Dimensional Data

At tmssoftware.com we love to have interns. I believe it is a fantastic experience to learn young aspiring software developers about Delphi, its eco-system, its amazing productivity and at the same time, absorb a lot of energy, get new fresh ideas and get to know what drives and motivates the next generation of software developers. So, also this school year, we had 2 interns learning all about Delphi, TMS WEB Core, Object Pascal, components and much more here at tmssoftware.com. Today, we want to give the word to our intern, and very soon colleague, Bradley who did a lot of stunning work this school year and tells in his first blog post about building his first custom control for TMS WEB Core. Nothing but an amazing and exciting story! So, with pleasure, I give the word to Bradley: A first custom web control Having only one year experience using Delphi and TMS WEB Core, I was assigned the (at first sight) daunting task of developing my first ever custom web control, namely a chat box control. I had only been developing web applications since I joined tmssoftware.com as an intern, so clearly writing a component was something completely new. Using the available documentation and the experience of my mentor Bruno I quickly obtained the necessary skills for developing a TMS WEB Core custom control, the TWebChatBox control. First steps To gain some experience, I first developed another very small control, a custom toggle button control to switch a web application between full-screen and normal mode. I went for developing the custom control directly from TMS WEB Core for Visual Studio Code because I just feel more comfortable for web projects to use this IDE. I had the “privilege” to use first the alpha and then the beta version of TMS WEB Core for Visual Studio Code v1.3 (released yesterday btw) as this introduced component package support. Using the new package support for installing custom controls made it very easy to test the control, also at design-time. The development of this first small control allowed me to get used to the concept of custom controls as well as the steps involved to get it installed in the IDE. Starting the chatbox implementation After I was comfortable enough with the principle of custom controls. I’ve started building the chat box component. As there were a ton of features on the requirements list, I had actually no idea where to start. I’ve focused first of all on a working way of sending/receiving messages. When I had that going, I started focusing on adding a basic design, followed up by adding the necessary properties for manipulating said chat box.  I think implementing collections as a way of managing messages was the only thing I really struggled with. Having never implemented anything like this, figuring out how to implement the chat message bubbles at collection item level was a challenge. If you add a message to your collection, a chat message bubble will be generated and displayed in the chat control. The collection item will also keep a reference of the chat message bubble so that you can manipulate it later on. A chat bubble contains several HTML elements. We have a SPAN for the message. For the user avatar there is an IMG element. […]

Today is an exciting day as we reached yet another milestone, this time the release of TMS WEB Core for Visual Studio Code v1.3. You are an Object Pascal expert, your customers look out to access your applications everywhere via the web and without any install hassle, you love the RAD component based development methodology, you can do this software development from the operating system you love … then having a look at TMS WEB Core for Visual Studio Code v1.3 will open a whole new world!  What brings TMS WEB Core for Visual Studio Code Fully Object Pascal based web development RAD component methodology driven fast & productive development  Hosted in a free hugely popular IDE for web developers Running on Windows, macOS and Linux Using a WYSIWYG form designer A framework that has a similarities with the familiar VCL framework where possible  What is on the table in v1.3 This major update is packed with significant new features: Support for packages Yes, from now on, it is easy to create your own custom components and compile & install these for use at design-time. The package system is similar to how you can use packages to install components in the Delphi IDE or Lazarus Support for workspaces With workspaces, now you can have multiple projects in a folder and activate and select which project to compile/run/debug. Support for using the entire FNC component suite As our entire set of FNC components is ready for use in web client applications, the new package support in TMS WEB Core for Visual Studio Code enables to install all TMS FNC components in the TMS WEB Core for Visual Studio Code IDE. The latest FNC registered version updates released last week contain all the required packages for this. Brings the framework up-to-date with latest version as available in TMS WEB Core for Delphi/Lazarus v1.7 The TMS WEB Core framework that comes with TMS WEB Core for Visual Studio Code is now in sync and up-to-date with the latest release of TMS WEB Core for Delphi. This means that all new components and component improvements are now also available for Visual Studio Code users. This includes the new USB components, local file access components, new Firestore dataset capabilities, extensions to grids, web socket connection improvements and much more…  One important note though, the Miletus application type is not yet in our release for Visual Studio Code release but scheduled for the next release.  Get started! There are several ways to get started with TMS WEB Core for Visual Studio Code TMS ALL-ACCESS users have immediate & free access to TMS WEB Core for Visual Studio Code TMS WEB Core for Visual Studio Code registered users will find the new release now on your “My Products” page A fully functional trial version for Windows, macOS or Linux is available We have a webinar coming up that will guide you around the IDE, the framework, the possibilities Check more details about FNC and using FNC components from Visual Studio code in this blog  Learn how to use packages, write your own components or use FNC components We have already two videos for you and more are coming. Chief architect José Leon Serna explains how to start using packages: José Leon Serna and Bruno Fierens host a […]

