Expert Delphi - : Robust and fast cross-platform application development

✍ Scribed by Marco Cantù, Pawel Glowacki

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2024
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 424
• Edition: 2
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Harness the power of the Delphi IDE and programming language, coupled with the FireMonkey library, to develop modern desktop and mobile apps with high speed and natively compiled efficiency from a single source code base

Key Features

• Understand the fundamentals of Delphi for building multi-device applications
• Build desktop and mobile apps with the help of extensive examples that guide you through each step
• Apply advanced features, such as parallel programming and multi-tier full-stack solutions, based on web connectivity
• Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook

Book Description

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.

What you will learn

• Configure the Delphi IDE for mobile development, use Object Pascal, and build apps
• Manage core Delphi technologies, including parallel programming, JSON, XML, and FireMonkey
• Explore FireMonkey 3D features, UI styles, and mobile OS integration to build powerful apps
• Extend your apps to desktop using the same source code and set of technologies to expand opportunities
• Build web services integrate them with your UI for a holistic developer experience
• Deploy apps to devices and online stores, streamlining distribution and facilitating monetization

Who this book is for

If you're a Delphi developer exclusively versed in Windows applications and aspire to venture into mobile platforms, this book will pave the way for you to become an expert in this space. It serves as a guide for mobile developers or developers in general, proficient in other programming languages and frameworks, to harness the productivity that Delphi and FireMonkey offer.

Table of Contents

1. Fasten Your Seat Belts
2. Mind Your Language
3. Packing Up Your Toolbox
4. Using the Parallel Programming Library
5. Playing with FireMonkey
6. FireMonkey in 3D
7. Building User Interfaces with Style
8. Working with Mobile Operating System
9. Desktop Apps and Mobile Bridges
10. Embedding Databases
11. Integrating with Web Services
12. Building Mobile Backends
13. Easy REST API Publishing with RAD Server
14. App Deployment
15. The Road Ahead

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Foreword
Contributors
Table of Contents
Preface
Part 1: Building Blocks
Chapter1: Fasten Your Seat Belts
Delphi installation
Delphi versions
Running the Delphi installer
Installing custom components
IDE options
Riding the IDE
Delphi compilers and toolchains
The “Hello World” app
Deploying to mobile devices
Deploying to Android
Deploying to iOS
Summary
Chapter 2: Mind Your Language
Do you speak Object Pascal?
Program structure
Console application
Building a forms application
The Object Pascal language phrasebook
Tokens
Constants
Types
Inline variables declaration
Sets and arrays
Helpers
Generics
Anonymous code
Operator overloading
Runtime type information
Custom attributes
Summary
Chapter 3: Packing Up Your Toolbox
Technical requirements
Working with files and streams
Working with JSON
Writing JSON
Reading JSON
Using the JSON wizard in Delphi 12
Working with XML
Summary
Chapter 4: Using the Parallel Programming Library
Technical requirements
Using threads
Access synchronization
Calling Synchronize
Atomic operations
Using a critical section
Using TMonitor
Exploring the Parallel Programming Library
Parallel loops
Using tasks
The beauty of futures
Summary
Part 2: Going Mobile
Chapter 5: Playing with FireMonkey
Technical requirements
Drawing in code
Get moving with timers
Precise timing
The power of parenting
Shapes
Animations
Touching the screen
Touch
Gestures
Multi-touch
Game of Memory
Designing the game
Working with images
Designing the user interface
Aligning, anchoring, and margins
Layouts
Building the main form of the game
Storing the game’s configuration
The game’s settings form
Summary
Chapter 6: FireMonkey in 3D
Technical requirements
Cross-platform 3D rendering
Direct use of Context3D
Using a cube component
A custom wireframe component
Ready-to-use 3D objects
The Moving Earth app
Building an interactive 3D scene
Using 3D models
A starfield simulation
Mixing 3D and 2D
Summary
Chapter 7: Building User Interfaceswith Style
Working with built-in styles
Adding more controls
Adding the dials
Using custom styles
Embedding styles as resources
Customizing styles
Using frames
Working with inherited views
Previewing forms on devices
Summary
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 the location
Using the orientation and motion sensors
Taking photos
Using share sheets
Camera, action!
Notify me!
Navigating the web
Delphi language bridges
Vibrating on Android
Vibrations on iOS
Summary
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
Flow layout
Grid layout
Scaled layout
Grid panel layout
Building desktop apps for Windows, macOS, and Linux
Creating apps for macOS
What about targeting Linux?
App tethering
Summary
Part 3: From Data to Services
Chapter 10: Embedding Databases
Technical requirements
Data-driven apps
Modeling data
Choosing a database
Accessing databases with FireDAC
Building a data-driven UI
Using visual live bindings
Fast UI prototyping
Summary
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
The Delphi Cloud API
Moving the ToDo List app to Azure
Using the AWS SDK for Delphi
Summary
Chapter 12: Building Mobile Backends
Technical requirements
Delphi and multi-tier architectures
Working at a low level with WebBroker
Generating a standalone project
The Standalone WebBroker server
Adding Apache support
Adding a client application
Building the web module
Creating a new ToDo item
Reading the data and other operations
A client for the REST API
Do-it-yourself with DataSnap
Building the DataSnap server
Implementing the DataSnap server functionality
Building a DataSnap client
Summary
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
Summary
Chapter 14: App Deployment
Technical requirements
Deploying to app stores
Apps artwork
Apps orientation
Publishing on the Apple iOS App Store
Publishing your Android apps to the Google Play Store
Monetizing with ads and in-app purchases
Automate the development process
App versioning
Practical version control
Sleeping well with unit testing
Summary
Chapter 15: The Road Ahead
Review of what we have learned
Trends in mobile development
A single screen is not your limit
Serverless backends and NoSQL databases
The AI revolution
Ideas for new and innovative apps for you to build
Summary
Index
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