fgxnative FGX Native - crossplatform mobile native development

[Yaroslav Brovin 30]

 

Good afternoon, dear Delphi developers!

 

I would like to share with you information about our FGX Native product for Delphi, which can be an excellent working tool for you to create cross-platform mobile applications. 

P.S. I will be happy to answer any of your questions.

What is it?

FGX Native is a framework developed from scratch, completely independent of FMX/VCL, allowing you to create native mobile cross-platform applications for Android/iOS and using native components provided by operating systems.

Key Features:

• Smooth animation. All visual components have smooth animation.
• Native view. The components look familiar to the user of the mobile OS(Android и iOS).
• Support of Right-To-Left languages.
• Modern approaches in development.

Links:

• Official site: https://fgx-native.com/en/
• Customers applications: link

 

 

 

For whom?

Currently, the world of mobile development is experiencing rapid development. Many services and desktop applications are duplicated in one form or another on mobile devices, and this is not surprising, because according to statistics, about 59% of people in the world own smartphones. This is a huge market that is constantly growing.

 

Unfortunately, mobile development is quite different from desktop development in terms of building a UI. Therefore, in FGX Native, we focused exclusively on the specifics inherent in mobile operating systems and deliberately abandoned support for desktop systems.

 

Our product can be useful both for Delphi developers who just want to enter the world of mobile development, and for those who have ready-made projects created using FMX and are faced with certain limitations of the FMX framework. At the moment, we already have several completed successful translations of projects from FMX to FGX. We are expanding our cooperation with educational institutions and already supply free licenses for computer classes for teaching mobile development with FGX Native.

 

Features

FGX Native is built entirely from scratch using only RTL. The delivery includes a rather impressive number of ready-made components for solving problems of different plans.

 

Form Designer

The form designer is the cornerstone for convenient visual and really fast mobile app development. The convenience of the designer and the set of visual components depends on how quickly you will be able to add new functionality, make quick visual edits or just check out an idea. Therefore, we have developed our own unique form designer for FGX Native. It offers a large number of features that will definitely accelerate the development of the interface of your future application and make it visual and enjoyable.

 

FlexBox Alignment System

The world of mobile devices is characterized by great variability in screen sizes. It is often necessary to use different placement of elements on screens for different orientations and sizes of screens.

 

The classic Delphi alignment system was created in an era when mobile development did not exist in principle, so it is not particularly suitable for these purposes. In FGX Native, we abandoned the classical system in favor of the modern FlexBox, which has already become the de facto standard in various programming languages and layout. As a result, we can make complex, adaptive markup options directly in the designer and, as a rule, without a single line of code.

 

Below are the options for marking up the login and password entry form. As you can see, in portrait and landscape orientations, the form elements are arranged differently. And all this is done by means of the FGX Native designer without a single line of code!

 

List

Lists are one of the key components in mobile development. They replace the usual approach with grids, trees, etc. The elements of the list have truly amazing possibilities for customizing the appearance through the use of different styles, which in turn are configured directly in the designer in a way familiar to everyone.

 

It is worth mentioning that the library is supplied with a set of preset styles according to the Material Design concept (https://material.io/components/lists ) which can be selected with one click.

 

Lists support multi-column display mode, dragging and dropping items, and much more. But the most important advantage is that lists maintain smooth operation with thousands and even hundreds of thousands of elements with complex markup due to their internal architecture.

 

Containers

A separate part is container components, which are designed to group components and display them in a special way. Among such components, sliding panels for menus. Sliding pages from the bottom, grouping components with scrolling and much more.

 

Camera and barcode scanner

One of the applied areas of mobile application development is warehouse accounting. And here you can not do without a barcode scanner. We have already developed it for you. And all you need is to connect the scanner component to the camera.

 

Barcode generator

What if you want to generate your barcode. There is nothing easier, the TfgBarcode component allows you to generate a barcode of a popular format.

 

Identification (Facebook, Google Sign In, VK Login, Apple ID)

When your customers are working with the application, you may want to simplify the registration and authorization process for them. This will avoid filling out long user registration forms and improve the UX of your application. For this purpose, it is usually suggested to use third-party identification services, such as Facebook Login, Google Sign In, Apple Id and others. In the latest releases of FGX Native, we have added components that allow you to do this.

 

Advertisement

If you plan to earn money on your application by placing ads, then we have Google AdMob support for you (Android, iOS will be later). At the same time, you can embed banners with ads in your application or make a full-screen ad.

