Dimensional Data

The advancement of technology over the years has made life more comfortable. Arguably, if we’re to have a truly inclusive society, one of technology’s priorities should be eliminating the lines of race, gender, ability, amongst others.  The same goes for application development. To get your products or services to the largest possible target audience, you must eliminate all usage barriers. This is where accessibility plays an important role.  With the mass adoption of mobile devices, many companies’ focus has shifted towards developing mobile-first applications, when, perhaps, the key to unlocking the treasure pot is accessibility-first. Here, your applications would not only be available to mobile users but to everyone that requires your products or services.  Mobility is not a condition for accessibility. If you’re to follow the accessibility-first initiative, you must aim for desktop-first application development. This is because accessibility support on desktops, especially in native desktop app development platforms like Delphi, is well established. Therefore, not only should the desktop be first, but accessibility should be first and is with native desktop apps! Read on to find out more on why desktop-first rules accessibility. Or you can dive into our Desktop First UX Summit to learn more about building desktop-first applications. What Is Accessibility? Accessibility refers to making your application suitable for use by everyone, including people with disabilities – for example, impaired vision, hearing, cognition, and other ways in which a user may be differently-abled. The world is filled with people of varying physical abilities and sensory challenges. In fact, according to a CNET article, at least 15% of the world’s population suffers from a disability. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) also reports that 25% of Americans are considered disabled;  in other words, one in every four Americans. Of this number of people affected by disability in the United States, the largest group are blind or suffering from a form of visual impairment, or deaf, or hearing impaired. Other challenges included those who suffer from mental disabilities or difficulties with either speech, mobility, or cognition.  Because of these individuals, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was put in place to ensure that companies offer general application accessibility. With most people still forced to stay indoors in some parts of the world due to the Covid-19 pandemic, accessibility has never been more imperative.  To this end, numerous desktop tools make it easier to access data and navigate through web and native applications. Some of which include; Voice commands Screen readers Alternative or specialized keyboards  Trackpads and other adaptive pointing devices Screen magnifiers Eye-tracking tools.  It’s clear from this list that all these tools have something in common; while voice command is more common on mobile devices, they’re all easier to use and implement on desktop than on mobile devices with a greater variety of vendors from a broad selection of vendors. On the desktop, users are less constrained by the operating system and, in particular, the hardware vendor when reviewing options for assistive technologies.  Desktop Accessibility Features All standard desktop applications, for example, mail app, internet browsers, office applications such as spreadsheets and word processors, photo manipulation software, and so on, are conscious of and are maximizing accessibility today to ensure their widest possible adoption. This has benefits not just for disabled users but any user.  Here are […]

CSV is an abbreviation for a Comma-Separated Value file that enables data to be saved in a loosely-structured text form. Because of its simple format, it is very easy to process the data inside the file and extremely portable too. The great thing about the CSV files is that they are compatible with almost any text editor as well as a large number of popular applications such as Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, making them easy to create, share, and edit. A CSV file is a type of delimited text file because it typically utilizes a comma to separate values. Some files also use the TAB character (ASCII 8) instead of the comma to break up the fields. Files which use the TAB character in this way are often referred to as Tab-Separated Value TSV files. Fields can also be optionally ‘wrapped’ with double-quotes (“), especially if they might contain commas. However these CSV/TSV files are formatted we can easily read them using Delphi and the FireDAC components. Are CSV files used in professional businesses? The short answer is: yes. CSV files are so easy to use that almost every type of business makes use of them to transfer and exchange data. One example is updating or downloading product data from an application. For example, you can bulk import new products to your system or store web app.  