Top 10 How To’s: FireMonkey (2024)

The FireMonkey® framework is the multi-device, true native app development and runtime platform behind RAD Studio, Delphi and C++Builder. FireMonkey is designed for teams building multi-device, true native apps for Windows, OS X, Android and iOS, and getting them to app stores and enterprises fast.

The recent release of the VCL and FMX Libraries for Python introduced some spectacular new cross-platform design capabilities for developers working with Python.

Here are 10 of our great posts for getting the most out of FireMonkey®, a.k.a. FMX.

1. Creating Great UIs with C++Builder and FireMonkey: app templates

FireMonkey is an advanced UI toolkit, capable of great layouts and designs. We’d like to show you what it’s capable of, and how easy it is to make great interfaces using it. We’ve just introducedeighteenexample UI templatesusing FireMonkey and C++ that really showhow easy it is tocreate great-looking apps.

These are freely availableon GetIt, our package manager, and you can download them and use them foryour own inspiration and layouts.

What have we added? Three examples each of:

• Login screens
• Home screens
• User profile screens
• Settings pages
• Sign up screens
• Contact screens

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2. Learn About A Powerful Delphi FireMonkey Deployment Manager Tool

Once you start building FireMonkey projects you might need to add several files or resources to your deployment manager. The DeployMen tool by GRIJJY® helps you add files and resources in bulk for Delphi supported mobile platforms to the Deployment Manager.

• Folders and subfolders
• Specific configurations

Why we need this tool, because when you try to add third party libraries for instance Facebook SDK, you should update your deployment list using the Deployment Manager. But with this DeployMan tool controls this operation faster, it modifies the dproj, and updates the entries in there.

In this CodeRage session, you can find more information about this tool. You can see the demo in action also.

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3. Easily Customize The Appearance Of The FireMonkey ListView Using The ListViewAddThumbAndCaption Cross Platform Sample App

Viewing your valuable data in a List with ultimate user experience becomes the essential need in Modern Desktop and Mobile Applications. Some of the use case needs to toggle between the editingmode or viewing the list items with different appearance .e.g Selecting Multiple Contacts to delete from a Contacts List. Delphi/C++ Builder offers robust components to do the Job at Design time or Runtime with less code and made developer life easy.

ListViewAddThumbAndCaption Sample shows how to customize the appearance of a TListView to show a thumbnail with a caption on the right-hand side of every list view item. You can have the list view enter a selection edit mode where you can select several items on tapping ToggleEditMode button. It does this by modifying the appearance of the list view at run time.

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4. FireMonkey on Linux!

It did not take long since the release of Delphi Linux compiler to have the ability to build Linux GUIs with Delphi!

Just go to http://fmxlinux.com and get the only currently available download of FireMonkey for Linux which is “Free Trial v 0.905”.

You need to have RAD Studio 10.2 “Tokyo” installed. Make sure it is not running and install the trial. It is small and installs very fast. Run Delphi and create a new multi-device project. Drop a button on the form and write just one line of code in the “OnClick” event handler to display “Hello World from Delphi on Linux desktop!” in the caption of the form. Save all and run on Windows just to be sure;-)

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5. Writing Software for Multiple Platforms and Architectures with FireMonkey

When developers think about Delphi or C++Builder, the power of the Visual Component Library (VCL) is typically the first thing that comes to mind. If there is a factor that has been instrumental to the success of both Delphi and C++Builder, it is without a doubt the VCL.

The VCL is by far the best way to write desktop applications for Microsoft Windows. Regardless of language or company affiliation, there is no doubt that when it comes to Windows software development, nothing beats the VCL.

But developers today are not limited to just the Windows platform.

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6. Learn How to Apply Robust Native Controls In FireMonkey With Delphi And C++

The NativeControls sample shows the use of the Native Controls of FireMonkey. To this end it uses several components that are configured with its ControlType property set to Platform in order to have the native styling of that control.

Note: Only iOS and Windows support native controls. The following links provide a list of controls that support native presentation on iOS and Windows platforms. The value of ControlType property on any other platform does not have any effect.

You can find the NativeControls sample project at:

Start | Programs | Embarcadero RAD Studio Sydney | Samples and then navigate to:

Object PascalMulti-Device SamplesUser InterfaceNativeControls

CPPMulti-Device SamplesUser InterfaceNativeControls

Subversion Repository:You can find Delphi and C++ code samples in GitHub Repositories. Search by name into the samples repositories according to your RAD Studio version.

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7. First Steps with FMXLinux

RAD Studio Bundles FMX Linux

Yesterday Embarcadero announced with a blog post I published at https://community.idera.com/developer-tools/b/blog/posts/announcing-fmx-linux-bundling-with-delphi-and-rad-studio the immediate availability of FMX Linux for all Delphi Enterprise and Architect customers. In short, you can use this library for building Linux client applications with FireMonkey, with code fully compatible woth other platforms.

You can read the announcement above and also check:
the DocWiki documentation: http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/RADStudio/Rio/en/FireMonkey_for_Linux
the FMX Linux website: https://www.fmxlinux.com/
the press release: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190625005949/en/Embarcadero-Extends-FireMonkey%C2%AE-Cross-Platform-Framework-Create-GUI

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8. Learn How To Select Key Entry Types With The FMX.KeyboardTypes Sample In RAD Studio For Android And iOS Devices

Location:You can find the KeyboardTypes sample project at:

Start | Programs | Embarcadero RAD Studio Sydney | Samples and navigate to:

Object PascalMulti-Device SamplesUser InterfaceKeyboardTypes

CPPMulti-Device SamplesUser InterfaceKeyboardTypes

Subversion Repository:

https://github.com/Embarcadero/RADStudio10.3.2Demos/tree/master/Object%20Pascal/Multi-Device%20Samples/User%20Interface/KeyboardTypes

https://github.com/Embarcadero/RADStudio10.3.2Demos/tree/master/CPP/Multi-Device%20Samples/User%20Interface/KeyboardTypes

Description:This application shows how to use different types of Virtual Keyboard.

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9. How to Clone FireMonkey Objects

I’ve got a task of cloning FireMonkey objects. Let it be “chess”. An object is created as an aggregate in design-time. Look at the picture in the Structure pane. I have made the composite pawn model and started thinking of making 15 more.

If you’re thinking of a similar method, please, try Clone method. It will help you clone any FireMonkey object, not necessarily pawns, 3D primitives, but also controls. The only hint you need to know is that the only property “Parent” is not cloned, not to trigger rebuilding of the scene. Very often cloning should be done “purely-in-memory” with no consequences to the visual interface and corresponding times to draw.

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10. Get These Visually Stunning FireMonkey Styles Free To Enhance User Experience In Your Delphi Apps

Last few years, we can see that many amazing and visually stunning FireMonkey and VCL styles have been developed. With these kinds of styles, you can take your user experience of the application to next level by just applying it with the TStyleBook component.

TStyleBook component stores a collection of styles for a form. When you understand styles and this TStyleBook you can easily customize any template style files to your needs.

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Interested in building Linux applications with FireMonkey? Try theCross-Platform Development Framework, which can help you create & design apps in Delphi or C++ environments.