Since introducing the GetIt Package Manager in RAD Studio XE8, Embarcadero has been focusing on making it a great tool for distributing additional libraries, components, tools, samples, demo projects, styles and more to RAD Studio customers. We use it to distribute Embarcadero add-ons, but also third party open source libraries and free offerings, and trial versions of paid components. The GetIt engine is also used for product installation and for delivering patches.
Until recently, discovering and navigating through GetIt packages and categories and learning more about the entire GetIt catalog of content has only been possible from within the RAD Studio IDE itself.
We’re excited to announce a new public facing website, https://getitnow.embarcadero.com, that lists the GetIt content for the latest RAD Studio release and allows users to easily navigate the same categories, and filter by product and vendor. This new website queries the GetIt server to make sure that the content remains aligned over time.
The GetItNow Site
As you open https://getitnow.embarcadero.com/ you’ll see a list similar to what RAD Studio presents in the GetIt Package Manager dialog box.
By default, the site lists all packages, sorted by date, with the latest created or modified components showing first. In the screenshot above, you see the components sorted by name.
The side navigation panel also offers the ability to filter by supported product, by update subscription, and by category. There is also a search field, allowing you to search by package name. As you open a component, you see a detailed view with more information, including license details:
Notice that the image on the side is just a placeholder, and that the information displayed does not include the indication if the package is available in all SKUs, or only in the Enterprise and Architect ones. At the bottom of the page you can see additional packages from the same vendors and related packages (in this cases, I’m showing info for the Alien Invasion game):
The page for each component has a unique URL, like https://getitnow.embarcadero.com/AlienInvasion-1.11/ so that you can share a link with another developer or on social media. We have done some extra effort to make sure that when you link to the pages on social media, the site displays a nice preview. To achieve this, use the Share links for Twitter and Facebook in the package page.
Site Navigation
The site has additional navigational options that you can reach by using the main menu items in the top banner:
- Products lists the 3 personalities and offers pages with a filtered view, like https://getitnow.embarcadero.com/product/delphi/
- Vendors lists all companies that have packages available in GetIt, and from there you can see all of the packages from a given vendor, like https://getitnow.embarcadero.com/vendor/embarcadero-technologies/
- Categories offers a list of categories and allows you to navigate each, like https://getitnow.embarcadero.com/category/sample-projects/
- By clicking on a tag, you can also navigate by tag; an example would be https://getitnow.embarcadero.com/tag/game/
Just the Beginning
We are excited about the value the launch of the GetIt Portal website provides to our customers. It makes it easier to browse GetIt content and share it with other developers, and it also allows us to highlight all of the great packages from our third party ecosystem that are available in GetIt. We have plans for extending the site in the future, and welcome your feedback.
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This is great addition and a nice idea too. It would be better if in the future, you can make getitnow site just like play store, which you can install it to a license. You may detect which computer name use a license and user can choose to install the component to which IDE, then in the ide it will try to download in the background and make all selected component ready to install. Then notify the user there is an update ready to install, and get it will install “alll” downloaded component with a single click. That would be a nice addition 😊
Nice. Saw a bug. If you select Delphi and go to next page, the selection shifts to RAD Studio. Now you hit Delphi you are back to Page 1. I did not see a way to go to page 2 of Delphi.
Thanks for the report. Fixed.
Thanks for fixing it. Now, ide plugins don’t show for Delphi or C++ builder. You need to be on RAD studio to see the ide plugins. Is this by design or am I seeing another bug?
Dear Embarcadero team,
nice new site but there are a problem with the search function. If you select Delphi, then Subscription Required then there are 4 result sites shown. When you click on site 2 (or next) all the selections are deleted and all results are shown.
How I said nice site but please test your products before you release it.
Best regards
Gernot
The search function works differently from the IDE. If you search for nex on the web page, you get no results. In the IDE, you will find the NexusDB Embedded product.
Thanks for the report. The search has been expanded to give more results in a case like this.
To say the least, I don’t see the interest of that. The integrated GetIt is enough and it allows direct installation of the tools.
And that scares me because it’s one more step towards the all-web solution, Embarcadero seems to follow the trend to move everything to the Web…
When will RadStudio be web-based? When will all “developments” be only web-oriented to write so-called “web apps” (there is nothing like a web “app”)…
Call me old-fashioned, but absolutely all my customers hate web “solutions”
Instead, I’d be reassured to see a focus on the desktop solution, aimed at desktop/devices (real) apps.
I have RADStudio 10.4.1 installed – the GetIt manager does not work. When RAD Studio first loads it says “The Embarcadero GetIt server could not be reached” under IDE Patches. GetIt manager seems to work fine in Rio – but not in Sydney. I emailed tech support – did not hear back (I have an annual subscription).
When I saw this email – I thought maybe you are finally moving toward fixing the issues. I cannot download Boost 1.39 from the portal because it says go to the IDE. The IDE still says:
* Cannot load data from the server: “RADStudio.json” metadata file does not exist.
* Setup cannot continue due to a corrupted installation file.
I have a similar problem when trying to install 10.4.1 Patch (C++Builder) 1. when I click install I get the following:
* Setup cannot continue due to a corrupted installation file.
Elias
I got the same. Did you get any reply from tech support?
It would be nice if you had an exclusion feature in your search engine. For example, when searching, it may be nice to exclude display of all the “Trial” entries in order to limit the display. Something like “-Trial”. Maybe such a feature already exists, but when I tried it, it didn’t work.
It supports the MySQL boolean syntax. https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/fulltext-boolean.html
I do not really understand the usefulness of this, because you are still forwarded to the IDE to download the package. If donwloading from the IDE does not work for whatever reason (which seems not to be such a rare exception) then you have solved nothing.
Also it seems that only the last version of the package is available. Say I am running on Rio or before…then the version shown in the web is not the one that matches my IDE…
As a Windows desktop and C/S Delphi developer, I have been very happy with Embarcadero since 10.4. Keep up the good work, focusing on the fundamentals.
Just installed 10.4 from ISO and GetIt reports “The Embarcadero GetIt server could not be reached”. I know it has to be switched from ISO mode to online mode but search no longer reveals what I have to do.
Try this
https://www.systemcamp.com/fix-delphi-getit-package-manager-failing/
Great, that did the trick, thanks.
Thank you
This has been failing forever. Fixed it instantly!