His tests include VCL, FireMonkey, Win32, Win64, Android, iOS, OSX and third party library.

The whole series is based in 12 blog posts as you can se below.

• Introduction
• Hello World Compilation Tests (Speed and Size) – Part 2
• Hello World Execution Tests, VCL (Win32 and Win64) and FMX (Win32) – Part 3
• Hello World Execution Tests (FMX Win64, OSX) – Part 4
• Hello World Mobile Execution Tests (iOS and Android) – Part 5
• Inference Engine Component Suite Execution Tests – Part 6
  • IECS Tests
  • IECS Tests advanced console
  • IECS Tests basic console
  • IECS Mobile App
• RiverSoftAVG SVG Component Library Drawing Tests – Part 7
  • RSCL Tests
  • RSCL Primitives
• Conclusion

Again, congratulations Thomas for the fantastic job and time invested on that. I think everyone on the Delphi community will appreciate.

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

CopyReaderToClientDataSet is part of the Data.DBXDBReaders.TDBXDataSetReader class until Delphi/C++Builder XE2, however in XE3 it changed a little bit, it became part of a new class called Data.DBXCDSReaders.TDBXClientDataSetReader.

I got several e-mails from my blog readers that downloaded some of my examples, when compiling with latest versions they got a error message saying the CopyReaderToClientDataSet method can’t be found.

The solution is simple, add Data.DBXCDSReaders.pas as part of the uses clause and replace all the TDBXDataSetReader by TDBXClientDataSetReader, which is the new home for CopyReaderToClientDataSet.

Enjoy!!!

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

The Update is available for registered users and you can find on the following links. Just a friendly remind that you need to Uninstall your current Delphi XE5 in order to install XE5 Update 2.

• Delphi XE5: http://cc.embarcadero.com/reg/delphi
• C++Builder XE5: http://cc.embarcadero.com/reg/c_builder
• RAD Studio XE5: http://cc.embarcadero.com/reg/rad_studio

Below the complete list of bugs fixed on this Update.

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

This update touch some areas like FireDAC, FireMonkey, Debugger, IDE and mainly ClientDataSet. Below a list of fixes related to ClientDataSet, which I consider critical errors and a blocker for anyone that was looking to migrate to XE5.

For a complete list of the specific problems fixed in this update, click here.

Download Links

You can download the update 1 installer or a new fresh ISO that includes Update 1:

• Update 1 installer (279.5MB)
• ISO with Update 1 (4.7GB)

That’s is, have fun.

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

Mobile Development

On the mobile development arena I asked about their company plans for mobile development in 2013, and the results are interesting:

• On Android development, 45% will develop apps for Android, 16% maybe will do some development and 5% don’t have any plan in 2013.
• 28% will develop apps for iOS, 24% maybe will do some development, which we can consider pretty high, and 11% don’t have any plan for iOS in 2013.
• Windows Phone is not in a good position; only 13% will do development for Windows Phone. Looking for the Microsoft Tablet (Surface), this one is way behind.
• BlackBerry is not the favorite platform and has only 3% of the developers considering to develop, 11% not sure yet, and 40% will not develop at all.

Android is the first choice, most of Delphi Developers do business application and I see a natural choice on Android, the number of devices out there and the lower price point when compared with iPhone/iOS leads Android more in to the business application development. When we look international market iOS devices would cost at least 60% more then Android devices, different reality from iOS, where we can pay US$200 on an iPhone.

Desktop and N-Tier Development

When asked about desktop development I made three questions, which I believe it’s correlated, here the questions:

• Is your company planning to develop new Desktop applications in 2013?
• Is your company planning to migrate existing Desktop applications to the Web in 2013?
• Which of the following architecture would you use for new applications?

The results showed a clear demand for desktop development, where 73% of the interviewees plans to develop new desktop applications, however when you cross that with the architectural questions, 70% would use N-Tier architecture and only 24% would consider Client/Server.

[one_half first]
[/one_half]
[one_half]
[/one_half]

There is also a significant number of companies (45%) considering to migrate existing desktop applications to the web, 34% not planning and 21% didn’t decide yet. That information leads to us think about the challenges to migrate legacy applications where you can see all kinds of situation. Talking with developers I see most of the time the following scenarios:

• High cost to migrate legacy code, which can’t be financially justifiable
• High demand for maintenance and new projects, that doesn’t allow the team to stop or dedicate time to the migration project
• The current application is working, no reason to change
• And many others

Years ago the software development world moved away rom the traditional Client/Server in to the distributed development. There are so many technologies and architectures for distributed systems out there (SOA, REST, SOAP, WebServices, etc.), which are supported for many languages and IDE’s, but bring the question “Which software vendor has the best implementation and support for distributed applications?”.

