Build a Simple VCL Application for Amazon S3 Data

Embarcadero RAD Studio provides a development environment for Delphi and C++Builder applications. With the CData FireDAC Components for Amazon S3, you gain access to live Amazon S3 data within RAD Studio, abstracting the data into tables, views, and stored procedures that can be used to retrieve Amazon S3 data. This article will walk through connecting to Amazon S3 and creating a simple VCL application with the Form Designer.

Creating a VCL Application for Amazon S3 Data

The following instructions show how to use the Form Designer to create a simple VCL Forms application that shows the basic FireDAC objects needed to connect to Amazon S3 from any application.

The following example populates a TDBGrid control.

1. Create a new VCL Forms Application.
2. Drop a TFDPhysAmazonS3DriverLink and TFDConnection object onto the form.

3. Double-click the TFDConnection object. The FireDAC Connection Editor is displayed. Select "CData.AmazonS3" in the DriverId menu and configure the connection properties.
   

   To authorize Amazon S3 requests, provide the credentials for an administrator account or for an IAM user with custom permissions. Set AccessKey to the access key Id. Set SecretKey to the secret access key.

   Note: You can connect as the AWS account administrator, but it is recommended to use IAM user credentials to access AWS services.

   For information on obtaining the credentials and other authentication methods, refer to the Getting Started section of the Help documentation.

4. Drop a TFDQuery object onto the form and set the properties below:
   • Connection - Set this property to the TFDConnection object, if this object is not already specified.
   • SQL - Click the button in the SQL property and enter a query.
   • Active - Set this property to true.
5. Drop a TDataSource object onto the form and set the following property:
   • DataSet - In the menu for this property, select the name of the TFDQuery object.
6. Drop a TDBGrid control onto the form and set the following property:
   • DataSource - Select the name of the TDataSource.

7. Drop a TFDGUIxWaitCursor onto the form. This is required to avoid a run-time error.

You now have an executable application that displays the results of the SQL Query set in the TFDQuery object.