Computing

Build Data-Aware Applications with Delphi

From Zarko Gajic, former About.com Guide

Many Delphi beginners start with projects like "My Notepad" when beginning programming with Delphi. Others spend nights and days in writing various multimedia and graphics applications. All of them will sooner or later realize that 90% of today's software interacts with some data stored in some way. There's no doubt about it, Delphi has powerful and reliable data-management capabilities. Application developers building the next generation of business software are attracted to Delphi for several reasons. With Delphi you can create software that operates with just about all types of databases.

Delphi Database Programming Basics
Using Delphi's DB-Aware Controls
What's Your Database? Firebird, Interbase, SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, dBase?
Read and Write to Registry, XML, INI Files, Text Files, Binary Files

Delphi Database Programming Basics

Learn how to design, develop and test a database application developed with Delphi. When creating database applications you need to pick the right database for your needs, you need to pick the right set of Delphi components to connect to the database and finally you need to know how and what controls to use to create the user interface for the application. Finally, you should know how to handle database errors, how to make reports and much more.

Using Delphi's DB-Aware Controls

Delphi's DB-Aware controls are the building blocks of any type of a database application created with Delphi. Data-aware controls represent data from fields in a database record, and can permit users to edit that data and post changes back to the database. Using data-aware controls, you can build your database application's user interface (UI) so that information is visible and accessible to users.

What's Your Database? Firebird, Interbase, SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, dBase?

Delphi provides support for various types of databases. Be it Interbase, Firebird, Oracle, MySQL, MS SQL Server, MS Access or Excel files and pure TXT files - Delphi has means to help you build powerful applications in minutes.

Read and Write to Registry, XML, INI Files, Text Files, Binary Files

The data your application needs to operate on may not always be stored in a relational database. It may be stored in an ASCII text file or a structured binary file. It may even be stored in an XML file, INI or Registry. Delphi has ways to help you read and write to any data type.

Delphi