Looking forward to see your comments and what’s your choice to build distributed applications?

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

• iMac (Mid-2007 or later)
• MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, Late 2008), (13-inch, Early 2009 or later)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or later), (15-inch, Mid/Late 2007 or later), (17-inch, Late 2007 or later)
• MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later)
• Mac Mini (Early 2009 or later)
• Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later)
• Xserve (Early 2009)

Also, the computer needs to be running Mac OS X 10.6.7 Snow Leopard or higher, with 8GB of free disk space for installation. Essentially, that’s the exact same computer and specification requirements as Mountain Lion required—so if you installed that, you can be confident that Mavericks will run on your machine. — Apple Insider

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

Android Studio is FREE and can download the early preview version here. I just installed on my Mac, the IDE supports Windows and Linux as well. I played a little bit during the last 2 days and I’m very impressed.

Today’s Android development is supported in Eclipse through the ADT (Android Development Toolkit plugin), and every developer can take advantage of the Eclipse ecosystem. I have been using Eclipse for Android development, but certainly I see space for improvement and more specific features related to Android development.

Android Studio is built on top of IntelliJ’s community version and now with Google Engineer working on that, just imagine what they will be able to produce. I just played few hours with Android Studio, their source code editor ROCKS it goes beyond of features already applied in other IDEs, the Designer is awesome and gives you a view of your application not only for one device, but for many others include tablets. Also, you can easily import your projects from Eclipse in to Android Studio.

Android Studio multi device preview

Watch the following video and you will have a pretty good idea about what I’m talking about.

That’s it for now.

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

iOS development is the major topic of course and bring the second version of FireMonkey to iOS, a lot of expectation on this topic specially after XE2.

Also there is a bunch of new stuffs to talk about, like:

• New Delphi compiler for mobile platform, which brings several changes in the language and set a future path to the Delphi language, obvious these changes will affect desktop development in the future and you need to start learning about that now.
• The SQLite and InterBase support for iOS
• ClientDataSet available on iOS
• Several FireMonkey changes for iOS, componentes, new classes
• Etc..

RAD Studio XE4 now includes only Delphi, C++Builder and HTML5Builder. Delphi Prism is no longer part of RAD Studio, the name is dead and from now you have to refer to Oxygene from RemObjects. You can check the official communication from RemObjects here, where Marc Hoffman provide more details about the future related to .NET development with Oxygene (old Prism) and their support to iOS and Android development.

Trial is already available here or if you prefer download the full Delphi and C++Builder ISO here.

The Delphi XE4 documentation has a extensive list of What’s new in Delphi and C++Builder XE4, below the table of content:

