Dear,

I installed Delphi 2007, Delphi XE and Delphi 10.2 on Windows 10 machine still having same issue with latest version Delphi. I created very small project with Delphi 10.2 that connects to Oracle database using TFDconnection while debugging Windows got freeze and I have to turn off my machine. Can you please give me an advice, please?

Thanks,

Jaki

Hello,

I have a 32bit app developed in Delphi 2009.

Is it possible to call a 64bit c# dll from this application?

Also how can the dll "work" as a 64bit process?

Thank you

Hello,

I'm trying to deploy Rad Server 10.2 under apache on linux.

I installed Interbase xe7 and register my Rad server licence.

 When running EMSDevServerCommand it works correctly I can can access default ressources and a custom ressources.

But when i try to access EMS ressource throug apache i get a message

{"error":"Resource not found: \/version","description":"The request does not identify a known application, resource, endpoint, or entity"}

This message tells me ems-server is running as this outpout comes from ems but it seems it is not able to find any ressource.

Does anyone have an idea ?

Thanks

When I try to send a bug report in Delphi Tokyo It ends up with the message Xml document must have a top level element - Line 0.

I wanted to send a report that the copy paste of a simple component in the multiview application is not working and creates the need to send a report.

Are these 2 issues (copy/paste and bug report failure) known ?

Thanks.

We are getting this error everytime we save any file on any fmx project or perform some actions, like change object property on object inspector, or change from code to form.

I don´t need to say that this is very annoying.

I have googled for a solution and found users refering to this issue at least since XE8.

Is there a permanent solution for this?

We are using version 10.2.3.

Thanks in advance.

Hi,

I have new MultiDevice project:

uses

System.IOUtils

...

dir := TPath.Combine(TPath.GetDocumentsPath, 'plikZAparatu.jpg');

and when I add Timage to project, it adds FMX.Objects to uses ... and TPath.Combine or TPath.GetDocumentsPath stops working, errors:

- TPath does not contain  a member named Combine

- TPath does not contain  a member named GetDocumentsPath

how to make it work again ?

Message box: Erros: "Invalid ImageList Index"

This message keeps popping up when working with FireMonkey. I have tried everything. Even on new projects. it's annoying. I read it online that other people are having the same issue. any fix?

I don't even have an image list on my app. the annoying message just keeps popping up whenever I select any component on the screen

Hello Embarcadero Developer Community! 

As you all may know, we made a business decision to "end of life" our Upgrade SKU's on March 31st in an effort to simplify the purchasing process.  The demand to extend this was frankly unexpectedly high.  We listened and decided to extend the Upgrade SKU availability through April 30^th.  You do not have to rush and can enjoy the entire Holiday weekend.  We know that with 10.2.3 out, and FMX now part of PRO, many will rush anyway. I personally can't wait to get many, many more Cool Apps...

It is a good time to be a Delphi developer!

Woll2Woll’s BEAM (Beacon External Advanced Mapper) makes RAD Server’s BeaconFence technology so much more flexible, and it is the March 2018 Winner of our Cool App contest. With RAD Server and BeaconFence it is easy to create an application that accurately tracks indoor location. Using the IDE map layout editor the developer places beacons on the floor plan, and then the app can accurately track the device location through the map.

Woll2Woll’s BEAM makes it easy to let your end-users edit and create their own maps for use with your BeaconFence app. This flexibility makes your apps so much more useful and powerful. You can build your app around BeaconFence without concern about the specifics of the location where it will be used. Then with BEAM it can be updated to based on beacon placement and the floor plan.

Beyond BeaconFence and FireMonkey BEAM also makes use of Woll2Woll’s amazing FirePower components to round out its user interface. According to Roy Wall of Woll2Woll software, “BEAM uses RAD Studio’s FireMonkey so it is a universal application that shines in both usability and performance . . . with a common codebase it is trivial to add advanced features with a single development team.” The great thing is BEAM is available on iOS, macOS, Windows, and Android, supporting touch input as well as keyboard and mouse. It is in all the major App stores. 

BEAM was developed by Roy Woll of Woll2Woll software. You can find more information on Woll2Woll’s website and while you are there check out some of Woll2Woll’s other great products like FirePower.

Watch BEAM in action:

   [YoutubeButton url='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C5VLJ3EIm8'] 

Interested in submitting for the Embarcadero’s Cool App contest? It’s open to any business or consumer application built with RAD Studio, Delphi or C++Builder. Embarcadero awards Cool App contest winners a $500 Amazon gift card and winning submissions are also highlighted on the company’s YouTube channel. For more information on the contest and a link to the submission form, click here.

Woll2Woll社のBEAM（Beacon External Advanced Mapper）は、RAD Serverの BeaconFenceテクノロジーに柔軟性をもたらします。今回、このアプリが、2018年3月のクールアプリに選出されました。このアプリは、屋内で正しい位置情報をトラッキングするRAD ServerとBeaconFenceによるアプリケーションの構築をより簡単にします。IDEマップレイアウトエディタを用いれば、フロア内に配置したビーコンの位置をマップ上で正確に追跡することができます。

Woll2Woll社のBEAMを使用することで、開発者は、簡単にエンドユーザーにマップを編集させ、BeaconFenceアプリで使用することができます。こうした柔軟性によって、BeaconFenceアプリは、はるかに有用で強力になります。開発者は、ビーコンの配置などの詳細な設置位置について心配することなく、BeaconFenceを用いたアプリを構築できます。BEAMを使用すれば、ビーコン配置とフロアプランを基に、アプリをアップデートすることができるのです。

BEAMは、BeaconFenceとFireMonkeyだけでなく、Woll2Woll社の強力なFirePowerコンポーネントを利用して、ユーザーインターフェイスを作成しています。Woll2Woll SoftwareのRoy Wall氏は、次のように述べています。「BEAMはRAD StudioのFireMonkeyを使用しています。そのため、使いやすさとパフォーマンスの両面で優れた、ユニバーサルアプリとなっています。共通のコードベースを使用することで、1つの開発チームで高度な機能を追加できるのです。」BEAMは、iOS、macOS、Windows、Androidで利用でき、キーボードやマウスだけでなく、タッチ入力にも対応しています。アプリは、それぞれのApp Storeで入手できます。

BEAMは、Woll2Woll SoftwareのRoy Woll氏によって開発されました。Woll2Woll社の詳細については、同社のWebサイトや、FirePowerなどの製品情報をご確認ください。

BEAMの詳細は、こちらのビデオでご覧いただけます。

エンバカデロ クールアプリコンテストに応募してみませんか？RAD Studio、Delphi、C++Builderを使用して構築したビジネスアプリケーションやコンシューマアプリケーションのいずれも応募可能です。クールアプリコンテストの受賞者には、500ドル分のAmazonギフトカードを進呈し、エンバカデロのYouTubeチャンネルで公開します。コンテストの詳細については、こちらをご覧ください。

2018年4月23日～5月4日までの月～金曜に毎日ブログを更新。Delphi / C++Builderに関する技術記事からエンジニアの日常まで、さまざまな話題を投稿します。お楽しみに！ 日本人スタッフブログを一覧表示できる、こちらのページをブックマークしてください。

I was really excited to see BriskBard by Salvador Díaz Fau as the April 2018 winner of the Cool App Contest. BriskBard is a browser, and a whole lot more. All  the other browsers out there are just browsers, while BriskBards is a web browser for Windows that includes an email client, a media player, a news  aggregator, a contact manager, an FTP client, a usenet newsreader, an IRC client, and several web developer tools. Did I mention it is also free? Think of it  as your one stop shop for all your internet related tools.

