Build a Simple VCL Application for Office 365 Data

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Office 365 FireDAC Components

The Office 365 Data Provider gives developers the power to easily connect Delphi & C++Builder Apps to Microsoft Office 365 data including Outlook Mail, Contact, Calendar, Files, and more!

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How to build a simple VCL Application to view Office 365 data in RAD Studio using the CData FireDAC Components for Office 365.

Embarcadero RAD Studio provides a development environment for Delphi and C++Builder applications. With the CData FireDAC Components for Office 365, you gain access to live Office 365 data within RAD Studio, abstracting the data into tables, views, and stored procedures that can be used to retrieve and update Office 365 data. This article will walk through connecting to Office 365 and creating a simple VCL application with the Form Designer.

Creating a VCL Application for Office 365 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 Office 365 from any application.

The following example populates a TDBGrid control.

  1. Create a new VCL Forms Application.
  2. Drop a TFDPhysOffice365DriverLink and TFDConnection object onto the form.

  3. Double-click the TFDConnection object. The FireDAC Connection Editor is displayed. Select "CData.Office365" in the DriverId menu and configure the connection properties.

    Office 365 uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate requests, you will need to obtain the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and OAuthCallbackURL by registering an app with Office 365. See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for a guide to using OAuth.

  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.