Ever since we introduced our TMS WEB Academy platform (entirely built using our own TMS WEB Core product by the way) in February this year, it has been popular and much appreciated. Accelerated by the COVID19 pandemic, it is here to stay as a (free) way to learn about software development and directly communicate and interact with our experts during focused webinars.  So, today, we announce 3 new free webinars coming up in June! Introduction to TMS WEB Core for Visual Studio Code June 3, 15h00 UTC You want to use your favorite Object Pascal language. You want to develop web client applications. You want to use an IDE directly on Windows or macOS or a Linux machine. You want to use RAD component based development methodology. Then we have this webinar for you where we introduce TMS WEB Core for Visual Studio Code. No prior knowledge or experience required, we will take you through the steps to create your first web client applications with this hugely popular free IDE and TMS WEB Core. Miletus : Using web technology to create cross-platform desktop applications June 10, 15h00 UTC You have customers who prefer a web application? You have customers who prefer a desktop application? You want to take advantage of web technology to create stunning user interfaces? You want an easy way to use local databases? With Miletus coming with TMS WEB Core, you can do it all. In this webinar, we show you what Miletus is, what you can use it for, how you can use it. Learn in just one hour webinar how to build a database powered, cross-platform desktop app with a good looking web front-end running on Windows, macOS or Linux.    Sign up for the webinar here  What is FNC : Introduction to the growing family of FNC technology based components June 17, 15h00 UTC You heard about this yet another TLA (Three-Letter-Acronym) FNC but are unsure what it stands for and why and how you can benefit from it? In this webinar, we explain the basics of what FNC is, how it is created, what FNC components and products exist meanwhile. Whether you are a Delphi VCL classic Windows application developer, a Delphi FMX cross-platform developer, a developer wanting to create web applications or a developer preferring free IDEs like Lazarus or Visual Studio Code, FNC will empower you in any scenario. Learn all about this in this webinar and never forget anymore what the TLA FNC stands for. Sign up for the webinar here  More webinars? If you have ideas, let us know what you want to see covered in upcoming webinars! We are eager to learn where we can add value with content offered via a webinar. Or, if you created a great application or have an original or creative use case for any of our products and you feel like presenting this to your fellow Delphi developers, don’t hesitate to reach out and you could be next offering a webinar on our TMS Web Academy.Or meanwhile you can have a look at the previous webinars we offered and for which the recorded sessions are available.

There are a lot of great new features available in our FNC components and this blog will highlight the new additions to the TMS FNC UI Pack. If you want to check the improvements on TMS FNC Maps, click here. For the list of fixes and improvements, you can check the version history, but two new components were added to the product as well. TTMSFNCPassLock TTMSFNCPassLock is an updated version of the FMX passlock in the TMS FMX UI Pack.This component gives you the ability to add password protection to your application. It’s not only possible to further customize the buttons and pattern, but also the ability to not show the length of your password. Next to that you have the similar workings of the numpad and pattern layout and the learn mode to set a new password. TTMSFNCControlPicker The TTMSFNCControlPicker helps you to create a dropdown variant of your control. This can be done with the ITMSFNCControlPicker interface and is implemented by default in the TTMSFNCTreeView, TTMSFNCTableView, TTMSFNCListBox and TTMSFNCListEditor. It is possible to implement the interface in your own control, for more information regarding the necessary procedures and functions to implement, please check the documentation.Some additional events are available, to mimic the basic mechanics of the interface without implementing it and to make the control even more customizable. This is an example of the base implementation to retrieve the content that should be shown in the dropdown edit. It shows the number of times the button was clicked. First create a new extended button class: type TButtonEx = class(TButton, ITMSFNCControlPickerBase) private FCount: Integer; function PickerGetContent: String; protected procedure Click; override; public constructor Create(AOwner: TComponent); override; end; { ButtonEx } procedure TButtonEx.Click; begin inherited; Inc(FCount); if Assigned(Parent) and (Parent is TTMSFNCCustomSelector) and Assigned(Parent.Owner) and (Parent.Owner is TTMSFNCControlPicker)then begin //Update ControlPicker if assigned as control (Parent.Owner as TTMSFNCControlPicker).UpdateDropDown; end; end; constructor TButtonEx.Create(AOwner: TComponent); begin inherited; FCount := 0; Text := ‘Click this’; end; function TButtonEx.PickerGetContent: String; begin Result := IntToStr(FCount) + ‘ Clicks’; end; The only thing left to do is creating the button and assiging it to a TTMSFNCControlPicker: procedure TForm1.FormCreate(Sender: TObject); begin b := TButtonEx.Create(Self); b.Parent := self; TMSFNCControlPicker.Control := b; end;

