Delphi/delphimvcframework
1
0
Fork 0
mirror of https://github.com/danieleteti/delphimvcframework.git synced 2024-11-15 15:55:54 +01:00
Code Issues Actions Packages Projects Releases Wiki Activity
2db238918e
delphimvcframework/README.md
Daniele Teti 2db238918e [+] Improved proxy generation routes for JSONRPC
2021-03-02 18:03:08 +01:00

64 KiB
Raw Blame History

Table of Contents

DelphiMVCFramework Logo GitHub All Releases

What's DelphiMVCFramework

DMVCFramework is a very popular Delphi framework which provides an easy to use, scalable, flexible RESTful, JSON-RPC and ActiveRecord framework for Delphi developers. DMVCFramework is the most popular Delphi project on GitHub and compiles for Windows (32 and 64bit) and Linux (64bit). DMVCFramework services can be compiled as console application, Windows Service, Linux daemon, Apache module (Windows and Linux) and IIS ISAPI (Windows).

DMVCFramework works with Delphi 10.4 Sydney, Delphi 10.3 Rio, Delphi 10.2 Tokyo, Delphi 10.1 Berlin, Delphi 10 Seattle.

DelphiMVCFramework Main Features

  • DMVCFramwork is simple to use, has a lot of examples, is documented and there are a lot of tutorials available.

  • DMVCFramework is very well documented and the book DMVCFramework - the official guide is available to fastly get a solid knowledge.

  • Project Roadmap is always public

  • There are more than 40 samples to learn all the features and be proficient and productive

  • Commercially supported by bit Time Professionals (training, consultancy, custom development etc.)

  • RESTful (RMM Level 3) compliant

  • JSON-RPC 2.0 Support with automatic objects remotization (check sample)

  • DMVCFramework' MVCActiveRecord allows an easy and fast database access.

  • Stable and solid, used by small/mid/big projects since 2010

  • Very fast! (2.x was pretty fast and now, 3.x is 60% faster than the 2.x!)

  • Support group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/delphimvcframework with more than 4900 active members

  • Can be used in load balanced environment

  • Wizard for the Delphi IDE. It makes DelphiMVCFramework even more simple to use!

  • Optional session support

  • JSON Web Token Support (JWT) (check sample)

  • Extendable using middleware - simple hooks to handle request/response (check sample)

  • Flexible yet simple to use, authorization/authentication framework based on industry standards.

    • HTTP Basic Authentication
    • JWT Authentication
    • Custom Authentication
    • CORS support

  • Controllers inheritance! You can define your own base controller and inherit from it.

  • Fancy URL with parameter mappings

  • Specialized renders to generate text, HTML, JSON.

  • Powerful and customizable mapper to serialize/deserialize data.

  • Can be packaged as stand alone server, apache module (XE6 or better) and ISAPI dll

  • Integrated REST Client

  • Works on Linux (Delphi 10.2 Tokyo or better)

  • Completely unit tested (more than 250 unit tests)

  • There is a sample for each functionality (check the dmvcframework_(yourversion)_samples.zip)

  • Server side generated pages using Mustache for Delphi or TemplatePro

  • Specific trainings are available (email to professionals@bittime.it for a date and a place)

  • Push notifications support using ServerSentEvents

  • Automatic documentation through /system/describeserver.info

  • Driven by its huge community (Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/delphimvcframework)

  • Semantic Versioning

  • To get a fast introduction to DMVCFramework read the slides from ITDevCon conference

Install the latest stable version

If you are not involved in development or testing, do not clone the repo! Use the Github release!

The last stable version is dmvcframework-3.2.1-carbon available here 📥. Just download latest release as a zip file and you are ok. The samples are availables as separate zip file downloadable from the same page where you download the release.

Book: "DelphiMVCFramework - the official guide"

The official guide for DMVCFramework is available. DMVCFramework has a lot functionalities and can really help your business. However many developers don't use it at its full potential. Why don't get more when is easily available? The DMVCFramework lead developer and project coordinator Daniele Teti, wrote the official guide for this great framework.

DelphiMVCFramework - the official guide

Buy your copy and improve your DMVCFramework knowledge now!

While a huge work has been done by the author and the reviews to make the book and the examples well written, complete and effective, things can be always improved. For any suggestions, complains or requests there is the official Github book project (https://github.com/danieleteti/dmvcframeworktheofficialguide) where you can fill an issue and get in touch directly with the author.

Book translations

Given the success of DMVCFramework in the Delphi community, the official DMVCFramework guide has been translated also in the following languages.

Please, if you use DMVCFramework "star" this project in GitHub! It cost nothing to you but helps other developers to reference the code.

How to partecipate to DMVCFramework development and/or tests

Only if you want to participate to the testing phase (which usually contains brand new features but can sometimes be instable) you can get the development version clonig this repo or downloading the master repository zip file. Take in mind that even if development version is usually very stable, it isn't not ready for production utilization.

What users say about DMVCFramework

"DMVCFramework and the Entity utility are fantastic!" -- Roberto

"DMVCFramework is a great framework. It's very intuitive, fast, easy to use, actually there is nothing more to ask for." -- Samir

"Wow! To do that in J2EE it takes 2 days" -- a training participant after a 5 minutes demo.

"I'm starting with the DMVCFramework and I'm finding it fantastic, congratulations for the project!" -- Rafael

"I'm looking at DMVCFramework project in it works great - for my use case scenarios is much better than 'Similar commercial product'." -- Luka

"It's fantastic! Just define your entities and you are up and running in 5 minutes. Nothing comparable on the market." -- Marco

"The best framework for creating web servers with Delphi! It is very easy to create Delphi servers and publish APIs and Rest resources. Congratulations to Daniele Teti and all the staff for the excellent work!" -- Marcos N.

We started the process of migrating our systems to micro services and are loving the DMVCFramework "DMVCFramework is definitely part of our lives right now". -- E. Costa

"Thank you for the great framework! We are very happy with this!" -- Andreas

"Our wishes are coming true" -- one Delphi programmer after a small dmvcframework demo for an IT department of a very important national research institute

What's New in DelphiMVCFramework 3.2.1-carbon

This version is the version referenced by the DelphiMVCFramework - The Official Guide book (available in english, portuguese and spanish).

This version introduced new features in many different areas (swagger, server side view, MVCActiveRecord, renders etc.) however there is no a single-big-feature. This version contains also a good number of bugfixes. It's not a critical updated, but this is the best version ever (at least, so far...) and is the suggested version for starting new projects. Enjoy!

