Delphi 6 Developer's Guide

Steve Teixeira is the Director of Core Technology at Zone Labs, a leading creator of Internet security solutions. Steve has previously served as Chief Technology Officer of ThinSpace, a mobile/wireless software company, and Full Moon Interactive, a full-service e-business builder. As a research and development software engineer at Borland, Steve was instrumental in the development of Delphi and C++Builder. Steve is the best-selling author of four award-winning books and numerous magazine articles on software development, and his writings are distributed worldwide in a dozen languages. Steve is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and events worldwide. Xavier Pacheco is the President and CEO of Xapware Technologies Inc, a software development and consulting company with a purpose of accelerating visions. Xavier is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and is a contributing author for Delphi periodicals. Xavier is an internationally known Delphi expert and member of Borland's select group volunteers¿TeamB. He is the best-selling author of four award-winning books that are distributed worldwide in a dozen languages. Xavier lives in Colorado Springs with his wife Anne and children Amanda and Zachary. Bob Swart (also known as Dr.Bob¿http://www.drbob42.com) is a UK Borland Connections member and an independent technical author, trainer, and consultant using Delphi, Kylix, and C++Builder based in Helmond, The Netherlands. Bob writes regular columns for The Delphi Magazine, Delphi Developer, UK-BUG Developer's Magazine, as well as the DevX, TechRepublic, and the Borland Community Web sites. Bob has written chapters for The Revolutionary Guide to Delphi 2, Delphi 4 Unleashed, C++Builder 4 Unleashed, C++Builder 5 Developer's Guide, Kylix Developer's Guide, and now Delphi 6 Developer's Guide (for Sams Publishing). Bob is a frequent speaker at Borland and Delphi/Kylix related seminars all over the world, and writes his own training material for Dr.Bob's Delphi Clinics (in The Netherlands and the UK). In his spare time, Bob likes to watch video tapes of Star Trek Voyager and Deep Space Nine with his 7-year old son Erik Mark Pascal and 5-year old daughter Natasha Louise Delphine. Dan Miser is an R&D Project Manager for the DSP group at Borland, where he spends most of his time researching emerging technologies. Dan also worked on the Delphi R&D team where his responsibilities included DataSnap development. Dan's major focus is finding ways to allow information to be shared across boundaries, and this has allowed him to work with a variety of distributed computing technologies, including MIDAS, SOAP, DCOM, RMI, J2EE, EJB, Struts, and RDS. He has also been involved with promoting Delphi by being a contributing author to the Delphi Developer's Guide series, acting as a technical editor, writing magazine articles, participating on the Borland newsgroups as a member of TeamB, and being a speaker at BorCon on topics such as COM and MIDAS. David Sampson is an R&D engineer in the Borland RAD Tools Group and is responsible for the CORBA integration into the RAD products. He is long time Pascal, Delphi, and C++ developer, and is a frequent speaker at the Borland Developer's Conference. He lives in Roswell, GA with his wife and enjoys hockey, Aikido, and helping his wife with her pack of Basenjis. Nick Hodges is a Senior Development Engineer with Lemanix Corporation in St. Paul, MN. He is a member of Borland's TeamB and a long time Pascal and Delphi developer. He serves on the Borland Conference Advisory Board, is a frequent speaker at the conference, and is a frequent writer for the Borland Community Site. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and two children and enjoys reading, running, and helping his wife homeschool their two children. Ray Konopka is the founder of Raize Software, Inc. and the chief architect for CodeSite and Raize Components. Ray is also the author of the highly acclaimed Developing Custom Delphi Components books and the popular "Delphi by Design" column, which appeared in Visual Developer Magazine. Ray specializes in user interface design and Delphi component development, and is a frequent speaker at developer conferences around the world.

Introduction.


Who Should Read This Book. Conventions Used in This Book. Delphi 6 Developer's Guide Web Site. Getting Started.

I. DEVELOPMENT ESSENTIALS.

1. Programming in Delphi.


The Delphi Product Family. Delphi: What and Why. A Little History. The Delphi IDE. A Tour of Your Project's Source. Tour of a Small Application. What's So Great About Events, Anyway? Turbo Prototyping. Extensible Components and Environment. The Top 10 IDE Features You Must Know and Love. Summary.

2. The Object Pascal Language.


Comments. Extended Procedure and Function Features. Variables. Constants. Operators. Object Pascal Types. User-Defined Types. Typecasting and Type Conversion. String Resources. Testing Conditions. Loops. Procedures and Functions. Scope. Units. Packages. Object-Oriented Programming. Using Delphi Objects. Structured Exception Handling. Runtime Type Information. Summary.

3. Adventures in Messaging.


What Is a Message? Types of Messages. How the Windows Message System Works. Delphi's Message System. Handling Messages. Sending Your Own Messages. Nonstandard Messages. Anatomy of a Message System: VCL. The Relationship Between Messages and Events. Summary.

