Delphi for PHP Article 2: A Lazy Sunday (Video)
OK, I just got back from church and I am stuffed from the three bowls of soup and a huge salad. So, I am feeling lazy, but I still want to get a Delphi for PHP article out (since I have a limited exclusion from my NDA and am alowed to discuss such matters or so I must say in each of these articles.)
So, today you get treated with a video I made for the other Delphi for PHP testers. It isn’t too exciting, but it will show you a little bit about the underlying structure of the DB Demos in the beta releases of Delphi for PHP. I should say that it is entirely possible that the demos requiring the steps described in this video will be reworked for the final product. If that’s the case you likely won’t have to do much, or ANY of this process in the full blown 1.0 process.
If you are new to PHP programming, you can use this process to create a webserver on your local home computer. That’s downright handy for testing any web product. So, you’ll benifit that way even if the Delphi for PHP stuff isn’t too handy for ya.
OK here you go:
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Is there any way to see this video with crystal clear quality? Running it inside Firefox displays the text VERY clearly, but crops the video to the specified size of 700×571 instead of the full 1024×768; playing in IE 7, shows the video zoomed to that same viewing rectangle; downloading the video and playing it on my PC shows the video at the proper size, however, looks as “fuzzy” as when played in IE scaled…
Any special trick to be able to see this video with no fuzziness on the text?
Later,
Madruga
Hi, Thanks for the heads up. I’ll put it up in another format, until then just double click on the file to see it full screen.
I’ll convert it to flv which should make it look better for you.
Until then, you can also download it at: thecodecave.com/mov/rundbdemos.wmv
Thanks but that link you posted was “converted” into a “player”.
However, I did download it before from thecodecave.com/mov/rundbdemos.wmv, but what is weird is that, playing it full screen or even in a window will blur the text; (and if I play in a window, I have plenty of room left: my laptop has 1680×1050, so 1024×768 fits inside that with some room to spare!); playing it in Firefox, plays only a crop from the top left corner but does so with crystal clear text! BTW: my gravatar wasn’t updated. Will see if this post uses the correct one!
Later,
Madruga
Woah! Not only the gravatar is not updated, but worst of all, I forgot the close tag on the link and, once more, the link is being converted into a player “icon”… Since the link runs to the end of my previous comment, I’ll repeat the comment, this time without links!
If I download the wmv file and play it on a window at 100% (my laptop’s display has 1680×1050, so the video fits and there’s some free space around), it plays with the text showing a bit fuzzy. If I play it here in Firefox, it crops the video to the top-left corner but displays the text crystal clear as if it was really text showing on my laptop. Weird thing. Maybe it’s somehow related to my LCD not using the default 96 DPI and instead using 120 DPI?
Later,
Madruga
So the D4PHP is a way to compile PHP applications?
Yes, and you can do some really cool stuff with it.
Take a look at this Windows Demonstration.
http://www.thecodecave.com/d4p/windows
Since this works across all browsers, there’s going to be some really unique products coming out.
BTW Fernando, I’m not sure why you are getting blurry text running a full screen version of the video, I’ve not had that problem.
As for the gravatar, I can’t check that right now with their site being down, but are you sure you’ve capatalized your account in the same way you’ve entered it here?
Fernando.Madruga@… is NOT the same gravatar as fernando.madruga@… or Fernando.madruga@…
When their site comes back up I’ll check and see if where the issue is…
As for the gravatar, maybe that’s the issue. Not the name but maybe the domain which I some times capitalize and some don’t! 🙂 Forgot to read the fineprint, I guess!
As for the video, I’ve just reverted my PC to a “clean” Windows XP + Office 2003 instal (and all drivers and windows updates), so as to be sure that some problems I was having with Delphi 2007 weren’t caused by my PC. It turns out that they may have been as it’s been working very stable now! But, I took the opportunity to try the video again and I see it blurred even in full screen. It’s not “much” of a blurr, but just enough to make it a tad annoying.
Firefox still does the same thing of displaying an extra “player”. Weird but now I’m sleepy so won’t look into it…
I don’t know. It’s had 803 viewings since Sunday. So, it must be working for some people, or I’d be getting more comments.
In future videos, I’ll see if I can increase the quality at my blog’s preferred size. I think this one will stay as it is. After all it was JUST a lazy Sunday post… 😉
A way to compile php applications like .EXE. 🙂
I think its more of an IDE am I wrong?
It does not produce a “native” binary executable. The result is still PHP. Yes, it is an IDE, but more fully featured than any other IDE on the market today. It produces more than just PHP by pairing the PHP files with XML files storing the visual layout and properties chosen in the “Object Inspector”.
