Delphi XE2 on iOS with Indy or Third Party Internet Components - ios

Are there third party components available for Delphi XE2 to create iOS applications with Internet support?
For example, the Indy components that ship with Delphi XE2 do not work with a FireMonkey iOS app. I want to be able to communicate with a REST Web Service in my iOS app.

On FPC lists, people complain that the resolving doesn't work properly on iOS, but that the base sockets do work. The question is probably where iOS differs from OS X wrt resolving of DNS names.
I assume something similar is going on with the FPC in under XE2, but am not entirely sure since FM is not VCL, and the event pump might be different which could create additional problems.
Anyway, if you can get it compiled, try with only IPs as host to see if it is a general problem, or the relatively simple DNS resolving biut.

Looks like Real Thin Client has support you need: http://www.realthinclient.com/
Win32 with Delphi 6 - XE; Win32+Win64+MacOSX+iOS with RAD Studio / Delphi XE2

Related

Are there HTTP Client/Server components for Delphi that support iOS?

I am developing a program in Delphi/Object Pascal that acts as an HTTP request router on various platforms. It's a sort of proxy that is designed to pass through certain HTTP requests and field others locally. I have it running on Windows, and would now like to port it to iOS.
The program currently uses the Indy Internet component suite to implement an HTTP Client and HTTP Server. I recently discovered that although these components will compile successfully to iOS using Delphi XE4, they are not supported and will not run.
I am looking for a workable option. I am aware of other component suites such as IP*Works and RealThinClient, but have no experience with them.
Has anyone developed an HTTP Client/HTTP Server application in this environment? I realize that Delphi support for iOS is quite new, as XE4 has only just been released. But XE2 had an iOS solution based on FreePascal (which I initially used to create my program in Lazarus to port to Linux & MacOS). Also XE4 has been in beta test up until this week. So it's possible someone may have tried this by now.
The XE4 feature matrix states:
New in XE4! Indy for iOS
So I believe you can use the version of Indy that ships with the product. It's possible that you are building from out of date source.
Internet Direct (Indy), the communications library that comes with Delphi, supports iOS.

Delphi XE2 / XE3 & Windows 8 Tablets / Phones

Is it possible to develop apps for Windows 8 tablets and phones using Delphi XE2 or XE3? I think XE3 ust supports UI. I am not sure if we can create apps for Win8 tablets using Delphi. I have read somewhere we need to use Prism XE3 with Visual Studio. I don't want to purchase / upgrade to XE3 just because of this. I believe we can develop even using XE2 but not sure.
Also, does anyone know if Microsoft accepts apps to appstore which are written in Delphi?
Thanks.
-K
The Delphi XE2 and XE3 fact sheets, available at Embarcadero, clearly mention which operating systems and CPUs the IDEs support, and WinRT and ARM are not among the ones listed. So the answer would be "No".

What is the "current" Delphi web app framework?

I'm looking at Delphi web server apps, and the first thing I notice when I go into the New Items dialog is that there are several different frameworks.
WebBroker looks the nicest from a conceptual standpoint, but in the documentation it looks like its DB and session-management code is tied to the BDE, which makes it somewhat less than useful today.
WebSnap looks very similar, but the documentation says it's deprecated and IW ("VCL for the Web") should be used instead.
So I look at IW, and I can't make heads or tails of how it's supposed to work. The sample code is full of stuff that looks like it belongs in a desktop app, like clicking a button to fire an event handler to change the caption of a form element. (Wouldn't that have to be done client-side in JavaScript if we're creating a webpage?)
So what's the current standard framework for building a web server in Delphi?
While there are several commercial options available for writing web apps with Delphi, in my opinion Delphi no longer ships with a modern web development solution included as part of the package.
If I had to give an answer to your question though I would say that the current out of the box Delphi web framework is WebBroker. WebBroker is the only web framework included with Delphi that isn't deprecated or restricted in its functionality.
WebBroker was introduced perhaps as far back as Delphi 4. It's a good honest work horse but it hasn't really been improved much since it was first introduced. It leaves you to do most of the heavy lifting but it also doesn't get in your way. WebSnap and IntraWeb were built using WebBroker as their foundation which gives you idea of the level of services it provides.
A full version of IntraWeb has been bundled with Delphi Enterprise for many years but as of Delphi XE it now has several limitations (no SSL, no ISAPI deployment, 20 minute idle timeout) that will very likely mean you'll need to buy a license from AtoZed to use it seriously.
The version of IntraWeb bundled with Delphi Pro has always been far too limited to be considered anything other than an evaluation version.
Old question but still deserves an up-to-date answer.
Current 'settled in' solutions are:
IntraWeb:
https://www.atozed.com/intraweb/
uniGUI:
http://unigui.com/
Introduction
uniGUI Web Application Framework extends Web application development experience to a new dimension. uniGUI enables Delphi developers to create, design and debug web applications in IDE using a unique set of visual components. Each component is designed to provide same functionality of its counterpart visual component in Delphi VCL. This provides a very comfortable development environment very close to native VCL application development with an easy learning curve. uniGUI Web applications can be deployed to a server using one of the available deployment options such as Windows Service, Standalone Server or ISAPI Module.
Product Highlights:
Based on industry's most advanced JavaScript library Sencha Ext JS.
Includes OEM license for Sencha Ext JS. (Please see licensing for details).
A unique platform to create stateful web applications.
Complete IDE support for creating projects, designing forms, frames and handling data modules.
Advanced support for scripting client side JavaScript events.
Library core is fully optimized to achieve highest level of scalability.
Including advanced Stress Test Tool utility.
Comes with various deployment options: ISAPI Module, Standalone Server and Windows Service.
Supported Delphi versions: Turbo Delphi Pro, Delphi 2006, Delphi 2007, Delphi 2009, Delphi 2010, Delphi XE, XE2, XE3, XE4, X5, XE6, XE7, XE8, Delphi 10 Seattle, 10.1 Berlin, 10.2.3 Tokyo and 10.3.3 Rio (Win32 & Win64 platforms). (Linux support is in the roadmap)
C++ Builder supported.
Supported Browsers: IE 9+, Microsoft Edge, FireFox, Chrome, Safari and Opera
New state-of-the-art uniGUI HyperServer technology.
TMS WebCore:
https://www.tmssoftware.com/site/tmswebcore.asp
RADical Web
Modern SPA web application model
Pure HTML5/CSS3/Javascript based applications
Standard component framework for common UI controls and access to browser features
Debugging in Pascal code via the browser
Backed by a solid & proven Delphi Pascal to Javascript compiler that was years in development
Reuse skills and components Component based RAD development integrated
in the Delphi IDE A truly revolutionary & innovative TMS FNC component
framework that is now also web enabled, allowing to create UI controls
that can be used on VCL, FMX, LCL and WEB! Open to consume other
existing Javascript frameworks & libraries Open to use HTML/CSS for
design Open to use other jQuery controls or even other Javascript
frameworks Offers Pascal class wrappers for jQuery controls from the
jQWidgets library Easy interfacing to REST cloud services including to
TMS XData for database
Easy Deployment Application consists of HTML & Javascript files only
that can be easily deployed on any light or heavyweight webservers Use
any existing load-balancing software and/or techniques for highest
performance Small and convenient debug webserver is included for fast
RAD development
http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/RADStudio/en/DataSnap_Overview_and_Architecture
DataSnap has been there for a long time, and the latest releases is DCOM-free. You can utilize it to build up server side piece (S in both C/S and B/S). Its current role is almost like WCF in .NET world.
Then if you are building a web site front end, you can use IW. But DataSnap makes it even possible to build up front end using PHP or other web technologies.
https://github.com/relativ/pascalweb
PascalWeb use pascalscript compiler , you can create web app, like php or python