Intro A couple of weeks ago we announced beta support for FMXLinux and today we announce stable support. The beta period is finished and we now fully support FMXLinux in the latest version of all of our FNC products. Download the latest update today to get started! Below is a list of FNC products that have been tested in FMXLinux. With FMXLinux, we add a new platform to the wide variety of already supported platforms in FNC. TMS FNC Components can be used simultaneously on these frameworks TMS FNC Components can be used simultaneously on these operating systems/browsers TMS FNC Controls can be used simultaneously on these IDEs Getting Started The components have been tested and deployed on a Linux environment (Ubuntu 20.04) after properly setting up FMXLinux and other dependencies required for various parts of FNC. Support for FMXLinux is limited to RAD Studio 10.4 Sydney and the path to the source files has to be manually configured in the library path (the automated installer currently does not pick up FMXLinux). Please follow the instructions below to add FMXLinux support to RAD Studio. Please note that adding the SDK is an essential part of the configuration process and it is important to add the SDK to RAD Studio when all the necessary libraries are added to your Linux environment. After following the above instructions, please execute the following commands sudo apt install joe wget p7zip-full curl openssh-server build-essential zlib1g-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev libncurses5 sudo apt-get install zlib1g-dev sudo apt install libgl1-mesa-glx libglu1-mesa libgtk-3-common libgstreamer1.0-0 libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0 sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.0-dev Add each path that contains FNC source files of the products you have installed to the Linux 64 bit library path. Start a new multi-device FMX project and select the Linux 64 bit profile. When the PAServer is running correctly, you can connect to Linux environment and start deploying your application.  Video The above instructions along with a showcase of some FNC components are demonstrated in the video below. Stay tuned! With FMXLinux support we add yet another major and exciting feature to the already huge amount of features and components FNC has to offer. Yesterday we also announced exciting new features and improvements in TMS FNC Maps 1.5 and TMS FNC UI Pack 3.4. Read the linked blog posts to find out more. Stay tuned for more FNC improvements and features coming up in the near future!.

We are back with another substantial update for TMS FNC Maps. 4 new components are introduced in TMS FNC Maps v1.5: TTMSFNCStaticMap, TTMSFNCMapsImage, TTMSFNCTollCost and TTMSFNCTimeZone. 1. Static Maps & Map Image The new TTMSFNCStaticMap component lets you request a static map image for a specific location. The static image can be customized by setting the map type (roads, satellite …), zoom level and an optional marker at the center point. The resulting image can be displayed by using the TTMSFNCMapsImage component. The following mapping services are supported: Azure, Bing, Google, Here, MapBox, TomTom Only a single line of code is needed to request and display a static map image: TMSFNCMapsImage1.URL := TMSFNCStaticMap1.GetStaticMap(CenterCoordinate,  TMSFNCMapsImage1.Width, TMSFNCMapsImage1.Height, ZoomLevel, ShowMarkerBoolean, MapType);     2. Toll Cost calculation Using the TTMSFNCTollCost component the toll route costs between an origin and destination location can be calculated. Toll cost information is returned for each toll segment along the route together with turn by turn directions. The following mapping services are supported: Here, PTV xServer The toll cost calculation can be requested with just one line of code: TMSFNCTollCost1.GetTollCost(OriginCoordinate, DestinationCoordinate); 3. TimeZone information The TTMSFNCTimeZone component can be used to request time zone information for a specified location. The following mapping services are supported: Azure, Bing, Google, Here Again a minimum of code is needed to request and display time zone information: procedure TForm1.TMSFNCMaps1MapClick(Sender: TObject;  AEventData: TTMSFNCMapsEventData);begin  TMSFNCTimeZone1.GetTimeZone(AEventData.Coordinate.toRec)end;procedure TForm1.TMSFNCTimeZone1GetTimeZone(Sender: TObject;  const ARequest: TTMSFNCTimeZoneRequest;  const ARequestResult: TTMSFNCCloudBaseRequestResult);var  it: TTMSFNCTimeZoneItem;begin  it := ARequest.Items[0];  memo.Lines.Clear;  memo.Lines.Add(‘TimeZone: ‘ + it.TimeZone);  meTimeZone.Lines.Add(it.Description);  meTimeZone.Lines.Add(‘Offset: ‘ + it.Offset);  meTimeZone.Lines.Add(‘DST: ‘ + it.DSTOffset);end; 4. Minor improvements Apart from all the new components, some improvements are also included with this update. One of the noteworthy improvements is the possibility to retrieve the index of the waypoints in the optimized order for TTMSFNCDirections. The following mapping services are supported: Azure, Google Maps, TomTom That’s it for this TMS FNC Maps v1.5 update. I hope you’ll enjoy all these exciting new features!