 

Animation

Almost any modern mobile application uses animation to one degree or another to improve the UX. FGX Native offers an API for performing native animation of components. In addition, we have developed ready-made animation templates that you can call with one line of code. And if you want to make complex vector animations, then we have an Airbnb Lottie for you with animation support from Adobe After Effect.

 

Google Pay and Apple Pay

FGX Native supports two payment systems Google Play (Android) and Apple Pay (iOS, at the testing stage). Therefore, if you want to pay for an order in an online store directly in the app, you can also do it.

 

Push-notification

Push notifications are used to send client notifications from your server. These are the messages that appear in the notification center of your device. We support two types of push services FireBase (Android) and Apple Push Services (iOS). They are implemented on the basis of RTL System.PushNotification base. However, for our users, we provide a separate component that greatly facilitates the work with push notifications on the side of the mobile application.

 

Digital signature

Imagine that you have developed an application for the delivery of goods for couriers. They deliver the goods to the customer and they need to get confirmation from the customer that the order has been delivered. We have developed a component for entering a digital signature. Just let the customer leave a signature on the courier's phone screen.

 

Localization

Almost any international application primarily supports more than one interface language. Therefore, the application should be able to translate its interface on the fly in a good way. For these purposes, we supply an extension for the library in the form of a UI localization component.

 

Taking photo

And what if you need to take a photo or get a photo from the user's gallery? To do this, we have a special API for getting photos, both in a file and in TfgBitmap from camera or system gallery.

 

Map

If mapping services are important to you, then the TfgMap component is included in the library, which allows you to display system maps with the ability to add markers, polylines, lines and etc. Also, for Android, you can even specify your own style for displaying the map.

 

Assets

Special attention is paid to optimizing the use of different types of resources: Images, Fonts, Files, Lottie animation and etc. We abandoned the idea of storing resources in dfm and developed our own solution for centralized storage of resources. You can easily add any files, without having to know where the file is physically located and without having to suffer with the Deployment manager. In the same place, you can immediately color the uploaded images and apply the 9-patch effect.

 

Material Design Icons

How often have you encountered the need to search for icons for your application? 

 

In order not to spend a lot of time searching for suitable standard icons in your application, you can add them from Google Material Icons pack directly from Delphi in a couple of clicks.

 

Image caching

One of my favorite features is optimization the use of images in memory. Imagine that you have a regular news application with an endless list of news with a preview image displayed. The mobile device is limited by the size of the available RAM, so it will not be possible to load all the images into memory. The application will simply crash due to lack of memory. To avoid this, the developer usually needs to come up with his own system for uploading/uploading images when it is really needed.

 

In FGX Native, we have already provided for this, and if the image is not used, it will be unloaded from memory automatically and reloaded only when it is really needed.

 

Asynchronous image loading

Separately, it is worth noting the task of displaying an image posted on the Internet. A typical way is to place images on the Internet, and dynamically upload them in the application in runtime. 

 

With just two lines of code, you can queue an image upload by URL from the network, without thinking about how to output it to the component when it is uploaded.

  TfgAssetManager.Current.AddBitmapFromUrlAsync('MyImage', 'http://data.fgx-native.com/images/photo-demo.jpg');
  fgImage1.ImageName := 'MyImage';

 

Video Player

We also provide video component for playing video from file or from stream.

 

Web Browser

If you would like to display web content, you can use WebBrowser component with supporting Basic-Auth, Javascript and SSL error handling.

 

Popup

In some cases, you may need to display contextual content. In this case, the Popup implementation is useful.

 

Graphic components

A set of primitive components is included in the delivery: rectangle, line, ellipse, circle, SVG Path and etc. They can also be used to build an interface.

 

Canvas

For those who do not have enough standard components, you can manually draw graphs or create your own image in the TfgBitmap buffer.

 

Gestures

The library supports standard types of gestures (Tap, Double tap, Long tap and Zoom).

 

Standard components

Of course, do not forget about the other standard components: buttons, text input fields, date pickers, checkboxes, indicators and much more.

 

Additional tools

We also supply a set of auxiliary tools that will be useful in mobile development.

 

Android Log viewer

When you are developing Android application, it's quite often, when you need to look at the system log for examination possible issues.

 

Android API Delphi headers generator

If you would like to use third-party Java libraries, we have our own tool for generating header files for Java. It is worth noting separately that we have developed our own Android-Delphi bridge, which is more convenient to use than in RTL and offers a number of additional features.

