Database transports

Hi Guys & Gals
Well after a 15 year absence Im back in the Delphi world creating a database interface in the world of Delphi

Question 1 - I have downloaded and installed Delphi Community and Fire-Bird with the intention of creating a desk top application that will provide remote access to data stored in a Fire-bird - Needs to be VPN & Static IP suitable without having the end uses doing hand stands to log in

So the question is what transport VCL component should I use - I see there is FireDAC but should I run with that or is there a better component - happy to pay a small fee if it a better component to get the job done

Question 2 - what PDF viewer/editor should we go with

Question 3 - One of our needs is to be able to create/edit word “style” documents. Which VCL component should we go with

Question 4 - What report generator should we go with

The budget is limited so looking to cut costs but having said that easy of use and reliability is up there to

Very much any assistance that can be given

Kind Regards
Grant Brown

What PDF viewer: PDFium - does have an external DLL dependency, but it’s solid and easy to use

What PDF component - Spend $$ for this one. Much cheaper than open source. WPTools. Don’t try embedding word

1 Like

Hi Grant

Welcome to ADUG!

I don’t know if the community edition has the same restrictions as professional or not - but pro firedac cannot connect to remote databases, only local. If you are sticking with community and that restriction exists, your options are to purchase enterprise ($$$) or look at an alternative to firedac - Devart UniDAC
is well regarded (I haven’t used it) Universal Data Access Components (UniDAC) for Delphi

I would definitely look at third party for data access as when you out grow the community edition (assuming it can even do what you need) you would have to jump to enterprise just for firedac (but pay for all the other features you don’t need). If you are using a third party lib, you will only need to purchase delphi pro.

Another advantage of using third party libs is more frequent updates - the community edition is always 1 version behind (so 10.4.2 while current is 11.x) and unlikely to ever see any updates.

For a Word like expericence, WPTools (haven’t used, they also have a pdf lib) or TRichView - I (used it a long time ago on a project and it was very good) - they also have reporting tool.

Also check out WYSIWYG HTML Editor for Delphi - they have an editor and reporting tool (haven’t used those, but use the html components which are excellent).

There are still a few good reporting libraries that have been around for a long time, I’ve used FastReports in the past with good results (a while ago now though).

HTH

Hi Grant.
I’ve been using Firebird with Delphi for more than 18 years now - accross many demographics (Home, Corporate and Government).

For Delphi and FPC interface I use ZeosLib (ZeosLib download | SourceForge.net). Opensource.
For Database Management I use Database Workbench (Database Workbench: database development tool for MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle, Firebird, PostgreSQL, Postgres, InterBase, SQL Anywhere, Microsoft SQL Server and NexusDB @ Upscene Productions). But - depending on your requirements - may be more than you need).

If you want to get to know Firebird in depth, Helen Borrie’s “The Firebird Book” is really excellent (just make sure it’s the most recent adiotion).

And - for general Firebird stuff -
https://www.firebirdnews.org/
and
http://www.firebirdsql.org/