Author: Jim McKeeth

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News

RAD Studio 10 Seattle Early Bird Offer

Act fast to take advantage of the RAD Studio 10 Seattle Early Bird Offer. Expires September 30th, 2015. More information

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Audio podCast podcast

Conversation with Allen Bauer, Chief Scientist

Allen BauerIn this special episode we talk with Allen Bauer, Chief Scientist here at Embarcadero Technologies. This month is the 7 year anniversary of the Podcast at Delphi.org, and today is Allen’s birthday. This conversation was recorded during Delphi Week, a celebration of Delphi’s birthday back in February.

We talk about what Allen does as a Chief Scientist as well as some of his side projects. We also discuss some of the new platforms we face today as developers and the challenges and likelihood of Delphi targeting them. Finally some discussion about features Allen would like to see added to Delphi in the future.

Conversation with Allen Bauer, Chief Scientist [ 49:35 ] Download
Categories
Android

Adding to the Android User Dictionary

On Android there is a single UserDictionary that works across all keyboards, and any app (with the appropriate permissions) can query, add and remove words. Here is some simple code to add a word to the dictionary (via XE8):

uses
  Androidapi.JNI.Provider, Androidapi.Helpers, Androidapi.JNI.JavaTypes;
 
procedure AddUserWord(const AWord: string);
begin
  // Need WRITE_USER_DICTIONARY permission
  TJUserDictionary_Words.JavaClass.addWord(
    SharedActivityContext, // Context
    StringToJString(AWord),// Word to add
    255,                   // Frequency: 1- 255
    nil,                   // optional shortcut
    SharedActivityContext.getResources.getConfiguration.locale
    );
end;

If you also want to read the dictionary then you need to have the READ_USER_DICTIONARY permission. Check out the documentation for more information on the UserDictionary and it’s Words list.

Categories
Android devices Internet of Things

Google’s Project Brillo, Weave, and Delphi

If you followed Google I/O then you no doubt heard about Google’s announcements in the Internet of Things space: Project Brillo and Weave. Brillo is Google’s new operating system for Internet of Things devices, and Weave is the language for how the devices will communicate. Right now Brillo and Weave are just product announcements. You can sign up for more information, but there is no preview release or developer build available. A lot may change before they are released, so it is tough to talk about them, but you sill may wonder how they will play with Delphi and RAD Studio XE8.

Disclaimer: This is based on public information released by Embarcadero and Google as interpreted by me. I’m not announcing anything, nor sharing any internal secrets. Just connecting the dots. If you connect the dots and get a different picture then let me know.

Neither Brillo or Weave are on our official roadmap because they were just announced. But we do have a good record lately of supporting new platforms quickly with new releases when those platforms are in our area of focus: iOS, Android, Windows and OS X. Just with XE8 we added iOS 64-bit to meet Apple’s new requirement, and it was added in such a way that most projects just need a recompile (which is much better option than the other native tools out there)

Besides wishful thinking, lets look at what they are and what we already support with XE8.

Project Brillo is a modified (or scrubbed down) version of Android. There have already been a few new devices come out that are powered by Android beyond the traditional tablet and phone. This is because Android is an open platform that comes with a rich development and app ecosystem. Brillo is Google’s attempt to make Android more flexible for more new devices in the future. It is a great idea.

Project Brillo may be in response to Microsoft’s announcement of Windows 10 for Devices, specifically targeting Raspberry Pi 2. These devices are going to be huge in the Internet of Things (IoT). That is why Microsoft is targeting the Raspberry Pi 2, and why Google is releasing Project Brillo. They all want to be the operating system of the Internet of Things. This is one place in the IoT where Apple is behind the pack, since they are a hardware company, they don’t want to sell an OS without hardware.

What about Delphi support for Brillo? We can look at the last 3 big modified versions of Android: Amazon’s Fire OS, Google Glass and Android Wear. All three of these we supported “out of the box” with our current release at the time, and some of them we added features in future releases to enhance that support. This is because we have great support of the Android OS directly. So I would suspect we will support Brillo when it is released.

That being said, one of the goals of Brillo is to run on “broad silicon” beyond the common ARVv7 processors that most Android devices run on.  We only currently support ARMv7 and ARMv8 (with NEON being part of the ARM standard going forward, so isn’t hardly worth mentioning). We’ve seen some recent success with Intel ATOM processor support thanks to libHoudini updates in KitKat. Now if a Brillo device is running a processors meeting these specs, it is likely to be supported “out of the box.” But if Brillo is running on an ARMv5 or “Bill and Ted’s Excellent CPU” then support is less likely.

Now it is possible that Brillo will be scrubbed down so much that it is no longer compatible with an Android app. Remember that Android is based on Linux, and Linux console apps are on our official roadmap for a future release, so support is still possible.

That brings us to Google Weave: a common library of terms for how devices will communicate. Its objective is to expose the developer API in a cross-platform way. It is based on JSON and REST from what I can tell. So it will be an agreed standard within REST and JSON. We already have great JSON and REST support, and there are 3rd party libraries that extend that as well. Combine the REST client library and the EMS server REST support and I suspect we will be in a good place to support Weave.

Weave is the protocol, but the channel will most likely be WiFi via HTTPS or Bluetooth LE. Also already covered great in XE8.

Naturally once Brillo and Weave are more than just vague product announcements we may have specific support for them that would make them easier to work with and unlock more features of those platforms beyond the stuff you already get with XE8. The moral of the story is to start developing your IoT solutions with XE8 today and make sure you have Update Subscription so you are ready for the future.

