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📚 The Dext Book

A comprehensive guide to building modern web applications with the Dext Framework for Delphi.

Quick Links

Getting Started - Installation & Hello World
Web Framework - Minimal APIs & Controllers
ORM - Database access & queries

Table of Contents

Part I: Foundations

1. Getting Started

2. Web Framework

Minimal APIs - Route handlers with MapGet, MapPost
Controllers - MVC-style controllers
Model Binding - JSON/Form to objects
Routing - URL patterns & parameters
Middleware - Request pipeline

3. Authentication & Security

JWT Authentication - Token-based auth
Claims Builder - User claims

4. API Features

OpenAPI / Swagger - API documentation
Rate Limiting - Request throttling
CORS - Cross-origin requests
Response Caching - Cache headers
Health Checks - /health endpoint

Part II: Data Access

5. ORM (Dext.Entity)

Getting Started - First entity & context
Entities & Mapping - [Table], [Column], [PK]
Querying - Where, OrderBy, Take
Smart Properties - Type-safe expressions
JSON Queries ⭐ NEW - Query JSON/JSONB columns
Specifications - Reusable query patterns
Relationships - 1:1, 1:N, Lazy Loading
Migrations - Schema versioning
Scaffolding - DB-first code generation
Multi-Tenancy - Schema/DB/Column isolation

6. Database as API

Zero-Code CRUD - REST from entities

Part III: Advanced Features

7. Real-Time Communication

Hubs (SignalR) - WebSocket messaging

8. Testing

Mocking - Mock<T> and verification
Assertions - Fluent Should() syntax
Snapshots - JSON snapshot testing

9. CLI Tool

Commands - dext CLI overview
Migrations - migrate:up, migrate:down
Scaffolding - dext scaffold
Testing - dext test --coverage
Dashboard - dext ui

10. Advanced Topics

11. Desktop UI (Dext.UI) ⭐ NEW

Navigator Framework - Push/Pop navigation with middlewares
Magic Binding - Declarative UI data binding
MVVM Patterns - Architecture guide

12. Networking (Dext.Net) ⭐ NEW

REST Client - Fluent HTTP Client

Appendix

Examples

Each chapter references working examples from the Examples/ directory:

Example	Topics
Web.MinimalAPI	Minimal APIs, Routing
Web.ControllerExample	Controllers, DI
Web.JwtAuthDemo	JWT, Authentication
Web.SwaggerExample	OpenAPI, Documentation
Web.RateLimitDemo	Rate Limiting
Web.DatabaseAsApi	Zero-Code CRUD
Web.DextStore	Full E-commerce API
Orm.EntityDemo	ORM Basics
Hubs	Real-Time SignalR
Desktop.MVVM.CustomerCRUD	Navigator, MVVM, Testing

Contributing

Found an error? Want to improve the docs? Please open an issue or submit a PR!

Last updated: January 2026