Because of its simplicity and straightforward format, millions of developers utilize CSV files. Often, tech savvy Business owners can quickly read, comprehend, and edit the information without specialist help. Here is an example of a CSV file: How to use CSV files in Delphi applications? Embarcadero RAD Studio provides Delphi & C++ Builder development environment, and they have FireDAC components. FireDAC provides a common API for accessing different database back-ends with high performance. Moreover, FireDAC components provide easy access to CSV files. It abstracts the data into tables, views and stored procedures can be used to process CSV file. In this demonstration, we will utilize TFDBatchMove. We can use the TFDBatchMove component to move data between plain text files and tables using datasets. This demo project shows how to utilize the TFDBatchMove component to move information between different sources. Plain text to Table Table to Text Table to Plain text The TFDBatchMove implements the needed engine to move data between different types of data, and it uses reader and writer components. Here are some of the standard reader and writer components: TFDBatchMoveTextReader – Reader for plain text file TFDBatchMoveDataSetWriter – Writer for TDataSet TFDBatchMoveDataSetReader – Reader for TDataSet TFDBatchMoveTextWriter – Writer for plain text file These components define the data source reader using plain text files. So after establishing a stream from where to move the data using TFDBatchMove, it is easy to work with files. In this code, you can see that there are custom properties adjusted according to the plain text file format. So, the TFDBatchMove can automatically manage the reader instance. <br /> // Text file -> DB table<br /> procedure TfrmMain.btnASCToTabMoveClick(Sender: TObject);<br /> begin<br /> CloseQueries;</p> <p> // Create text reader and set FDBatchMode as owner. Then<br /> // FDBatchMove will automatically manage the reader instance.<br /> with TFDBatchMoveTextReader.Create(FDBatchMove) do<br /> begin<br /> // Set text data file name<br /> FileName := ExtractFilePath(Application.ExeName) + ‘Data.csv’;<br /> // Setup […]

Hello. This article is part of a series where we speak with professional software developers, ask them what it’s like to write code for a living, and perhaps gain a few insights into the software development industry along the way. Today we’re talking to Danish developer and MVP Jens Fudge. Apart from being an excellent developer Jens is also a actual genuine Olympic Champion having won a Gold Medal for Denmark in the 1992 Summer Paralympics! As will become clear during the interview, Jens was not content with ‘just’ a gold medal Jens has a broad range of interests, is also a superb motivational speaker and author plus a very decent down-to-Earth guy too. It never ceases to amaze me the wonderful depth and breadth of talent and humanity we are lucky enough to have making up the development community. Hi Jens, thanks so much for taking part, I really appreciate it My pleasure! What would be your brief evening news summary of who you are and what you do? I am a Danish person with lots of interests. My day-job is working as a freelancer with Delphi development, and teaching Delphi. In 2012 Anders Ohlson from Embarcadero at the time, asked me to receive the status of Embarcadero MVP. I really enjoy helping others, which is why I also teach Delphi, and attend conferences as a speaker. I also like to learn, so I attend conferences as an attendee. Which Embarcadero product(s) do you use a) the most b) regularly? RAD Studio – Delphi. How and/or why did you become a developer? Originally I studied biochemistry and molecular biology, but I was distracted doing other things. So I quit that, and later studied Computer Science. Do you think you will ever stop being a developer? If so, what would be next? I will probably never quit being a developer. I at the moment spend almost all my work time as a developer, teaching Delphi is a small part of my worktime, and lately I have found myself working as a mental management coach for elite sports (World Championship and Olympic level). What made you start using Delphi/C++ Builder? Not what, who. Dr. Cary Jensen gave a one-day seminar in Copenhagen around 1995. All attendees received a CD-ROM with Delphi on it. Thanks for that Cary. If you could give some advice to a student who is considering a career as a software developer, what would it be? Take the time to learn the process of building Tests for your code. At least learn the principles of Test Driven Development. Tabs… or spaces? Spaces [Jens was the only developer so far not to take my deliberately baited question and write paragraphs discussing why it should be spaces or tabs!- IanB 😁] What’s the best day you ever had as a developer? Many days, but maybe the first time I saw the main sign in Oslo Railway Station. The sign showed which trains were scheduled for which destinations on which tracks for 20-something tracks. I built the software for that (well, maybe not alone…). What’s the worst thing about being a developer? When the customer calls you and says that there is a bug in the software, costing millions of dollars per hour until it is fixed. Or maybe it is […]