Does Delphi XE2 FireMonkey support Indy for cross-platform apps?

Looking at the new Delphi XE2 with Firemonkey. Considering that it compiles for Windows, Mac OSX and iOS, VCL components are useless in a FireMonkey application.
My question is: Is there/will there be an Indy Firemonkey Edition? Cause I seriously need the IdHTTP.Post();. If not, is there a way to do this in FireMonkey?
I have been googling for quite awhile now, not finding anything. :S
VCL means Visual Component Library. There's nothing about Indy that is "visual" (meaning "seen at runtime"), meaning that "VCL components are useless in a FireMonkey application" has no relevance to Indy.
You can create a new FireMonkey HD application in Delphi XE2, target OS X, and the Indy component pages are still available in the IDE, meaning that they are compatible with supported FireMonkey cross-platform targets. They're also available for FireMonkey HD Windows targets (32 and 64 bit).
Indy ships with the IDE (and has since D6) so there is nothing extra to buy if you already have XE2 installed. Also, Indy is open-source, so you can upgrade an Indy installation using source code from Indy's public access SVN server or mirror.
Regarding FireMonkey, Indy does work in FireMonkey. Indy uses whatever the native socket API is on a given platform (WinSock on Windows, Posix on Mac, libc on Kylix, etc).
The only known gotcha with Indy under FireMonkey at the moment is the TIdAntiFreeze component is not available at design-time. The IDE cannot resolve it correctly due to the non-standard way it is packaged (to be adressed in Indy 11). You can instantiate it programmably in code at run-time, though.
I made a client server example using tcp indy http://www.freelancecode.net/community/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=246
The Components Not Used in iOS Apps DocWiki page for Delphi XE2 lists most of the Indy classes:
The following list is the set of components (along with the used
units) that might be available in the Tool Palette for iOS
applications, but are not supported for iOS applications.

is Delphi still the same (still run with no installed libraries)?

Back when I used Delphi (win32), programs made with it would run on windows, with no need to install any runtime libraries like .NET or Java(?). Is this still the case? If not, which language can do that?
Delphi executables don't have any external dependency.
It's true since Delphi 1 up to Delphi XE.
I just wrote a post on my blog about this fact I like very much in Delphi.
http://blog.synopse.info/post/2010/09/20/Dll-hell%2C-WinSXS-directory-and-Delphi-paradise
No dll hell with Delphi applications!
Deploying a Delphi application is very easy.
If you need some database access, you could need some additional components, like the BDE, or the ODBC drivers, or whatever...
But there are a lot of stand-alone frameworks, with no external dependency, available for Delphi. We provide one Client/Server Open Source solution, using SQLite3 as database storage. And one of great feature of SQLite3 is that it doesn't need to install any client software. Our framework provide the Client/Server features, in pure Delphi.
Both the language and the IDE had some serious improvements from Delphi 1.
To name a few extentions for the language:
Support for interfaces
Records with methods
Record and class helper functions
Annonymous functions
Generics
Hinting directives
There are also some IDE improvements.
Unicode support
More integrated tools
Usage of identifiers (2011).
There are still some things missing:
64 bit support
generics still have some bugs.
It is still the case for the "normal" Delphi, i.e. Delphi for Win32. There is also Delphi Prism which targets .NET for which it is obviously not the case.
Currently there's Delphi for Win32 available, which doesn't require any runtimes and Delphi Prism (for .NET application development). Delphi for 64-bit native Windows development is promised next year.
Well, Lazarus obviously :-)
Seriously, Delphi is fine, but before you buy a recent one, if you need win9x support, check thoroughly. (since the unicode versions might no longer support that)

Resources