When writing web client applications with TMS WEB Core, chances are you will be spending quite some time in the browser developer tools. This is the place where you can debug your web client applications and can inspect every detail of your web application: the DOM, source, network, performance, local storage, … in a nutshell a wealth of useful information.  One of the capabilities of the browser developer tools is the console and from your application you can add logging statements to output these in the browser console. The closest comparison with the Windows desktop application development world is the OutputDebugString() command that sends text to a debugger. The direct equivalent is using console.log(“Hello world”) that will do exactly the same but to the browser console. But all similarities end here. The console object that is fully available as Pascal class in a TMS WEB Core web client application has many more options. This object is described here: https://www.w3schools.com/jsref/obj_console.asp Timing functions to measure performance A first convenience of the console object is the ability to time certain parts of your code. You can do this by calling console.time(‘identifier’) to start a browser timer and when the part of the code was executed, call console.timeEnd(‘identifier’) and the browser will output the time difference in the browser console. This example demonstrates the timing of a bubble sort algorithm (for the sake of having some code that takes some time to execute) function BubbleSort( list: TStringList ): TStringList; var i, j: Integer; temp: string; begin // bubble sort for i := 0 to list.Count – 1 do begin for j := 0 to ( list.Count – 1 ) – i do begin if ( j + 1 = list.Count ) then continue; if ( list.Strings[j] > list.Strings[j+1] ) then begin temp := list.Strings[j]; list.Strings[j] := list.Strings[j+1]; list.Strings[j+1] := temp; end; end; end; Result := list; end; function GenerateRandomWord(CONST Len: Integer=16; StartWithVowel: Boolean= FALSE): string; const sVowels: string = ‘AEIOUY’; sConson: string = ‘BCDFGHJKLMNPQRSTVWXZ’; var i: Integer; B: Boolean; begin B := StartWithVowel; SetLength(Result, Len); for i := 1 to len DO begin if B then Result[i] := sVowels[Random(Length(sVowels)) + 1] else Result[i] := sConson[Random(Length(sConson)) + 1]; B:= not B; end; end; procedure TForm1.MeasureTime; var sl: TStringList; i: integer; d: dword; mr: TMyRec; begin console.time(‘bubble’); sl := TStringList.Create; for i := 0 to 2000 do begin sl.Add(generaterandomword(8,false)); end; BubbleSort(sl); console.timeEnd(‘bubble’); sl.Free; end; The result in the browser console looks like: Inspecting values of variables, records, objects The console.log() call can have a variable number of arguments of different types. You can call for example: console.log(‘Date today’,DateToStr(Now)); and this will output today’s date in the console. But also objects or records will be shown with all their details in the console, as this example for a record demonstrates: type TMyRec = record Name: string; Age: integer; Member: boolean; end; var mr: TMyRec; begin mr.Name := ‘Delphi’; mr.Age := 25; mr.Member := true; console.log(mr); end; Or take this example, where the details of a HTML element are displayed in the console, in this example the HTML element used for a TWebEdit:  console.log(WebEdit1.ElementHandle); All these statements combined outputted in the browser console: Formatting output If you thought the browser could only output dull fixed text, you are wrong! On top of that, the console.log() command allows you […]

