Delphi Database Programming Course.doc

Free online database programming course for beginner Delphi developers. Focus on ADO techniques.

This free online course is perfect for Delphi database beginners as well as for those who want a broad overview of the art of database programming with Delphi. Developers will learn how to design, develop and test a database application using ADO with Delphi. This course focuses on the most common uses of ADO in a Delphi application: Connecting to a database using TADOConnection, work with Tables and Queries, handle database exception, create reports, etc.

The chapters of this course are being created and updated dynamically on this site. Chapters (for now) include:

CHAPTER 1:
Fundamentals of Database Development (with Delphi)
Delphi as the database programming tool, Data Access with Delphi...just a few words, Building a new MS Access database.

CHAPTER 2:
Connecting to a database. BDE? ADO?
Connecting to a database. What is the BDE? What is ADO? How to connect to an Access database - the UDL file? Looking forward: the smallest ADO example.

CHAPTER 3:
Pictures inside a database
Displaying images (BMP, JPEG, ...) inside an Access database with ADO and Delphi.

CHAPTER 4:
Data browsing and navigation
Building a data browsing form - linking data components. Navigating through a recordset with a DBNavigator.

CHAPTER 5:
Behind data in datasets
What is the state of data? Iterating through a recordset, bookmarking and reading the data from a database table.

CHAPTER 6:
Data modifications
Learn how to add, insert and delete records from a database table.

CHAPTER 7:
Queries with ADO
Take a look at how you can take advantage of the TADOQuery component to boost your ADO-Delphi productivity.

CHAPTER 8:
Data filtering
Using Filters to narrow the scope of data that is presented to the user.

CHAPTER 9:
Searching for data
Walking through various methods of data seeking and locating while developing ADO based Delphi database applications.

CHAPTER 10:
ADO Cursors
How ADO uses cursors as a storage and access mechanism, and what you should do to choose the best cursor for your Delphi ADO application.

CHAPTER 11:
From Paradox to Access with ADO and Delphi
Focusing on the TADOCommand components and using the SQL DDL language to help porting your BDE/Paradox data to ADO/Access.

CHAPTER 12:
Master detail relationships
How to use master-detail database relationships, with ADO and Delphi, to deal effectively with the problem of joining two database tables to present information.

CHAPTER 13:
New...Access Database from Delphi
How to create an MS Access database without the MS Access. How to create a table, add an index to an existing table, how to join two tables and set up referential integrity. No MS Access, only Pure Delphi code.

CHAPTER 14:
Charting with Databases
Introducing the TDBChart component by integrating some basic charts into a Delphi ADO based application to quickly make graphs directly for the data in recordsets without requiring any code.

CHAPTER 15:
Lookup!
See how to use lookup fields in Delphi to achieve faster, better and safer data editing. Also, find how to create a new field for a dataset and discuss some of the key lookup properties. Plus, take a look at how to place a combo box inside a DBGrid.

CHAPTER 16:
Compacting an Access database with ADO and Delphi
While working in a database application you change data in a database, the database becomes fragmented and uses more disk space than is necessary. Periodically, you can compact your database to defragment the database file. This article shows how to use JRO from Delphi in order to compact an Access database from code.

CHAPTER 17:
Database reports with Delphi and ADO
How to use QuickReport set of components to create database reports with Delphi. See how to produce database output with text, images, charts and memos - quickly and easily.

CHAPTER 18:
Data Modules
How to use the TDataModule class - central location for collecting and encapsulating DataSet and DataSource objects, their properties, events and code.

CHAPTER 19:
Handling database errors
Introducing error handling techniques in Delphi ADO database application development. Find out about global exception handling and dataset specific error events. See how to write an error logging procedure.

CHAPTER 20:
From ADO Query to HTML
How to export your data to HTML using Delphi and ADO. This is the first step in publishing your database on the Internet - see how to create a static HTML page from an ADO query.

CHAPTER 21:
Using ADO in Delphi 3 and 4 (before AdoExpress)
How to import Active Data Objects (ADO) type-libraries in Delphi 3 and 4 to create a wrapper around components that encapsulate the functionality of ADO objects, properties and methods.
Discuss about questions, comments, problems and solutions related to this chapter!

CHAPTER 22:
Transactions in Delphi ADO database development
How many times have you wanted to insert, delete or update a lot of records collectively wanting that either all of them get executed or if there is an error then none is executed at all? This article will show you how to post or undo a series of changes made to the source data in a single call.
Discuss about questions, comments, problems and solutions related to this chapter!