Improvements

  • docExpansion parameter for Swagger

  • New Context: TWebContext parameter in JSON-RPC Hooks

    { Called before any actual routing }
procedure OnBeforeRoutingHook(const Context: TWebContext; const JSON: TJsonObject);
{ Called after routing and before the actual remote method invocation }
procedure OnBeforeCallHook(const Context: TWebContext; const JSON: TJsonObject);
{ Called after actual remote method invocation, even if the method raised an exception }
procedure OnAfterCallHook(const Context: TWebContext; const JSON: TJsonObject);

  • When a JSON-RPC Request returns a System.Boolean the result will be a JSON true or false and no 1 or 0 as it was in the 3.2.0-boron.

  • IMVCJSONRPCExecutor.ExecuteNotification returns a IJSONRPCResponse. In case of error response contains information about the error, in case of successful execution the response is a Null Object.

  • New React demo (Thanks to Angelo Sobreira da Silva)

  • Serialization support for TList<Integer>, TList<String>, TList<Boolean> and for all TList<T> of simple types.

  • Added method MetadataAsJSONObject(FieldNameCase: TMVCNameCase = ncLowerCase): TJSONObject; in TDataSetHelper. This method returns the dataset field definitions. While this is valid only for Delphi datasets, can be useful to describe a dataset to a Delphi client.

    {
	"fielddefs": [
    	{
        	"datatype": 3,
            "displayname": "ID",
            "fieldname": "id",
            "precision": 0,
            "size": 0
         },
         {
         	"datatype": 24,
            "displayname": "CODE",
            "fieldname": "code",
            "precision": 0,
            "size": 5
         },
         {
         	"datatype": 24,
            "displayname": "DESCRIPTION",
            "fieldname": "description",
            "precision": 0,
            "size": 200
         },
         {
         	"datatype": 37,
            "displayname": "PRICE",
            "fieldname": "price",
            "precision": 18,
            "size": 2
          }
      ]
}

    The static method class procedure TFireDACUtils.CreateDatasetFromMetadata( AFDMemTable: TFDMemTable; AMeta: TJSONObject); gets the previous structure and initialize the fields of AFDMemTable with it. When a TFDMemTable is initialized using this approach, the data can be directly loaded from a jsonarray of jsonobject with the same field names. WARNING: This mechanism works only for Delphi clients. Check sample articles_crud_vcl_client_meta.dproj to understand the involved mechanisms.

  • Added foReadOnly and foWriteOnly as field options in MVCTableField attribute (used by TMVCActiveRecord). Currently available field options are:

    • foPrimaryKey { it's the primary key of the mapped table }
    • foAutoGenerated { not written, read - similar to foReadOnly but is reloaded after insert and update }
    • foTransient { never stored nor read - managed only at run-time }
    • foReadOnly { not written, read }
    • foWriteOnly { written, not read }

    Now it is possible to declare entities like the followings (or with any other combinations):

      [MVCNameCase(ncLowerCase)]
  [MVCTable('articles')]
  TArticleWithWriteOnlyFields = class(TCustomEntity)
  private
    [MVCTableField('ID', [foPrimaryKey, foAutoGenerated])]
    fID: NullableInt32;
    [MVCTableField('description', [foWriteOnly])]
    fDescription: string;
    [MVCTableField('price', [foWriteOnly])]
    fPrice: Integer;
  public
    property ID: NullableInt32 read fID write fID;
    property Description: string read fDescription write fDescription;
    property Price: Integer read fPrice write fPrice;
  end;

  [MVCNameCase(ncLowerCase)]
  [MVCTable('articles')]
  TArticleWithReadOnlyFields = class(TCustomEntity)
  private
    [MVCTableField('ID', [foPrimaryKey, foReadOnly])]
    fID: NullableInt32;
    [MVCTableField('code', [foTransient])]
    fCode: NullableString;
    [MVCTableField('description', [foReadOnly])]
    fDescrizione: string;
    [MVCTableField('price', [foReadOnly])]
    fPrice: Currency;
  public
    property ID: NullableInt32 read fID write fID;
    property Code: NullableString read fCode write fCode;
    property Description: string read fDescription write fDescription;
    property Price: Currency read fPrice write fPrice;
  end;

  • Added the ability to deserialize an object, or alist of objects, starting from an arbitrary node in the JSON (or other format) present in the request body. Works for BodyAs<T> and for BodyAsListOf<T> (Thanks to Raphaël Emourgeon for the BodyAsListOf<T> implementation).

    procedure TBooksController.CreateBook;
var
  lBook: TBook;
begin
  //this call deserialize a TBook instance
  //starting from the 'book' node of
  //the request body
  lBook := Context.Request.BodyAs<TBook>('book');
  try
    lBook.Insert;
    Render201Created('/api/books/' + lBook.ID.ToString);
  finally
    lBook.Free;
  end;
end;

  • Improved the primary key type handling for manual handling in MVCActiveRecord.

    procedure TMyBaseEntity.OnBeforeInsert;
begin
  inherited;
  //regardless the name of the PK field
  //the following code fills the PK with a GUID
  //Inheriting the other entities from this, all
  //will inherit this behavior.
  SetPK(TValue.From<NullableString>(TGUID.NewGuid.ToString));

  //if the PK was a simple string, the code
  //should be like the following
  //SetPK(TGUID.NewGuid.ToString);  
end;

  • Improved activerecord_showcase sample.

  • Improved TMVCStaticFilesMiddleware. Now is able to correctly serve SPA applications from any subfolder.

  • Added property Context.HostingFrameworkType. This property is of type TMVCHostingFrameworkType and can assume one of the following values: hftIndy (if the service is using the built-in Indy HTTP server) , hftApache (if the project is compiled as Apache module) or hftISAPI (if the project is compiled as ISAPI module).

  • TMVCNameCase got the new ncSnakeCase among the possibles casing (thanks to João Antônio Duarte for its work in this area).

    Now the TMVCNameCase declaration is the following:

    TMVCNameCase = (ncAsIs, ncUpperCase, ncLowerCase, ncCamelCase, ncPascalCase, ncSnakeCase);

    Here's how the new ncSnakeCase works

    Original SnakeCase
    OneTwo one_two
    One__Two one_two
    OneTwo03 one_two_03

  • Support for Mustache partials (Thanks to David Moorhouse and his work about issue 221). Sample \samples\serversideviews_mustache has been updated to show how to use partials.