I’ve got the first release of Delphi 4 PHP… I have to say I’m VERY disapointed… I’m a Delphi code since Delphi 1 and PHP programer since 1998 and the thought of a Delphi for PHP was a dream come true. However, I can’t not get it to run any “app” on my Hosted server. The code runs fine on my local machine but, that’s not where my web sites are hosted. I HAD to upgrade to PHP 5.X.X.X in order to even get anywhere on a simple Hello World. I have no issue with that execpt it’s not really mentioned anywhere in the specs… Also, I was completely dumbfounded to find that there was NO FTP built in to Delphi 4 PHP… Come on guyes! You have to “delploy” you project (which puts all the files you’ll need together in one spot then open up your favorite FTP program and copy them to where you want it…. So, that means a simple change is not a click of a button away to update… you have to click deploy and about four “next” buttons to have it “deploy” THEN open your FTP and copy the files to the server…. That is a Joke.
Just calling it Delphi and hoping it will change the way things are done (Like Delphi ONE did) will not change the way things are done. I’m back to hand coding in my Favorite PHP editor. At least when I hit save, it saves it via FTP back to the server it came from….
I wish I could get my money back… 🙁
Well, I do understand where you are coming from.
But I can’t say that either of those two things were not issues for me. I usually use PHP 4, but php 5 was always there for me to enable with a simple .htaccess change. Your past that anyway.
As for the FTP setup, I agree that would be nice too, but I don’t need it either as I use the old Novell add on util NetDrive ( abandonware publicly distributed for free to students) to make my debian webserver’s root drive X: on all of my machines, even my laptop. There are a bazillion instruction pages at colleges and elsewhere explaining how to use it, but I really don’t think you need it. Here’s one set http://www.loyola.edu/5555/netdrive/installingnetdrive/
I know lots of people use similar solutions so that their FTP account is just a drive letter on their windows sever.
Maybe it will help the transition for you… The public goal for Delphi for PHP v1.0 was always a Delphi 1 level of ability. It’s surpassed Delphi 1 in MANY, MANY ways, but I can’t deny there are some rough spots that require attention.
I’m curious (and a die hard Borland….er ahem… Code Gear fan) what do you see as: “It’s surpassed Delphi 1 in MANY, MANY ways, ”
Because for me and Delphi one (coming from VB) was I Dropped down a button, a label and pressed F9. Bam! done… And every thing from “hello world” to middle-ware client server app doing OLE (or what ever) was just as hard (or simple).
I Dropped down a Calendar in D4PHP, do the deploy, copy the files to my server and I get: “Warning: require_once(vcl/jscalendar/calendar.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/wilmsoft/public_html/delphi/vcl/vcl.inc.php on line 127”
Is that a rough spot? Do I really have to dig in to the source code to figure out what’s missing the vcl.inc.php file?
I hear what your saying about the FTP and figured that would be the general response. But, I’m a contract programmer. I never am “on the server”. I almost always am on someones remote server where I don’t have access to a simple .ini file. I can’t use this tool and make money as it is today. I made money DAY ONE with Delphi One. No telling the customer oh, I’m glad you hired me to fix such and such but, I need you to now use change your infrastructure so my tools work.
I thought (or hoped) that the code gear spin off would start to focus (again) on the little guy writing code not the corporations… and I do see that trend and felt like I need to preorder D4PHP. But, Code Gear bought Delphi 4 php and I think it’s going to take a few releases to get it where they want it. Version one is not there yet. I wish I would have waited for the demo before I put down my money….
And this may not be the place for this conversation but, I couldn’t find any place on Code Gear’s site to vent. I am interested in other peoples view on this potentially awesome product.
Brian, your link mentioned above is broken.
Take a look at this Windows Demonstration.
http://www.thecodecave.com/d4p/windows
whaaaaou! nice video.. But may I ask a question? I love your codegear wall paper? could it be possible to send it to me ?
( actisante@actisante.com) .
Thank you!
Frank
Thanks! (and check your email!)
Yeah, I pulled that demo and another because it featured a very early version of Delphi for PHP which could have caused some confusion. I’ll put up another of my own creation shortly.
Thanks. Also, the video was great. Made installation and setup a snap. Do more of them !!
how to compile delphi to php into EXE to run as localhost?
Thanks Richard!
Ken: There are a few “compilers” out there, just look around in google and you’ll find a couple…
http://www.roadsend.com/home/index.php?SMC=1&pageID=main
http://www.priadoblender.com/index.php?layout=main&cslot_1=2
http://www.phpcompiler.org/
Depending upon what you are trying to achieve, you might want to look at an accellerator instead. wikipedia lists a few:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP_accelerator
I have tried all your options. None is easy. I am blur on how to compile my php file into exe. I hope some can produce a good software. Dephi to php version 1 is only provding GUI with php code. What is the good of it if we cant compile the php file so that it can run on windows environment?
The goal is to produce WEB software with PHP. If you want to produce software for running locally, stick with Delphi for Win32 and that will give you what you want.
There is a way. Its called, if I remember correctly, Bamila Compliler. Try a google search, you should see a page for something like that. It only has php 4, but its powerful. Really, powerful. You’ll have to do all the coding, then you can just add all the files you need and your all set. 😉