Everything You Should Know in Building Your First Cross-Platform App in Delphi Using FMX

Do you have an idea how quick it is to build a working application with Delphi? The recently launched “Welcome to Delphi” series in the official Embarcadero Technologies YouTube Channel hosted by Alister Christie of Learn Delphi TV will show you how surprisingly quick and easy to develop your own application using the Delphi IDE. From the previous video, Alister demonstrated how development on windows can be done easily using the VCL framework of Delphi. This time, he will teach us how to make the same application but in a cross-platform way using the FireMonkey framework.

How to build a cross-platform application using FireMonkey (FMX)

One of the best characteristics of Delphi is the fact that it is undeniably user-friendly and easy to learn which makes it ideal for beginners. Thanks to its low-code development platform and simple drag-and-drop features, you can develop an application with a lesser level of complexity. Despite the simplicity, Delphi is a powerful programming language that enables you to develop high-performance applications. In this video, Alister will show you how to make a simple yet functioning cross-platform app using the Firemonkey framework. FireMoneky is cross-platform, meaning you can write a single application and it can be compiled on Windows, Android, macOS, iOS, and even Linux.

The process follows the same procedure as demonstrated in the previous tutorial. This time, however, you have to select “Create a New Multi-device Application” from Delphi’s Welcome Page. It also provides a great number of templates as starting points. For this demo, we will build the same user interface and code. Alister then gives an overview of how to preview different platform styles and use the multi-device preview tool window to check how your application will look on your target platform in real-time.

The tutorial will conclude by demonstrating the process of compiling and debugging the application to Android, synchronizing the device, and doing a live test. A big advantage of Delphi is that you can do much of your testing in Windows where it is relatively faster. If you want to learn more, feel free to watch the quick tutorial below.