BriskBard is built with Delphi 10.2 Tokyo along with Indy, Hunspell, OpenSSL, SQLite, and three HTML rendering engines. It includes both Blink (used by  Chromium), Trident (used by Internet Explorer) and it’s own custom rendering engine. To take advantage of Blink/Chromium Salvador created  the  CEF4Delphi open source project which makes it easy for Delphi developers to use DCEF3 (made by Henri Gourvest).

When talking to Salvador about his use of Delphi in BriskBard he said:

Pascal was one of the first computer languages I learned as a kid and I was happy to see that Delphi was one of the IDEs used in my university. Delphi made my student life much easier because it uses a strongly typed language that allowed me to detect mistakes even before I built my programs. Many other features also helped me a lot, like the form designer, templates and automatic block completion but what I like most about Delphi is its speed. Simply put, Delphi is a Formula 1 car in the IDE race.

It’s not unusual to find open source projects written in other languages that take several hours to build using a high end computer. The worst case I’ve seen is a project that takes more than 6 hours using an Intel I7 with more than 16Gb of RAM. I can’t imagine how much time it would take to build that project in my 10 year old computer. In contrast, I’ve seen large Delphi projects built in less than 2 minutes on my old computer. People often neglect this but in my opinion it’s one of the most important features in Delphi. Delphi 10.2 can also be used to create cross-platform applications and includes countless new features that makes it one of the best IDEs in the market. Delphi is easy to learn, can create applications quickly and anyone can start using it thanks to the 100% discount in Delphi Starter Edition.  

You can see a video overview of BriskBard on YouTube:

Interested in submitting for the Embarcadero’s Cool App contest? It’s open to any business or consumer application built with RAD Studio, Delphi or C++Builder. Embarcadero awards Cool App contest winners a $500 Amazon gift card and winning submissions are also highlighted on the company’s YouTube channel. For more information on the contest and a link to the submission form, click here.

2018年4月のクールアプリコンテストに選出されたSalvador Díaz Fau氏のBriskBardを見たときの興奮を忘れられません。BriskBardはブラウザですが、それだけではありません。すべての他のブラウザは、ブラウザ機能だけですが、BriskBardsは電子メールクライアント、メディアプレーヤー、ニュースまとめ、連絡先の管理、FTPクライアント、ユーズネットニュースリーダー、IRCクライアント、さらにはいくつかのWeb開発者ツールを含むWindows向けWebブラウザです。それにもかかわらず無料なのです！いわば、インターネットに関連するすべてのツールのワンストップショップなのです。

BriskBardは、Delphi 10.2 Tokyoで構築されており、Indy、Hunspell、OpenSSL、SQLite、3つのHTMLレンダリングエンジンも使用しています。これは、Blink（Chromiumで使用）とTrident（Internet Explorerで使用）の両方を含む、独自のカスタムレンダリングエンジンです。Blink / Chromiumを利用するために、Salvador氏は、CEF4Delphiオープンソースプロジェクトを作成しました。これにより、Delphi開発者は、DCEF3（Henri Gourvest氏の作）を簡単に使用できます。

Salvador氏は、BriskBardの開発にDelphiを使用していることについて、次のように語っていました。

Pascalは、私が子供の頃に学んだ最初のコンピュータ言語のひとつでしたので、私が通っていた大学で使用していたIDEの1つがDelphiだったことはハッピーでした。Delphiは、私の学生生活を楽にしてくれました。というのは、強く型付けされた言語であるため、プログラムをビルドする前に間違いを検出できたからです。また、フォームデザイナー、テンプレート、自動ブロック補完のような多くの機能も大いに役立ちましたが、Delphiについて私が最も気に入っているのはそのスピードです。簡単に言えば、DelphiはIDEレースのF1カーだということです。

高性能コンピュータを使用してもビルドに数時間もかかる、他の言語で書かれたオープンソースプロジェクトはざらにあります。私が見た最悪のケースは、16Gバイト以上のRAMを搭載したIntel I7を使用しても、ビルドに6時間以上かかるプロジェクトです。私の10年落ちのコンピュータでこのプロジェクトをビルドすると、どれくらいの時間がかかるのか想像すらできません。対照的に、古いコンピュータでも2分以内にビルドできる大規模なDelphiプロジェクトを見てきました。あまり注目されないことが多いのですが、私の意見では、これはDelphiの最も重要な機能の1つです。Delphi 10.2は、クロスプラットフォームアプリケーションの作成にも使用できます。最高のIDEの1つに、さらに数え切れないほどの新機能が搭載されています。Delphiは学習が簡単で、アプリケーションをすばやく作成できます。しかも、Delphi Starter Editionなら、無料で誰でも使い始めることができます。

BriskBardの概要は、こちらのビデオでご覧いただけます。

エンバカデロ クールアプリコンテストに応募してみませんか？RAD Studio、Delphi、C++Builderを使用して構築したビジネスアプリケーションやコンシューマアプリケーションのいずれも応募可能です。クールアプリコンテストの受賞者には、500ドル分のAmazonギフトカードを進呈し、エンバカデロのYouTubeチャンネルで公開します。コンテストの詳細については、こちらをご覧ください。

There is an interesting post on Medium aiming to inspire students why to learn C++. Its main point is that learning C++ teaches fundamental computer science concepts: memory management, compile-time vs run-time, polymorphism implementation, iterators and containers, and more.  Unfortunately, it phrases itself in an exclusionary manner. While C++ is not the only language where you can learn these fundamentals, it is one of the most popular.

However, with dozens of coding "boot camps" popping up and charging thousands of dollars for the promise of a quick path to a software development career, why should you consider learning a complex language like C++?

Here are three key reasons to learn and use C++ today:

1. Technical Foundation
2. It's Widely Used
3. Support and Future

Let’s look at these in order.

Technical Foundation

C++ is one of the most common languages used to teach strong foundational knowledge that is applicable to all other languages. There are many core concepts you can learn with C++:

• Memory management:
• • Allocating and freeing; use of pointers, and very quickly why you should not manually manage memory

• • Different memory management models: reference-counted in the form of shared_ptr; strict ownership in the form of unique_ptr 

• Ownership and deterministic behaviour, illustrated by RAII (see C++ specifics)

• Polymorphism behaviours: this one is in fact illustrated by some odd behaviours of C++, such as that the type identity of an object changes throughout its construction - hint, what happens when you call a virtual method in a constructor?

• Fundamental containers and algorithms

• Optimizations: what causes fast or slow code?

• Functional programming: while not a pure functional language, functional style is a direction the language has been heading and is very powerful in C++

If you learn C++, you will have a solid background that will allow you to understand other languages’ designs and implementations.

