Starting a Project

A project is a collection of files which includes, but is not limited to, project files (.bdsproj), assemblies (.dll), program database files (.pdb), optional resource files (.html, .jpeg, .gif), executables (.exe), and many others that make up an application. Projects are either created at design time or generated when you compile the project source code. To assist in the development process, the Object Repository offers many predesigned templates, forms, files, and other items that you can use to create applications. To create a project, click New from the Welcome Page and select the type of application you want to create, or choose File New Other . To open an existing project, click Project from the Welcome Page or choose File Open Project . This section includes information about:

    Types of projects

    Working with unmanaged code

Type of Projects

Depending on the edition of Delphi 2005 that you are using, you can create traditional Windows applications, ASP.NET Web applications, ADO.NET database applications, Web Services applications, and many others. Delphi 2005 also supports assemblies, custom components, multi-threading, CORBA, and COM. For a list of the features and tools included in your edition, refer to the feature matrix on either the Borland Delphi web page or the Borland C#Builder web page.

Windows Applications

You can create Windows applications using Windows Forms to provide processing and high-performance content display. Windows applications can function as a front end to ADO.NET databases. In addition to drag and drop components and visual designers, Borland provides an easy way to create application menus and submenus. The .NET Menu Designers MainMenu and ContextMenu are components that work like editors to let you visually design menus and quickly code their functionality.

ASP.NET Web Applications

You can create Web applications using ASP.NET Web Forms to provide Web access to databases and Web Services. Web Forms provide the user interface for Web applications and consist of HTML, server controls, and application logic in code-behind files. Delphi 2005 lets you drag and drop components and provides in-place HTML editing.

ASP.NET Web Services Applications

You can create Web Services applications that deliver content, such as HTML pages or XML documents, over the Web. Web Services is an internet-based integration methodology that allows applications to connect through the Web and exchange information using standard messaging protocols. Delphi 2005 simplifies the creation of Web Services by providing methods for creating a SOAP Server application. The .asmx and .dlls files are created automatically and you can test the Web Service within the IDE, without writing a client application for it. When writing a client application that uses, or consumes, a published Web Service, you can use the UDDI Browser to locate and import WSDL that describes the Web Service into your client application.

VCL.NET Applications You can use VCL Forms to create a .NET Windows application that uses components from the VCL.NET framework. Delphi 2005 simplifies the task of building .NET-enabled applications by supporting VCL components that have been augmented to run on the .NET Framework. This eliminates the need for you to create custom components to provide standard VCL component capabilities. This makes the process of porting Win32 applications to .NET much simpler and reliable.

Database Applications

Whether your application uses Windows Forms, Web Forms, or VCL Forms, Delphi 2005 has several tools that make it easy to connect to a database, browse and edit a database, execute SQL queries, and display live data at design time. The ADO.NET framework data providers let you access MS SQL, Oracle, and ODBC and OLE DB-accessible databases. The Borland Data Providers (BDP.NET) let you access MS SQL, Oracle, DB2, and InterBase databases. You can connect to any of these data sources, expose their data in datasets, and use SQL commands to manipulate the data. Using BDP.NET provides the following advantages:

    Portable code that''''s written once and connects to any supported database.

    Open architecture that allows you to provide support for additional database systems.

    Logical data types that map easily to .NET native types.

    Consistent data types that map across databases, where applicable.

    Unlike OLE DB, there is no need for a COM/Interop layer.

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