II. ADVANCED TECHNIQUES.

4. Writing Portable Code.


General Compatibility. Delphi-Kylix Compatibility. New Delphi 6 Features. Migrating from Delphi 5. Migrating from Delphi 4. Migrating from Delphi 3. Migrating from Delphi 2. Migrating from Delphi 1. Summary.

5. Multithreaded Techniques.


Threads Explained. The TThread Object. Managing Multiple Threads. A Sample Multithreaded Application. Multithreading BDE Access. Multithreaded Graphics. Fibers. Summary.

6. Dynamic Link Libraries.


What Exactly Is a DLL? Static Linking Versus Dynamic Linking. Why Use DLLs? Creating and Using DLLs. Displaying Modeless Forms from DLLs. Using DLLs in Your Delphi Applications. Loading DLLs Explicitly. The Dynamically Linked Library Entry/Exit Function. Exceptions in DLLs. Callback Functions. Calling Callback Functions from Your DLLs. Sharing DLL Data Across Different Processes. Exporting Objects from DLLs. Summary.

III. DATABASE DEVELOPMENT.

7. Delphi Database Architecture.


Types of Databases. Database Architecture. Connecting to Database Servers. Working with Datasets. Working with Fields. Summary.

8. Database Development with dbExpress.


Using dbExpress. dbExpress Components. Designing Editable dbExpress Applications. Deploying dbExpress Applications. Summary.

9. Database Development with dbGo for ADO.


Introduction to dbGo. Overview of Microsoft's Universal Data Access Strategy. Overview of OLE DB, ADO, and ODBC. Using dbGo for ADO. dbGo for ADO Components. Transaction Processing. Summary.

IV. COMPONENT-BASED DEVELOPMENT.

10. Component Architecture: VCL and CLX.


More on the New CLX. What Is a Component? Component Hierarchy. The Component Structure. The Visual Component Hierarchy. Runtime Type Information. Summary.

11. VCL Component Building.


Component Building Basics. Sample Components. TddgButtonEdit-Container Components. Summary.

12. Advanced VCL Component Building.


Pseudo-Visual Components. Animated Components. Writing Property Editors. Component Editors. Streaming Nonpublished Component Data. Property Categories. Lists of Components: TCollection and TCollectionItem. Summary.

13. CLX Component Development.


What Is CLX? The CLX Architecture. Porting Issues. Sample Components. CLX Design Editors. Packages. Summary.

14. Packages to the Max.


Why Use Packages? Why Not Use Packages? Types of Packages. Package Files. Using Runtime Packages. Installing Packages into the Delphi IDE. Creating Packages. Package Versioning. Package Compiler Directives. Package Naming Conventions. Extensible Applications Using Runtime (Add-In) Packages. Exporting Functions from Packages. Obtaining Information About a Package. Summary.

15. COM Development.


COM Basics. COM Meets Object Pascal. COM Objects and Class Factories. Distributed COM. Automation. Advanced Automation Techniques. TOleContainer. Summary.

16. Windows Shell Programming.


A Tray-Notification Icon Component. Application Desktop Toolbars. Shell Links. Shell Extensions. Summary.

17. Using the Open Tools API.


Open Tools Interfaces. Using the Open Tools API. Form Wizards. Summary.

V. ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT.

18. Transactional Development with COM+/MTS.


What Is COM+? Why COM? Services. Runtime. Creating COM+ Applications. COM+ in Delphi. Summary.

19. CORBA Development.


CORBA Features. CORBA Architecture. Interface Definition Language (IDL). The Bank Example. Complex Data Types. Delphi, CORBA, and Enterprise Java Beans (EJBs). CORBA and Web Services. Summary.

20. BizSnap Development: Writing SOAP-Based Web Services.


What Are Web Services? What Is SOAP? Writing a Web Service. Invoking a Web Service from a Client. Summary.

21. DataSnap Development.


Mechanics of Creating a Multitier Application. Benefits of the Multitier Architecture. Typical DataSnap Architecture. Using DataSnap to Create an Application. More Options to Make Your Application Robust. Real-World Examples. More Client Dataset Features. Classic Mistakes. Deploying DataSnap Applications. Summary.

VI. INTERNET DEVELOPMENT.

22. ASP Development.


Understanding Active Server Objects. The Active Server Object Wizard. ASP Session, Server, and Application Objects. Active Server Objects and Databases. Active Server Objects and NetCLX Support. Debugging Active Server Objects. Summary.

23. Building WebSnap Applications


WebSnap Features. Building a WebSnap Application. Advanced Topics. Summary.

24. Wireless Development.


Evolution of Development-How Did We Get Here? Mobile Wireless Devices. Radio Technologies. Server-Based Wireless Data Technologies. Wireless User Experience. Summary.