Package (BPL) Automatic Naming Suffix - delphi

I write a lot of components and libraries for Delphi, most of which require the use of BPL Packaging so that they may be installed into the IDE.
This is simple enough and works well, right up until you want to maintain a single set of Package Project Files (in a single Project Group), but also want to compile and distribute those same packages for different Delphi versions.
Up to now I've been creating a different Package Project for each version of Delphi, and explicitly defining a Delphi Version Identifier as a suffix (e.g. Kinect_XE.bpl and Kinect_XE2.bpl).
I am aware that, in the Project Options for a Package Project, under Description, there are the fields LIB prefix and (more importantly for my needs) LIB suffix.
I am further aware that if I place a value in LIB suffix, it'll be appended to the end of the compiled BPL's filename.
My question, however, is first whether it is possible to have the IDE automatically populate the LIB suffix field with the IDE/RTL Version number, and if so... how?
I'm fairly certain this is possible, as it would appear that vcl120.bpl (and its counterparts for each respective version of Delphi) can be Referenced (as requirements) of your own packages using just vcl rather than having to type the full vcl120. It is, in fact, this same behaviour I'm hoping to achieve... where my packages can intra-reference eachother (as neccessary) without having to provide version-specific references to accommodate the suffixes.
Equally important is that resolving this will enable me to maintain a single set of Project Files in a single Project Group (with the obvious exception of XE2 where its Project Files don't necessarily behave very well with previous versions of Delphi due to the Platforms addition).
I suspect that I may need to put a value like $(VER) (or something similar) in the LIB suffix field, but this appears not to work and I've scoured Google looking for the correct solution.
Hope you can help!
UPDATE 1
I am now writing an IDE plugin to be used with (in the very least) Delphi 2007 to XE2, which gives DLL and BPL projects a new option called AutoSuffix. When toggled On, any IDE with the AutoSuffix plugin installed will immediately apply the correct IDE version suffix to the project.
The AutoSuffix plugin will be made available (freely) for everyone within the next 24 hours, and this question updated accordingly.
UPDATE 2
Okay... Delphi 2007 is being a pain! I've made AutoSuffix work with 2009 to XE2, so far, but 2007 requires a little more time (patience appreciated).
UPDATE 3
It would appear as though Embarcadero have heard our collective cry for simplier package unification between versions.
Mark is going to push this through to see if future versions of Delphi can accommodate a {$LIBSUFFIX AUTO} feature. I hope to hear back very soon whether this will be the case. If so, it certainly affects the way AutoSuffix will need to work on XE2 and older versions (as presently it doesn't provide the simple AUTO switch.. it has its own method).
My hope now is that EMB will take this request seriously, provide it as an integral feature going forward, so that it becomes a simple case of using AutoSuffix on existing versions to unify the process accross all versions!

AFAIK for Delphi up to XE2 there is no automatism for doing this.
Concerning the requires clause: when you require another package you are actually using the dcp, which doesn't inherit the LIBSUFFIX. Thus it is sufficient to require VCL.dcp during compile time, while VCL160.bpl is actually used during runtime. The DCP includes the complete BPL name to resolve that.
This makes the LIBSUFFIX approach superior to the simple "rename the package for each version of Delphi" one.
A solution like that suggested in QC83229 would make it easier to port a package to a newer Delphi version, but then you are still stuck with dproj files that are not backwards compatible.
I normally use different folders for each Delphi version, where only the project files are stored. For a new Delphi version I only have to copy a folder and change the LIBSUFFIX.

LIBSUFFIX directive is in *.dpk file, and you can edit *.dpk file manually.
You can write, for example
{$IFDEF CONDITIONALEXPRESSIONS}
{$IF CompilerVersion = 20.0}
{$LIBSUFFIX '120'}
{$IFEND}
{$IF CompilerVersion = 21.0}
{$LIBSUFFIX '140'}
{$IFEND}
{$ENDIF}
The bad thing is that IDE does not respect your manual edits of *.dpk file and deletes them then you make changes in a package. That is why some component vendors that use conditional defines in *.dpk file say in installation instruction if asked to save changes say 'NO'.

My suggestion would be to add this as a configurable option to project option sets (see QC #86491.) Rather than updating all the packages it would be sufficient to update a single option set file.
In fact, it seems the DllSuffix tag is recognized by the option set files in Delphi XE/XE2. Adding <DllSuffix>160</DllSuffix> to the <PropertyGroup> section of an option set file will cause the suffix to be appended to the package in the project manager. However, you still have to open the project options and click OK in order for it to be saved to the .dpk file.
I agree that it would be extremely useful with this feature (I would think also for the packages in the RTL.)