CHAPTER 23:
Deploying Delphi ADO database applications
It is time to make your Delphi ADO database application available for others to run. Once you have created a Delphi ADO based solution, the final step is to successfully deploy it to the user's computer.
Discuss about questions, comments, problems and solutions related to this chapter!

CHAPTER 24:
Delphi ADO/DB programming: Real Problems - Real Solutions
In real world situations, really doing database programming is much more complex than writing about. This chapter points to some great Delphi Programming Forum threads initiated by this Course - discussions that solve problems on the field.

CHAPTER 25:
TOP ADO programming TIPS - DB/25
Collection of frequently asked questions, answers, tips and tricks about ADO programming.
Discuss about questions, comments, problems and solutions related to this chapter!

CHAPTER 26:
Quiz: Delphi ADO Programming - DB/26
What would it look like: Who Wants to be a Delphi ADO Database Programming Guru - the trivia game.
Discuss about questions, comments, problems and solutions related to this chapter!

Page 1: Delphi as the database programming tool.

Many Delphi beginners start with projects like "My Notepad" when beginning programming with Delphi, other developers spend nights and days in writing various multimedia and graphics applications, but all of them will sunner or later realize that 90% of today's software interacts with some data stored in some way.

There's no doubt about it, Delphi has powerful and reliable data-management capabilities. Application developers building the next generation of business software are attracted to Delphi for several reasons. With Delphi we can create software that operates with just about all types of desktop databases like Paradox, dBase or MS Access. We can also use Delphi to build solutions for client-server development.

Data Access with Delphi...just a few words
Delphi ships with more than 40 prebuilt database components and provides a visual programming environment that includes an integrated code editor, Database Form wizard that speeds up steps to create a browsable data form and Data Module Designer that can be used to share data access among multiple forms. Several other database specialized tools are also provided with Delphi to help us code faster and easier.

The Data Access page of the Components Palette provides components used to connect to a data source. In the Data Controls page, data aware components are ones that (after Delphi connects to a database) can be use to retreive and send data to or from a database. The components on the ADO page use ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) to access the database information through OLEDB. The components on the InterBase page access an InterBase database directly.

Don't runaway
Database programming, of course, is not trivial. In this course we will try to bring closer some of the techniques, problems and solutions to database programming with Delphi along with all the secrets it hides from us.
Before we move on to using various data components/tools in Delphi we should first see some of the concepts of database design and try to build a simple database.

Page 2: Building a new Database.

Before we start interacting with databases using Delphi, it is a good idea to get a feel what modern databases are about.
When you think of a word database you should generally think of any type of data stored inside a computer - even a SomeFile.pas file (code to some Delphi unit) is some kind of database. Another type of database is a Word document or a simple .ini file. To access an .ini file we generally use routines and techniques for typed or untyped files.

Building a modern database application requires us to think of data in a relational way. The basic idea behind the relational model is that a database consists of a series of tables (or relations) that can be manipulated using operations that return tables or so-called views. Simply put, a database is best described as a collection of related data. A database may include many different tables. Tables are like grids where columns are called fields and rows are called ... rows.

To fully address the concepts of database design and relational model we would need an extra online course. For a great overview check out the Fundamentals of Relational Database Design.

New...Database
Since this course will primarily focus on ADO/Access Delphi approach to database programming we will now see how to create a new .mdb database in MS Access.
If you have never built a database with MS Access, go see MS Access tutorials for a great info.

I hope you know that on this site there is a Members Area where Delphi developers can upload their free code applications and components. Each member has it's name, an email address and a possibly a web page. If we would like to keep track of every application posted to this community we could assemble a database of three tables: Applications (general information about an application), Authors (who made the application) and Types (what kind of app is it). Let's see how to do just that:

Start Access and create a blank database named aboutdelphi.mdb. Create three tables in Design view: Applications, Authors and Types.
Let's see the structure of those tables:

The Applications table contains fields that match the application description requirements: Name, Description, Author, Type, Size, Cost, DateUpl and Picture. Name, Description, Author and Type fields contain Text data, 50 characters by default. The Size filed is of a Number (Single) type - used to store the size of a file in Kb. The Cost field is a Currency field - if the app is shareware or commercial. The DateUpl field is a date/time value. The Picture is of a OLE Object type and will hold an (optional) picture for an application. Let the filed Name be the primary key.

