How To Build a Cross-Platform REST Client App in Delphi Under 30 Minutes

We have learned from the previous talks that Delphi is indeed one of the easiest programming languages that you can learn.  Although Delphi is simple by nature, it is a high-level programming language that works well for both beginners and professional developers. In this video from the recently concluded DelphiCon 2021, David Cornelius will demonstrate how to work with a low-code windows application development and build a working prototype from scratch in under 30 minutes.

Everything you need to know About the Low Code principle

In this session, David will take us through creating a cross-platform REST Client application from scratch to a working prototype. For him, the less code you have to write, the less code you have to debug later and we couldn’t agree more. Using a rich set of components and libraries, you can save yourself time and maintenance which lowers the cost of development and can boost your productivity at the same time.

Low code is a software development approach that requires little to no coding to build applications and processes. A low-code development platform uses visual interfaces with simple logic and drag-and-drop features instead of extensive coding languages.

These concepts are recognized across the industry, and some predict that by 2024, 65 percent of application development will utilize low code principles. It should be noted that this concept is not no-code as you still need to account for differences in environments or simply use or format data in unique ways.

Do you know how to build a cross-platform app in Delphi with very little code?

Interestingly, this session features an actual demo of how you can build a working application prototype from scratch with fewer codes to deal with. The project is a REST Client app that uses FireMonkey and works on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS.  The demo will demonstrate how to build an app from scratch using components that can be found in Delphi. The API source for this project is Wordnik, an online dictionary.

David will show us how to access a public REST API and parse JSON results into FireDAC memory tables linked with LiveBindings to fill a couple of ListView with only a few lines of hand-written code. He will also show us some tricks using some of the features of REST Debugger tools and some nifty components like the TRESTResponseDataSetAdapter that magically transforms the JSON response into a memory table.  All of which can save you a great amount of time instead of dealing with tedious tasks of extensive coding.

To learn more, feel free to watch the video below. 

Why not follow along with the video? Download a free trial of RAD Studio Delphi today!