Installation

MARS-Curiosity can be installed with the executable installer (recommended), with TMS Smart Setup, or manually from sources.

Option 1 — Executable installer

The fastest way to get started:

1. Download the setup from the latest release page.
2. Run it. The installer configures the library paths and installs the design-time packages for your RAD Studio version.

Option 2 — TMS Smart Setup

TMS Smart Setup is a free, open-source command-line tool that downloads, builds and registers Delphi libraries. MARS ships a tmsbuild.yaml, so Smart Setup can build it from sources for every supported Delphi version installed on your machine (10.4 Sydney and newer, Win32/Win64).

1. Download and install Smart Setup.

2. The community server, where open-source libraries are listed, is disabled by default. Enable it once:

   tms server-enable community true

3. Install MARS:

   tms install andreamagni.mars

Smart Setup clones the repository, compiles the runtime and design-time packages (Debug and Release), installs the design-time packages in the IDE and adds the MARS source folders to the library path. Later on, tms update andreamagni.mars gets the latest version and rebuilds it, and tms uninstall andreamagni.mars removes it.

Not listed yet?

If tms install andreamagni.mars reports that the product is unknown, it has not reached the community server yet. In the meantime, clone MARS into your Smart Setup folder (the folder containing tms.config.yaml; tms config -print shows it) and build it, running both commands from that folder:

git clone https://github.com/andrea-magni/MARS.git
tms build

WARNING

Use one installation method only. If MARS is already installed with the executable installer or manually, remove it first, so the IDE doesn't load two copies of the same packages.

MARS.UniDAC is not built by Smart Setup, because it requires Devart UniDAC: if you need it, build it manually from the Packages folder.

Option 3 — Manual installation

1. Get a copy of MARS (git clone or download the ZIP). Remember to initialize submodules if cloning:

   git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/andrea-magni/MARS.git

2. Add the following folders to your RAD Studio Library Path (Tools ▸ Options ▸ Language ▸ Delphi ▸ Library):

   • [MARS Folder]\Source
   • [MARS Folder]\ThirdParty\delphi-jose-jwt\Source
   • [MARS Folder]\ThirdParty\mORMot\Source
   • [MARS Folder]\ThirdParty\Neslib.Yaml
   • [MARS Folder]\ThirdParty\Neslib.Yaml\Neslib

3. Build the runtime/design-time packages. For example, on 13 Florence:

   • Open [MARS Folder]\Packages\13Florence\MARS.groupproj
     • Build All
   • Open [MARS Folder]\Packages\13Florence\MARSClient.groupproj
     • Build All
     • Install MARSClient.CoreDesign
     • Install MARSClient.FireDACDesign

   Adjust the package folder to match your Delphi version.

Compatibility

Recent Delphi versions (from 10.4 Sydney up to 13 Florence) are fully supported. Older versions are largely compatible, down to XE7.

Bootstrap a new project with MARSCmd

MARS ships a small command-line utility that scaffolds a complete, ready-to-run project for you from the MARSTemplate demo.

1. Compile and run MARScmd_VCL.dproj in [MARS Folder]\Utils\Source\MARScmd.
2. Follow the prompts. It clones Demos\MARSTemplate into a new folder with your chosen project name, giving you a server (console / VCL / FMX / service / ISAPI / Apache / daemon variants), a client, and a test project. The .ini files of the new project get a freshly generated random JWT.Secret.

This is the recommended way to start a brand-new MARS application — see Your First Server for a walkthrough of what the generated code does.

Project structure

After installation, the repository layout is:

Folder	Contents
Source	The MARS library units (server + client).
Packages	RAD Studio packages, one subfolder per Delphi version.
Demos	Ready-to-run sample projects (see Demos).
Utils	Tools, including the MARSCmd project bootstrapper.
ThirdParty	Bundled dependencies (JOSE-JWT, mORMot, Neslib.Yaml, …).
tests	DUnitX test suite.