The Authors table contains fields that match the application author requirements: AuthorName, Email and Web. All the fields contain character data (50 chars by default). Let the filed AuthorName be the primary key.

The Types table contains only one field: TypeName which is the primary key for this table. This table will be used to store the type of application (graphical, multimedia, database, ...)

We now only have to set up a relation in the relationships window and the database is ready.

Both relations should "Enforce Referential Integrity" with only "Cascade Update Related Records" check on.

Filling some data
In order to have some "dummy" data in a database fill in the Types table with the following 4 records: 'Game','Database','Internet','Graphics'. This values will be used when choosing the type of the application stored in the Applications table. Next, add one row to the Authors table: 'Delphi Guide', 'delphi.guide@about.com', 'http://delphi.about.com'. Finally let the only one row in the Applications table look like: 'Zoom', 'Zooming the Destop', 'Delphi Guide', 'Graphics', 10, 0, 02/20/2001. For the moment leave the last field (Picture) empty.

What to do with this "blank" database...I'll show you that in the following chapters of this course.

Page 1: Delphi database connectivity.

As shown in the previous chapter of this course, a database is a collection of one or more tables that store data in a structured format. These tables, contain data that is represented by rows and fields. When a database consists of two or more tables, these tables generally contain separate yet related data. MS Access, Interbase or SQL Server use a single file (Access, the *.mdb file) that represents the entire database. On the other hand, Paradox and dBase databases are defined with separate tables and files that represent indexes and table relations. All the files needed to describe a Paradox database are usually stored in a single directory. Delphi, of course, has means of working with both approaches.

With Delphi, we can connect to different types of databases: local or client/server (remote server) database. Local databases are stored on your local drive or on a local area network. Remote database servers usually reside on a remote machine. Types of local databases are Paradox, dBase and MS Access. Types of client/server databases are MS SQL Server, Interbase or Oracle.
Local databases are often called single-tiered databases. A single-tiered database is a database in which any changes, such as editing the data, inserting records, or deleting records - happen immediately. Single-tiered databases are limited in how much data the tables can hold and the number of users your application can support. When the database information includes complicated relationships between several tables, or when the number of clients grows, you may want to use a two-tiered or multi-tiered application. Client applications run on local machines; the application server is typically on a server, and the database itself might be on another server. The idea behind the multi-tier architecture is that client applications can be very small because the application servers do most of the work. This enables you to write what are called thin-client applications.

When we write a database application in Delphi, we need to use some database engine to access a data in a database. The database engine permits you to concentrate on what data you want to access, instead of how to access it. From the first version, Delphi provides database developers with the BDE (Borland Database Engine). Beside the BDE, Delphi from the fifth version supports Microsoft ADO database interface.

This course will primarily focus on MS Access local database producing the single-tiered application.

Page 2: The Borland Database Engine

The BDE is a common data access layer for all of Borland's products, including Delphi and C++Builder. The BDE consists of a collection of DLLs and utilities. The beauty of the BDE is the fact that all of the data manipulation is considered "transparent" to the developer. BDE comes with a set of drivers that enables your application to talk to several different types of databases. These drivers translate high-level database commands (such as open or post) and tasks (record locking or SQL construction) into commands specific to a particular database type: Paradox, dBASE, MS Access or any ODBC data source. The BDE API (Application Programming Interface) consists of more than 200 procedures and functions, which are available through the BDE unit. Fortunately, you almost never need to call any of these routines directly. Instead, you use the BDE through the VCL's data access components, which are found on the Data Access page of Component Palette. To access the particular database the application only needs to know the Alias for the database and it will have access to all data in that database. The alias is set up in the BDE Administrator and specifies driver parameters and database locations.
The BDE ships with a collection of database drivers, allowing access to a wide variety of data sources. The standard (native) BDE drivers include Paradox, dBase, MS Access, ASCII text. Of course, any ODBC driver can also be used by the BDE through the ODBC Administrator.

Delphi applications that use the BDE to access databases require that you distribute the BDE with the application. When deploying the BDE with an application, you must use InstallShield Express or another Borland certified installation program.

The BDE has several advantages as well as disadvantages as a database engine. It's not my intention to discuss about why and when you should (or not) use the BDE approach over some non-BDE technique.

Since this course is about ADO/MSAccess the rest of the course will focus on this non-BDE database approach.

Page 3: The ADO programming model.