  • Added dynamic properties access to TMVCActiveRecord descendants. Indexed property Attributes is index using the property name and set/get a TValue representing the property value.

    procedure TMainForm.btnAttributesClick(Sender: TObject);
var
  lCustomer: TCustomer;
  lID: Integer;
begin
  lCustomer := TCustomer.Create;
  try
    lCustomer.Attributes['CompanyName'] := 'Google Inc.';
    lCustomer.Attributes['City'] := 'Montain View, CA';
    lCustomer.Attributes['Note'] := 'Hello there!';
    lCustomer.Attributes['Code'] := 'XX123';
    lCustomer.Attributes['Rating'] := 3;
    lCustomer.Insert;
    lID := lCustomer.ID;
  finally
    lCustomer.Free;
  end;

  lCustomer := TMVCActiveRecord.GetByPK<TCustomer>(lID);
  try
    Assert('Google Inc.' = 
    	lCustomer.Attributes['CompanyName']
    		.AsType<NullableString>().Value);
    Assert('Montain View, CA' = 	
    	lCustomer.Attributes['City'].AsString);
    Assert('XX123' = 
    	lCustomer.Attributes['Code']
    		.AsType<NullableString>().Value);
    Assert('Hello there!' = 
    	lCustomer.Attributes['Note'].AsString);
    lCustomer.Update;
  finally
    lCustomer.Free;
  end;

  • Breaking Change! TMVCStaticFileMiddleware cannot be registered to "/" anymore

    • The suggested solution is to create a simple redirection controller which redirect "/" to the proper path (check this example).

  • Breaking Change! DocumentRoot of TMVCStaticFileMiddleware must be a valid folder. If DocumentRoot doesn't exist an exception is raised.

Bug Fixes

Next Release: 3.2.2-nitrogen ("repo" version)

  • ⚡New TMVCRESTClient implementation based on *Net components, the previous one was based on INDY Components (thanks to João Antônio Duarte).
  • ⚡New! MVCJSONRPCAllowGET attribute allows a remote JSON-RPC published object, or a specific method, to be called using GET HTTP Verb as well as POST HTTP Verb. POST is always available, GET is available only if explicitly allowed. IMVCJSONRPCExecutor allows to specify which HTTP Verb to use when call the server JSON.RPC methods. The default verb can be injected in the constructor and each ExecuteRequest/ExecuteNotification allows to override od adhere to the instance default.
  • ⚡Improved! Under some heavy load circumnstances the logger queue can get full. Now TThreadSafeQueue class uses a cubic function instead of a linear one to wait in case of very high concurrency. This allows a better resiliency in case of high load.
  • ⚡Improved internal architecture of custom type serializers in case of dynamic linked packages.
  • ⚡New TMVCLRUCache implementation. Very efficient implementation of LRU cache borrowed directly from DMSContainer
  • ⚡Improved! Add parameter to set local timeStamp as UTC.
  • ⚡Improved OpenAPI (Swagger) support.
  • ⚡Improved! The unit tests fully test PostgreSQL, FirebirdSQL and SQLite while testing MVCActiveRecord framework. The other engines are tested using activerecord_showcase sample project.

Bug Fixes in 3.2.2-nitrogen

Older Releases

What's New in 3.2.0-boron

  • New! Support for Delphi 10.4 Sydney!

  • New! Added Nullable support in MVCActiveRecord (nullables defined in MVCFramework.Nullables.pas)! Check activerecord_showcase sample.

  • New! Added non autogenerated primary keys in MVCActiveRecord! Check activerecord_showcase sample.

  • New! Complete support for nullable types in the default serializer (nullables defined in MVCFramework.Nullables.pas)

  • New! Added ncCamelCase and ncPascalCase to the available attribute formatters.

    MVCNameCase Property/Field Name Rendered Name
    ncUpperCase Cod_Article COD_ARTICLE
    ncLowerCase Cod_Article cod_article
    ncPascalCase Cod_Article CodArticle
    ncPascalCase CodArticle CodArticle
    ncPascalCase _WITH__UNDERSCORES_ WithUnderscores
    ncCamelCase Cod_Article codArticle
    ncCamelCase CodArticle codArticle
    ncCamelCase _WITH__UNDERSCORES_ WithUnderscores

  • New! Added Swagger support (thanks to João Antônio Duarte and Geoffrey Smith)

  • New! Attribute MVCDoNotDeserialize. If marked with this RTTI attribute, a property or a field is not deserialized and its value remain the same as was before the object deserialization.

  • New! Added SQLGenerator and RQL compiler for PostgreSQL, SQLite and MSSQLServer (in addition to MySQL, MariaDB, Firebird and Interbase)

  • New! MVCNameAs attribute got the param Fixed (default: false). If Fixed is true, then the name is not processed by the MVCNameCase attribute assigned to the owner type.

  • New! Added support for interfaces serialization - now it is possible to serialize Spring4D collections (thanks to João Antônio Duarte)

  • New! Added support for rendering Spring4D Nullable Types - (thanks to João Antônio Duarte)

  • New! Added OnRouterLog event to log custom information for each request (thanks to Andrea Ciotti for the first implementation and its PR)

  • New! Optionally load system controllers (those who provide /describeserver.info, /describeplatform.info and /serverconfig.info system actions) setting Config[TMVCConfigKey.LoadSystemControllers] := 'false'; in the configuration block.

  • Improved! Now the router consider Accept:*/* compatible for every MVCProduces values.

  • Improved! Greatly improved support for HATEOAS in renders. Check TRenderSampleController.GetPeople_AsObjectList_HATEOS and all the others actions end with HATEOS in renders.dproj sample).

//Now is really easy to add "links" property automatically for each collection element while rendering
Render<TPerson>(People, True,
    procedure(const APerson: TPerson; const Links: IMVCLinks)
    begin
      Links.AddRefLink
        .Add(HATEOAS.HREF, '/people/' + APerson.ID.ToString)
        .Add(HATEOAS.REL, 'self')
        .Add(HATEOAS._TYPE, 'application/json')
        .Add('title', 'Details for ' + APerson.FullName);
      Links.AddRefLink
        .Add(HATEOAS.HREF, '/people')
        .Add(HATEOAS.REL, 'people')
        .Add(HATEOAS._TYPE, 'application/json');
    end);

		
//Datasets have a similar anon method to do the same thing
Render(lDM.qryCustomers, False,
  procedure(const DS: TDataset; const Links: IMVCLinks)
  begin
	Links.AddRefLink
	  .Add(HATEOAS.HREF, '/customers/' + DS.FieldByName('cust_no').AsString)
	  .Add(HATEOAS.REL, 'self')
	  .Add(HATEOAS._TYPE, 'application/json');
	Links.AddRefLink
	  .Add(HATEOAS.HREF, '/customers/' + DS.FieldByName('cust_no').AsString + '/orders')
	  .Add(HATEOAS.REL, 'orders')
	  .Add(HATEOAS._TYPE, 'application/json');
  end);

