonkey library, show you how to build server-side services, and enable you to interact with the Internet of Things. Towards the end, you will learn to integrate your app with various web services and deploy them. By the end of the book, you will be able to build powerful, cross-platform, native apps for iOS and Android with a single code base.

Preface

What this book is not about

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Reader feedback

Customer support

Free Chapter

Fasten Your Seat Belts

Fasten Your Seat Belts

Delphi installation

Delphi compilers and toolchains

Hello World app

Deploying to mobile devices

Mind Your Language

Mind Your Language

Do you speak Object Pascal?

Object Pascal Phrase Book

Packing Up Your Toolbox

Packing Up Your Toolbox

Parallel Programming Library

Working with files

Playing with FireMonkey

Playing with FireMonkey

Drawing in code

Get moving with timers

The power of parenting

FireMonkey in 3D

FireMonkey in 3D

Cross-platform 3D rendering

Using Context3D

Custom Wireframe component

Building an interactive 3D scene

Using 3D models

Starfield simulation

Mixing 3D and 2D

Building User Interfaces with Style

Building User Interfaces with Style

Working with built-in styles

Using custom styles

Embedding styles as resources

Customizing styles

Working with inherited views

Previewing forms on devices

Working with Mobile Operating System

Working with Mobile Operating System

James Bond's toy

What I'm running on?

The life of an app

Sensing the world

Using share sheets

Camera, light, action!

Working with address book

Navigating the web

Working with maps

Creating and consuming Android services

Delphi language bridges

Extending to the Internet of Things

Extending to the Internet of Things

Communication protocols

Understanding BLE

Connecting to things with ThingConnect

Getting close with beacons

Proximity solutions with BeaconFence

Embedding Databases

Embedding Databases

Architecting data-driven apps

Choosing a database

Accessing databases with FireDAC

Building data-driven user interface

Using visual live bindings

Fast user interface prototyping

Integrating with Web Services

Integrating with Web Services

Understanding web services

Native HTTP client

Consuming XML SOAP web services

Integrating with REST services

Backend as a service client

Integrating with the cloud

Building Mobile Backends

Building Mobile Backends

Delphi and multi-tier architectures

Getting low-level with WebBroker

Do it yourself with DataSnap

Easy REST API publishing with RAD Server

App Deployment

Deploying to App Stores

Enhancing your apps

The Road Ahead

What we have learned

Staying on top of everything

Your next Delphi mobile app

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Do it yourself with DataSnap

WebBroker is good for really simple HTTP server functionality, but the more complex the system you want to build, the more you look into complete Delphi multi-tier frameworks such as DataSnap or RAD Server. They provide a lot more higher-level functionality than you can find in WebBroker.

The DataSnap framework has been part of Delphi since its early days and has been evolved over time. Delphi 3 introduced MIDAS technology to make it easy to build client/server database applications. In Delphi 6, this technology has been renamed to DataSnap and in Delphi 2009 it has been completely rewritten. In this new architecture, remote methods published by a DataSnap server look like database stored procedures that a typical SQL relational database system exposes. The dbExpress database access framework has been reused and a special DBX driver has been built...