Delphi Questions... Maybe you can help me...

[adriantc 0]

I'm going to start working on a new project that I have been thinking about. I have a programming contest in my highschool in february next year (I have won this year's edition) and I hope this new project will be my masterpierce. That is why I want to start working early.Well it is going to be an encoding software (for text.. txt, doc, only... nothing too fancy). I have a lot of functions in my mind that I would like to see implemented into the software. That's why I need some help from somebody who knows more then I do. There are three things I need help with. First of all you should know I use Delphi 2006...1. The first problem is related to printing a document. Lets say have a delphi.txt file and I want to print it. How can it be done? If you can and you have patience please explain step by step.2. Second problem.... I was thinking about making a webupdate module. Do you have any ideas on how I can do that, on how I can make it download a file update.exe and run it! I'm open to any other suggestions.3. Is there any way I can run another software from my program (for example I want to run C:/Program Files/Mozilla Firefox/firefox.exe)? If I can how do I do it? Also is there any way to access the internet right from my project form (for example the user clicks a button and some information loads right in the software... no browser open or anything... for example a check version module... click a button, the software will use the internet to determine if you have the latest versions and it will give you a messege).Well thanks for your help in advance!

[cipher123 0]

Hello Adriantc,

In response to question 2, a webupdate component, I can help you on this one. I was looking for a similar thing, and ound on this website, maxcomponents.net.

Here is a link to get a Webupdate component for your application. I use it myself in many of my applications, and it's very reliable.
It's know as mxWebUpdate.

Although it states that it isn't compatible with Delphi 2006, I tried it out to experiment and it worked, easy as pie, plain and simply.

A few features are:

It adds automatic update support to your application.
It retrieves information from the web, if a newer version available, it can download a file via HTTP and run
the update.
Full source code available
Supports Delphi 5, 6, 7 and 2005 (and 2006)

I hope this is of use to you. I certainly have found it helpful in the past.

ciphersoftware