Blockchain.com (formerly Blockchain.info) is a cryptocurrency blockchain explorer service, as well as a cryptocurrency wallet and a cryptocurrency exchange supporting Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ethereum. They also provide Bitcoin data charts, statistics, and market information, and a series of APIs (Websockets and REST), for their services. You can connect to their API to buy and sell crypto, consult data, check taxes and, also, charts and statistics. In this article, we will see how simple is to connect with their API using Delphi REST Debbuger and generate graphics with the data provided by them. What does Blockchain.com do? As a cryptocurrency company, Blockchain.com provides a platform for holding, using, managing crypto assets, and exploring cryptocurrency transactions. It also develops financial services standards and infrastructure for cryptocurrencies. The company’s platform provides market data and analytics. It follows cryptocurrency’s aims of being decentralized and anonymous; some of its cryptocurrency products are managed by the end-user and not accessible by Blockchain.com itself. Its main products are its cryptocurrency wallet, exchange, block explorer, and institutional markets offering. Here’s how to use the Blockchain.com API in a desktop or mobile app They provide a series of APIs, that you can check here. We will implement the chart API here. The specific documentation you can see here and all the charts that you can get the data from, you can check here. According to their API, we can have: Full url (with all optional parameters): https://api.blockchain.info/charts/$chartName?timespan=$timespan&rollingAverage=$rollingAverage&start=$start&format=$format&sampled=$sampled Method: GET Parameters: $chartName – Name of the chart you want the data. $timespan – Duration of the chart, default is 1 year for most charts, 1 week for mempool charts. (Optional) $rollingAverage – Duration over which the data should be averaged. (Optional) $start – Datetime at which to start the chart. (Optional) $format – Either JSON or CSV, defaults to JSON. (Optional) $sampled – Boolean set to ‘true’ or ‘false’ (default ‘true’). If true, limits the number of datapoints returned to ~1.5k for performance reasons. (Optional) How do we call the Blockchain.com API in our program? In your Delphi IDE, open the REST Debugger tool. The default method already is the one we need so, now we just need to insert the URL. To make things simple, add the URL without the parameters and click on ‘Send Request’: We got a 200 status code, so everything is fine. If you click in the ‘Tabular Data’ you can see that the result we want is not well-formatted: On the JSON Root Element, insert the word ‘values’. This is our JSON Root and now, it will format the result correctly: Still, on the REST Debugger, copy the components and place them on your form. Now we have the data. We just need to send it to a chart! How to create a Blockchain.com chart Delphi comes with a component called TChart. Find it and place it on your form: Right-click on it, go to Edit Chart -> Add -> Select the ‘Line Chart’ -> uncheck the ‘3D’ option and select OK then CLOSE. Now, we just need to populate it! For that, add a button and on its click event add these lines of code: That is it!! Now you can make graphics from the blockchain.com API, using Delphi! You can check the full code here: https://github.com/checkdigits/delphi_blockchain_chart_example RAD Studio Delphi really lives […]

RAD Server is a powerful application and easy to implement infrastructure for rapidly building and deploying services-based applications. RAD Server offers developers the ability to quickly create modern services-based architecture using Delphi and C++ Builder. RAD Server – Foundation to take your existing client/server business logic to REST API endpoints swiftly.  In this post, you will learn about one of the real-world cases of using RAD Server and Delphi FireMonkey to solve problems of containerization, middleware and data abstraction.  Zernpfennig Informatik chooses Delphi to create desktop and mobile apps Zernpfennig Informatik is from Austria and has successfully developed mobile, web, and desktop applications for years. They needed a modern multiplatform solution for Android, iOS, and Windows for the creation of a flexible and modern access system for the newly built recycling and waste collection centers. Why was RAD Studio chosen to provide the middleware infrastructure? RAD Studio with Delphi and RAD Server has proven to be an ideal combination with a short development time. Both the user interface for the mobile apps and back-end programming were solved without any technology break by using the same Delphi programming language. It is a straightforward and clean solution. How could Delphi and RAD Server solve a big challenge The prerequisite was a multiplatform solution that can be downloaded from Android Play Store and Apple App Store. A big obstacle was the direct connection to the back end of the security company, which regulates the access system and the barrier control, and under other conditions, the location determination using the app for general access authorization. RAD Server was the obvious choice for a light yet powerful and agile solution Zernpfennig Informatik developed the access system called Skarabäus. The team successfully launched Skarabäus in a very short development time – 4 months for the design, building, and rollout phases in total. The communication of the app with the RAD Server middleware was facilitated by REST APIs. The combination of Delphi and RAD Server was perfect and ideal for the project’s success. Furthermore, the system-related components were the problem solver for the Skarabäus system.   Here you can watch the whole Skarabäus application in action: Skarabäus is a real-world example of using Delphi + RAD Server As you can see, the team produced an ideal solution which provided rapid application development and an extremely productive ecosystem for developers. The RAD Server as modern middleware enabled secure and technologically high-quality networking of heterogeneous applications without the use of third-party components – a tool that combines all necessary components. Christian Zernpfennig Managing Director If you would like to learn more about success stories and case studies, head over to the Embarcadero Success Stories section now! To read more blog posts on successful projects powered by Delphi, C++ Builder and RAD Server click here: https://blogs.embarcadero.com/category/showcase/