• 1 Getting Started with iOS Application Development (iOS Tutorials)
  • 1.1 Setting Up Your iOS Development Environment
  • 1.2 Using Basic iOS User Interface Elements
  • 1.3 Using iOS Device Functionality
  • 1.4 Accessing a Database
• 2 FireMonkey Changes for XE4
  • 2.1 Components for iOS
    • 2.1.1 Camera for iOS
    • 2.1.2 Magnifier Glass
    • 2.1.3 Phone Dialer for iOS
    • 2.1.4 Pickers for iOS
    • 2.1.5 Text Editing in iOS
    • 2.1.6 Virtual Keyboard for iOS
    • 2.1.7 WebBrowser for iOS
  • 2.2 FireMonkey Frames
  • 2.3 Touch and Gestures for iOS
  • 2.4 New TListView Component, Compared to Existing TListBox Component
  • 2.5 Media Actions for iOS
  • 2.6 Native Styles for iOS
  • 2.7 Using Styles in XE4
  • 2.8 Mac OS X Fullscreen Mode
  • 2.9 Sensors
  • 2.10 Text Layout and Text Service Enhancements
    • 2.10.1 Text Layout
    • 2.10.2 Text Service
  • 2.11 FireMonkey Services
    • 2.11.1 Platform Services
    • 2.11.2 Notification Center for iOS
  • 2.12 Margins and Padding for FireMonkey Controls
  • 2.13 New FireMonkey Units
  • 2.14 Refactored FireMonkey Classes
    • 2.14.1 Caret Property Now Published
    • 2.14.2 HScrollBar and VScrollBar Now Protected
  • 2.15 Improvements in Action List editor
  • 2.16 FireMonkey Advanced Platform-Independent Scrolling Engine
• 3 Platform Assistant (PAServer) Changes for XE4
  • 3.1 Installer and Name Changes on the Mac
  • 3.2 Help Reorganized for PAServer
• 4 Delphi Compiler Changes for XE4
  • 4.1 Two New Delphi Mobile Compilers for iOS
    • 4.1.1 Differences between Delphi Desktop Compilers and Delphi Mobile Compilers
  • 4.2 New Delphi Compiler Conditionals
  • 4.3 New Delphi Compiler Directives
  • 4.4 New Delphi Compiler Attributes
• 5 IDE Changes for XE4
  • 5.1 New FireMonkey Mobile Wizard
  • 5.2 iOS Target Platforms Supported
  • 5.3 New Mobile Form Designer
  • 5.4 Connection Profiles and SDKs (Replacing Remote Profiles)
    • 5.4.1 API Implementation of Connection Profiles and SDKs
  • 5.5 IDE and Project Options Changes
    • 5.5.1 Form Designer
    • 5.5.2 Application Options
    • 5.5.3 Version Info
    • 5.5.4 Provisioning
    • 5.5.5 Delphi Compiler Project Options
• 6 C++ Compiler Changes for XE4
• 7 Database Changes for XE4
• 8 DataSnap Changes for XE4
• 9 LiveBindings Changes for XE4
• 10 Run-Time Library (RTL) Changes for XE4
• 11 Debugger Changes for XE4
• 12 Application Samples Changes for XE4
  • 12.1 New FireMonkey iOS Samples
  • 12.2 New FireMonkey iOS Code Snippets
• 13 Online Help Changes for XE4
  • 13.1 Checkbox to Display or Hide Inherited Members
  • 13.2 PAServer Help Reorganized
  • 13.3 Some Notable New Help Topics
  • 13.4 Some Notable New Code Examples
• 14 See Also

That’s it for now.

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

I just heard that next week Embarcadero is going to announce Delphi XE4, which is part of RAD Studio XE4 and will include C++Builder XE4 and HTML5 Builder.

An important change initiated last year related to Prism (Delphi for .NET) will affect RAD Studio this year, I think you won’t see Prism included in RAD Studio, of course REM Objects continue to develop their compiler and integration with Visual Studio, so you will have order directly from them.

What’s new in Delphi XE4?

Delphi XE4 will bring Embarcadero’s new ARM compiler and will allow Delphi developers to compile FireMonkey apps to iOS devices at this point. The project around this new compiler started years ago, I had the opportunity to talk about this project with many Delphi developers, so the new compiler is really new and a beginning that will allow to move Delphi language much easier to other platforms, as you already heard Embarcadero is already promising Android support and it suppose to come soon.

The iOS support is going to be better them what you saw in XE2 and you are expecting something way better. A very important point is the focus on iOS, trying to make everything you use for Windows available on iOS is not the way to go, so in XE4 you will see what is specific for iOS when developing for iOS and this is good.

Of course Embarcadero will promote FireDAC as a new feature in XE4, even it came recently on XE3 still a good point to talk about this, since FireDAC is way better them dbExpress. I blogged about that recently and you can read here.

I believe you will see InterBase for iOS on this release, even you already have SQLite on iOS devices I see a lot of space for InterBase on iOS, especially for developers that need protect their data on mobile devices.

Upgrade and pricing

Embarcadero will release all the SKUs and upgrade paths. Early this year they mention about to release iOS support as add-on, maybe you will be able to buy just this piece, let’s wait and see.

There is a webinar scheduled for next Wednesday April 24th and it will show this new release.

I will be back in the following days and will share my comments about this release.

I just published an article covering What’s new in Delphi XE4 after the official launch, you can find that here.

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

The reason I say that it’s because AnyDAC really allows developers to target multiples database without the workarounds required by  dbExpress, like: Field Mapping when you persist the TFields. For long time AnyDAC allowed developers that use Delphi/C++Builder Professional edition to connect their application to Enterprise databases like Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase, Informix and others, something that was only possible through Enterprise and Architect edition, and much more.