//Single object rendering allows HATEOAS too!
Render(lPerson, False,
  procedure(const AObject: TObject; const Links: IMVCLinks)
  begin
	Links.AddRefLink
	  .Add(HATEOAS.HREF, '/people/' + TPerson(AObject).ID.ToString)
	  .Add(HATEOAS.REL, 'self')
	  .Add(HATEOAS._TYPE, TMVCMediaType.APPLICATION_JSON);
	Links.AddRefLink
	  .Add(HATEOAS.HREF, '/people')
	  .Add(HATEOAS.REL, 'people')
	  .Add(HATEOAS._TYPE, TMVCMediaType.APPLICATION_JSON);
  end);
  • Better packages organization (check packages folder)
  • New! TMVCActiveRecord.Count method (e.g. TMVCActiveRecord.Count(TCustomer) returns the number of records for the entity mapped by the class TCustomer)
  • Change! TMVCACtiveRecord.GetByPK<T> raises an exception by default if the record is not found - optionally can returns nil using new parameter RaiseExceptionIfNotFound
  • New! contains clause has been added in the RQL compiler for Firebird and Interbase
  • New! Added support out operator in RQL parser. The RQL out operator is equivalent to the SQL NOT IN operator.
  • New! TMVCAnalyticsMiddleware to do automatic analytics on the API (generates a CSV file). Based on an idea by Nirav Kaku (https://www.facebook.com/nirav.kaku). Check the sample in \samples\middleware_analytics\
  • New! TMVCActiveRecord.DeleteAll deletes all the records from a table
  • New! TMVCActiveRecord.DeleteRQL deletes records using an RQL expression as where clause.
  • New! TMVCActiveRecord.Store which automatically executes Insert or Update considering primary key value.
  • New! TMVCActiveRecord allows to use table name and field name with spaces (currently supported only by the PostgreSQL compiler).
  • New! Microsoft SQLServer Support in MVCActiveRecord and RQL (thanks to one of the biggest Delphi based company in Italy which heavily uses DMVCFramework and DMSContainer).
  • New! SQLite support in MVCActiveRecord and RQL, so that MVCActiveRecord can be used also for Delphi mobile projects!
  • Default JSON Serializer can verbatim pass properties with type JsonDataObjects.TJSONObject without using string as carrier of JSON.
  • Improved! ActiveRecordShowCase sample is much better now.
  • Improved! All ActiveRecord methods which retrieve records can now specify the data type of each parameter (using Delphi's TFieldType enumeration).
  • Improved! In case of unhandled exception TMVCEngine is compliant with the default response content-type (usually it did would reply using text/plain).
  • Added! New overloads for all the Log* calls. Now it is possible to call LogD(lMyObject) to get logged lMyObject as JSON (custom type serializers not supported in log).
  • New! StrDict(array of string, array of string) function allows to render a dictionary of strings in a really simple way. See the following action sample.
procedure TMy.GetPeople(const Value: Integer);
begin
  if Value mod 2 <> 0 then
  begin
    raise EMVCException.Create(HTTP_STATUS.NotAcceptable, 'We don''t like odd numbers');
  end;
  Render(
    StrDict(
      ['id', 'message'],
      ['123', 'We like even numbers, thank you for your ' + Value.ToString]
    ));
end;
  • New! Custom Exception Handling (Based on work of David Moorhouse). Sample custom_exception_handling show how to use it.
  • Improved! Exceptions rendering while using MIME types different to application/json.
  • SSL Server support for TMVCListener (Thanks to Sven Harazim).
  • Improved! Datasets serialization speed improvement. In some case the performance improves of 2 order of magnitude. (Thanks to https://github.com/pedrooliveira01).
  • New! Added in operator in RQL parser (Thank you to João Antônio Duarte for his initial work on this).
  • New! Added TMVCActiveRecord.Count<T>(RQL) to count record based on RQL criteria.
  • New! TMVCActiveRecord can handle non autogenerated primary key.
  • New! Added support for X-HTTP-Method-Override to work behind corporate firewalls.
  • New Sample! Server in DLL
  • Added new method in the dataset helper to load data into a dataset from a specific JSONArray property of a JSONObject procedure TDataSetHelper.LoadJSONArrayFromJSONObjectProperty(const AJSONObjectString: string; const aPropertyName: String);
  • Improved! New constants defined in HTTP_STATUS to better describe the http status response.
  • Improved! Now Firebird RQL' SQLGenerator can include primary key in CreateInsert if not autogenerated.
  • New! Added support for TArray<String>, TArray<Integer> and TArray<Double> in default JSON serializer (Thank you Pedro Oliveira)
  • Improved JWT Standard Compliance! Thanks to Vinicius Sanchez for his work on issue #241
  • Improved! DMVCFramework now has 180+ unit tests that checks its functionalities at each build!
  • Improved! Better exception handling in OnBeforeDispatch (Thanks to Spinettaro)
  • New! StrToJSONObject function to safely parse a string into a JSON object.
  • New! Serialization callback for custom TDataSet descendants serialization in TMVCJsonDataObjectsSerializer.
procedure TMainForm.btnDataSetToJSONArrayClick(Sender: TObject);
var
  lSer: TMVCJsonDataObjectsSerializer;
  lJArray: TJSONArray;
begin
  FDQuery1.Open();
  lSer := TMVCJsonDataObjectsSerializer.Create;
  try
    lJArray := TJSONArray.Create;
    try
      lSer.DataSetToJsonArray(FDQuery1, lJArray, TMVCNameCase.ncLowerCase, [],
        procedure(const aField: TField; const aJsonObject: TJSONObject; var Handled: Boolean)
        begin
          if SameText(aField.FieldName, 'created_at') then
          begin
            aJsonObject.S['year_and_month'] := FormatDateTime('yyyy-mm', TDateTimeField(aField).Value);
            Handled := True;
          end;
        end);
	  //The json objects will not contains "created_at" anymore, but only "year_and_month".
      Memo1.Lines.Text := lJArray.ToJSON(false);
    finally
      lJArray.Free;
    end;
  finally
    lSer.Free;
  end;
end;

  • New! Shortcut render' methods which simplify RESTful API development

    • procedure Render201Created(const Location: String = ''; const Reason: String = 'Created'); virtual;
    • procedure Render202Accepted(const HREF: String; const ID: String; const Reason: String = 'Accepted'); virtual;
    • procedure Render204NoContent(const Reason: String = 'No Content'); virtual;

  • Added de/serializing iterables (e.g. generic lists) support without MVCListOf attribute (Thank you to João Antônio Duarte).

