README

DAF – Delphi Application Foundation (Community Edition)

Bringing modern development practices to Delphi — welcoming .NET developers to a familiar architecture

DAF (Delphi Application Framework) is a modular and extensible library for building structured, maintainable, and testable Delphi applications.
It aims to modernize Delphi development by promoting architectural patterns and coding standards inspired by the excellent .NET framework — such as dependency injection, structured logging, CQRS, in-process messaging, configuration binding, and clean abstractions.

DAF is also designed as a bridge for .NET developers entering the Delphi ecosystem, offering a familiar API style and clear, idiomatic structure.
It fosters openness, collaboration, and community-driven quality.

To deliver on this familiar and modern architecture, DAF models several foundational components of the .NET ecosystem — including hosting, configuration, and logging — following their design closely.
It also brings in community-proven patterns by porting influential projects such as NLog and MediatR, adapted natively to Delphi.

The Community Edition already includes:

• Dependency Injection — based on Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection
• Logging — based on Microsoft.Extensions.Logging, including:
  • Structured Logging — with support for log scopes and message templates
• Configuration System — based on Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration, with support for:
  • In-memory collections
  • .json files
  • .ini files
  • Environment variables
  • The command line
  • Binding to custom Delphi classes, and the options pattern (IOptions<T>)
• Host Model — ports of IHost and IHostApplicationBuilder for application composition and lifecycle management. Includes:
  • IHostEnvironment — for environment-based configuration
  • IHostApplicationLifetime — for application lifecycle events
  • The application family — TCliApplication, TWebApplication, TVclApplication and TFmxApplication, one entry point per kind of application over the same builder contract
• CQRS and In-Process Messaging — modeled after MediatR, supporting commands, queries, and notifications
• NNLog — a Delphi-native port of NLog ("NNLog is Not NLog"), fully integrated with DAF's logging abstractions
• Command Line — Daf.CommandLine, a port of System.CommandLine: commands, options and arguments, help, and invocation
• Web — controllers with attribute routing and action results, modeled after ASP.NET Core MVC, over Indy and WebBroker
• Process Launching — Daf.SystemProcess, modeled after System.Diagnostics.Process
• Linq — LINQ-to-Objects: lazy queries over IEnumerable<T>, with sources Linq can own and release
• SQLCute — a port of SqlKata: a fluent query builder compiled to ANSI SQL, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, Oracle and Firebird, including:
  • SQLCute.InMemory — runs the same query over loaded collections
  • Specification — the Specification pattern (filter, order and paging), lowered onto a SQLCute query by Daf.SQLCute.Specification
• MiniSpec — BDD testing framework inspired by Cucumber and RSpec, including:
  • Gherkin Syntax — Given/When/Then directly in Delphi code
  • Scenario Outline — data-driven testing with Examples tables
  • Multiple Reporters — Console, JSON, JUnit (CI/CD), Live Dashboard
  • Test Doubles — elegant Stub, Mock, and Spy API

DAF Community Edition is distributed under the MIT License.

A Pro edition is available: everything in this edition, plus the DAL — a data access layer over FireDAC — documentation and commercial support.

Getting the sources

Every release on GitHub carries its sources as a zip, Source code (zip) under the release's Assets: https://github.com/Delphi-DAF/dafce/releases. Unzip it anywhere, a path with spaces included, and run everything below from that folder. Cloning the repository also works.

Building

Requires Delphi 12 (Athens) or later, on Windows: Win32 and Win64. No package declares a Linux target.

buildall.bat builds from the command line, with nothing to set up:

The three options combine. Win32, Win64 or all choose the platforms, all by default, and --clean deletes out\ first. runtests.bat all runs every suite the specs group declares.

Choosing the Delphi version

project.cmd selects Delphi 13 (PRJ_IDE=D370). Delphi 12 is PRJ_IDE=D290, and either of these selects it without editing project.cmd:

• a file named after the machine, %COMPUTERNAME%.project.cmd, next to project.cmd, holding the line set "PRJ_IDE=D290";
• set "PRJ_IDE=D290" on its own line in the console, before running buildall.bat.

With Delphi 12, buildall.bat --framework --samples builds the framework and the samples. The specs of the VCL module need Delphi 13, so --specs, and buildall.bat with no options, end in BUILD FAILED.

When the version asked for is not installed, BDS.bat builds nothing, exits with code 2 and lists the installed versions with the PRJ_IDE of each.

Using what is built

Add out\Win32\Release\lib or out\Win64\Release\lib to your project's search path, and the DAF units your program uses compile against it. out\<Platform>\Debug\lib holds the Debug build of the same units, for debugging.

The IDE

Every project takes its output paths from src/paths.optset, which derives all of them from PRJ_OUT_DIR. BDS.bat sets that variable from its own location, so the IDE is started through it:

BDS start

That opens RAD Studio with the project's environment and loads src/DAFGroup.groupproj. An IDE started any other way leaves PRJ_OUT_DIR undefined, and every output path is then built from an empty value.

BDS.bat keeps each folder's IDE profile under HKCU\Software\Embarcadero\DAF\<folder name>. Deleting the folder leaves that key behind, and this removes it:

reg delete "HKCU\Software\Embarcadero\DAF\<folder name>" /f

The full documentation is at https://delphi-daf.github.io/dafce.

Editions