Edited April 13, 2022 by Yaroslav Brovin

[andreag0 2]

Hello,
I am one of happy user of FGX Native.
I am Delphi and C++ Builder developer but I was using Android Studio to get as result native Android app behavior.
Since I discover FGX Native and test the first time I was impressed about strong integration in Delphi IDE,
fast and easy to use layout editor just like classic Delphi Form.
The debugger react like Delphi FMX application for mobile or Android Studio with NDK.
Those who used, like me, Android Studio will surely notice the greater usability of the editor and less CPU load exactly as expected from the Delphi IDE.
Once your app is compiled and installed, you will get a smooth and responsive mobile application.
And last but not least, you can use your favorite Delphi libraries like Indy, WebSockets etc. in short, all those libraries that can be used in console mode.

 

Kind Regards
Andrea Giaquinto
 

[Dave Nottage 559]

30 minutes ago, andreag0 said:

you can use your favorite Delphi libraries

Last time I tried FGX (a few months ago), this was not true (at least not entirely). Anything that relies on FMX could not be used, and I actually changed part of Kastri to allow for this (i.e. so that particular part of Kastri could still be used in FGX).

 

That said, I concur that FGX is a fantastic product 🙂

 

[Yaroslav Brovin 30]

Hello,

 

A few thoughts about FMX integration:

1. FMX uses style concept, so it has to load all visual components on startup. Otherwise, your style will not be deserialized. This means that any FMX units will result in the full addition of FMX.
2. FGX Native has a fully written backend from scratch and module architecture. This means that if you don't use something, it won't even be linked. Therefore, only the components and classes involved get into the executable file.
3. FMX Backend is built on integration with NativeActivity and GPU. And for using native components (FGX Native is about native components) it's a bad bunch, which pulls all the problems.

Therefore, the decision not to use FMX was fundamental and key. Not because FMX is bad, it's just that the nature of the products is different. Therefore, yes, on the one hand, the lack of integration with FMX may seem like a problem. But independence from FMX, just in the end, gives more opportunities for performance, the ability to build a UI and the potential to expand and support third-party solutions. It's enough just to look at ready-made applications or watch demo projects to understand what is at stake.

 

This week I updated Trial version to 1.14.0.0, so it now corresponds to the latest version of the library in principle. So you can check everything again on 11.0

 

About supporting external libraries

Specifically, so that users do not feel deprived of the functionality that exists, including in Kastri. We are adding our own implementations of the most popular services: payments, popular identication services, scanners, barcode generators, fast camera and etc. We are gradually adding the requested functionality from release to release.

 

Adding any external non visual library to FGX Native support is not particularly difficult. Because it has similar Android API to FMX Activity. There are more advanced types of notifications about the main events in the Activity. In addition, despite the fact that I have developed my bridge to use the Android API, this does not prohibit the use of a regular bridge from RTL. Therefore, the question of adding FGX Native support is not really a problem.

 

Also, some clients asked for help, for example, to port some libraries from FMX to FGX Native, concerning work with NFC, barcode generator, etc. and it was also done.

 

P.S. If you want to add library support to Kastri, we can consider it and I can support you in this job 😉

[chmichael 12]

Hello!
  Do you plan any desktop version of FGX in the future ?

[Yaroslav Brovin 30]

2 hours ago, chmichael said:

Hello!
  Do you plan any desktop version of FGX in the future ?

Hello,

 

Core FGX Native allows it. But nature of Desktop and Mobile applications are different. So I don't really want to mix all Desktop and mobile specific API together. There are great VCL for this purpose. I plan only add supporting simulator for mobile applications for Windows. It will allow to run FGX Native app as windows application for debugging purpose.

[KenR 29]

Seems rather expensive!

[mvanrijnen 123]

1 hour ago, KenR said:

Seems rather expensive!

How much can you code for $549, and get the bugs fixed the year on for $249 ?

 

First impression, is it looks good, and if development is smoother than with FMX, it might be something for us. 

Were planning to create our first app(s),  IOS (iPhone & Tablets).  

We first have to setup the dev enviornments for this, but i will be glad to take a look at this. 

 

Trial goes to a page only in russian language? 

(ah, click on the thread there :! )

 

Edited April 14, 2022 by mvanrijnen

[KenR 29]

1 hour ago, mvanrijnen said:

How much can you code for $549, and get the bugs fixed the year on for $249 ?

An unlimited amout as I don't charge myself!

[Uwe Raabe 2059]

7 minutes ago, KenR said:

An unlimited amout as I don't charge myself!

How much of paid work can you put aside to write it yourself?

[Yaroslav Brovin 30]

One client just developed mobile application for railway company. This is a reference book with documentation and animation. 

 

[KenR 29]

12 hours ago, Uwe Raabe said:

How much of paid work can you put aside to write it yourself? 

I'm retired!