{$LIBSUFFIX AUTO} feature was added in Delphi 10.4.1:
In previous versions (version 10.3 and earlier) of C++Builder and
Delphi developers building packages needed to manually set their
package’s library suffix setting. The DocWiki “What’s new in version
10.4.1” mentions a new IDE projects option for setting the library suffix:
“Package AUTO libsuffix: packages can now have an automatic version
suffix, instead of manually updating and specifying the right version
suffix with each new release. (The compiler quietly supported this in
10.4, but full support for the feature in the IDE and package project settings is introduced in 10.4.1.)”

Related

Share Delphi components but without source code

I've created some components in Delphi and I would like to give them to somebody else for use, but without source code.
I use the latest version of Delphi (10.2 Tokyo).
What are the steps I need to follow? Thank you!
If you want to share components in Delphi without source code, you must ensure that the other user has the exact same version of Delphi as you have[1]. This won't work with a different version. Note that it does not have to be the same SKU, i.e. you can have Professional or Community and the other can have, say, Enterprise. Only the version (e.g. Berlin 10.1, Tokyo 10.2, etc.) is important.
Then you can either
put them in a package and distribute the bpl and dcp files.
distribute the dcu files.
or both (preferrable)
Note that the user will have to install these. There are instructions in the help files on how to do that (no link, sorry, as the DocWiki seems to be down right now). Note that the package must be in one of the paths in the Windows DLL search order.
You could of course also write an installer, using one of the installer creating applications like InnoSetup (no association), but that is a topic of its own.
[1] That is the reason that many Delphi developers prefer components or classes with source and would not accept or buy one of these without source. Having the source also allows you to fix little bugs.

What is the best way to install components?

Installing components under Delphi XE3 is a nightmare.
First I need to add source files to
Tools -> Options -> Library
then I need to find a normal package and compile it
finally I need to find design time package and install it.
This is just quite tedious and error prone. Is there a nicer way to install components?
I have found Delphi Package Installer. Unfortunately it doesn't support Delphi XE3 or above.
I have heard that there is something similar which produces exe packages that install themselves (something like Inno Setup) but I can't find such thing.
No. The steps above are required.
First, adding the file path to Tools->Options->Delphi Options->Library Path is so the compiler knows where to find the files to compile them. (Actually, it's not required - you can eliminate this step by making sure that the .dpk files are in the same folder as the .pas files, and that all .pas file names are listed in the includes section in the .dpk. If the .pas files are in a different location, you'll need to either use relative paths in the .dpk (eg., MyComponents in '..\Source\MyComponents.pas') or add the location of the .pas files to Project->Options->Delphi Compiler->Search Path.)
The next step (finding the "normal package") is in order to build the runtime package. It's required, because the design-time package (next step) requires the code that's in that package in order to function in the Form Designer. It's also needed when you decide to build your application with runtime packages, if you use the third-party components and want to distribute the runtime package for it.
The separate design-time package (the third step) is required because designtime code can only be used at design-time; there's nothing that can be distributed with an application if it's built with runtime packages and the package build in step 2 is one of them.
This has been the way components are installed since around Delphi 3 or so, and the requirement to separate out designtime code into it's own package started being advised in Delphi 5 and enforced in Delphi 6 (when they relocated much of the IDE designtime support into their own separate packages and stopped distributing the source for them).
There really are no other options, unless the vendor supplies pre-build designtime and runtime packages for you, or supplies an installer that will do all of the above steps. (Most don't.) But if you update your Delphi version, you'd still have to go through the steps above.
What about the built-in component installer? It is part of Delphi XE, XE2 and XE3 and a description can be found here (I wrote it). It will even install components in C++Builder. You can instal into an existing package or into a new one, which it will create for you.
I would say that the best way to install components is to use your build manager (for example FinalBuilder) and add each component to a manager-project file which sets the necessary paths, builds the DPK files, and 'installs' the component in the IDE by making a registry entry. That way you have a documented procedure which allows you reliably to set up or repair your complete, tested, Delphi development environment. You can simply re-run the project when a component has been updated and tested. It is also quite easy to tweak an existing project to handle a new Delphi version.
The big disadvantage of a vendor-supplied installer is that all the ones I have seen simply overwrite the previous version on updates. I prefer to control the install myself, so that I have previous component source versions archived and available for comparison, in case testing reveals a problem with an upgrade. The 'one-click install' sounds fine, until a minor component upgrade suddenly causes your application to stop working.
Take a look at "Lazy Delphi Builder". It was created to simplify build/installation of many components at once. It resolves packages dependencies automatically. Free to use.
Link to some old tutorial