Beyond that, there is a lot of specific database features supported by AnyDAC, which I consider very helpful in any database development, here some examples per database:

• For all databases
  • Automatic Connection Recovery
  • Unified DB Events Support
  • Simplified architecture, it means no more Query + ClientDataSet + Provider just for a bi-directional cursor
  • Much better performance when compared with dbExpress
  • TADMemTable – in memory dataset, faster than TClientDataSet
  • Much easier to migrate BDE applications to AnyDAC than the traditional dbExpress architecture
• Oracle
  • SELECT FOR UPDATE clause – no more workaround doing UPDATE just to lock the record
  • Query execution aborting – we always need that right?
  • ROWID columns for fast data editing and refreshing
  • RETURNING clause for fast data refreshing – no more select after the update to get a new value generated by trigger
  • and more…
• Firebird
  • RETURNING clause for fast data refreshing
  • Trusted authentication
  • DB services – backup, restore, validate, security, etc
  • Query execution aborting
• PostgreSQL
  • Yep, now you can connect natively with PostgreSQL
  • and more…
• SQL Server
  • Batch commands with multiple result sets – Now you can use that and improve your app performance
  • Query execution aborting
  • and more…
• MySQL
  • AUTO_INCREMENT columns and retrieving of last inserted value.
• Drivers for several databases on Windows, Mac and iOS

This is a small list of interesting things on AnyDAC, you can find more here.

AnyDAC is a step forward and worth the effort to migrate from dbExpress to AnyDAC, there are lot of feature needed by Delphi and C++Builder developers, many of these features has been requested for a long time and you will have when using AnyDAC.

You may ask what is going to happen with dbExpress? BDE is dead, but still around :), dbExpress is not dead and I don’t think will die soon, but there is no reason to keep two database access technology since AnyDAC is way better than dbExpress.

AnyDAC trial is available for download here.

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

If you have a previous version of XE3 installed, you must uninstall it. In case you installed Platform Assistant before, you also need to uninstall it.

Update 2 is available for download on the registered user page, visit the following links:

• Delphi XE3 Update 2 download
• C++Builder XE3 Update 2 download
• RAD Studio XE3 Update 2 download

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

Let’s assume you defined the following edit text:

We would use the following code to access the edit text using findViewById.

class Main extends Activity { 

    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { 
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); 
        setContentView(R.layout.main);
        EditText firstname = null;
        firstname = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.fistnameEditText);
        firstname.setText( "My first name is Barack"); 
    } 
}

In order to use @InjectView we have to extend from RoboActivity class (download the RoboGuice from here), we just need to declare our class fields using @InjectView, set each field to the correspondent view object declared on our R.Java, the code will look like this.

class Main extends RoboActivity { 
     @InjectView (R.id.firstnameEditText)      EditText firstname; 

    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { 
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); 
        setContentView(R.layout.main);
        firstname.setText( "My first name is Barack" ); 
    } 
}

In layouts where we have multiple objects, it will became more visible the benefits of replacing findViewById per @InjectView, check out the following code where I add some extra controls to my layout.

class Main extends RoboActivity { 
     @InjectView (R.id.firstnameEditText)  EditText firstname; 
     @InjectView (R.id.lastnameEditText)   EditText lastname; 
     @InjectView (R.id.photoImage)         ImageView photo; 

    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { 
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); 
        setContentView(R.layout.main);
        firstname.setText( "My first name is Barack" ); 
        lastname.setText( "My last name is Obama" ); 
        photo.setImageBitmap( null ); 
    } 
}

Hope this small tip can help you.

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

The article is great and I recommend, reading the four questions raised by Adam will help you reflect on your work as a developer.

1. What I Am Working With?
2. How Often Do I Put Into Production Code?
3. The laggard Is My Organization?
4. Do I Have A 2002 Or 2012 A Resume?

These questions can help you find new challenges on your current job, or even start looking for new challenges elsewhere, not only that but also help you become a better developer.

We just started a new year, now could be a good time to think about what you wanna for yourself and then start setting new goals.

Happy New Year to every one!!!

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

I prepared a short survey and I will appreciate if you can invest 5 minutes of your valuable time answering few questions.

My goal with this survey is to learn more about your software development plans for 2013 and identify potential and useful topics to all of you. Also validate some content ideas I have for 2013.

The survey is pretty straight forward, take less than 5 minutes and is very important to help to define the blog content for 2013.