As stated in the Introducing ADO in Delphi article, ADO is a set of COM components (DLLs) that allow you to access databases as well as e-mail and file systems. Applications built with ADO components don't require the BDE.
To access any kind of database with ADO, you'll of course need to have ADO/OLE DB libraries. Everything you need to use ADO is probably already on your computer: the files are distributed by Microsoft as a part of Windows 98/2000. If you or your client use Windows 95 or Windows NT you will probably need to distribute and install the ADO engine. Delphi 5's CD includes an installation of MDAC - Microsoft Data Access Components. You should always make sure to have the latest version, which is available from Microsoft. The Microsoft Data Access Components are the key technologies that enable Universal Data Access. They include ActiveX Data Objects (ADO), OLE DB, and Open Database Connectivity (ODBC).
Note: to install correctly on a Windows 95 computer, MDAC requires that DCOM95 be installed. MDAC installs components that rely on DLLs installed by DCOM95 in order to register correctly. Note that DCOM95 is not required on a Windows NT 4.0. In some cases, DCOM may not be installed on a Windows 98 computer. If it has not been installed, then DCOM98 should be installed prior to the installation of MDAC.

Without to much talking about OLE DB and ADO let's move on to more practical topics.

ADO Objects
The ADO programming model is built around several ADO objects that provide you with the productive means for accessing all kinds of data sources. These objects provide the functionality to connect to data sources, query and update record sets, and report errors. Delphi, through several VCL components provides wrapper components to access those objects. Let's see what are some of the Objects ADO works with:

The Connection object represents a connection to the data source with the connection strings. In BDE/Delphi a Connection object is a combination of the Database and Session components.

The Command object enables us to operate on a data source. Ir represents a command (also known as a query or statement) that can be processed to add, delete, query or update the data in a database.

The Recordset object is a result of a Query command. You can think of a Recordset as a Delphi Table or Query component. Each row that the Recordset returns consists of multiple Field objects.

Several other objects like: the Field object, the Parameter Object and the Error object also exist in ADO model - will get back to them in the following chapters of this course.

Page 4: Connecting to a database with ADOExpress.

Before going on to the brief explanation of each component in AdoExpress collection, let's first see how to connect to an Access database. Of course, we will be connecting to our AboutDelphi.mdb sample database.

Delphi (5) ADO support is concentrated in the ADOExpress components on the ADO tab of the component palette. Several other database enabled components will be used through this course. For the moment we will focus on the minimal set of components needed to access an Access database with ADO.

Start Delphi, this will open a new application with one blank form.

In order to be able to access data in an Access database with ADO and Delphi, you must add at least three data aware components to our project. First, the DBGrid on the DataControls component page - used to browse through the records retrieved from a table or by a query. Second, the DataSource (DataAccess Page) used to provide a link between a dataset and DBGrid component on a form that enable display, navigation, and editing of the data underlying the dataset. And finally the ADOTable (ADO page) that represents a table retrieved from an ADO data store. Drop all of them on a form. Let the names be the default one. The form should look something like:

If you run the application now, nothing is displayed in a Grid - of course, we did nothing to really connect to a database. Note just one more thing: only the Grid is displayed, the rest two component are controls - unvisible to the user.

Link between components
In order to display some data from a database we have to link all three components together. Using the Object Inspector, set the following:

DBGrid1.DataSource = DataSource1
DataSource1.DataSet = ADOTable1

We have now reached the hard part, to really get the data from our database we have to build a ConnectionString. This string indicates where the database is physically stored and how we are accessing it. When you double click the ellipsis button at the ConnectionString property of the AdoTable component you get the next dialog box:

When building a connection string we have two choices: use the Data Link File (.UDL) or build a connection string by hand. Let's build it. Press the Build button - this pops up the Data Link Properties dialog. This dialog has 4 pages. The Provider tab allows you to specify the provider - select the Microsoft Jet 4.0 OLE DB Provider. The Next button leads us to the second page: Connection. Select the ellipsis button to browse for our database (AboutDelphi.mdb). Press the Test Connection button to see if the connection is successful - it should be. Leave all the other pages as they are. Finally, click on OK to close the Data Link Properties dialog, again OK to close the ConnectionString dialog - the connection string is stored in the ConnectionString property of the ADTTable component. The connection string should look something like:

Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;
Data Source=C:\!gajba\About\aboutdelphi.mdb;
Persist Security Info=False

To finish, we have to set the table name that is t...