Custom component dependency hell

I'm trying to make a package for a custom component I made. It's based on several libraries, including Graphics32, GraphicEx and CCR.Exif.
I created a Package project, wrote the unit including its Register procedure, added some extra references Delphi notified me about to the requires section (including dbrtl.dcp, inet.dcp, soaprtl.dcp, vclimg.dcp, xmlrtl.dcp and dclGraphicEx140.dcp) and added many units to the contains section to avoid warnings about it happening implicitly. The project compiles and can be installed and used on my own machine without issues. However, when I want to install it on another machine, the troubles begin. In the end, I had to copy about all DCUs from all 3rd party components I used, plus both the DCP and BPL from GraphicEx, which I had to install even.
Supplying a lot of files is a bummer, yet surmountable, but having to install other packages as well is a no go. I could get rid of that DCP and BPL by putting even more units in the contains section, but that resulted in error messages on my own machine where GraphicEx is actually installed. This is confusing to me, because with Graphics32 nothing like that occurs...
Anyway, how do I keep my distribution to a minimum and avoid such situations? I want other developers on my team to be able to use the package without worrying about what I used to build it. For a start, can't all the 3rd party units be compiled into my own DCU?
What you experienced is an usual thing to the ones who write components. The distribution is always like that. Packages do not carry other packages, insted they reference them. It´s in their nature.
In order to overcome such a situation I always treat my components in the same way I would if they were a product to sell: I build a setup wizard that distributes and registers everything the package needs.
In my case InnoSetup works very well (http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php).
Summary
Haven't use Delphi for a while, but, did develop my custom visual controls (Last version I work was Delphi 6).
There are 2 issues when dealing with packages dependencies. One is installing at the Delphi enviroment, making controls appear on the component palette, plus, component editors & property editors.
And another when distributing the compiled packages into customers machines.
It also depends, on which version on Delphi you are running.
Design Time
When developing a custom package, there is a tab for package options, that indicates the destination folders.
The manuals usually tell the developers to leave those textboxes empty. That sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. I explicity write each folder path, in the respective textbox.
There is a textbox path for the ".dcp" files, other for the ".dcu", and so on.
If you have visual controls and stuff like property editors or component editors, its better to split the code in 2 packages ("Runtime" & "Designtime").
I usually put the delphi (packages) projects outside the delphi installation folder.
Run Time
Usually, the quick way is to put the "*.bpl" ".dcp" files in the Windows (32) / system folder, or similar "DLL" windows folder.
Packages folder structure source code suggestion
Managing packages can be difficult. I don't know how much the installation process has changed with Embarcadero, and the newer versions of Delphi. The following chart,is an example on how organize the source code. Hope it helps.
[-]--+--c:
.....|
.....+--[-]--+--software
.............|
.............+--[+]-----java
.............|
.............+--[+]-----php
.............|
.............+--[-]--+--delphi (not the delphi folder in program files)
.....................|
.....................+--[+]-----apps (source code for delphi programs)
.....................|
.....................+--[+]-----other
.....................|
.....................+--[-]--+--packages (all delphi packages source code here)
.............................|
.............................+--[+]-----lib (a single package for non visual controls, libraries)
.............................|
.............................+--[+]-----tools (package pair for non visual tcomponent descendants)
.............................|
.............................+--[+]-----json (example)
.............................|
.............................+--[+]-----xml (example)
.............................|
.............................+--[-]--+--mycontrols (folder custom visual controls)
.............................|.......|
.............................|.......+--[-]--+--delphi40 (folder for delphi40 version of "mycontrols")
.............................|.......|.......|
.............................|.......|.......+----------dsgvclctrls40.dpk (design-time package "mycontrols")
.............................|.......|.......|
.............................|.......|.......+----------runvclctrls40.dpk (run-time package "mycontrols")
.............................|.......|.......|
.............................|.......|.......+--[+]--+--demos (individual example for each "mycontrol")
.............................|.......|.......|
.............................|.......|.......+--[+]--+--design ("*.pas" component editors destination folder)
.............................|.......|.......|
.............................|.......|.......+--[+]--+--sources ("*.pas" source code destination folder)
.............................|.......|.......|
.............................|.......|.......+--[+]--+--bin ("*.dcu" destination folder)
.............................|.......|........
.............................|.......+--[+]--+--delphi50 (folder for delphi50 version of "mycontrols")
.............................|.......|........
.............................|.......+--[+]--+--delphi60 (folder for delphi60 version of "mycontrols")
.............................|.......|........
.............................|.......+--[+]--+--delphi70 (folder for delphi70 version of "mycontrols")
.............................|................
.............................+--[-]-----etc...
Cheers.
Thijs, you simply cannot do that with only a package. The target developer will require almost everything you added to the package. But there is an alternate way of doing what you want: Build a DLL with all the components/libraries you are using in your own component and wrap all those external components/libraries into some code you will export from the DLL. Then build your component without using the external components directly but the DLL you've built. You cannot in you component "use" any unit of the other external components/Libraries. You have to build a new unit with all the datatypes and required declaration for anything you export from your DLL. All this is perfectly working but will quickly becomes very complex for a large number of external components or libraries.
I think AlexSC has the best answer, but I think there might be an alternative if you ansolutely must have a custom component that has no dependencies.
I ran into the Delphi dependency frustrations a little while back trying to create an in-house component for our developers. My suggestion:
Uninstall all dependencies your component uses
In your component package, remove the above dcp from the requires section from your package.
Copy the source files of your dependencies to your components
When you distribute the component, you'll have to distibute it with the code of the required dependecies
You'll run into issues if you want to use the dependcies separately since Delphi won't allow you to have duplicate unit names in installed packages.
Also, the reason you don't want to use DCUs is the fact that the DCUs are compiled for a specific platform and compiler. So unless you are sure that all devolpers are on the same platform ad using the same version of Delphi, dependency code needs to be recompiled.
Again, AlexSC has the best answer and InnoStudio is a great little tool.