    It is now possible to deserialize a generic class like this:

      TGenericEntity<T: class> = class
  private
    FCode: Integer;
    FItems: TObjectList<T>;
    FDescription: string;
  public
    constructor Create;
    destructor Destroy; override;
    property Code: Integer read FCode write FCode;
    property Description: string read FDescription write FDescription;
    // MVCListOf(T) <- No need
    property Items: TObjectList<T> read FItems write FItems;
  end;

    Before it was not possible because you should add the MVCListOf attribute to the TObjectList type property.

  • New! Added serialization support for (thanks to dockerandy for his initial work)

    • TArray<String>
    • TArray<Integer>
    • TArray<Int64>
    • TArray<Double>

  • New! The MVCAREntitiesGenerator can optionally register all the generated entities also in the ActiveRecordMappingRegistry (Thanks to Fabrizio Bitti from bit Time Software)

  • New! Experimental (alpha stage) support for Android servers!

  • New! Children objects lifecycle management in TMVCActiveRecord (methods AddChildren and RemoveChildren). Really useful to manage child objects such relations or derived properties and are safe in case of multiple addition of the same object as children.

    //Having the following declaration

type
  [MVCNameCase(ncCamelCase)]
  [MVCTable('authors')]
  TAuthor = class(TPersonEntityBase)
  private
    fBooks: TEnumerable<TBookRef>;
    [MVCTableField('full_name')]
    fFullName: string;
    function GetBooks: TEnumerable<TBookRef>;
  public
    [MVCNameAs('full_name')]
    property FullName: string read fFullName write fFullName;
    property Books: TEnumerable<TBookRef> read GetBooks;
  end;


//method GetBooks can be implemented as follows:

implementation

function TAuthor.GetBooks: TEnumerable<TBookRef>;
begin
  if fBooks = nil then
  begin
    fBooks := TMVCActiveRecord.Where<TBookRef>('author_id = ?', [ID]);
    AddChildren(fBooks); //fBooks will be freed when self will be freed
  end;
  Result := fBooks;
end;

  • JSON-RPC Improvements

    • New! Added TMVCJSONRPCExecutor.ConfigHTTPClient to fully customize the inner THTTPClient (e.g. ConnectionTimeout, ResponseTimeout and so on)

    • Improved! JSONRPC Automatic Object Publishing can not invoke inherited methods if not explicitly defined with MVCInheritable attribute.

    • New! Calling <jsonrpcendpoint>/describe returns the methods list available for that endpoint.

    • New! Full support for named parameters in JSON-RPC call (server and client)

      • Positional parameters example

        procedure TMainForm.btnSubtractClick(Sender: TObject);
var
  lReq: IJSONRPCRequest;
  lResp: IJSONRPCResponse;
begin
  lReq := TJSONRPCRequest.Create;
  lReq.Method := 'subtract';
  lReq.RequestID := Random(1000);
  lReq.Params.Add(StrToInt(edtValue1.Text));
  lReq.Params.Add(StrToInt(edtValue2.Text));
  lResp := FExecutor.ExecuteRequest(lReq);
  edtResult.Text := lResp.Result.AsInteger.ToString;
end;

      • Named parameters example

        procedure TMainForm.btnSubtractWithNamedParamsClick(Sender: TObject);
var
  lReq: IJSONRPCRequest;
  lResp: IJSONRPCResponse;
begin
  lReq := TJSONRPCRequest.Create;
  lReq.Method := 'subtract';
  lReq.RequestID := Random(1000);
  lReq.Params.AddByName('Value1', StrToInt(Edit1.Text));
  lReq.Params.AddByName('Value2', StrToInt(Edit2.Text));
  lResp := FExecutor.ExecuteRequest(lReq);
  Edit3.Text := lResp.Result.AsInteger.ToString;
end;

      • Check official JSONRPC 2.0 documentation for more examples.

    • New! JSONRPC Hooks for published objects

      //Called before as soon as the HTTP arrives
procedure TMyPublishedObject.OnBeforeRouting(const JSON: TJDOJsonObject);

//Called before the invoked method
procedure TMyPublishedObject.OnBeforeCall(const JSONRequest: TJDOJsonObject);

//Called just before to send response to the client
procedure TMyPublishedObject.OnBeforeSendResponse(const JSONResponse: TJDOJsonObject);

  • Deprecated! TDataSetHolder is deprecated! Use the shining new ObjectDict(boolean) instead.

  • New! ObjectDict function is the suggested way to render all the most common data types. It returns a IMVCObjectDictionary which is automatically rendered by the renders. Check the renders.dproj sample. Here's some example of the shining new ObjectDict().

    Example 1: Rendering a list of objects not freeing them after rendering

    Classic

    procedure TRenderSampleController.GetLotOfPeople;
begin
  Render<TPerson>(GetPeopleList, False);
end;

    New approach with ObjectDict

    procedure TRenderSampleController.GetLotOfPeople;
begin
  Render(ObjectDict(False).Add('data', GetPeopleList));
end;

    Example 2: Rendering a list of objects and automatically free them after rendering

    Classic

    procedure TRenderSampleController.GetLotOfPeople;
begin
  Render<TPerson>(GetPeopleList);
end;

    New approach with ObjectDict

    procedure TRenderSampleController.GetLotOfPeople;
begin
  Render(ObjectDict().Add('data', GetPeopleList));
end;

    Example 3: Rendering a list of objects adding links for HATEOAS support

    Classic

    procedure TRenderSampleController.GetPeople_AsObjectList_HATEOAS;
var
  p: TPerson;
  People: TObjectList<TPerson>;
begin
  People := TObjectList<TPerson>.Create(True);

{$REGION 'Fake data'}
  p := TPerson.Create;
  p.FirstName := 'Daniele';
  p.LastName := 'Teti';
  p.DOB := EncodeDate(1979, 8, 4);
  p.Married := True;
  People.Add(p);

  p := TPerson.Create;
  p.FirstName := 'John';
  p.LastName := 'Doe';
  p.DOB := EncodeDate(1879, 10, 2);
  p.Married := False;
  People.Add(p);

  p := TPerson.Create;
  p.FirstName := 'Jane';
  p.LastName := 'Doe';
  p.DOB := EncodeDate(1883, 1, 5);
  p.Married := True;
  People.Add(p);
{$ENDREGION}