Do you want to learn what is Websockets? What is WebRTC? How can we Install and use SGC Websockets WebRTC? Can we use web sockets compatible with HTTP proxies? How do I find easy to use WebRTC components for C++ Builder? Present post answers these questions as below. We have other articles on the blog showing some of the many uses of the Websocket protocol – you can find them by clicking here. What are WebSockets? WebSocket is a communications protocol, was standardized by the IETF as RFC 6455 in 2011, and the WebSocket API in Web IDL is being standardized by the W3C. The WebSocket protocol uses a single TCP connection to provide full-duplex communication channels. WebSocket is compatible with HTTP because of being designed to work over HTTP ports 443 and 80 as well as to support HTTP proxies and intermediaries. The WebSocket handshake uses the HTTP Upgrade header[1] to change from the HTTP protocol to the WebSocket protocol, to achieve this compatibility. That means in a Communication with Websockets, the communication begins with an HTTP request, then upgrades to Websockets protocol using the TCP protocol connection for communication. What is WebRTC? WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication) is a free, open-source WebSockets communication protocol that provides real-time communication (RTC) between web browsers and mobile applications via simple application programming interfaces (APIs). WebRTC allows direct peer-to-peer communication, eliminating the need to install plugins or download native apps with audio and video communications. How to use WebRTC components for C++ Builder? Sergio Gómez, is an individual developer specializing with Embarcadero tools since 1999. In 2012, he started the eSeGeCe website to provide components for Delphi, CBuilder, and .NET developers. Detailed information about WebRTC can be found on their ESEGECE web page here Installation Download sgc WebRTC from their official eSeGeCe web page here 2. Unpack the zipped file to a folder and got to “sgcWebSockets_cbuilder_C10_4Packages” folder 3. There is a dclsgcWebSocketsC10_4.cbproj which is a package that has sgc WebSockets components. If you have RAD Studio 10.4.x double click on it or open it via RAD Studio 4. In Projects windows on the right side, right click to dclsgcWebSocketsC10_4.bpl and select Build, and again select Install as below, Now you can see Tsgc… WebSockets classes in your Palette. In RAD Studio, select Tools->Options menu and then go to Language->C++->Paths and Directories section, Here, be sure that Windows 32-bit is selected and click the ellipsis “…” button at the right side of System Include path and add libC10_4/win32 or libD10_4/win32 folder to these paths. Also, set the Selected Platform to Windows 64-bit and be sure that Windows 64-bit is selected, Click the … button at the right side of System Include path and add libC10_4/win64 or libD10_4/win64 folder to these paths. If you have a problem adding these please watch their official video in there download page here C++ Builder example of how to use WebSockets Create a new VCL C++ Application and save all project files units into a new folder. From Tools palette add 2 buttons (name ‘Connect‘ and ‘Disconnect‘) and Memo1 as an output Add a sgcWebSocketServer, sgcWebSocketClient and sgcWebRTCServer, 4. Double click to Connect and Disconnect buttons to create their OnClick events. You can use F12 to switch form and code display.5. Select sgcWebSocketServer1, in Object Inspector, goto it’s events double click to OnConnect and OnDisconnect events6. Now we can Activate […]

Docker helps you to simplify and automate the deployment process for your applications effectively. It enables you to package your software in a way that is predictable and consistent. That’s why it has become very popular among development teams around the globe. In this post, you will know the details of deploying your application from RAD Studio to Docker. Let’s dive in. What is Docker? Docker is an open-source containerization platform for building, deploying, and managing applications. It enables you to package apps into containers, which simplifies the delivery significantly. It takes away repetitive tasks from the product development lifecycle to accelerate the process of building applications. Why should you use Docker? Streamlines the development lifecycle for fast and consistent delivery of your applications Supports responsive deployment and scaling Offers a lightweight, fast and cost-effective solution How do I deploy an app from RAD Studio to a Docker container? Deploying from RAD Studio to Docker is pretty simple. You just need to follow these processes: Configure the Project File 1. Create a file, called RADServerDockerDeploy.dpr. It will have the source code of the main file in the project. 