Preface

Next release of kbmFMX Pro will contain a new simple runtime mobile simulator.

What is a runtime mobile simulator? Well it is a way to see your mobile application running on your Windows environment, but sized to match various mobile formats, and with the option to easily produce near pixel perfect screenshots including various artefacts found on the mobile devices, like signal strength, time, optionally cut out’s etc.

How to use it?

Let’s say you have a FMX application you would like to see how looks on various devices. The application can have multiple forms if needed. The main form may look like this:

All you need to do is add kbmFMXMobileDeviceSimulator to the uses clause and run your application as a Windows application.

unit Unit1;

interface

uses
  System.SysUtils, System.Types, System.UITypes, System.Classes, System.Variants,
  FMX.Types, FMX.Controls, FMX.Forms, FMX.Graphics, FMX.Dialogs, FMX.StdCtrls,
  FMX.Layouts, FMX.Controls.Presentation,
  kbmFMXMobileDeviceSimulator;

type
  TForm1 = class(TForm)
    Label1: TLabel;
    Layout1: TLayout;
    GridPanelLayout1: TGridPanelLayout;
    Button1: TButton;
    Button2: TButton;
    Button3: TButton;
    Button4: TButton;
    Label2: TLabel;
  private
    { Private declarations }
  public
    { Public declarations }
  end;

var
  Form1: TForm1;

implementation

{$R *.fmx}

end.

Then you will get your application up, along with a control panel which allows you to change mobile device, zoom in/out, do a screen shot or screen shot to a file.

Before doing the screen shots, you can choose if the screen shot should have rounded corners, if there should be shown any payment feature overlays, and if display cut out’s should be shown.

3….2….1…. Action!

Lets see a video of it in action.

Postscript

The simulator will give you a pretty good idea of how your forms will look on the devices form factor. However the rendering of the buttons and other controls fully depends on the theme chosen in your application. Hence do not expect to have a spin wheel for list boxes or combo boxes unless you have prepared your application to show that by using a relevant theme or custom controls.

Why bother then? Because for the most part, it will provide you a simple way to quickly see if your form is going to work on a range of old and modern devices, including iPhones, Samsung phones, iPads and even PC monitors from CGA all the way to 4K screens.

Further it enables you to grab screen shots which are accepted by Apple as screenshots of your application. That is an important thing, since registering a new app on the Apple AppStore require you to ship screen shots in formats that match the newest phones.

You can also provide screen shots from older phones as an ADDITION, but you are required to provide the correct high resolution screenshots for both latest iPhone and iPad (if your app states it supports iPad).

This little tool enables you to save purchasing the newest equipment. In fact you can continue to develop for an older (still in AppStore supported) iPhone, and get away with it, while being pretty sure your application will look fine on newer devices too.