  Render<TPerson>(People, True,
    procedure(const APerson: TPerson; const Links: IMVCLinks)
    begin
      Links
       .AddRefLink
       .Add(HATEOAS.HREF, '/people/' + APerson.ID.ToString)
       .Add(HATEOAS.REL, 'self')
       .Add(HATEOAS._TYPE, 'application/json')
       .Add('title', 'Details for ' + APerson.FullName);
      Links
       .AddRefLink
       .Add(HATEOAS.HREF, '/people')
       .Add(HATEOAS.REL, 'people')
       .Add(HATEOAS._TYPE, 'application/json');
    end);
end;

    New approach with ObjectDict

    procedure TRenderSampleController.GetPeople_AsObjectList_HATEOAS;
var
  p: TPerson;
  People: TObjectList<TPerson>;
begin
  People := TObjectList<TPerson>.Create(True);

{$REGION 'Fake data'}
  p := TPerson.Create;
  p.FirstName := 'Daniele';
  p.LastName := 'Teti';
  p.DOB := EncodeDate(1979, 8, 4);
  p.Married := True;
  People.Add(p);

  p := TPerson.Create;
  p.FirstName := 'John';
  p.LastName := 'Doe';
  p.DOB := EncodeDate(1879, 10, 2);
  p.Married := False;
  People.Add(p);

  p := TPerson.Create;
  p.FirstName := 'Jane';
  p.LastName := 'Doe';
  p.DOB := EncodeDate(1883, 1, 5);
  p.Married := True;
  People.Add(p);

{$ENDREGION}

  Render(ObjectDict().Add('data', People,
    procedure(const APerson: TObject; const Links: IMVCLinks)
    begin
      Links
        .AddRefLink
        .Add(HATEOAS.HREF, '/people/' + TPerson(APerson).ID.ToString)
        .Add(HATEOAS.REL, 'self')
        .Add(HATEOAS._TYPE, 'application/json')
        .Add('title', 'Details for ' + TPerson(APerson).FullName);
      Links
        .AddRefLink
        .Add(HATEOAS.HREF, '/people')
        .Add(HATEOAS.REL, 'people')
        .Add(HATEOAS._TYPE, 'application/json');
    end));
end;

    ObjectDict is able to render multiple data sources (datasets, objectlists, objects or StrDict) at the same time using different casing, HATEOAS callbacks and modes.

    procedure TTestServerController.TestObjectDict;
var
  lDict: IMVCObjectDictionary;
begin
  lDict := ObjectDict(false)
    .Add('ncUpperCase_List', GetDataSet, nil, dstAllRecords, ncUpperCase)
    .Add('ncLowerCase_List', GetDataSet, nil, dstAllRecords, ncLowerCase)
    .Add('ncCamelCase_List', GetDataSet, nil, dstAllRecords, ncCamelCase)
    .Add('ncPascalCase_List', GetDataSet, nil, dstAllRecords, ncPascalCase)
    .Add('ncUpperCase_Single', GetDataSet, nil, dstSingleRecord, ncUpperCase)
    .Add('ncLowerCase_Single', GetDataSet, nil, dstSingleRecord, ncLowerCase)
    .Add('ncCamelCase_Single', GetDataSet, nil, dstSingleRecord, ncCamelCase)
    .Add('ncPascalCase_Single', GetDataSet, nil, dstSingleRecord, ncPascalCase)
    .Add('meta', StrDict(['page'], ['1']));
  Render(lDict);
end;

    ObjectDict is the suggested way to renders data. However, the other ones are still there and works as usual.

  • Added ability to serialize/deserialize types enumerated by an array of mapped values (Thanks to João Antônio Duarte).

    type
  TMonthEnum = (meJanuary, meFebruary, meMarch, meApril);

  TEntityWithEnums = class
  private
    FMonthMappedNames: TMonthEnum;
    FMonthEnumName: TMonthEnum;    
    FMonthOrder: TMonthEnum;    
  public
    // List items separated by comma or semicolon
    [MVCEnumSerializationType(estEnumMappedValues,
    	'January,February,March,April')]
    property MonthMappedNames: TMonthEnum 
    	read FMonthMappedNames write FMonthMappedNames;
    [MVCEnumSerializationType(estEnumName)]
    property MonthEnumName: TMonthEnum 
    	read FMonthEnumName write FMonthEnumName;
    [MVCEnumSerializationType(estEnumOrd)]
    property MonthOrder: TMonthEnum read FMonthOrder write FMonthOrder;
  end;
...

  • New Installation procedure!

    • Open the project group (select the correct one from the following table)
    • Build all
    • Install the design-time package (dmvcframeworkDT)
    • Add the following paths in the Delphi Library Path (here, C:\DEV\dmvcframework is the dmvcframework main folder)
      • C:\DEV\dmvcframework\sources
      • C:\DEV\dmvcframework\lib\loggerpro
      • C:\DEV\dmvcframework\lib\swagdoc\Source
      • C:\DEV\dmvcframework\lib\dmustache
Delphi Version Project Group
Delphi 10.4 Sydney packages\d104\dmvcframework_group.groupproj
Delphi 10.3 Rio packages\d103\dmvcframework_group.groupproj
Delphi 10.2 Tokyo packages\d102\dmvcframework_group.groupproj
Delphi 10.1 Berlin packages\d101\dmvcframework_group.groupproj
Delphi 10.0 Seattle packages\d100\dmvcframework_group.groupproj

Breaking Changes in 3.2.0-boron

  • In MVCActiveRecord attribute MVCPrimaryKey has been removed and merged with MVCTableField, so now TMVCActiveRecordFieldOption is a set of foPrimaryKey, foAutoGenerated, foTransient (check activerecord_showcase.dproj sample).

  • Middleware OnAfterControllerAction are now invoked in the same order of OnBeforeControllerAction (previously were invoked in reversed order).

  • TMVCEngine is no more responsible for static file serving. If you need static files used the new TMVCStaticFilesMiddleware (check the sample). As consequence TMVCConfigKey.DocumentRoot, TMVCConfigKey.IndexDocument and TMVCConfigKey.FallbackResource are no more available.

  • TMVCEngine.Config property is now read-only. Can be changed only in the anonymous method injected in the constructor.