It’s Widely Used

C++ is the most widely used language for software today, especially in areas requiring performance. The following applications are written totally or mostly in C++:

• Windows Explorer

• Photoshop

• Word

• Clang compiler

• Windows (key area, including the new wrappers for XAML and desktop in C++17)

• Amazon’s key services

• Large parts of Apple’s macOS

• Bloomberg’s financial software

And many more.

Why is it widely used?

Because C++ is powerful, expressive, concise, and performant. When you need to write solid, fast, applications and need powerful concepts in your code, you use C++.

Support and the Future

Finally, one key item in learning a language is the direction it’s going in the future. C++ is an ISO standard, and is evolving rapidly. You can read an overview of the various standard versions here.

It’s a language that is being kept up-to-date and extended as developers need it. That’s a language to rely on.

Ready to Get Started learning or expanding your C++ knowledge? Start with our free tools and C++ Bootcamp replays.

Anyone who loves playing with deck of cards knows solitaire. And no matter how advanced the technology is, it will always be played. That is why I’m thrilled to see BVS Solitaire Collection by BVS Development as our May 2018 cool app winner. It is an award-winning multi-featured collection of solitaire card games that includes over 510 variations.

It features both old-time favorites (like Spider Solitaire, FreeCell and Pyramid) and original variations not found elsewhere. You can modify rules of any game, thus easily creating your own unique variations. Attractive smoothly scalable playing cards, completely customizable game appearance and comprehensive set of statistics to measure your performance. Its Windows version gained popularity and was even featured in a movie "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (2011).

BVS Solitaire Collection is built with Delphi along with Firemonkey. It runs on iOS, MacOS and Windows. Boris of BVS Development Corporation shared his experience on Delphi, he said: 

"Delphi was chosen due to the flexibility of Object Pascal and both powerful and convenient development environment. I like the aesthetics of the Object Pascal code and its high readability. When I'm in an edit-compile- debug cycle I want it to be as fast as possible. Delphi compiler is extremely quick. That accelerates my development efforts and greatly improves my productivity. Besides, Object Pascal is much simpler and safer than C++ which further improves productivity and code maintainability. Embarcadero keeps adding new features continuously. Actually Delphi is one of the best IDEs on the market, that can be used to create cross platform applications."

Watch BVS Solitaire Collections video in action here: 

Interested in submitting for the Embarcadero’s Cool App contest? It’s open to any business or consumer application built with RAD Studio, Delphi or C++Builder. Embarcadero awards Cool App contest winners a $500 Amazon gift card and winning submissions are also highlighted on the company’s YouTube channel. For more information on the contest and a link to the submission form, click here.

Microsoft’s June 4 announcement about its acquisition of Github for $7.5 billion has created great interest in the developer community.  Hacker News showed mixed reactions, as did Reddit.  Twitter has some contentious threads.  Motherboard reports that Gitlab, an open source competitor, had an uptick of 50,000 projects migrated in a week.  (Fitting an open source company, you can visit Gitlab’s dashboard and see this migration bump.  #movetogitlab is trending.)  According to Reuters, Microsoft is downplaying this as unlikely to be a long-term trend, and Satya Nadella’s blog post on the acquisition promises Github will remain open.  Many viewpoints are very positive.

What does this mean for RAD Studio and for you?

Github vs git

Git is not Github.  This is important to remember.  Git is a version control system.  Github is a website that made using it easier.

RAD Studio has excellent inbuilt git support, along with Subversion and Mercurial.  When you use a project from Github with RAD Studio, and with any git client like SourceTree, there is nothing Github-specific.  It is only git.

That means that as well as supporting Github, RAD Studio supports any and every git system: self-hosted, remotely hosted, Gitlab, or others.

Our April 2017 developer survey showed some developers did not use a source/version control system at all.  We strongly recommend that you use version control for your projects: this is a great writeup on why.  It doesn’t matter if you use Subversion, git, or Mercurial, but use source control.  RAD Studio has inbuilt support for the major systems, a plugin system so that others can be supported, and puts configuring your source control front and center in the very first dialog you see after installation.

Coincidentally, one of our staff emailed me today that Atlassian has a free course on learning git.

Microsoft’s approach to open source

Most comments expressing concern about the acquisition seem to express distrust of Microsoft because of its past behaviour.  Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, seems to acknowledge this in his blog post:

"When it comes to our commitment to open source, judge us by the actions we have taken in the recent past, our actions today, and in the future."

Github is not the only technology where developers express concern about Microsoft’s history.  For many, this refers to the policies of the nineties and early two-thousands, as well as its past anti-open-source policies.  These have radically changed in the past few years.  Specifically, Microsoft has embraced open source and to some extent cross platform, some highlights being acquiring Xamarin, releasing Visual Studio Code, and supporting Linux within Windows, as well as internal use of and contribution to git.  The Github acquisition follows recent trends.

Finally, Github needed an exit.  According to this Ars Technica article, after $350 million of investment and an apparent high rate of money burn, and a (laudable) refusal to charge developers just for hosting, the company needed a buyout. Buying Github may well have saved Github, and is a great benefit to the whole developer community.

Developers

The acquisition of Github may not only be about open source.  According to the following quoted Stratchery analysis, it is in fact about customer acquisition:

"This is the context for thinking about the acquisition of GitHub: lacking a platform with sufficient users to attract developers, Microsoft has to “acquire” developers directly through superior tooling and now, with GitHub, a superior cloud offering with a meaningful amount of network effects. The problem is that acquiring developers in this way, without the leverage of users, is extraordinarily expensive; it is very hard to imagine GitHub ever generating the sort of revenue that justifies this purchase price."

Satella emphasises that Github will,

"retain its developer-first ethos, operate independently and remain an open platform"

Microsoft thus also acquires Github’s 28 million users, the name it gives them in open source, and the network effects of being such a visible open source supporter.

RAD Studio and git

What does this mean for RAD Studio, and for you?

RAD Studio supports using git repositories, including Github, in RAD Studio.

Github is used by many of our Delphi and C++Builder users for hosting open source projects. We’d like to encourage you to do this, and in fact to do this more, to make your Delphi and C++Builder projects available and visible.

Embarcadero has a Github account.  Not all of our material is online (yet) but we are making a partial migration to Github, from SourceForge, and we certainly have no plans to change because of the acquisition.

Overall

We’re excited to see the Github acquisition, because it helps the Github company - a core part of the developer ecosystem, including for Delphi and C++Builder developers.

Embarcadero uses Github, and you can visit our page here.

Finally, we recommend you use source control of some sort, whether that’s git or not, and whether that’s Github, Gitlab or another host.  RAD Studio is a core developer tool, with broad support for all major version control systems, including git.  Make sure you use one of them.