Thank you,
Andreano Lanusse

PS: You can also access the survey directly from this link http://bit.ly/peal2013en

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

What I really like on this framework is the simplicity to create Web UI based on domain model, and data persist through a ORM.

Below a short video introduction to Grails, watch this video and you can have some initial idea about how it works.

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

Creating the CloudUpload Shell Extension

In order to start creating a Shell Extension in Delphi, you first need to create an ActiveX Library project and after that create a new Automation Object. In the example I use for this post, the project name is CloudUpload and the Automation Object is called TCloudUploadContext. The TCloudUploadContext class must implement the interfaces IShellExtInit and IContextMenu in order to integrate the Context Menu in Windows Explorer.

    { IShellExtInit Methods }
    { Initialize the context menu if a files was selected}
    function IShellExtInit.Initialize = ShellExtInitialize;
    function ShellExtInitialize(pidlFolder: PItemIDList; lpdobj: IDataObject;
      hKeyProgID: HKEY): HResult; stdcall;

    { IContextMenu Methods }
    { Initializes the context menu and it decides which items appear in it,
      based on the flags you pass }
    function QueryContextMenu(Menu: HMENU; indexMenu, idCmdFirst, idCmdLast,
      uFlags: UINT): HResult; stdcall;

    { Execute the command, which will be the upload to Amazon or Azure}
    function InvokeCommand(var lpici: TCMInvokeCommandInfo): HResult; stdcall;
    { Set help string on the Explorer status bar when the menu item is selected }
    function GetCommandString(idCmd: UINT_PTR; uFlags: UINT; pwReserved: PUINT;
      pszName: LPSTR; cchMax: UINT): HResult; stdcall;

The ShellExtInitialize defines if the Context Menu will appear or not in Windows Explorer. In this sample the context menu only shows up if one file has been selected, otherwise no Context Menu. In case only one file was selected the FFileName variable will receive the name of the file.

function TCloudUploadContextMenu.ShellExtInitialize(pidlFolder: PItemIDList;
  lpdobj: IDataObject; hKeyProgID: HKEY): HResult;
var
  DataFormat: TFormatEtc;
  StrgMedium: TStgMedium;
  Buffer: array [0 .. MAX_PATH] of Char;
begin
  Result := E_FAIL;

  { Check if an object was defined }
  if lpdobj = nil then
    Exit;

  { Prepare to get information about the object }
  DataFormat.cfFormat := CF_HDROP;
  DataFormat.ptd := nil;
  DataFormat.dwAspect := DVASPECT_CONTENT;
  DataFormat.lindex := -1;
  DataFormat.tymed := TYMED_HGLOBAL;

  if lpdobj.GetData(DataFormat, StrgMedium) <> S_OK then
    Exit;

  { The implementation now support only one file }
  if DragQueryFile(StrgMedium.hGlobal, $FFFFFFFF, nil, 0) = 1 then
  begin
    SetLength(FFileName, MAX_PATH);
    DragQueryFile(StrgMedium.hGlobal, 0, @Buffer, SizeOf(Buffer));
    FFileName := Buffer;
    Result := NOERROR;
  end
  else
  begin
    // Don't show the Menu if more then one file was selected
    FFileName := EmptyStr;
    Result := E_FAIL;
  end;

  { http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms693491(v=vs.85).aspx }
  ReleaseStgMedium(StrgMedium);

end;

After the context menu handler is initialized via the IShellExtInit interface, Windows uses the IContextMenu interface to call the other methods of our context menu handler. In this case it will call QueryContextMenu, GetCommandString and InvokeCommand.

The Context Menu options (Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure) will be created through the QueryContextMenu method.

function TCloudUploadContextMenu.QueryContextMenu(Menu: HMENU;
  indexMenu, idCmdFirst, idCmdLast, uFlags: UINT): HResult;
var
  CloudMenuItem: TMenuItemInfo;
  MenuCaption: String;
  SubMenu: HMENU;
  uId: UINT;
begin
  { only adding one menu CloudMenuItem, so generate the result code accordingly }
  Result := MakeResult(SEVERITY_SUCCESS, 0, 3);

  { store the menu CloudMenuItem index }
  FMenuItemIndex := indexMenu;

