Friday 9 September 2016

Android callbacks wrapped by FireMonkey

A couple of years ago (exactly!) I posted on this blog about an article I’d written on accessing NFC tags from Delphi Android applications. At the time this was quite an involved exercise, requiring custom Java code to be compiled and linked in to the application in order to respond to the pertinent Android callback, Activity.onNewIntent. Indeed, Delphi versions XE5, XE6 and XE7 all have slightly differing capabilities, with each new release making certain Android operations rather easier.

While catching up on what’s new in recent releases of Delphi I realised a change had been snuck into Delphi 10 Seattle that makes the whole NFC exercise much more straightforward now in Delphi.

Thursday 1 September 2016

Speaking at the SDN Event

All the preparations are nigh on complete and this evening I shall be on a short aeroplane ride to Holland (or The Netherlands, if you prefer) to present a couple of Delphi talks at one of the SDN’s big SDN Events – full agenda here. I’ll be in good company as also speaking on the Delphi track will be TMS Software’s Bruno Fierens and also Bob Swart.

I’ve spoken at User Groups regularly but this is the first opportunity for me to talk to Delphi developers from further afield at a conference since April 2015 when I was at the ADUG Symposium, speaking in Canberra and Melbourne.

SDN events are always friendly gatherings and I’ve spoken at a few of them over the years: 1997, 1999, 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2012.

This time around I will be speaking on two of my favourite subjects: creative debugging techniques and accessing the Android OS API. Naturally I’ll be using the latest and greates version of Delphi as a vehicle for the talks, and I’ll be trying to squeeze in as many technical tips, tricks and techniques as I can into the 2 hour-long sessions.

For those attending the event tomorrow (2nd September, 2016) I’ll see you there!