Merlin's Delphi Forge

For many reasons you may need the installed BDE (Borland Database Engine) version. One of them (the main one probably) is that BDE versions are not always compatible with each other. Therefore you may want to use different code/components at runtime.

Use the code below to determine what version of BDE is installed on the system. The first snippet does not use the registry while the second one does.

1. Without quering the Windows system registry:

var
  BDEVersion: SYSVersion;
...
  DbiGetSysVersion(BDEVersion);
  // BDEVersion.iVersion - BDE version
...

2. With the use of the Windows system registry:

uses
  BDE, Registry, Windows;
...
function GetBDEVersion: string;
var
  hDll: hWnd;
  pFunc: Pointer;
  sIdAPI: string;
  SysVer: SYSVersion;
  SysVerProc: TSYSVerProc;
begin
  Result := '';
  with TRegistry.Create do
    try
      RootKey := HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT;
      if OpenKey('CLSID{FB99D710-18B9-11D0-A4CF-00A024C91936}InProcServer32',
        False) then begin
          sIdAPI := ReadString('');
        CloseKey;
      end;
    finally
      Free;
    end;

  hDll := LoadLibrary(PChar(idapi));
  if hDll <> 0 then
    try
      pFunc := GetProcAddress(hDll, 'DbiGetSysVersion');
      if pFunc <> nil then begin
        SysVerProc := pFunc;
        SysVerProc(SysVer);
        Result := IntToStr(SysVer.iVersion);
        Insert('.', Result, 2);
      end;
    finally
      FreeLibrary(hDll);
    end;
end;

Accessing Internet Explorer favorites is not hard since they are nothing more than files and folders. All you have to basically do is find the IE Favorites folder, then read it’s structure and file list. Once this is done you will need to read the URL that’s in each of the files. Sounds easy? You can always use the code below… ;->

function GetIEFavorites(const Path: string): TStrings;
var
  Buffer: array[0..2047] of Char;
  iFound: Integer;
  Dir, FileName, Path: string;
  SearchRec: TSearchRec;
  Links: TStrings;
begin
  Links := TStringList.Create;
  // Get all file names in the favourites path
  Path  := FavPath + '*.url';
  Dir   := ExtractFilepath(Path);
  iFound := FindFirst(Path, faAnyFile, searchrec);
  while iFound = 0 do begin
    // Get now URLs from files
    Setstring(FileName, Buffer, GetPrivateProfilestring('InternetShortcut',
      PChar('URL'), nil, Buffer, SizeOf(Buffer), PChar(Dir + SearchRec.Name)));
    Links.Add(FileName);
    iFound := FindNext(SearchRec);
  end;
  // Find subfolders
  iFound := FindFirst(Dir + '*.*', faAnyFile, searchrec);
  while iFound = 0 do begin
    if ((SearchRec.Attr and faDirectory) > 0) and (SearchRec.Name[1] <> '.') then
      Links.Addstrings(GetIEFavorites(dir + '' + SearchRec.Name));
    iFound := FindNext(searchrec);
  end;
  FindClose(SearchRec);
  Result := Links;
end;
...
procedure FreePidl(pIDL: PItemIDList);
var
  Allocator: IMalloc;
begin
  if Succeeded(SHGetMalloc(Allocator)) then begin
    Allocator.Free(pIDL);
  {$ifdef VER100}
    Allocator.Release;
  {$endif}
  end;
end;
...
var
  FavPath: array[0..MAX_PATH] of Char;
  pIDL   : PItemIDList;
begin
  if Succeeded(ShGetSpecialFolderLocation(Handle, CSIDL_FAVORITES, pIDL)) then begin
    if ShGetPathfromIDList(pIDL, FavPath) then
      ListBox1.Items := GetIEFavourites(StrPas(FavPath));
    // We are responsible for freeing the PItemIDList pointer with the
    // Shell's IMalloc interface
    FreePIDL(pIDL);
  end;
end;