  { specify what the menu says, depending on where it was spawned }
  if (uFlags = CMF_NORMAL) then // from the desktop
    MenuCaption := 'Send file from Desktop to the Cloud'
  else if (uFlags and CMF_VERBSONLY) = CMF_VERBSONLY then // from a shortcut
    MenuCaption := 'Send file from Shourtcut to the Cloud'
  else if (uFlags and CMF_EXPLORE) = CMF_EXPLORE then // from explorer
    MenuCaption := 'Send file from Explorer to the Cloud'
  else
    { fail for any other value }
    Result := E_FAIL;

  if Result <> E_FAIL then
  begin

    SubMenu := CreatePopupMenu;

    uId := idCmdFirst;
    InsertMenu(SubMenu, AmazonIndex, MF_BYPOSITION, uId, TClouds[AmazonIndex]);

    Inc(uId);
    InsertMenu(SubMenu, AzureIndex, MF_BYPOSITION, uId, TClouds[AzureIndex]);

    FillChar(CloudMenuItem, SizeOf(TMenuItemInfo), #0);
    CloudMenuItem.cbSize := SizeOf(TMenuItemInfo);
    CloudMenuItem.fMask := MIIM_SUBMENU or MIIM_STRING or MIIM_ID;
    CloudMenuItem.fType := MFT_STRING;
    CloudMenuItem.wID := FMenuItemIndex;
    CloudMenuItem.hSubMenu := SubMenu;
    CloudMenuItem.dwTypeData := PWideChar(MenuCaption);
    CloudMenuItem.cch := Length(MenuCaption);

    InsertMenuItem(Menu, indexMenu, True, CloudMenuItem);
  end;
end;

When you are in the Windows Explorer and you pass the mouse over one of the Cloud menu items a short help message is displayed in the Windows Explorer status bar, it is defined on the implementation of the method GetCommandString, which returns a string to the Windows Explorer to display.

function TCloudUploadContextMenu.GetCommandString(idCmd: UINT_PTR; uFlags: UINT;

  pwReserved: PUINT; pszName: LPSTR; cchMax: UINT): HResult;
begin
  Result := E_INVALIDARG;

  { Set help string on the Explorer status bar when the menu item is selected }
  if (idCmd in [AmazonIndex, AzureIndex]) and (uFlags = GCS_HELPTEXT) then
  begin
    StrLCopy(PWideChar(pszName), PWideChar('Copy the selected file to ' +
      TClouds[idCmd]), cchMax);
    Result := NOERROR;
  end;

end;

As the user clicks in one of the Cloud menu items, the method InvokeCommand will be called and start the process to upload the selected file to the Cloud selected. At this point we already have the file name and based on the lpici parameters we can identify what menu item the user clicked.

function TCloudUploadContextMenu.InvokeCommand(var lpici: TCMInvokeCommandInfo): HResult;
var
  Item: Word;
begin
  Result := E_FAIL;

  if HiWord(Integer(lpici.lpVerb)) <> 0 then
    Exit;

  { if the index matches the index for the menu, show the cloud options }
  Item := LoWord(Integer(lpici.lpVerb));

  if Item in [AmazonIndex, AzureIndex] then
  begin
    try
      Upload(lpici.HWND, Item, FFileName);
    except
      on E: Exception do
        MessageBox(lpici.hwnd, PWideChar(E.Message), 'Cloud Upload', MB_ICONERROR);

    end;
    Result := NOERROR;
  end;

end;

In order for the COM object to be created whenever the CloudUpload is loaded, it’s necessary to create an instance of a class factory that specifically creates an instance of the shell extension object, the factory instance will be created on the initialization section, based on the following code, which is a replacement for the default code created by Delphi.

initialization
  TCloudUploadObjectFactory.Create(ComServer, TCloudUploadContextMenu, CLASS_CloudUploadContextMenu, ciMultiInstance, tmApartment);
end.

Since the class factory will be responsible to register/unregister the DLL, the methods ApproveShellExtension and UpdateRegistry will be invoked, it will happen when you use the regsvr32.exe.

