Installing custom components

Delphi IDE has an open architecture and provides many ways to extend its functionality through additional packages. You can see the list of currently installed packages in the Installed Packages option available from the Component menu. The most typical Delphi building block is a Component. Technically, this is about taking the object-oriented programming principles and moving it one step further. With components, you have the ability to manipulate regular programming language object instances during the design time, before the project is built for a given platform. Packages may also contain custom property editors and the Open Tools API extension to the IDE itself that may add custom functionality to the IDE, such as additional menus and windows.

Out of the box, with the default Delphi installation, you will get a few hundred components already preinstalled. Depending on your Delphi version and selected features, this list may differ. Click on the Installed Packages option in the Component menu to verify which components are actually installed, as shown in the following screenshot:

There are many additional free and commercial component packages that are not installed by default. They can be installed with the integrated GetIt Package Manager. It is available either from the Welcome Page or from the Tools menu, as shown in the following screenshot:

If you want to install any of the available component packages, just click on the Install button under the image of the package. The installation process is very straightforward. After accepting the license, the components are downloaded from the internet, compiled, and installed into the IDE.