Did you know you can easily create superfast, modern, gorgeously professional websites using RAD Studio with Delphi or C++Builder? When RAD Studio 12.2 was released, one of the collection of new features and improvements was the addition of WebStencils, a dedicated built-in web template library system.
WebStencils allows you to use regular HTML files in conjunction with easy-to-use WebBroker and RAD Server technologies to developing modern dynamic websites powered by data from whatever source you wish such as databases, files, calculations, objects – in fact, if you can think it up then WebStencils will pretty much let you emit that data in a simple, easy to use way.
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How do I design the WebStencils template web pages?
You can ask any web designer to design the web templates – they don’t need any special software or additional skills, or you can do it yourself, it’s really easy. The web pages contain placeholders or tags which begin with the “@” symbol. Those placeholders get replaced at runtime with whatever data your app wants to provide. The placeholders can take one of several forms ranging from simple variables (which link on the server side to database fields, classes/objects, or variables) to more complex behavior such as loops and conditional statements.
Does The RAD Studio WebStencils feature require me to use RAD Server?
No. You can use WebBroker and other ways of generating the web connection and traffic. WebStencils handles the processing of the special “@” symbols in the templates. RAD Server or simple WebBroker modules handle the interactions with the web browser connections. The WebStencils app could be a console app, a Windows service, or a Linux command line app.
Do the WebStencils templates need to be created by a Delphi or C++ developer?
Absolutely not – they are simple HTML files or portions of HTML files. Since the WebStencils templates are text files you can edit them in a simple text editor if you wanted. You can also pass them on to a web designer if you prefer – it would take them only a few minutes to learn the available WebStencils keywords, it’s very easy.
WebStencils is also an easy and powerful way to create dynamic web page content with HTMX which can easily communicate securely with the back-end infrastructure of your choice.
Do you want a free book about WebStencils?
One thing I completely forgot to mention in the webinar is that you can get a free book about WebStencils! You can get the free book by clicking here and filling out the form. The book is written by my incredibly talented colleague Antonio Zapater – he also created the WebStencils examples too. You can read more from Antonio here: https://blogs.embarcadero.com/webstencils-and-htmx-free-guide-to-fast-web-development/
Where can I watch the replay of the RAD Studio WebStencils webinar?
You can watch it here:
Where can I find the slides for the WebStencils webinar?
You can find all of the slides here:
Where can I find the demos shown during the WebStencils webinar?
You can find all of the WebStencils demos here: https://github.com/Embarcadero/WebStencilsDemos
Where can I download a copy of RAD Studio with WebStencils included?
WebStencils is available in version 12.2 of RAD Studio with Delphi or C++Builder. It does not work with the CE (Community Edition) version. If you want to try the very latest version of RAD Studio with Delphi or C+++ Builder then you can click here to download a free trial of Delphi, or C++Builder, or a RAD Studio trial (which has both Delphi and C++).