    // This is valid
////////////////////////////////////////
FMVC := TMVCEngine.Create(Self,
  procedure(Config: TMVCConfig)
  begin
    // session timeout (0 means session cookie)
    Config[TMVCConfigKey.SessionTimeout] := '0';
    //Other Configurations
  end);
FMVC.AddController(TMyController);


// This is not valid (exception is raised)
/////////////////////////////////////////

FMVC := TMVCEngine.Create(Self);,
FMVC.Config[TMVCConfigKey.SessionTimeout] := '0'; {run-time error here}
FMVC.AddController(TMyController);

Bug Fixes in 3.2.0-boron

What's New in 3.1.0-lithium

  • TMVCActiveRecord framework
  • TMVCActiveRecordController with automatic RESTful interface generation and permissions handling
  • EntityProcessor for TMVCActiveRecordController to handle complex cases
  • JSON-RPC executor allows to configure HTTP headers for JSON-RPC requests and notifications.
  • TDataSetHolder
  • 404 and 500 status code returns always a text/plain content-type
  • Speed improvement!
  • MAX_REQUEST_SIZE can now limit the size of the incoming HTTP requests.
  • TMVCResponse can handle generic (non error) responses
  • gzip compression support in addition to deflate in TCompressionMiddleware
  • TCompressionMiddleware has been renamed in TMVCCompressionMiddleware
  • Support for Spring4d nullable types (check samples\renders_spring4d_nullables)
  • TMVCJSONRPCPublisher allows to easily expose plain Delphi objects (and even data modules) through a JSON-RPC 2.0 interface!
  • Breaking Change! The JSON RPC Client layer is now interface based.

What's New in 3.0.0-hydrogen

  • First release of the 3.0.0 version

What's New in 2.1.3-lithium

What's New in 2.1.2-helium

  • FIX for Delphi versions who don't have TJSONBool (Delphi XE8 or older)
  • Added new conditional define in dmvcframework.inc: JSONBOOL (defined for Delphi Seattle+)

What's New in 2.1.1-hydrogen

  • Updated the IDE Expert to show the current version of the framework
  • FIX to the mapper about the datasets null values (needs to be checked in old Delphi versions)
  • ADDED support for Boolean values in datasets serialization
  • ADDED unit tests about Mapper and dataset fields nullability
  • The current version is available in constant DMVCFRAMEWORK_VERSION defined in MVCFramework.Commons.pas

Roadmap

DelphiMVCFramework roadmap is always updated as-soon-as the features planned are implemented. Check the roadmap here.

Trainings, consultancy or custom development service

As you know, good support on open source software is a must for professional users. If you need trainings, consultancy or custom developments on DelphiMVCFramework, send an email to dmvcframework at bittime dot it. Alternatively you can send a request using the contacts forms on bit Time Professionals website. bit Time Professionals is the company behind DelphiMVCFramework, all the main developers works there.

Samples and documentation

DMVCFramework is provided with a lot of examples focused on specific functionality. All samples are in Samples folder.

Getting Started: 5 minutes guide

DMVCFramework allows to create powerful RESTful servers without effort. You can create a full-flagged RESTful server in a couple of clicks.

DelphiMVCFramework Installation

  • DMVCFramework must be installed using the Github release. Download the zip file

  • Unzip it the release zip in a folder named C:\dmvc (or where you prefer).

  • Launch RAD Studio and open C:\dmvc\packages\d104\dmvcframework_group.groupproj

    WARNING! In the last path shown "d104" is for Delphi 10.4 Sydney. Use the correct package for your Delphi version.

  • Install the package and close all

  • Now, DMVCFramework expert is installed and you are able to create DMVCFramework project. Go to go to File->New->Other select Delphi Project->DMVC->DelphiMVCFramework Project

  • From the resultant dialog, leave all the default settings and click OK

  • If you try to compile the project now, you will get compiler errors because we've to configure the library paths to let the compiler finds the needed source files

  • go to Tools->Options->Language->Delphi->Library and add in the Library Path the following paths:

    • C:\DMVC\sources
    • C:\DMVC\lib\dmustache
    • C:\DMVC\lib\loggerpro
    • C:\DMVC\lib\swagdoc\Source

  • Run the project (F9)

  • Now, a new console application is running serving you first DMVCFramework server.

  • Simple, isn't it?

  • The wizard generated controller shown some basic setup and some actions. You can start from here to create your application. Use the huge number of sample to understand how each DMVCFramwork feature work.

Sample Controller

Below a basic sample of a DMVCFramework controller with 2 action

unit UsersControllerU;
  
interface
  
uses 
  MVCFramework;
 
type 
   [MVCPath('/users')]
   TUsersController = class(TMVCController)
   public

    //The following action will be with a GET request like the following
    //http://myserver.com/users/3
    [MVCPath('/($id)')]
    [MVCProduces('application/json')]
    [MVCHTTPMethod([httpGET])]
    [MVCDoc('Returns a user as a JSON object')]
    procedure GetUser(id: Integer);

    
    //The following action will be with a GET request like the following
    //http://myserver.com/users
    [MVCPath('/')]
    [MVCProduces('application/json')]
    [MVCHTTPMethod([httpGET])]
    [MVCDoc('Returns the users list as a JSON Array of JSON Objects')]
    procedure GetUsers;

    //The following action will be with a PUT request like the following
    //http://myserver.com/users/3
    //and in the request body there should be a serialized TUser
    [MVCPath('/($id)')]
    [MVCProduce('application/json')]
    [MVCHTTPMethod([httpPUT])]
    [MVCDoc('Update a user')]    
    procedure UpdateUser(id: Integer);

    //The following action will respond to a POST request like the following
    //http://myserver.com/users
    //and in the request body there should be the new user to create as json
    [MVCPath]
    [MVCProduce('application/json')]
    [MVCHTTPMethod([httpPOST])]
    [MVCDoc('Create a new user, returns the id of the new user')]
    procedure CreateUser;

  end;
 
implementation

uses
  MyTransactionScript; //contains actual data access code
  
{ TUsersController }

procedure TUsersController.GetUsers;
var
  Users: TObjectList<TUser>;
begin
  Users := GetUsers;
  Render(Users);
end;
 
procedure TUsersController.GetUser(id: Integer);
var
  User: TUser;
begin
  User := GetUserById(id);
  Render(User);
end;

procedure TUsersController.UpdateUser(id: Integer);
var
  User: TUser;
begin
  User := Context.Request.BodyAs<TUser>;
  UpdateUser(id, User);
  Render(User);
end;	
  
procedure TUsersController.CreateUser;
var
  User: TUser;
begin
  User := Context.Request.BodyAs<TUser>;
  CreateUser(User);
  Render(User);
end;	
  
end.