カードゲームの愛好家であれば、誰もがソリティアを知っています。技術がどれほど進歩しても、それは遊び続けられるゲームです。それゆえ、今回BVS Developmentによる「BVS Solitaire Collection」が2018年5月のクールアプリに選出されたことは、大変うれしいことです。このアプリは、ソリティアカードゲームの多機能コレクションで、510以上のバリエーションが含まれています。

古くからあるSpider Solitaire、FreeCell、Pyramidなどのゲームのほかに、ほかにはないオリジナルのバリエーションが用意されています。どのゲームのルールも変更できるため、独自のバリエーションを簡単に作成することもできます。魅力的でスムーズに拡張できるカードプレイ、完全にカスタマイズ可能なゲームの外観、総合的な統計情報を使用したパフォーマンス測定機能が備わっています。Windows版のアプリは多くのユーザーを獲得し、映画「ドラゴン・タトゥーの女」（2011）でも紹介されました。

BVS Solitaire Collectionは、DelphiでFireMonkeyを利用して構築されています。iOS、MacOS、Windows上で動作します。BVS Development CorporationのBoris氏は、Delphiでの経験を次のように語っています。

「Delphiは、Object Pascalの柔軟性と、強力かつ便利な開発環境の両方の理由から選択されました。私はObject Pascalコードの美しさと高い可読性が気に入っています。編集、コンパイル、デバッグの開発サイクルでは、非常に高速なDelphiコンパイラのおかげで、開発作業が効率化され、生産性が大幅に向上します。また、Object Pascalは、C++よりも言語構造が単純かつ安全で、コードの生産性とメンテナンス性の双方が向上します。Delphiは、クロスプラットフォームアプリケーション開発に対応した、市場で最も優れた統合開発環境のひとつであるといえます。」

BVS Solitaire Collectionビデオの視聴はこちら

エンバカデロ クールアプリコンテストに応募してみませんか？RAD Studio、Delphi、C++Builderを使用して構築したビジネスアプリケーションやコンシューマアプリケーションのいずれも応募可能です。クールアプリコンテストの受賞者には、500ドル分のAmazonギフトカードを進呈し、エンバカデロのYouTubeチャンネルで公開します。コンテストの詳細については、こちらをご覧ください。

マイクロソフトが6月4日に発表したGitHubの75億ドルでの買収は、開発者コミュニティの大きな関心を集めています。Hacker Newsでは、Redditと同様、さまざまな反応が見られました。Twitter上では、いくつかのスレッドが続いています。Motherboardによれば、オープンソースの競合Gitlabでは1週間で5万プロジェクトが移行してきたといいます（オープンソース企業がマッチする方は、Gitlabのダッシュボードにアクセスすれば、一気に増加してきたGitlabへの移行状況を確認できます。#movetogitlabが本件に関するハッシュタグです）。Reutersによれば、マイクロソフトはこれまで永くとってきたスタンスとは異なり、これをあまり問題視していないようです。この買収に関連するSatya Nadella氏のブログ記事では、GitHubをオープンにし続けることを約束しています。多くの視点は非常にポジティブです。

このことは、RAD Studioや皆さんにとって、どういう意味があるのでしょうか？

Github vs git

GitはGithubではありません。これは重要な点です。Gitはバージョン管理システムであり、Githubはそれを容易に使えるようにしたWebサイトです。

RAD Studioには、SubversionとMercurialと同様に、gitサポートが組み込まれています。RAD StudioでGithubのプロジェクトを使用し、SourceTreeのようなgitクライアントを使用する場合、Github特有のものは何もなく、gitのみです。

つまり、RAD Studioは、Githubをサポートするだけでなく、セルフホスト型、リモートホスト型、Gitlabなど、あらゆるgitシステムをサポートしています。

私たちが2017年4月に実施した開発者向け調査では、一部の開発者はソース／バージョン管理システムをまったく使用していない実態が明らかになりました。プロジェクトでは、バージョン管理システムを使用することを強くお勧めします。その理由について説明したすばらしい記事はこちらです。Subversion、git、Mercurialのどれを選択してもかまいませんが、いずれにしても何らかのソース／バージョン管理システムを使用するべきです。RAD Studioには、これらのバージョン管理システムのサポート機能が搭載されているほか、プラグインで他のシステムもサポートできます。インストール後に初めて起動した際に表示される一連のダイアログで、使用するソース／バージョン管理システムのフロントやセンターを設定できます。

偶然、私たちのスタッフの一人から、Atlassianがgitを学ぶための無料コースを提供していることを、今日メールで知らされました。

オープンソースに対するマイクロソフトのアプローチ

買収に関する懸念を表明するほとんどのコメントでは、過去の行動を理由にマイクロソフトに不信感を抱いているようです。マイクロソフトのCEO、Satya Nadella氏は、自身のブログ記事でこれを認めているようです。

「オープンソースへの私たちのコミットメントについては、私たちのごく最近の行動、現在の行動、そして将来の行動によって判断してください。」

開発者がマイクロソフトの歴史に対して懸念しているのは、Githubだけではありません。多くの人にとって、今回のできごとは90年代から2000年代初期の方針、そして過去の反オープンソースの方針を想起させるのです。しかし、これらはここ数年の間に、根本的な変化がありました。実際、マイクロソフトはオープンソースを採用しており、クロスプラットフォームへと拡張し、Xamarinの買収、Visual Studio Codeのリリース、Windows内でのLinuxサポートの提供を行い、gitを内部で使用するとともに、コミュニティへの貢献も果たしています。Githubの買収は、最近の傾向に沿ったものです。

そして、Githubは出口戦略を必要としていました。こちらのArs Technicaの記事によれば、3億5,000万ドルの投資と明らかに高い金利に加え、ホスティングのためだけに開発者に課金することを拒否した結果（これは賞賛に値することですが）、何らかの買収を求める結果となったのです。Githubの買収によりGithubを救済できるので、その結果、開発者コミュニティ全体に大きな利益をもたらすこととなります。

開発者

Githubの買収は、オープンソースに関することがらにはとどまりません。以下に引用したStratcheryの分析によれば、実際のところ、これは顧客獲得に関する買収であるといえるのです。

「これはGitHubの買収についての考え方です。開発者を引き付けるのに十分なユーザーがいるプラットフォームがないため、マイクロソフトは優れたツールの提供によって開発者を直接獲得しなければなりませんでした。しかし、すぐれたクラウドサービスであるGitHubを用いることで、そのネットワーク効果は劇的に高まります。問題は、ユーザーの利便性を欠いたこのような方法で開発者を獲得することは、非常に高コストであるということです。実際、GitHubがこれまで生み出してきた利益が、この買収価格を正当化するようなものであると考えるのには相当無理があります。」

Satella氏は、Githabの今後について、次のように強調しています。

「開発者ファーストのスタンスを維持し、独立したオペレーション、オープンプラットフォームを維持します。」

マイクロソフトは、結果としてGithubの2800万人のユーザー、オープンソースで提供されたユーザー情報、オープンソースのサポーターとしてのネットワーク効果をも獲得しています。

RAD StudioとGit

RAD Studioにとって、また皆さんにとってこれはどのような意味があるのでしょうか？

RAD Studioでは、Githubを含むgitリポジトリをRAD Studio内で使用できるようにサポートしています。

Githubは、DelphiやC++Builderの多くのユーザーによって、オープンソースプロジェクトのホスティングに利用されています。私たちもこうした利用を推奨しており、その結果、DelphiやC++Builderのプロジェクトが共有され、利用可能になります。

エンバカデロもGithubアカウントを所持しています。まだ私たちのすべての資料がオンラインになっているわけではありませんが、部分的にSourceForgeからGithubへの移行を進めており、今回の買収によっても、その計画を変更する考えはありません。

まとめ

今回のGithabの買収は、Delphi開発者、C++Builder開発者を含む、開発者のエコシステムの中核部分であるGithubの支援につながると考えており、大変エキサイティングなできごとであると捉えています。

エンバカデロが使用しているGithubアカウントについては、こちらのページをご覧ください。

締めくくりにあたり、git、Github、Gitlab、あるいは別のホスティングサービスのいずれでも構いませんが、ソースコントロールを使用することを強くお勧めします。RAD Studioは、gitを含む主要なバージョン管理システムを幅広くサポートした開発ツールであり、ぜひ、そのうちのひとつを使用するようにしてください。

Years ago I worked at a company that maintained a Point of Sale (POS) system written in Delphi. I wasn’t involved in that project (I was developing a medication management system for an assisted living facility), but talking with some of the developers that were working on it I learned that Delphi is very popular in many different vertical markets, specifically Point of Sale systems. So I’m not surprised to see MalyKangurek POS by SoftSystem as the cool app winner for June 2018.

What makes MalyKangurek POS cool is that it is designed specifically around a children's playground with features designed for that specific business niche. It has all the standard POS features including the ability to work with hardware devices like barcode readers, cash drawers, and receipt printers. Additionally it is designed to work great on a touch screen with nice big buttons and on screen input.

Originally it was created in Delphi 2009 with VCL components, and now it is transferred to the latest Delphi and the FireMonkey platform. It started out targeted the Windows desktop, but now that it is migrated to FireMonkey there are plans to make it available on Android in the future.

Beyond FireMonkey it also makes use of FireDAC for database access, Devart SDAC, TMS Software Components, AlphaSkin, FastReport, EurekaLog, CPort.

When I asked Osmański Przemysław of SoftSystem, the developer of MalyKangurek POS to tell me more about his use of Delphi he said the following:

"Delphi is a great environment for creating applications. I started to play with Delphi in the days of Delphi 2. Later Delphi became my work environment and all the applications I created were created in Delphi. For many years Delphi was the only real visual tool for creating applications. Its advantages are the speed of compilation and the ability to compile to different platforms. In addition, the Delphi community in Poland is very large and helpful to other programmers.

In developing MałyKangurek I learned about external devices such as barcode readers, receipt printers, fiscal printers, time meters etc.The application was written for my wife and her business, but with time it has become an application used in many places. As users made suggestions Delphi made it very quick and easy to make changes and features.

For a while I started developing some of my new software in Visual Studio. Then Delphi 10 (Seattle, Berlin and Tokyo) brought new quality when compared to earlier versions. Now I do not have to worry about changing development tools, and I can devote myself to the pleasure of writing a new cross-platform version of the application in an environment that i know well and like.

Now all my software is developed with Delphi. There are so many new solutions for Delphi, such as UniGUI which allows for seamless development of web applications. I look forward to the future of development with Delphi that will allow me to continue to work with the pleasure that I’ve had so far."

Watch MalyKangurek POS video in action here:

Interested in submitting for the Embarcadero’s Cool App contest? It’s open to any business or consumer application built with RAD Studio, Delphi or C++Builder. Embarcadero awards Cool App contest winners a $500 Amazon gift card and winning submissions are also highlighted on the company’s YouTube channel. For more information on the contest and a link to the submission form click here.

The RAD Server Field Service Template provides an end to end field service application template for routing appointments, managing parts, and user administration. It is made up of a REST server module, a desktop client, and a cross platform mobile client. The template can give you a head start in building your own field service solutions. You can download the template from within the RAD Studio IDE using Embarcadero GetIt.

Introduction

The RAD Server Field Service Template utilizes a RAD Server based REST server module for the server side. On the admin side there is a FireMonkey based desktop client for adding, viewing, and managing appointments. Additionally, the admin client allows you to manage parts inventory and do user administration. The offline capable cross platform client app is built in FireMonkey and it can be deployed to Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows. There is a single codebase and single UI. It allows you to view pending and completed appointments, map their locations, and mark them as completed. You can also view parts inventory and receive local notifications when new appointments are synced from the server. Both LiveBindings and FireDAC are used extensively through the Field Service Template to provide a low code solution.

The Field Service Template consists of a RAD Server backend connected to an InterBase database. RAD Service provides REST endpoints which both the Field Service Admin and the Field Service App connect to for performing CRUD operations. Additionally, there is a Field Service Setup app which you will run on the same machine as RAD Server to setup the Field Service Template database and sample data.

• Field Service Admin

• Field Service App

• Field Service Server (RAD Server)

• Field Service Setup

You should deploy and run the projects in the following order:

1. RAD Server Dev Server needs to be running for the Field Service Setup app to connect to and create the user accounts.

2. Field Service Setup app will help you set up your database, the tables and data, and your EMS user accounts.

3. Field Service Server is a RAD Server side REST resource which both the Admin client and the App client interface with. It should be deployable on Windows and Linux through IIS, Apache, or the stand alone RAD Server (EMS) server.

4. Field Service App is a RAD Studio FireMonkey based client application for Android, iOS, macOS and Windows. The client application should allow you to select a tenant from your RAD Server and then log in as a user. Once logged in it will download the sample appointment and parts data for your current tenant and allow appointments to be completed. Once an appointment is complete it can be submitted back to the server if there is internet access. If the Field Service App is offline it will save the changed data until it is online again.

5. Field Service Admin is a RAD Studio FireMonkey based client application designed for desktops on Windows and macOS. The Admin app can be used to create and edit appointments, view completed appointments, create and edit parts, and create and edit users.

Field Service Setup

Start: Your RAD Server Dev Server should already be setup and running.

Step 1: Set a path for your field service database. Set the path to the EMSServer database.

The Field Service database is created, used, and populated with data in Step 3.

The EMSServer database link is used to populate the drop down of Tenant ID in Step 2.

Step 2: Setup the demo users on the RAD Server using the EMS API.

You will need your EMSServer Host, Port, and Tenant ID in this step. The Setup will connect to your EMSServer and create groups and users for the template. There is a Managers group which can log into the Field Service Admin app and a Technicians group for logging into the Field Service App.

You can create Tenant IDs using this tutorial: http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/RADStudio/Tokyo/en/RAD_Server_Multi-Tenancy_Support#EMS_Multi-Tenant_Console

Step 3: Create the tables and insert the data into your field service database with the Initialize All button.

This step contains the SQL setup queries for the Field Service database. There are three tables which will be set up which are: APPOINTMENTS, PARTS, TECHNICIANS

Each table will be dropped and re-created when the queries are run (any existing data in the tables will be lost). There are also TFDMemTables containing the default data and these are copied into the InterBase tables once they have been created.

Pressing the Initialize All button will execute the SQL queries against your defined Field Service database from Step 1.

Step 4: Optional. View or reset the default data in the Field Service database.

You can view the default sample data that is inserted into the database on this step. Additionally, you could come back later and reset the data in your database with the Reset button to the default data.

Step 5: Setup the IBLite license file for the Field Service App client.

IBLite requires a license file to use. Download it from the Product Registration Portal. You can find out more about doing that here:

http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/RADStudio/Tokyo/en/IBLite_and_IBToGo_Test_Deployment_Licensing

Locate the IBLite registration file that you download from the Product Registration Portal. It may be in your Downloads directory by default. The filename will be similar to regXXXX_XXXXXXXX.txt where the X's are numbers. The file will ultimately need to be named reg_iblite.txt.

Complete: After step 5 the databases and users should be setup and ready for you to use the client and admin areas.

Your EMS database and users should be setup at this point. You should be able to connect the Field Service package to your new field service database and compile the package.

Once your Field Service Server EMS package is running in the RAD Server Development Server you should be able to open and compile the Field Service App client.

After you complete some of the appointments via the Field Service App client you should be able to log into the Field Service Admin and see the completed appointments in the Service History.

Field Service Server

The Field Service Server is the RAD Server module for the Field Service App and the Field Service Admin to interface with.

The end points mainly return the FireDAC JSON format which can be easily loaded in to a RAD Studio client or access via standard JSON in a non-RAD Studio environment. FireDAC JSON can be loaded into various FireDAC components like TFDQuery and TFDMemTable using LoadFromStream and LoadFromFile.

Endpoints:

GET fieldservice/appts/:PageId - Returns FireDAC JSON containing the appointments list. For Managers it is all appointments. For Technicians it is only their current day appointments for their user account.

GET fieldservice/parts/:PageId - Returns FireDAC JSON containing the parts list.

GET fieldservice/technicians/:PageId - Returns FireDAC JSON containing the users list. For Managers it is all users. For Technicians it is only their own account.

POST fieldservice/update/appt - Receives FireDAC JSON containing an appointment ID and NOTES for an existing appointment, stores the data, and sets the appointment to completed.

POST fieldservice/appts/0 - Receives FireDAC JSON for creating or editing appointments. Returns FireDAC JSON with the IDs. Only users in the Managers group can use this endpoint. Passing an ID of 0 will create a new record while using an existing ID will edit the existing record.

POST fieldservice/parts/0 - Receives FireDAC JSON for creating or editing parts. Returns FireDAC JSON with the IDs. Only users in the Managers group can use this endpoint. Passing an ID of 0 will create a new record while using an existing ID will edit the existing record.

POST fieldservice/technicians/0 - Receives FireDAC JSON for creating or editing users. Returns FireDAC JSON with the IDs. Only users in the Managers group can use this endpoint. Passing an ID of 0 will create a new record while using an existing ID will edit the existing record.

DELETE fieldservice/appts/:Id - Takes the Id to be deleted as the last segment parameter in the URL and deletes the appointment record. Returns JSON. Only users in the Managers group can use this endpoint.

DELETE fieldservice/parts/:Id - Takes the Id to be deleted as the last segment parameter in the URL and deletes the appointment record. Returns JSON. Only users in the Managers group can use this endpoint.

DELETE fieldservice/technicians/:Id - Takes the Id to be deleted as the last segment parameter in the URL and deletes the appointment record. Returns JSON. Only users in the Managers group can use this endpoint.

User Permissions:

User permissions are governed by the {$DEFINE GROUPPERMISSIONS}. You can comment or uncomment this line for dev and live deployments. User permissions are ignored when {$DEFINE GROUPPERMISSIONS} is commented out.

By default there are two Groups setup which are Managers and Technicians.

Different data is returned depending on if the user is in the Managers or Technicians group. Some operations are only allowed by users in the Managers group.

Database Schema:

The FireDAC JSON format is used to pass data back and forth between the server, the Admin client, and the App client. The database schema for the Appointments, the Parts, and the Technicians tables are the same across all four applications. You can save the data from each of the application’s TFDMemTables out to file and load it into each of the other applications.

Field Service Admin

The Field Service Admin project is built in RAD Studio Delphi using FireMonkey (FMX). The Admin app connects to RAD Server on the backend via a REST API. You should be able to log into the Admin area by selecting a Branch ID (Tenant ID) plus entering the login and password for a user in the Managers Group. For this template the default user is manager1.

Be sure to configure the EMS_SERVER and EMS_PORT const in uMainForm.pas to point at your development server. The default is localhost 8080.

The Branch ID is stored with each data table so each branch will only see its own set of appointments, parts, and users. Each branch has its own users and groups as well. The Branch system is built on top of the Tenant functionality in RAD Server.

Appointments

Appointments are records that can be created, viewed, and edited in the Admin client. They can also be assigned to a Technician. Appointments can be viewed and completed in the Field Service App. Appointments have various fields like Appointment date and time, customer title, description, address information, phone number, location, photo, status, and notes. The photo field supports PNGs and JPGs. Addresses can be converted to longitude and latitude using the Locate button utilizing the Google Geocoding API.

History

The Service History list is a view into the Appointments and only shows Appointments that have been their status set to Complete. Technicians using the Field Service App submit completed appointments and include notes. The History view utilizes TFDLocalSQL to show only the completed appointments.

Parts

Parts are records that can be created, viewed, and edited in the Admin client. They can also be viewed by Technicians. Parts have various fields like title, description, location, quantity, and photo. The photo field supports PNGs and JPGs.

Users

Users are records that can be be created, viewed, and edited in the Admin client. They also show up as an individual profile to logged in Technicians. When a user is created in the Field Service database it also creates a shadow user in the RAD Server Users API where their username and password are stored. By default users can be in the Managers Group or the Technicians Group. The Group information is also stored in the RAD Server Groups API and the server accesses the RAD Server User and Group data for the permissions.

Data Sync

The Data Sync tab in the Admin client is where JSON data is downloaded from the Field Service Server REST endpoint and loaded up into the various in memory TFDMemTable components. Data for the Appointments, Parts, Users, and Groups is all downloaded on this tab. You can also request to Refresh the data at any time to get new updates from the server. Additionally, there is a background TTimer which will refresh the data from the server automatically on an interval.

Architecture

The architecture of the app is built in a low code rapid application development style using TTabControls for handling pages and individual frames for each page. TActionList is used to consolidate much of the code in the MainForm. There are two TTabControls on the MainForm. The first one contains the Login frame and the second TTabControl. The second TTabControl contains the rest of the frames. Within the ApptsFrame, HistoryFrame, PartsFrame, and TechsFrame there are additional Master/Detail TTabControls.

If you want to make changes to the design time frames be sure to edit the frame itself and not the version of it that is embedded in the MainForm. This will keep your changes consolidated in one place. If your changes don't update in the MainForm you can delete the Frame from the MainForm and re-add it. Be sure to add it to the correct Tab and set to Align Client after you add the frame.

