The development of Delphi apps presupposes the implementation of the component methodology. In other words, developers in their work can use ready-made bricks, instead of coding everything manually each time. There is a great number of such components that are available today. They are provided by Embarcadero Technologies that currently owns and maintains Delphi or by a number of third-party Delphi components vendors.
What should you bear in mind when you need to find a Delphi components vendor?
If you start googling the companies that offer components for Delphi, you will get a lot of search results. And it is obvious that it will be absolutely easy to get lost. As well as in any other situation, it is difficult to name the only vendor that will meet the demands of all developers at once. However, based on our experience, we’ve managed to formulate the rules that we try to follow in our work and we recommend you to consider them as well.
- It will be a good idea to work with Delphi components vendors that are committed to the Delphi platform. If the company is interested in bringing real value to the Delphi community, it is clear that it not only creates components but is also going to support them in the long term.
- Don’t get too excited about free components. There are many developers who create excellent components, support them for a couple of years and then just put them aside. Though the source will still be available, it may happen so that you will have nothing to do but to maintain the code written by other developers. And it is obvious that it is not the task that you want to waste your time on. That’s why freeware can be a good but very risky option for your projects.
- Try to find a vendor that quickly reacts to the release of new Delphi versions. Otherwise, you will be just waiting for your components to support a new version before you will be able to upgrade your software.
As you see, these rules don’t contain anything extraordinary and they all are aimed at facilitating your work with your software. Moreover, our advice is to try to establish cooperation with just one or a couple of components vendors, if possible. Such an approach will also greatly help you to organize your development process more logically and seamlessly.
Examples of Delphi components vendors
At Softacom, we closely work with TMS software components. Being founded in 1995, the company is still here, actively growing and expanding the row of products available. Today TMS offers a wide range of components for various spheres of development, including those for web and cross-platform development. There are also VCL and FMX components that are widely used by Delphi developers in many countries of the world.
Let’s also mention a couple of other vendors, such as LMD Innovative, for example. The majority of components suites provided are intended for VCL apps, however, in some cases, FMX is supported as well. The company is continuously working on making its components compatible with the latest versions of the Embarcadero products. At the time of writing, all products released or updated in 2020 support RAD Studio 10.4 Sydney. Another vendor that partners with Embarcadero and provides a very wide range of highly demanded components for Delphi apps is WINSOFT.
There are a lot of other companies that are working on the development of Delphi components now. Moreover, there are many companies that have already left the market, however, their components are still used and supported by some versions of the software. And you need to consider a lot of factors, including the reputation and the performance of the company before you fully rely on its components in your projects.
But if you are dealing with Delphi apps, you should also remember that if there are no appropriate components provided by Delphi components vendors, you can always write relevant components on your own. If you do it you will have the possibility to reuse the same app logic and code in other projects.
And you can also turn to professionals, such as our team, to have components written for you in strict accordance with your requirements. We offer Delphi components development services that’s why if you have such a need, you are always welcome.
