Some Random Dude

Posts Tagged ‘Delphi’

App Tethering : Overview

One of the capabilities introduced in recent versions of RAD Studio and AppMethod is App Tethering. Over a number of posts I want to explore App Tethering further, starting from an overview of the technology and then going further down… down eventually to the network packet level. My aim is you’ll come out with a quite thorough understanding not just how to use App Tethering, but also what you might use it for.

In the absence of anywhere else to start, let’s start with a question.

What is App Tethering?

In its simplest terms, App Tethering makes it easy for apps to find and communicate with each other. Now, I accept that is so generic an explanation as to be almost useless. You could say something similar about DataSnap, or EMS, or plenty of other distributed systems. So let’s shed a bit more light.

Read On…

XE7 VCL Events in Asia Pacific During November

We have a bunch of RAD Studio XE7 events coming up in APAC over the next month or so. They are free, half day sessions focussed on modernising existing VCL applications, where you’ll learn topics such as:

  • New VCL components, such as TaskBar and JumpList and how to easily add them to existing apps
  • Using the new Parallel Programming Library to improve the performance of your application
  • Migrating a BDE application to FireDAC
  • Extending an existing VCL application with a mobile companion app using App Tethering

 

The current list of cities, along with links to more details are:

Read On…

“No Code” Calculated Fields in RAD Studio and AppMethod

In Perth last week I was showing the new FieldOptions property on datasets. As part of the demo, I had to create a calculated field, and when I brought up the New Field dialog an audience member suggested I create an InternalCalc field instead.

I’d never heard of an InternalCalc field at the time, so later I did some research into what they are. In FireDAC they do everything a normal Calculated Field does, but in addition, you can define the value using the DefaultExpression property of the field, rather than having to write an OnCalcFields event handler.

Read On…

LiveBindings : How to treat an Integer field as a Boolean?

I had a question recently from someone, and it seemed a common enough requirement that I thought the solution might be worth sharing.

Let’s say you’ve got a database that has an Integer column which is really used as a Boolean. Zero for False, One for True. Further, for whatever reason, you can’t change the DB structure. How do you display this column to the end user as a boolean, so that they can use a Checkbox column in a grid, a TSwitch control, or similar to edit it? Read On…

Sneak Peek: Delphi, Android, ARM Assembler and Extra Awesomeness

Less than two years ago, Delphi was a windows-only development tool.

Think about that for a second. In less than 24 months, we’ve added native OSX support and native iOS support, with native Android support currently in beta.

Now, I’m as guilty as anyone of being impatient about features and fixes, but when I step back and view it like that, it’s an amazing change in just two years. This Engineering team astonishes me sometimes. Read On…

Programatically Disable the Idle Timer on iOS using the ObjectiveC Bridge

If you’ve got an iOS device, you’ve probably noticed that if you stop interacting with your device, after a little while it will turn off the screen and go to sleep. This makes perfect sense for devices that are battery challenged at the best of times, but one side effect of this is that whatever app is running will also stop.

For many apps, this is fine, but what if you don’t want your app to stop running? What if, like one project I’m working on currently, it is accepting input from the accelerometer and just because nobody is interacting with it right now, I still want it to record that accelerometer input? Read On…

Using the FM Messaging System for In-process Publish and Subscribe on Windows, OSX and iOS.

For quite awhile I’ve been using a messaging bus within my apps to de-couple different sub-systems from each other. I use this heavily in my MVVM-based apps to minimise the dependencies between my Views and ViewModels, but it applies to non-MVVM apps of reasonable complexity as well. Read On…

Where to see RAD Studio XE4 in the coming weeks

Things have been hectic since the XE4 launch. We’ve had in-person events in lots of countries around Asia. I’ve done Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, but they’ve also been happening in Australia (with ADUG) and China, and we’ve had lots of webinars as well.

What has been really encouraging is the number of new people at the events. I’ve spoken to Xcode developers, Visual Studio developers and Java developers across multiple countries who are all trying out Delphi for the first time. Read On…

A Facebook-style layout for your mobile app

I’ve been working on a ShowCase App for the Delphi XE4 release, and as part of it I wanted to have a “drawer” layout. I first saw this in the iOS and Android Facebook app, but it has shown up in other apps since.

If you’re not familiar with this, it is where your main content takes up the bulk of the screen, except for a toolbar at the top. The toolbar has a “hamburger” button that slides the main content area over to the right to expose a second content area (often a menu) underneath. Read On…