  { the new class factory }
  TCloudUploadObjectFactory = class(TAutoObjectFactory)
  protected
    procedure ApproveShellExtension(&Register: Boolean; const ClsID: string);
    function GetProgID: string; override;
  public
    procedure UpdateRegistry(Register: Boolean); override;
  end;

{ TCloudUploadObjectFactory }

{ Required to registration for Windows NT/2000 }
procedure TCloudUploadObjectFactory.ApproveShellExtension(&Register: Boolean;
  const ClsID: string);
Const
  WinNTRegKey =
    'SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Approved';
var
  Reg: TRegistry;
begin
  Reg := TRegistry.Create;

  try
    Reg.RootKey := HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE;

    if not Reg.OpenKey(WinNTRegKey, True) then
      Exit;

    { register the extension appropriately }
    if &Register then
      Reg.WriteString(ClsID, Description)
    else
      Reg.DeleteValue(ClsID);
  finally
    Reg.Free;
  end;

end;

function TCloudUploadObjectFactory.GetProgID: string;
begin
  { ProgID not required for shell extensions }
  Result := '';
end;

procedure TCloudUploadObjectFactory.UpdateRegistry(Register: Boolean);
Const
  ContextKey = '*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\%s';
begin
  { perform normal registration }
  inherited UpdateRegistry(Register);

  { Registration required for Windows NT/2000 }
  ApproveShellExtension(Register, GUIDToString(ClassID));

  { if this server is being registered, register the required key/values
    to expose it to Explorer }
  if Register then
    CreateRegKey(Format(ContextKey, [ClassName]), '', GUIDToString(ClassID),
      HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT)
  else
    DeleteRegKey(Format(ContextKey, [ClassName]));

end;

Compile for 32-bit or 64-bit platform

At this point we just need to compile the extension, for this sample the Win APIs and RTL methods are the same for both platforms, we don’t need any specific code. You can define the target platform through the Project Manager, by default your project target 32-bit Windows, right click on Target Platforms to add 64-bit Windows.

You can’t register 32-bit dll in 64-bit operation system, and you can not register 64-bit dll in 32-bit operation system. If you are using your develop machine to test, compile for the platform compatible with your OS.

Registering the CloudUpload Shell Extension

First, you must Run as Administrator the application you are going to use to register the shell extensions even if you are the Administrator user.

32-bit shell extensions can be registered through the IDE, and command line (cmd) can be used to register 32-bit and 64-bit.

Here the cmd line to register and unregister:

– Run as Administrator the cmd;

– Register the extension using the following command line: regsvr32 <PATH WHERE IS LOCATED THE DLL>CloudUpload.dll

– To unregister the extension using the following command line: regsvr32 <PATH WHERE IS LOCATED THE DLL>CloudUpload.dll /u

After register the DLL you can open the Windows Explorer, select one file and right click, you will see the new menu “Send file from Explorer to the Cloud”. The following screenshot show the shell extension on my Windows 7 64-bit.

You can download he source code in 2 different ways:

• Use the RAD Studio XE2 or XE3 IDE menu File option “Open from Version Control” and set the URL to https://radstudiodemos.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/radstudiodemos/branches/RadStudio_XE2/Delphi/CloudAPI/CloudUpload for XE2 and https://radstudiodemos.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/radstudiodemos/branches/RadStudio_XE3/Delphi/CloudAPI/CloudUpload for XE3
• Update your RAD Studio XE2 or XE3 local demo repository, in case you use TortoiseSVN just right click on the C:\Users\Public\Documents\RAD Studio\9.0\Samples\Delphi folder and select update;

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

This Hotfix addresses an issue with using Korean IME in FireMonkey and you can download here.

More information about Hotfix 1, 2 and 3 can be found here.

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

Rally today announces Rally For Impact, the next increment of Rally’s social mission that aims to mobilize engineers to solve the world’s most pressing problems.

Please, take 5 minutes of your time and watch the following video, it will explain the Rally For Impact Mission and shows how an enginner in India was able to make a tremendous impact on people’s life.

If you have solved a social problem through engineering and want to share, let Rally for Impact know, they will love to know What caused you to change direction and pursue this issue? What challenges did you overcome? What help did you need to be successful? Visit the www.rallyforimpact.org and tell your story.

Share this great initiative with your friends and start following Rally for Impact on twitter and Facebook, just click the buttons below.

[quote style=”boxed”]Follow Rally For Impact on Twitter Follow @RallyForImpact [/quote]

[quote]Like Rally For Impact on Facebook

[/quote]

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

The following video is a very cool presentation that will give you an overview of the Scrum process and how organizations can streamline their SCRUM process through the use of the Rally application.

If you are starting in agile and want to learn more, this video will be a great start.

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

• Hotfix 1 – addresses an issue with ShowMessage in a FireMonkey application on certain locales on Mac OS X – download
• Hotfix 2 – addresses issues with the GestureManager in a FireMonkey application – download
• Hotfix 3 – For Professional edition only, addresses an issue in using SQLite driver on the Professional edition – download

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse