Delphi GUI Programming with FireMonkey

Create modern yet effective multi-platform applications by building interactive UIs following a single codebase approach to boost productivity

Key Features

• Delve into the FireMonkey framework and explore its powerful capabilities
• Enhance the user experience by using various technologies included in Delphi and FMX
• Boost developer productivity through the cross-platform capabilities enabled by the framework

Book Description

FireMonkey (FMX) is a cross-platform application framework that allows developers to create exciting user interfaces and deliver applications on multiple operating systems (OS). This book will help you learn visual programming with Delphi and FMX.

Starting with an overview of the FMX framework, including a general discussion of the underlying philosophy and approach, you’ll then move on to the fundamentals and architectural details of FMX. You’ll also cover a significant comparison between Delphi and the Visual Component Library (VCL). Next, you’ll focus on the main FMX components, data access/data binding, and style concepts, in addition to understanding how to deliver visually responsive UIs. To address modern application development, the book takes you through topics such as animations and effects, and provides you with a general introduction to parallel programming, specifically targeting UI-related aspects, including application responsiveness. Later, you’ll explore the most important cross-platform services in the FMX framework, which are essential for delivering your application on multiple platforms while retaining the single codebase approach. Finally, you’ll learn about FMX’s built-in 3D functionalities.

By the end of this book, you’ll be familiar with the FMX framework and be able to build effective cross-platform apps.

What you will learn

• Explore FMX’s fundamental components with a brief comparison to VCL
• Achieve visual responsiveness through alignment capabilities and layout components
• Enrich the user experience with the help of transitions and visual animations
• Get to grips with data access and visual data binding
• Build exciting and responsive UIs for desktop and mobile platforms
• Understand the importance of responsive applications using parallel programming
• Create visual continuity through your applications with TFrameStand and TFormStand
• Explore the 3D functionalities offered by FMX

Who this book is for

This book is for Delphi developers who are looking to discover the full potential of the FireMonkey framework in order to build interactive cross-platform GUI applications and achieve an optimal UI/UX. Basic familiarity with Delphi programming and the VCL will be beneficial but not mandatory.

Table of Contents

1. Introducing the FireMonkey framework
2. Exploring Similarities and Differences with VCL
3. Mastering Basic Components
4. Discovering Lists and Advanced Components
5. Using FireDAC in FMX Applications
6. Implementing Data Binding
7. Understanding FMX Style Concept
8. Divide and Conquer with TFrameStand
9. Building Responsive UIs
10. Orchestrating Transitions and Animations
11. Building Responsive Applications
12. Exploring Cross-Platform Services
13. Learning about FMX 3D Capabilities

About the Author

Andrea Magni is an Italian computer engineer (with a degree in artificial intelligence and robotics from the Polytechnic of Milan, 2007) living near Monza. He is a freelancer who has gained 2 decades of experience in the industry as a software developer and consultant. He has trained many development teams to design software architectures and models, acquire knowledge, introduce source and project management tools, and perform troubleshooting. He has been an Embarcadero MVP since 2014 and he runs a technical blog and some OSS projects on GitHub. He regularly takes part in major Delphi conferences, such as EKON and DCC (DE), Embarcadero DelphiCon, PasCon, SDN (NL), Be-Delphi (BE), DAPUG (DK), ITDevCon (IT), DelphiDay (IT, until 2015), DelphiDay (PL), and other events.