Building Cross-Platform Apps with Valentina C/Pascal SDK: Best Practices
Overview
Valentina C/Pascal SDK provides database access and related tools for C and Pascal environments. For cross-platform apps, focus on portability, consistent data handling, and platform-appropriate UI/IO separation.
1. Project structure & separation of concerns
- Core layer: Put all database logic (connection, queries, migrations, data models) into a single platform-agnostic module using the Valentina API.
- Platform layer: Keep UI, file paths, and OS-specific services (notifications, file dialogs) separate and thin.
- Interface layer: Define clear interfaces between core and platform code to ease compilation for each target.
2. Use the SDK’s portable APIs
- Stick to documented Valentina C/Pascal functions that are supported on all target OSes. Avoid platform-specific extensions.
- Abstract file location handling (use relative paths or provide an injected file-provider) to avoid hardcoded OS paths.
3. Build & conditional compilation
- Use conditional compilation to isolate platform-only code (e.g., {\(IFDEF WINDOWS}, {\)IFDEF LINUX}, {$IFDEF MACOS}).
- Automate builds with scripts or CI that produce binaries for each target, running platform-specific toolchains as needed.
4. Data schema & migrations
- Design stable schemas: Prefer additive schema changes to minimize migration complexity.
- Versioned migrations: Store schema version in DB and implement deterministic migration routines in the core layer.
- Backups before migrations: Always create a DB backup (file copy) before performing migrations.
5. Threading & concurrency
- Use single DB connection per thread or a synchronized connection pool, per Valentina’s concurrency model.
- Avoid long-running UI-thread DB operations; run queries asynchronously and marshal results back to the UI thread.
6. Error handling & recovery
- Centralize DB error handling and map SDK errors to meaningful app-level errors.
- Retry transient errors with exponential backoff where appropriate.
- Corruption detection: Detect and restore from corruption using backups and integrity checks.
7. Performance & optimization
- Use prepared statements for repeated queries.
- Batch writes when possible, wrap multiple changes in a transaction.
- Index appropriately for read-heavy queries; monitor and remove unused indexes.
- Profile on each platform—I/O and filesystem semantics differ across OSes.
8. Security & data protection
- Encrypt sensitive data at rest using Valentina-supported mechanisms or application-level encryption.
- Protect backups and exported DB files with access controls.
- Least privilege: Open DB files with minimal required permissions.
9. Testing strategy
- Unit tests for core DB logic using an in-memory or test DB instance.
- Integration tests on each target OS/architecture.
- Automated migration tests for each schema change to ensure forward/backward compatibility.
10. Packaging & distribution
- Include runtime DB files and migration scripts in installers where appropriate.
- Respect platform signing and notarization requirements (macOS, Windows).
- Provide a consistent update path that runs migrations safely.
Quick checklist (for each release)
- Verify portable API usage
- Run migration tests & create backup
- Run platform-specific integration tests
- Profile critical DB operations
- Build platform binaries and sign/package
If you want, I can convert this into a one-page checklist, CI build example, or sample code snippets for C or Pascal showing connection, prepared statements, and a migration routine.
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