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Expert Delphi

By : Paweł Głowacki

4.6 (5)

Buy this Book

Expert Delphi

4.6 (5)

By: Paweł Głowacki

Buy this Book

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

Why Delphi?

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Free Chapter

Fasten Your Seat Belts

Delphi installation

Delphi compilers and toolchains

Hello World app

Deploying to mobile devices

Summary

Mind Your Language

Do you speak Object Pascal?

Object Pascal Phrase Book

Summary

Packing Up Your Toolbox

Parallel Programming Library

Working with files

JSON

XML

Summary

Playing with FireMonkey

Drawing in code

Get moving with timers

The power of parenting

Touch me

Game of Memory

Summary

FireMonkey in 3D

Cross-platform 3D rendering

Using Context3D

Custom Wireframe component

Objects 3D

Moving Earth

Building an interactive 3D scene

Using 3D models

Starfield simulation

Mixing 3D and 2D

Summary

Building User Interfaces with Style

Working with built-in styles

Using custom styles

Embedding styles as resources

Customizing styles

Using frames

Working with inherited views

Previewing forms on devices

Summary

Working with Mobile Operating System

James Bond's toy

What I'm running on?

The life of an app

Sensing the world

Taking photos

Using share sheets

Camera, light, action!

Working with address book

Notify me!

Navigating the web

Working with maps

Creating and consuming Android services

Delphi language bridges

Summary

Extending to the Internet of Things

Communication protocols

Understanding BLE

Connecting to things with ThingConnect

Getting close with beacons

Proximity solutions with BeaconFence

App tethering

Summary

Embedding Databases

Architecting data-driven apps

Modeling data

Choosing a database

Accessing databases with FireDAC

Building data-driven user interface

Using visual live bindings

Fast user interface prototyping

Summary

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

Summary

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

Summary

App Deployment

Deploying to App Stores

Enhancing your apps

Summary

The Road Ahead

What we have learned

Staying on top of everything

Your next Delphi mobile app

Summary

Working with Mobile Operating System

In this chapter, we are going to move from playing with FireMonkey to building useful cross-platform apps that are accessing mobile hardware and operating systems with high-level components, abstracting away underlying mobile APIs.

This chapter will cover the following points:

Sensors
Camera
Share sheets
Address book
Embedding web browsers
Using maps
Creating and consuming Android services
Using language bridges for accessing Java and Objective-C code

The objective of this chapter is to learn how to create native cross-platform apps that are using different frameworks and functionality provided by mobile operating systems.