The frames are built to be as modular as possible with TBindSourceDB components used as endpoints for the LiveBindings. This allows you to easily re-use the frames in your own projects by connecting the TBindSourceDBs to your own datasets.

A TFDLocalSQL component is used to provide SQL access to the various TFDMemTables via TFDQuery components. This allows the App to provide query results for filtering some of the datasets.

• uDataModule in 'uDataModule.pas' {MainDM: TDataModule},
  Contains the RAD Server (EMS) Provider client components, the in memory table components, and the various FireDAC connecting components.

• uMainForm in 'uMainForm.pas' {MainForm},
  Contains the main form of the application with the various TTabControls and inline embedded TFrames.

• uLoginFrame in 'uLoginFrame.pas' {LoginFrame: TFrame},
  Contains the UI and code for the Login screen.

• uApptsFrame in 'uApptsFrame.pas' {ApptsFrame: TFrame},
  Contains the UI and code for the Appointments screen.

• uHistoryFrame in 'uHistoryFrame.pas' {HistoryFrame: TFrame},
  Contains the UI and code for the History screen.

• uPartsFrame in 'uPartsFrame.pas' {PartsFrame: TFrame},
  Contains the UI and code for the Parts screen.

• uTechsFrame in 'uTechsFrame.pas' {TechsFrame: TFrame},
  Contains the UI and code for the Users screen.

• uProgressFrame in 'uProgressFrame.pas' {ProgressFrame: TFrame},
  Contains the activity progress TFrame which is displayed when the app is busy.

• uTenantsDM in 'uTenantsDM.pas' {TenantsDM: TDataModule},
  Contains the RAD Server (EMS) Provider connector components for accessing the Branch (Tenants) list.

• uTenantListForm in 'uTenantListForm.pas' {TenantForm},
  Contains the UI and code for selecting a Branch/Tenant.

• uQueueFrame in 'uQueueFrame.pas' {QueueFrame: TFrame},
  Contains the UI and code for syncing data from the server.

• uGroupsListForm in 'uGroupsListForm.pas' {GroupsForm},
  Contains the UI and code for selecting a Group.

• uTechsListForm in 'uTechsListForm.pas' {TechsForm};
  Contains the UI and code for selecting a Technician to assign to an appointment.

Permissions

The Field Server Admin app will make an additional call after it logs in to download the list of Groups that the current user account is in. It will check to see that the user is in the Managers Group. If the user is not in the Managers Group it will log you back out. There are additional permissions in the Field Server Server which govern what data is sent down to which users as well. Only users in the Managers Group will receive the full data and be able to make changes to it.

Customize The UI

You can quickly and easily customize most of the look and feel of the app with three easy changes. In TMainForm there is a BackgroundRect, a BackgroundImageRect, and a EmeraldDarkStyleBook control. You can change the background color of the app by changing the BackgroundRect.Fill.Gradient property. You can change the image that is overlayed over the entire app by changing the BackgroundImageRect.Fill.Bitmap.Bitmap property. The background image works by being above all of the other controls, having a low Opacity, having a HitTest of False and a Locked property of True. Finally, you can change most of the rest of the theme by loading different Premium Styles into the EmeraldDarkStyleBook control.

You can customize the header logo of the Login screen on the LoginFrame. There are a few other places where the custom green color is used on some elements in the TListView controls and some the search icons using a TFillRGBEffect.

You will need to update the BackgroundRect and BackgroundImageRect in the GroupsListForm, the TechsListForm, and the TenantForm as well. There is a BackgroundImage control in the LoginFrame if want to customize the background of the Login page. Remember that you will need to load one style for each of the four deployment platforms. You can access the Premium Styles here:

https://www.embarcadero.com/products/rad-studio/fireui/premium-styles

https://cc.embarcadero.com/item/30491

Field Service App

The Field Service App client project which is built in RAD Studio Delphi using FireMonkey (FMX). The client is targeted for deployment to Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows. The Field Service App client connects to RAD Server on the backend via a REST API. You should be able to log into the App client by selecting a Branch ID (Tenant ID) plus entering the login and password for a user in the Technicians Group. For this template the default users are technician1 and technician2.

Be sure to configure the EMS_SERVER and EMS_PORT const in uMainForm.pas to point at your development server. The default is localhost 8080.

The Branch ID is stored with each data table so each branch will only see its own set of appointments, parts, and users. Each branch has its own users and groups as well. The Branch system is built on top of the Tenant functionality in RAD Server.

Appointments

Appointments are records that can be viewed in the Field Service App client. When you are logged in as a Technician you will only see appointments assigned to you, marked as pending, and with a date of today. Appointments have various fields like Appointment date and time, customer title, description, address information, phone number, location, photo, status, and notes. You can view a static map of the address of the appointment plus you can press a Locate button to bring up an interactive map of the address. You can also click on the phone number on a mobile device and it will launch the call functionality of the device. Technicians can enter notes about an appointment and mark it as complete. The notes and status change are sent to the server.

History

The Service History list is a view into the Appointments and only shows Appointments that have been their status set to Complete for this technician for today. Newly completed records show up in the History tab even if they have not yet been synced with the server yet.

Parts

Parts are records that can be viewed in the Field Service App client. Parts have various fields like title, description, location, quantity, and photo. Parts are not editable in the Field Service App but the data does get updated when synced from the server.

Profile

The profile section shows the current Technician that is logged into the Field Service App and their various information. You can also choose to disable the local notifications here. Profile information also shows up in the TMultiView menu.

Notify

The notify section shows new appointments that have been downloaded from the server that have not yet been viewed by the current technician. Choosing a notification here will take you to the appointment for that notification. Local notifications are also implemented and when new appointments are received local notifications will be sent to the device. The notification functionality is built so that you can implement your own remote notifications using the same system if needed.

Data Sync

The Data Sync tab in the Field Service App client is where JSON data is downloaded from the Field Service Server REST endpoint and loaded up into the local IBLite database. Data for the Appointments, Parts, and Technician is all downloaded on this tab. You can also request to Refresh the data at any time to get new updates from the server. Additionally, there is a background TTimer which will upload and sync the completed data from the Field Service App automatically on an interval. A cloud icon will appear in the upper left of the Field Service App when there is data to be synced in the queue.

Architecture

The architecture of the app is built in a low code rapid application development style using TTabControls for handling pages and individual frames for each page. TActionList is used to consolidate much of the code in the MainForm. There are two TTabControls on the MainForm. The first one contains the Login frame and the second TTabControl. The second TTabControl contains the rest of the frames. Within the ApptsFrame and the HistoryFrame there are additional Master/Detail TTabControls.

If you want to make changes to the design time frames be sure to edit the frame itself and not the version of it that is embedded in the MainForm. This will keep your changes consolidated in one place. If your changes don't update in the MainForm you can delete the Frame from the MainForm and re-add it. Be sure to add it to the correct Tab and set to Align Client after you add the frame.

The frames are built to be as modular as possible with TBindSourceDB components used as endpoints for the LiveBindings. This allows you to easily re-use the frames in your own projects by connecting the TBindSourceDBs to your own datasets.