[RaelB 4]

What does FGX stand for? 🙂

[Yaroslav Brovin 30]

Hello,

 

The new application - The personal account of the client of the Internet provider. It provides information about Internet plans, Online-TV services and etc. Allow to pay from application and add new subscriptions and services.

Edited May 6, 2022 by Yaroslav Brovin

[Yaroslav Brovin 30]

Hello guys,

 

I'm glad to share with you information about FGX Native presentation on big conference Italian Delphi Days 2022.

Don't miss, It will be interesting speech about new features, which we added since previous Italian Delphi Days presentation.

• FGX: the Evolution of native mobile applications
• Italian time: 16:30 - 18:00

We also had webinar about creating prototype of mobile application based on UI ready design with FGX Native. As an example, we took an application that allows you to develop useful habits.

[Yaroslav Brovin 30]

Good evening, dear Delphi developers.

 

A lot of time has passed since our latest news on this forum, but we have not been idle and are happy to share new products with you.

1. SVG support

We wrote our SVG render from scratch. And now you can use SVG in your applications.

https://forum.fgx-native.com/blogs/entry/61-поддержка-svg-в-11550/

2. Authentication services Apple ID, Facebook Login, Google Sign In, VK Login

We have developed a set of components for performing authentication using popular services Apple ID, Facebook Login, Google Sign In, VK Login

 

3. Maps

Maps remain an important component for our clients, so we have expanded their support and added the ability to use custom tiles or ready-made tiles in maps (for example, OpenStreetMap)

https://forum.fgx-native.com/blogs/entry/60-провайдеры-тайлов-в-tfgmap-с-11530-openstreetmap/
 

4. Firebase Push notification

We have expanded Firebase support and implemented push notifications not only for Android, but also for iOS. In addition, we have developed a component for simplified work with push notifications. With it, you can easily get a device token and track work with uvedoleniyamit.

https://forum.fgx-native.com/blogs/entry/55-firebase-push-уведомления-на-ios-с-11520/

 

5. Application Analytics

We have also added new components to collect analytics of the use of your application using Firebase Google Analytics.

https://forum.fgx-native.com/blogs/entry/57-firebase-google-analytics-с-11530/

 

6. New fast build system for Android

We have integrated a third-party Android application build system. Thanks to this, it was possible to speed up the build time of the application, speed up the restart after making changes, and much more.

https://forum.fgx-native.com/blogs/entry/52-новая-система-сборки-android-приложений-со-значительным-приростом-скорости-🔥/

 

7. Full AAR support

It's no secret that there are many more ready-made solutions for Android in the Java/Kotlin world. Therefore, if you are not limited to using only native code, then now you can easily connect ANY JAR/AAR library and even just specify a dependency as a string without having to download libraries and all dependencies, etc.

https://forum.fgx-native.com/blogs/entry/56-интеграция-android-библиотек-просто-и-быстро-с-11520/

 

8. Yandex Mobile Ads

We have also added another Yandex Mobile Ads advertising platform to display ads in your apps.

 

9. Share

We have added a new service to be able to send your data to other mobile applications - quickly, simply and conveniently.

 

10. Working with photos

We have improved our tools for selecting photos from system applications and added the possibility of multiple photo selection. At the same time, the implementation has become multithreaded, which allows you to upload a large number of photos and control the upload process without blocking the UI.

 

11. Video recording

We have developed a cross-platform solution for video recording from a phone camera.

 

12. In-app purchases

Now our users can organize in-app purchases, both for iOS and Android, in order to sell digital content in your app. And if you need built-in payment methods, then you can use the ready-made solution for ApplePay(in testing) / GooglePay.

12. Images

Additional methods for working with images

• Tint
• Crop
• Flip
• Rotate
• Thumbnail
• EXIF orientation
• Luminance

https://forum.fgx-native.com/blogs/entry/63-новые-методы-по-работе-с-tfgbitmap-и-exif-в-11600/

 

13. Canvas

Canvas matrix transformation, canvas state.

 

14. Resource support

We have improved our resource designer and now you can generate the necessary images/stubs for rapid prototyping of your mobile application in a couple of clicks.

https://forum.fgx-native.com/blogs/entry/47-анонс-11440/

 

15. Viewing Android system logs

We have improved our tool for viewing system logs in Delphi.

https://forum.fgx-native.com/blogs/entry/49-анонс-11450-и-улучшение-android-log-viewer-ios-simulator-arm-64-bit/

 

16. Barcode scanner

We have added support for new barcode formats:

• InvertedDataMatrix for Android.
• Codabar for iOS.