Now you have a performant RESTful server wich respond to the following URLs:

  • GET /users/($id) (eg. /users/1, /users/45 etc)
  • PUT /users/($id) (eg. /users/1, /users/45 etc with the JSON data in the request body)
  • POST /users (the JSON data must be in the request body)

How to create a dmvcframework servers container

If you don't plan to deploy your DMVCFramework server behind a webserver (apache or IIS) you can also pack more than one listener application server into one single executable. In this case, the process is a bit different and involves the creation of a listener context. However, create a new server is a simple task:

uses
  MVCFramework.Server,
  MVCFramework.Server.Impl;

var
  LServerListener: IMVCListener;
begin
  LServerListener := TMVCListener.Create(TMVCListenerProperties.New
	 .SetName('Listener1')
	 .SetPort(5000)
	 .SetMaxConnections(1024)
	 .SetWebModuleClass(YourServerWebModuleClass)
   );  

  LServerListener.Start;
  LServerListener.Stop;
end;

If you want to add a layer of security (in its WebModule you should add the security middleware):

uses
  MVCFramework.Server,
  MVCFramework.Server.Impl,
  MVCFramework.Middleware.Authentication;

procedure TTestWebModule.WebModuleCreate(Sender: TObject);
begin
  FMVCEngine := TMVCEngine.Create(Self);
	
  // Add Yours Controllers
  FMVCEngine.AddController(TYourController);
	
  // Add Security Middleware
  FMVCEngine.AddMiddleware(TMVCBasicAuthenticationMiddleware.Create(
    TMVCDefaultAuthenticationHandler.New
    .SetOnAuthentication(
		procedure(const AUserName, APassword: string;
		  AUserRoles: TList<string>; var IsValid: Boolean; 
		  const ASessionData: TDictionary<String, String>)
		begin
		  IsValid := AUserName.Equals('dmvc') and APassword.Equals('123');
		end
		)
    ));
end;

In stand alone mode you can work with a context that supports multiple listeners servers:

uses
  MVCFramework.Server,
  MVCFramework.Server.Impl;

var
  LServerListenerCtx: IMVCListenersContext;

begin
  LServerListenerCtx := TMVCListenersContext.Create;

  LServerListenerCtx.Add(TMVCListenerProperties.New
    .SetName('Listener1')
    .SetPort(6000)
    .SetMaxConnections(1024)
    .SetWebModuleClass(WebModuleClass1)
    );

  LServerListenerCtx.Add(TMVCListenerProperties.New
    .SetName('Listener2')
    .SetPort(7000)
    .SetMaxConnections(1024)
    .SetWebModuleClass(WebModuleClass2)
    );

  LServerListenerCtx.StartAll;
end;

RQL Introduction

Resource Query Language (RQL) is a query language designed for use in URIs with object style data structures. DMVCFramework supports RQL natively and the included MVCActiveRecord micro-framework, implement a large subset of the RQL specs.

RQL can be thought as basically a set of nestable named operators which each have a set of arguments. RQL is designed to have an extremely simple, but extensible grammar that can be written in a URL friendly query string. A simple RQL query with a single operator that indicates a search for any resources with a property of "foo" that has value of 5 could be written:

eq(foo,5)

A more complex filter can include an arbitrary number of chained functions

or(and(eq(name,"daniele"),eq(surname,"teti")),and(eq(name,"peter"),eq(surname,"parker"));sort(+name)

Which is translated (details depends from the RDBMS) in the following SQL.

select 
	name, surname {other fields} 
from 
	people
where
  (name = "daniele" and surname = "teti") 
  	or 
  (name="peter" and surname = "parker")
order by
  name asc

RQL as Implemented by DMVCFramework

RQL is designed for modern application development. It is built for the web, ready for NoSQL, and highly extensible with simple syntax.

Here is a definition of the common operators as implemented in DMVCFramework' ActiveRecord:

eq(<property>,<value>) - Filters for objects where the specified property's value is equal to the provided value
lt(<property>,<value>) - Filters for objects where the specified property's value is less than the provided value
le(<property>,<value>) - Filters for objects where the specified property's value is less than or equal to the provided value
gt(<property>,<value>) - Filters for objects where the specified property's value is greater than the provided value
ge(<property>,<value>) - Filters for objects where the specified property's value is greater than or equal to the provided value
ne(<property>,<value>) - Filters for objects where the specified property's value is not equal to the provided value
and(<query>,<query>,...) - Applies all the given queries
or(<query>,<query>,...) - The union of the given queries
sort(<+|-><property) - Sorts by the given property in order specified by the prefix (+ for ascending, - for descending)
limit(count,start,maxCount) - Returns the given range of objects from the result set
contains(<property>,<value | expression>) - Filters for objects where the specified property's value is an array and the array contains any value that equals the provided value or satisfies the provided expression.
in(<property>,<array-of-values>) - Filters for objects where the specified property's value is in the provided array
out(<property>,<array-of-values>) - Filters for objects where the specified property's value is not in the provided array

Not Yet Availables

select(<property>,<property>,...) - Trims each object down to the set of properties defined in the arguments
values(<property>) - Returns an array of the given property value for each object
aggregate(<property|function>,...) - Aggregates the array, grouping by objects that are distinct for the provided properties, and then reduces the remaining other property values using the provided functions
distinct() - Returns a result set with duplicates removed
excludes(<property>,<value | expression>) - Filters for objects where the specified property's value is an array and the array does not contain any of value that equals the provided value or satisfies the provided expression.
rel(<relation name?>,<query>) - Applies the provided query against the linked data of the provided relation name.
sum(<property?>) - Finds the sum of every value in the array or if the property argument is provided, returns the sum of the value of property for every object in the array
mean(<property?>) - Finds the mean of every value in the array or if the property argument is provided, returns the mean of the value of property for every object in the array
max(<property?>) - Finds the maximum of every value in the array or if the property argument is provided, returns the maximum of the value of property for every object in the array
min(<property?>) - Finds the minimum of every value in the array or if the property argument is provided, returns the minimum of the value of property for every object in the array
recurse(<property?>) - Recursively searches, looking in children of the object as objects in arrays in the given property value
first() - Returns the first record of the query's result set
one() - Returns the first and only record of the query's result set, or produces an error if the query's result set has more or less than one record in it.
count() - Returns the count of the number of records in the query's result set

Links

Feel free to ask questions on the "Delphi MVC Framework" facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/delphimvcframework).