After years of marketing a Delphi Windows/macOS version of my Star Analyzer program, I found that many clients wanted a web-based program which would run on any device, especially a tablet. They also wanted their data stored in the cloud so that several people could use the program at the same time. The macOS version produced by Delphi was often plagued with macOS incompatibilities, and neither version would run on a tablet. So I decided to take the leap to the web. Another deciding factor was the library of 85 Object Pascal code files that I developed over the years for use with all my programs. I definitely did not want to rewrite my library from scratch. I am rather fond of it. My Star Analyzer program included another 100 Object Pascal code files which all use my library files. So far I have not needed to write a single line of JavaScript or HTML code, and about 80% my existing Delphi code works nicely with the WEB Core components. Some of 20% of new code I had to write was relatively straight forward, and some was a bit tricky. I’ll talk about the tricky parts a bit later in in this Blog. Converting my existing FMX forms to TMS WEB Core As we all know, the components on the forms talk to your code through their event handlers. Theoretically then all I would have to do is create new forms, drop FNC and WEB Core components on the new forms, and use hook them up to most of my existing code.  Not too much work, or so I thought, but it turns out it was not quite that simple. If you look at Star Analyzer for the web you’ll see that it is built around tab controls. Click Data Entry and Data Analysis button and you’ll find there are 15 tab controls on the main form and 18 tab controls on the tabs on the main form. The original program was built around one large and complicated main form that held all the components for all 33 tabs, but the program worked nicely, and was easy to code and trouble shoot. In converting my program to WEB Core, I first duplicated this tab structure using the TTMSFNCPageControl. The new layout looked just like the old layout, and was easy to work with in programming, but it would not compile. It turns out that you can’t compile a program with thousands of components and 33 tabs on one main form. It chokes the compiler. Using Hosted Forms to reduce the complexity of browser pages The solution was to use a TTMSFNCTabSet (which has no pages, just tabs) and to use a hosted form as shown in the TMSDemosWebBasicsFormhosting demo provide by TMS. The text and number of tabs on the main TabSet are changed in code, and the controls that used to be on the tabs are now on a Hosted Form. In the image below the area outside the red box is the main form, while the area inside the red box shows one of the 23 different Hosted Forms. The advantage of Hosted Forms is that each web browser page has a small number of components and on it.  This Case statement below shows how the hosted forms […]

About 3 weeks ago we released TMS WEB Core v1.7 Ancona. One of the new features was Miletus, our new framework to create desktop applications with TMS WEB Core. It was exciting to see that many of you showed interest in Miletus, so we’ll take a look at what you can expect in the future. What’s coming in TMS WEB Core 1.8 We launched Miletus with Windows 32-bit and 64-bit support, but our goal was already set from the beginning: a cross platform alternative that is based on TMS WEB Core. To make this possible, research work has already started before the TMS WEB Core v1.7 release. We are happy to share that as of today here in the labs, we can already target MacOS and Linux! Starting from TMS WEB Core 1.8 you’ll be able to select the MacOS and Linux target. This will mean that you can create MacOS and Linux applications on Windows without an additional connection to the target systems! After the proper setup, you’ll only need to copy your created application to the operating system of your choice. Keep in mind that for distribution it’s recommended to sign your application and that can only be done on the target operating systems. Why choose Miletus? Miletus is not meant to be an Electron replacement, but rather something to co-exists next to our current Electron support as an alternative to those who want: No NodeJS dependency Smaller executable sizes Less deployed files More broad local database support You can take full advantage of web technologies combined with native operating system level operations: There’s a lot of native functionality exposed already. Access to the local file system, operating system menus and notifications, drag and drop functionality, global shortcuts just to name a few. We are always looking to extend the native support based on your feedback!  You don’t necessarily need a DB backend running, you can easily connect to a local DB file or a cloud DB service just like in a VCL or FMX application! For cross platform targets, the following databases will be supported: SQLite, MSSQL, PostgreSQL, mySQL. This if of course only the beginning, we already have plans to expand the supported DB list! The power of HTML5 and CSS3 is at your disposal. There are a huge amount of libraries and templates available for web applications that you can not only reuse in your Miletus application but with their help you can also create visually more pleasing user interfaces!  And did you know? It’s easy to migrate your existing TMS WEB Core application to Miletus. Watch this hands-on video from our colleague Dr. Holger Flick, who explains the process in detail: After the TMS WEB Core v1.8 release the next step will be to bring Miletus to TMS WEB Core VSC too. We already did some further research in this area, and our results are promising to bring a truly cross platform experience! But that’s not the only long-term goal: based on the feedback we got, we’ll also look to add more DB support!  As mentioned earlier, we have full control over this technology which means we can extend the palette of components and functionalities without depending on 3rd party solutions while maintaining the advantages listed above. We are eager to learn what you’d like to […]