2. Next, you have to specify the program. program RADServerDockerDeploy; {$APPTYPE CONSOLE} {$R *.res} program RADServerDockerDeploy;         {$APPTYPE CONSOLE}         {$R *.res} 3. Then you have to use different units, like System.Classes, System.Types, and System.SysUtil. uses System.Classes, System.Types, System.SysUtils, {$IF DEFINED(POSIX)} Posix.Stdlib, {$ENDIF POSIX} IniFiles; 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 uses   System.Classes,   System.Types,   System.SysUtils,     {$IF DEFINED(POSIX)}   Posix.Stdlib,   {$ENDIF POSIX}     IniFiles; 4. Now, you have to specify server packages, server module path and target settings path. const SERVER_PACKAGES = ‘Server.Packages’; TARGET_MODULE_PATH = ‘/etc/ems/module.so’; TARGET_SETTINGS_PATH = ‘/etc/ems/emsserver.ini’; const   SERVER_PACKAGES = ‘Server.Packages’;   TARGET_MODULE_PATH = ‘/etc/ems/module.so’;   TARGET_SETTINGS_PATH = ‘/etc/ems/emsserver.ini’; 5. Then you have to define ResStream, IniFile, and LCommand variables. var ResStream: TResourceStream; IniFile: TMemIniFile; {$IF DEFINED(POSIX)} LCommand: String; {$ENDIF} var   ResStream: TResourceStream;   IniFile: TMemIniFile;   {$IF DEFINED(POSIX)}   LCommand: String;   {$ENDIF} 6. Finally, you have to use these lines: begin try // Add your RAD Server resource module .so file via Project|Resources and Images…|Add… // Be sure to set Identifier to Module and Type should be set to RCDATA ResStream := TResourceStream.Create(HInstance, ‘Module’, RT_RCDATA); try ResStream.Position := 0; ResStream.SaveToFile(TARGET_MODULE_PATH); finally ResStream.Free; end; IniFile := TMemIniFile.Create(TARGET_SETTINGS_PATH); IniFile.EraseSection(SERVER_PACKAGES); IniFile.WriteString(SERVER_PACKAGES,TARGET_MODULE_PATH,ExtractFileName(TARGET_MODULE_PATH)); IniFile.UpdateFile; IniFile.Free; {$IF DEFINED(POSIX)} LCommand := ‘service apache2 restart’; _system(PAnsiChar(AnsiString(LCommand))); {$ENDIF POSIX} except on E: Exception do Writeln(E.ClassName, ‘: ‘, E.Message); end; end. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 begin     try       // Add your RAD Server resource module .so file via Project|Resources and Images…|Add…       // Be sure to set Identifier to Module and Type should be set to RCDATA       ResStream := TResourceStream.Create(HInstance, ‘Module’, RT_RCDATA);       try         ResStream.Position := 0;         ResStream.SaveToFile(TARGET_MODULE_PATH);       finally         ResStream.Free;       end;             IniFile […]

Hello. This article is part of a series where we speak with professional software developers, ask them what it’s like to write code for a living, and perhaps gain a few insights into the software development industry along the way. Today we’re talking to Joe C. Hecht also very well known as “TJoe”. Joe is now tapping out code in the humid heights of Florida although during the course of the interview I found out he is a native Texan who was born and bred not more than five miles away from where I live now. The world of development is much more close-knit than you could ever imagine! Hi Joe, it’s really great to talk to you, thanks for taking the time It’s a great idea! As I said, I am very happy to participate. You’re a very well known name in the Delphi community. For the few who don’t know you, what would be your brief summary of who you are and what you do? Hired Gun Programmer – Have Delphi – Will Debug. Which Embarcadero product(s) do you use a) the most b) regularly? RAD Studio! I use Both Delphi and C++ Builder.  I have every version ever released, installed and ready to go. I get a fair number of clients considering an upgrade from legacy versions, wanting to modernize existing applications, and cross platforms to support macOS and Mobile platforms. Hands down, I recommend RAD Studio as the best cross platform development tool on the planet to get the job done. Embarcadero has really gone “all in” for crossing platforms, for both the compilers and the visual controls. They have done an amazing job, in a market where there is no other comparative tool. Joe, looking suitably tropical How and/or why did you become a developer? I was originally in the commercial printing business.  When the Apple Laserwriter first became available, we needed custom PC printing software.  I started with BASIC, and quickly moved to C.  I was already very impressed with Borland’s Sidekick and Superkey products, so when Borland mailed me about Turbo Pascal, I jumped right in and our productivity skyrocketed.  The rest is history.  Our desktop publishing utility TypeStudio won a PC Magazine award, and software development quickly became much more successful than our printing business. What helped you the most at becoming a developer? My development springboard came with my first modem.  I found the Borland Compuserve forums staffed by the famous TeamB members.  I quickly learned a lot by reading the posts, and then started helping others in the forums. I firmly believe that investing bits of time going through the replies of forum posts (even the ones you are not interested in) often uncovers many hidden coding jewels along the way.  Technical discussions forums are probably the best way to find great answers, since poor answers are usually followed by replies that point out any flaws. Do you think you will ever stop being a developer? If so, what would be next? If not for RAD Studio, I would consider a different profession. I use many different development tools and compilers, on several platforms. For long term development, your IDE becomes your home, and RAD Studio is the only tool I have found that actually makes the overall development experience […]