• uDataModule in 'uDataModule.pas' {MainDM: TDataModule},
  Contains the RAD Server (EMS) Provider client components, the in memory table components, the IBLite tables, and the various FireDAC connecting components.

• uMainForm in 'uMainForm.pas' {MainForm},
  Contains the main form of the application with the various TTabControls and inline embedded TFrames. Additionally, it includes the TNotificationCenter.

• uLoginFrame in 'uLoginFrame.pas' {LoginFrame: TFrame},
  Contains the UI and code for the Login screen.

• uApptsFrame in 'uApptsFrame.pas' {ApptsFrame: TFrame},
  Contains the UI and code for the Appointments screen.

• uHistoryFrame in 'uHistoryFrame.pas' {HistoryFrame: TFrame},
  Contains the UI and code for the Service History screen.

• uPartsFrame in 'uPartsFrame.pas' {PartsFrame: TFrame},
  Contains the UI and code for the Parts screen.

• uProfileFrame in 'uProfileFrame.pas' {ProfileFrame: TFrame},
  Contains the UI and code for the Profile screen.

• uNotifyFrame in 'uNotifyFrame.pas' {NotifyFrame: TFrame},
  Contains the UI and code for the Notification screen.

• uProgressFrame in 'uProgressFrame.pas' {ProgressFrame: TFrame},
  Contains the activity progress TFrame which is displayed when the app is busy.

• uTenantsDM in 'uTenantsDM.pas' {TenantsDM: TDataModule},
  Contains the RAD Server (EMS) Provider connector components for accessing the Branch (Tenants) list.

• uTenantListForm in 'uTenantListForm.pas' {TenantForm},
  Contains the UI and code for selecting a Branch/Tenant.

• uQueueFrame in 'uQueueFrame.pas' {QueueFrame: TFrame},
  Contains the UI and code for syncing data from the server.

• uWebBrowserForm in 'uWebBrowserForm.pas' {WebBrowserForm};
  Contains the UI and code for viewing real time map data in a TWebBrowser.

Offline Caching

The Field Service App is able to work offline once you have logged into your account at least once. The next time you log into the app it will use your previous RAD Server Session ID for any new connections it tries to make to the server. The data from the server is cached as JSON files and stored in the IBLite database. The Appointments are saved as appts.json, the Parts as parts.json, the Techs as technicians.json, and the Tenants as tenants.json. If no connection to the server is available the data will be loaded from those files instead. Additionally, if there is no internet connection it will save the appointments and notes that you have marked completed in the History table of the IBLite database. When the next time an internet connection is detected it will upload those changes.

The Field Service App has a local History table where is stores the local changed state of the Appointments. Even if you re-sync the data from the server and your changes have not been uploaded yet it will apply your existing local changes to this new data until which time it is able to upload the changes to the server.

If you log out of the existing account the local database is deleted until you log in again. If you log out before uploading your changes then you changes would be lost.

Notifications

The local notification functionality built into the Field Service App relies on the cross platform  TNotificationCenter component that is built into RAD Studio. There is a local IBLite Notify table in the Field Server App where it stores the current state of notifications (whether the user has viewed them already and whether they have been sent to the user’s platform).

When a new Appointment is downloaded from the server during a data sync a new record is added to the IBLite Notify table. A notification is sent to the platform through the TNotificationCenter when this happens. The user can view the notification by clicking on the record on the Notify tab. Once a notification is viewed it will no longer be displayed on the Notify tab.

Each platform handles notifications differently. You should be able to hook up remote notifications as well through this existing local notification system.

Customize The UI

You can quickly and easily customize most of the look and feel of the app with three easy changes. In TMainForm there is a BackgroundRect, a BackgroundImageRect, and a EmeraldDarkStyleBook control. You can change the background color of the app by changing the BackgroundRect.Fill.Gradient property. You can change the image that is overlayed over the entire app by changing the BackgroundImageRect.Fill.Bitmap.Bitmap property. The background image works by being above all of the other controls, having a low Opacity, having a HitTest of False and a Locked property of True. Finally, you can change most of the rest of the theme by loading different Premium Styles into the EmeraldDarkStyleBook control.

You can customize the header logo of the Login screen on the LoginFrame. There are a few other places where the custom green color is used on some elements in the TListView controls and some the search icons using a TFillRGBEffect.

The Profile screen for the technician has a background image in the ProfileFrame called HeaderBackgroundRect plus a BackgroundRect control. The Profile is also displayed in the TMultiView control on the MainForm with another control named HeaderBackgroundRect as well. Change the Fill.Bitmap.Bitmap property on both controls.

You will need to update the BackgroundRect and BackgroundImageRect in the WebBrowserForm and the TenantForm as well. Remember that you will need to load one style for each of the four deployment platforms. You can access the Premium Styles here:

https://www.embarcadero.com/products/rad-studio/fireui/premium-styles

https://cc.embarcadero.com/item/30491

Note: Community Edition cannot coexist with another edition of the same version on one machine.   

UPGRADING FROM COMMUNITY EDITION TO PRO/ENTERPRISE/ARCHITECT

The following covers the steps required to install Delphi, C++Builder or RAD Studio Professional edition, Enterprise edition or Architect edition if you currently have Delphi or C++Builder Community Edition installed. The steps below assume that you are intending to uninstall Community Edition and install another edition on the same machine.

Step 1: Download the RAD Studio, Delphi, C++Builder Web Installer

Step 2: Run the Web Installer
This will uninstall the Community Edition, and allow you to complete the installation with your new paid license.

MOVING FROM RAD STUDIO TRIAL TO COMMUNITY EDITION

Community Edition cannot coexist with another edition of the same version on one machine.  If you get the following error when trying to install Community Edition (after entering the Community Edition license key), you will need to manually remove all non-Community Edition 10.2 licenses from your system.

Run the License Manager, found in the bin directory (C:\Program Files\Embarcadero\Studio\19.0\bin), click Delete in the License Actions column on the right, select non-Community Edition 10.2 licenses in the pop-up dialog, and click Delete.

Next, close the License Manager and launch the IDE to complete the installation of Community Edition.

MOVING FROM COMMUNITY EDITION TO THE RAD STUDIO TRIAL

The following covers the steps required to install the RAD Studio Trial if you currently have Delphi or C++Builder Community Edition installed. The steps below assume that you are intending to uninstall Community Edition and install the trial on the same machine.

Step 1: Download the RAD Studio, Delphi, C++Builder Web Installer

Step 2: Run the Web Installer
This will uninstall the Community Edition, and allow you to complete the installation with your trial license.

MOVING FROM STARTER TO COMMUNITY EDITION

The following covers the steps required to install Delphi or C++Builder Community Edition if you currently have Delphi or C++Builder Starter installed. The steps below assume that you are intending to uninstall Starter and install Community Edition on the same machine.

Step 1: Download the RAD Studio, Delphi, C++Builder Web Installer

Step 2: Run the Web Installer

This will uninstall Starter, and allow you to complete the installation with your free, limited commercial use Community Edition license.

Related Links:

• Delphi Community Edition Landing Page

• C++Builder Community Edition Landing Page

• Community Edition Docwiki Page

• Community Edition Eula