Book Image

Expert Delphi - Second Edition

By : Marco Cantù, Paweł Głowacki

Book Image

Expert Delphi - Second Edition

By: Marco Cantù, Paweł Głowacki

Overview of this book

Master Delphi, the most powerful Object Pascal IDE and versatile component library for cross-platform native app development, by harnessing its capabilities for building natively compiled, blazingly fast apps for all major platforms, including Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, and Linux. Expert Delphi begins with a quick overview of Delphi, helping you get acquainted with the IDE and the Object Pascal language. The book then quickly progresses to more advanced concepts, followed by the architecture of applications and the FireMonkey library, guiding you through building server-side services, parallel programming, and database access. Toward the end, you’ll learn how to integrate your app with various web services and deploy them effectively. By the end of this book, you’ll be adept at building powerful, cross-platform, native apps for iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS—all from a single code base.

Preface

Who this book is for

What this book covers

To get the most out of this book

Download the example code files

Conventions used

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Free Chapter

Part 1: Building Blocks

Part 1: Building Blocks

Chapter 1: Fasten Your Seat Belts

Chapter 1: Fasten Your Seat Belts

Delphi installation

Deploying to mobile devices

Chapter 2: Mind Your Language

Chapter 2: Mind Your Language

Do you speak Object Pascal?

The Object Pascal language phrasebook

Chapter 3: Packing Up Your Toolbox

Chapter 3: Packing Up Your Toolbox

Technical requirements

Working with files and streams

Working with JSON

Working with XML

Chapter 4: Using the Parallel Programming Library

Chapter 4: Using the Parallel Programming Library

Technical requirements

Access synchronization

Exploring the Parallel Programming Library

Part 2: Going Mobile

Part 2: Going Mobile

Chapter 5: Playing with FireMonkey

Chapter 5: Playing with FireMonkey

Technical requirements

Drawing in code

Get moving with timers

The power of parenting

Touching the screen

Working with images

Designing the user interface

Building the main form of the game

Chapter 6: FireMonkey in 3D

Chapter 6: FireMonkey in 3D

Technical requirements

Cross-platform 3D rendering

Direct use of Context3D

Ready-to-use 3D objects

Mixing 3D and 2D

Chapter 7: Building User Interfaces with Style

Chapter 7: Building User Interfaces with Style

Working with built-in styles

Using custom styles

Working with inherited views

Previewing forms on devices

Chapter 8: Working with Mobile Operating Systems

Chapter 8: Working with Mobile Operating Systems

James Bond’s toy

What am I running on?

The life of an app

Sensing the world

Using share sheets

Camera, action!

Navigating the web

Delphi language bridges

Chapter 9: Desktop Apps and Mobile Bridges

Chapter 9: Desktop Apps and Mobile Bridges

Technical requirements

Single source for mobile and desktop

Using the MultiView control

Using data grids

Leveraging layout controls

Building desktop apps for Windows, macOS, and Linux

Part 3: From Data to Services

Part 3: From Data to Services

Chapter 10: Embedding Databases

Chapter 10: Embedding Databases

Technical requirements

Data-driven apps

Choosing a database

Accessing databases with FireDAC

Building a data-driven UI

Using visual live bindings

Fast UI prototyping

Chapter 11: Integrating with Web Services

Chapter 11: Integrating with Web Services

Technical requirements

Understanding Web Services

Building a native HTTP client

Consuming XML SOAP Web Services

Integrating with REST services

Integrating with the cloud

Using the AWS SDK for Delphi

Chapter 12: Building Mobile Backends

Chapter 12: Building Mobile Backends

Technical requirements

Delphi and multi-tier architectures

Working at a low level with WebBroker

Do-it-yourself with DataSnap

Chapter 13: Easy REST API Publishing with RAD Server

Chapter 13: Easy REST API Publishing with RAD Server

Technical requirements

RAD Server setup

Building RAD Server resources

The ToDo list in RAD Server

Creating a client app for RAD Server

Chapter 14: App Deployment

Chapter 14: App Deployment

Technical requirements

Deploying to app stores

Monetizing with ads and in-app purchases

Automate the development process

Chapter 15: The Road Ahead

Chapter 15: The Road Ahead

Review of what we have learned

Trends in mobile development

Ideas for new and innovative apps for you to build

Index

Other Books You May Enjoy

Other Books You May Enjoy

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FireMonkey in 3D

FireMonkey user interface controls offer a powerful multi-platform and multi-device development solution based on a single source code, with Delphi offering you the ability to build a native app for each target operating system. There are other solutions in this space, some of them more popular, even if not as powerful. What is unique to Delphi is having a component library, similar to the 2D one, for 3D programming. With FireMonkey, we can create fully cross-platform GPU-powered GUIs, based on a specific 3D API on each platform.

In this chapter, we are going to add the third dimension to our FireMonkey projects. We will cover the following points:

Cross-platform 3D rendering
Direct use of Context3D
Ready-to-use 3D objects
Mixing 3D and 2D

The objective of this chapter is to learn FireMonkey 3D programming and how to build interactive cross-platform 3D GUIs. As usual, we’ll do this by going over demos – showcasing different...