EntityDAC Express

EntityDAC Express is a set of free object-relational mapping (ORM) components for Delphi with LINQ support. By using these components, developers are able to create mappings of DB objects to Delphi classes in their projects.

One of the advantages of using LINQ for writing DB queries lies in enabling developers to write database independent queries. Another advantage is that queries are written in Delphi code, which supports code completion and code also gets checked on compilation. This way any errors get eliminated at the level of code writing.

Developers using EntityDAC Express for their database applications can make use of three methodologies for application development. One of them is Database-First method, where data model and application classes follow from the database, which gets created first. Other two methods are Code-First and Model-First, where starting point for creating objects are either application classes or data model.

Useful features of EntityDAC Express include metadata caching, caching of LINQ queries and entities loaded from DB, amongst others. Caching eliminates the need to reload identical data, which in turn leads to faster loading apps.

Components can be installed on various Delphi versions, ranging from Delphi 2007 to Delphi 10.2 Tokyo. They also come with option to install help files, manual, and demos; helping developers to start using the components faster, by relying on sample code.