How to keep forms and frames compilable in Delphi 6 - 2007?

We recently converted our long-running Delphi project to Open Source. Multiple people have contributed patches already, which is great, but unfortunately forms and frames when saved with Delphi 2006 (and later) contain new properties in the .dfm that are not handled by older versions. Forms are handled quite gracefully by the IDE ("ignore propery?"), but frames are loaded at runtime and result in errors. Not an option, as far as I'm concerned.
I now removed those properties from the .dmf files by hand, but I am really wondering if there is a more elegant solution. There is no way to save in a backwards compatible format from the new IDE's, is there? Are there existing tools to strip the nonsupported properties from the .dfm's ? Any other elegant solution I am missing?
Normally, with a commercial project, I'd just upgrade the project to the most recent version applicable... but as this is open source I really don't want to loose out on those developers still working on Delphi 7. That includes myself, actually.
The JEDI JVCL project uses a little utility dc.exe (delphi cleaner) and a list of properties in DFMs that are not present in older versions of delphi, mine contains the following text:
*.PopupMode
*.PopupParent
*.ExplicitLeft
*.ExplicitTop
*.ExplicitWidth
*.ExplicitHeight
*.BevelKind
*.BufferDocument
*.DoubleBuffered
*.ParentDoubleBuffered
*.DisableHyperlinks
*.AlwaysEnquoteFloats
*.PixelsPerInch
I run this dc.exe utility from a batch file which cleans my dfms before I commit
changes to subversion. The syntax in my batch file for this is:
dc.exe -s -fd10.txt *.dfm -i
You can grab my stuff at:
http://sites.google.com/site/warrenpostma/files
You can try Andy's DFMCheck. It can automatically open and close all forms and frames in a project, which makes the IDE remove unknown properties (as Marco wrote).
Well, for sake of completeness:
Open the dfms in the oldest Delphi supported, let it remove all unknown properties, change a property and save.
For your purposes, Warren's solution is better, but it can be a workaround. I did it for a while when we were dual D7-D2006ing.

What is the proper way to update Delphi 2009's default installation of Indy 10?

Since Indy is now built-into the install process of Delphi 2009... is there a proper way to 'remove' it so it can be upgraded to the latest from the SVN repo? There isn't an automated option to remove it as far as I'm aware.
The dcu files for Indy are stored separately from the other Delphi units. To stop using them, simply remove that directory from the search path, library path, etc., and remove the source files from the browse path.
You can remove the design-time packages the same as any other design-time packages. Remove them from the IDE configuration, and then delete the bpl and dcp files. (If you just delete the files, you may get errors when you next start the IDE since it won't find the expected files.)
Once the Indy components no longer appear on the Tool Palette, the packages no longer appear on the package list, and compiling a project that references Indy units fails with a "can't find used unit" error, you're ready to start installing the latest version.
As Rob already said: Just remove the direcories from Delphi's configuration. An additional step is required though: After each update, make sure they have not been added again! Some of the Delphi 2007 updates apparently did that and I missed it for quite a while until I stumbled upon a bug that I already thought fixed.
I didn't use Delphi 2009, but in older versions of Delphi the installation of Indy components was optional. So you could try launching the setup for Delphi 2009 and see if there is an option to "Add/Remove features" or something similar and use it to remove Indy.
Also, you can customize which packages should be loaded in a project, so you can simply deselect the Indy 10 one and add the one from SVN on a per-project basis (you can also configure the default configuration for projects).
PS. Indy rocks! :-)

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