Expert Delphi: Robust and fast cross-platform application development 2 Ed

Cover....1

Title Page....2

Copyright and Credits....3

Foreword....5

Contributors....6

Table of Contents....10

Preface....16

Part 1: Building Blocks....24

Chapter1: Fasten Your Seat Belts....26

Delphi installation....26

Delphi versions....27

Running the Delphi installer....28

Installing custom components....30

IDE options....32

Riding the IDE....33

Delphi compilers and toolchains....34

The “Hello World” app....35

Deploying to mobile devices....47

Deploying to Android....47

Deploying to iOS....51

Summary....55

Chapter 2: Mind Your Language....56

Do you speak Object Pascal?....56

Program structure....57

Console application....58

Building a forms application....61

The Object Pascal language phrasebook....71

Tokens....71

Constants....72

Types....73

Inline variables declaration....74

Sets and arrays....75

Helpers....76

Generics....78

Anonymous code....81

Operator overloading....84

Runtime type information....84

Custom attributes....85

Summary....88

Chapter 3: Packing Up Your Toolbox....90

Technical requirements....90

Working with files and streams....90

Working with JSON....96

Writing JSON....97

Reading JSON....103

Using the JSON wizard in Delphi 12....107

Working with XML....108

Summary....113

Chapter 4: Using the Parallel Programming Library....114

Technical requirements....114

Using threads....115

Access synchronization....119

Calling Synchronize....119

Atomic operations....119

Using a critical section....120

Using TMonitor....120

Exploring the Parallel Programming Library....121

Parallel loops....122

Using tasks....123

The beauty of futures....125

Summary....126

Part 2: Going Mobile....128

Chapter 5: Playing with FireMonkey....130

Technical requirements....130

Drawing in code....131

Get moving with timers....136

Precise timing....138

The power of parenting....139

Shapes....139

Animations....142

Touching the screen....143

Touch....143

Gestures....145

Multi-touch....148

Game of Memory....150

Designing the game....151

Working with images....151

Designing the user interface....153

Aligning, anchoring, and margins....153

Layouts....154

Building the main form of the game....154

Storing the game’s configuration....162

The game’s settings form....164

Summary....167

Chapter 6: FireMonkey in 3D....168

Technical requirements....168

Cross-platform 3D rendering....168

Direct use of Context3D....169

Using a cube component....172

A custom wireframe component....173

Ready-to-use 3D objects....177

The Moving Earth app....178

Building an interactive 3D scene....183

Using 3D models....189

A starfield simulation....191

Mixing 3D and 2D....194

Summary....197

Chapter 7: Building User Interfaces with Style....198

Working with built-in styles....199

Adding more controls....202

Adding the dials....203

Using custom styles....204

Embedding styles as resources....207

Customizing styles....209

Using frames....212

Working with inherited views....217

Previewing forms on devices....221

Summary....224

Chapter 8: Working with Mobile Operating Systems....226

James Bond’s toy....227

What am I running on?....227

The life of an app....231

Sensing the world....234

Using the location....235

Using the orientation and motion sensors....239

Taking photos....241

Using share sheets....245

Camera, action!....247

Notify me!....249

Navigating the web....250

Delphi language bridges....252

Vibrating on Android....253

Vibrations on iOS....254

Summary....256

Chapter 9: Desktop Apps and Mobile Bridges....258

Technical requirements....259

Single source for mobile and desktop....259

Using the MultiView control....259

Using data grids....263

Leveraging layout controls....265

Flow layout....266

Grid layout....268

Scaled layout....270

Grid panel layout....271

Building desktop apps for Windows, macOS, and Linux....273

Creating apps for macOS....275

What about targeting Linux?....277

App tethering....279

Summary....285

Part 3: From Data to Services....286

Chapter 10: Embedding Databases....288

Technical requirements....288

Data-driven apps....289

Modeling data....290

Choosing a database....292

Accessing databases with FireDAC....294

Building a data-driven UI....304

Using visual live bindings....314

Fast UI prototyping....317

Summary....320

Chapter 11: Integrating with Web Services....322

Technical requirements....322

Understanding Web Services....323

Building a native HTTP client....324

Consuming XML SOAP Web Services....327

Integrating with REST services....330

Integrating with the cloud....334

The Delphi Cloud API....335

Moving the ToDo List app to Azure....335

Using the AWS SDK for Delphi....341

Summary....345

Chapter 12: Building Mobile Backends....346

Technical requirements....346

Delphi and multi-tier architectures....346

Working at a low level with WebBroker....348

Generating a standalone project....349

The Standalone WebBroker server....350

Adding Apache support....353

Adding a client application....354

Building the web module....355

Creating a new ToDo item....356

Reading the data and other operations....357

A client for the REST API....358

Do-it-yourself with DataSnap....362

Building the DataSnap server....363

Implementing the DataSnap server functionality....364

Building a DataSnap client....365

Summary....370

Chapter 13: Easy REST API Publishing with RAD Server....372

Technical requirements....372

RAD Server setup....373

Building RAD Server resources....377

The ToDo list in RAD Server....381

Creating a client app for RAD Server....385

Summary....389

Chapter 14: App Deployment....390

Technical requirements....390

Deploying to app stores....390

Apps artwork....392

Apps orientation....394

Publishing on the Apple iOS App Store....394

Publishing your Android apps to the Google Play Store....397

Monetizing with ads and in-app purchases....401

Automate the development process....402

App versioning....402

Practical version control....403

Sleeping well with unit testing....404

Summary....405

Chapter 15: The Road Ahead....406

Review of what we have learned....406

Trends in mobile development....407

A single screen is not your limit....408

Serverless backends and NoSQL databases....408

The AI revolution....409

Ideas for new and innovative apps for you to build....409

Summary....410

Index....412

Other Books You May Enjoy....1

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.