Categories
News

Brain Computer Interface Demo video

Categories
MVP

MVP Tweets of the Week – April 26, 2015

This is a collection of some Tweets by our MVPs over the last week. They are from all around the world and in various languages.

This first one was technically from the week before, but I was on the other side of the international dateline then so it all gets wibbly wobbly timey wimey.

HOSOKAWA Jun @pik retweeeted:


Translation: Blog update: [C++ Builder, Delphi XE8/C Builder XE8-compliant components and tools

Almost as if Cary is answering Nick here:

Anders Ohlsson @suited_aces retweeted:

Andrea Magni @AndreaMagni82 retweeted:

Also retweeted by Anders Ohlsson and discussed by others. An addage that has been around a while, but still relevant:

Ricardo Boaro rewteeted:

Welcome to the Internet of Things Nick. My Beacon’s emailed me too!

That is just some of the Tweets from our MVPs. You should really follow them to keep up to date. You can view their latest Tweets here:


Not all of our MVPs are active on Twitter, check out the MVP directory for details on each of them. In the future I’ll highlight updates from different sources.

Categories
News REST Source Code

CORS on DataSnap REST Server

Cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) is a mechanism that enables resources to be shared across domains. Typically this isn’t allowed to prevent security issues. To enable on your DataSnap REST server you can use the following code per MVP Nirav Kaku from India.

All you need to do is add a custom header in the Response before dispatching the result on the DataSnap server…

procedure TWebModule1.WebModuleBeforeDispatch(Sender: TObject;
Request: TWebRequest; Response: TWebResponse; var Handled: Boolean);
begin
  //allows cross domain calls
  Response.SetCustomHeader('Access-Control-Allow-Origin','*');
  if FServerFunctionInvokerAction <> nil then
    FServerFunctionInvokerAction.Enabled := AllowServerFunctionInvoker;
end;

It is useful for DataSnap server developers who want
their REST calls to be supported via AJAX using JavaScript from a
different server.

[Reference]

Note: CORS is security feature of the browser so there could be some
dependency there. Tested with Firefox, Chrome and IE and it seems to
be working fine.

Categories
Audio podCast podcast

An Interview with Ray Konopka

Ray KonopkaIn this episode we talked to Ray Konopka during Delphi Week. Topics include the upcoming Delphi Developer Days, some of his work for Disney, Raize Software, including his new Radiant Shapes, Windows 10 and HoloLense (even though I wish they would rename it).

Looking forward to seeing everyone at Delphi Developer Days in Chicago, but if you can’t meet me there, they have some other locations too.

[Download]

Categories
Source Code webinar

FireDAC: Local SQL

Here are the additional resources for the FireDAC: Local SQL Skill Sprint from this morning. The TFDLocalSQL provides a powerful engine allowing you to run local SQL queries against any TDataSet descendant.

Here is the video replay. It is about half Q&A and half presentation.

If you want to download my sample application: LocalSQL-demo

Slides:

http://www.slideshare.net/jimmckeeth/fire-dac-local-sql

The demo and full replay are coming soon.

DocWiki

Videos

 

 

Categories
Source Code webinar

FireDAC In-Memory DataSet: TFDMemTable

More information and resources on TFDMemTable from the FireDAC Skill Sprint.

If you missed the Skill Sprint, or want to review it, here is the video with the recording of the Q&A. The presentation is 15-20 minutes, and the other 30 minutes is from the Q&A.

Here are the slides for now, the replay will be available soon.

http://www.slideshare.net/jimmckeeth/skill-sprint-in-mem-dataset

Common code samples:

Delphi / Object Pascal

// Create Field Definitions
FDMemTable1.FieldDefs.Add('ID', ftInteger, 0, False);
FDMemTable1.FieldDefs.Add('Name', ftString, 20, False);
FDMemTable1.CreateDataSet;

// Append data
FDMemTable1.Open;
FDMemTable1.AppendRecord([1, 'Jim']);

// Load from another DataSet
FDMemTable1.CopyDataSet(DataSet1, [coStructure, coRestart, coAppend]);

C++

// Create Field Definitions
FDMemTable1->FieldDefs->Add("ID", ftInteger, 0, False);
FDMemTable1->FieldDefs->Add("Name", ftString, 20, False);
FDMemTable1->CreateDataSet();

// Append Data
FDMemTable1->Open();
FDMemTable1->Append();
FDMemTable1->FieldByName("ID")->AsInteger = 1;
FDMemTable1->FieldByName("Name")->AsString = "Jim";
FDMemTable1->Post();

// Load from another DataSet
FDMemTable1->CopyDataSet(DataSet1, TFDCopyDataSetOptions() << coStructure << coRestart << coAppend);

More information:

  • Samples
    • C:\Users\Public\Documents\Embarcadero\Studio\15.0\Samples\Object Pascal\Database\FireDAC\Samples\Comp Layer\TFDMemTable
    • C:\Users\Public\Documents\Embarcadero\Studio\15.0\Samples\Object Pascal\Database\FireDAC\Samples\Comp Layer\TFDLocalSQL
  • DocWiki

Cary Jensen’s CodeRage 9 Video: TFDMemTable & ClientDataSet Compared [Q&A Log]

Dmitry Arefiev’s CodeRage 9 FireDAC Tips, Tricks and News