17. List component

For our super fast list we have added:

• Advanced selection. Allows you to animate and independently implement the visual selection of elements
• Horizon mode

18. Header file generator for Java/Kotlin code

We have improved our generator:

• AAR support
• Displaying information in headers about when the type/method was introduced, and in which version of Android is outdated.
• Intelligent processing of circular dependencies related to the feature of the JAVA batch structure
• Kotlin library support

It has never been so easy to connect any android library and use it in Delphi.

 

19. Dark theme

We have improved support for the dark theme for Android/iOS

• Tracking the change of the system theme
• Getting information about the system topic.
• Automatic change of the style of the system status bar depending on the content of the form

https://forum.fgx-native.com/blogs/entry/59-улучшенная-поддержка-темной-темы-с-11530/

 

20. Backward compatibility with RTL Java bridge

Especially for FGX Native, we have developed a module that allows, if necessary, to simplify migration from the RTL bridge to ours. In addition, we are correcting errors that exist in older versions of Delphi in RTL Java Bridge.

 

21. Demo samples

We provide more than 100 demo samples.

 

We performed presentation at Embarcadero CodeRage 2022.

 

 

Edited November 10, 2023 by Yaroslav Brovin

[Yaroslav Brovin 30]

Hello Delphi developers,

 

Black Friday is very soon and we want to please you with a good discount on new FGX Native licenses, which will be valid between 11-15 November 2023.

• Discount for English version - 150$. When placing an order, use the promo code BLACKFRIDAY2023 here.

This is a good opportunity to discover the world of mobile development with FGX Native!

FGX Native team

[Anders Melander 1795]

10 minutes ago, Yaroslav Brovin said:

Discount for English version - 150$.

How do you justify the price difference between the English and the Russian version?

English: USD 550-150= USD 400
Russian: 4*USD 65 = USD 260

[Yaroslav Brovin 30]

Hello @Anders Melander,

 

The difference in price is due to different markets. For the CIS countries, the price level is much lower than for other countries. Incomes of the population are lower, respectively, and prices are lower. If we consider the price relative to the subsistence minimum, then the ratio will be approximately the same.

 

I also want to draw your attention to the fact that technical support is included for this price. Which includes consultations and problem solving. And if we take into account the average range of hours of work of an average programmer about $ 50-80 (correct me if this is not the case), plus take into account the fact that sometimes it can take several hours to consult and support a client. Then it turns out that this price should be higher. But in fact, it is kept at the same level as other similar products for Delphi. So the price for the Russian version is rather an exception to the rule.

 

Thank you,
Yaroslav Brovin

[Kas Ob. 121]

10 hours ago, Yaroslav Brovin said:

For the CIS countries

I can't reach a page with such prices from Ukraine ?

[Yaroslav Brovin 30]

2 hours ago, Kas Ob. said:

I can't reach a page with such prices from Ukraine ?

Which page are we talking about? All our resources are available to everyone. The purchase of a license for CIS countries is carried out through the forum.

Edited November 11, 2023 by Yaroslav Brovin

[Kas Ob. 121]

10 minutes ago, Yaroslav Brovin said:

Which page are we talking about? All our resources are available to everyone. The purchase of a license for CIS countries is carried out through the forum.

Clicked on that link, here what i see 

 

One year for CIS is higher than the rest of the world with the discount.

[Kas Ob. 121]

Clicking from here https://fgx-native.com/ru/buy.html 

also redirect this link to the English one

https://forum.fgx-native.com/store/product/1-подписка-на-3-месяца-только-для-рф-и-снг/

[Yaroslav Brovin 30]

8 minutes ago, Kas Ob. said:

Clicked on that link, here what i see 

 

The Russian version is sold only for Rubles. The English only for dollars. 

If you are from the CIS countries, then you should have prices in rubles displayed by default and the forum should be in Russian. You can switch the language at the bottom of the forum page.

If you need the Russian version and you are from CIS countries, then contact me and I will help you with ordering.

 

Thank you

 

 

Edited November 11, 2023 by Yaroslav Brovin

[Kas Ob. 121]

12 minutes ago, Yaroslav Brovin said:

The Russian version is sold only for Rubles. The English only for dollars. 

If you are from the CIS countries, then you should have prices in rubles displayed by default and the forum should be in Russian. You can switch the language at the bottom of the forum page.

If you need the Russian version and you are from CIS countries, then contact me and I will help you with ordering.

 

Thank you

Thank you !

 

I am in Ukraine and using the biggest ISP here, but didn't notice and didn't expect changing the language will change prices without changing the items listing themselves (names and prices).