Moving to FireDAC

RAD Studio has a long tradition of providing components for connecting to data. In fact, the Delphi project name came from the Greek stories that stated to get to the Oracle, you go to Delphi.

The BDE era

Those who started working with Delphi or C++Builder in the 1990s or early 2000s would likely be familiar with the BDE (Borland Database Engine). In its time, BDE was a software library (similar to ODBC) that allowed developers to write complex database applications in a matter of minutes.

Why the stack started to hurt: While BDE was still widely used for flat-file and desktop database engines such as Paradox and dBase, Embarcadero developers knew they also needed a more robust library to work with relational databases that were swiftly gaining popularity such as MySQL, MSSQL, Oracle, etc. Therefore, Embarcadero released DBExpress components that unified performance and transactional speed with the RDBMS. The catch was DBExpress's dataset model being largely unidirectional; teams that needed bi-directional navigation for edit/refresh workflows often ended up adding extra plumbing like DataSetProvider and TClientDataSet. The result was that many applications ran a mix of BDE and/or DBExpress, depending on which data path they were stuck supporting.

As the world moved from flat file databases to relational databases to embedded databases to NoSQL databases and simultaneously using them within the application, it was becoming harder for developers to keep different libraries working together; forms and data modules would be littered with dataset-interacting components, plus the supporting layers needed to get the expected bi-directional behavior.

To add to their woes, as databases got more complex, libraries such as BDE and DBExpress started to feel constraints both in terms of functionality as well as speed.

Enter FireDAC

A unifying road map: To counter the above issues and set a compatible path for a foreseeable distant future, developers at Embarcadero released FireDAC: a one stop solution that allows interfacing with almost every popular open source or commercial database out there.

FireDAC is RAD Studio's cross-platform database access library, featuring a range of components and classes designed to simplify connections to most leading databases. Its open architecture allows for the integration of additional data sources, enabling developers to treat them seamlessly like a TDataSet.

Written from the ground up as a BDE replacement, FireDAC offers bi-directional dataset navigation and automatic translation of comparable field types (e.g., Timestamps, TSQLTimeStamp, TDateTime).

That means teams can avoid the extra plumbing often required with unidirectional stacks (such as DataSetProvider / TClientDataSet) and focus on faster, lower-risk migration. It also helps you move past BDE's legacy 16-bit dependency as you target modern 64-bit and cross-platform applications.

Moreover, FireDAC includes numerous speed and stability enhancements compared to other database components, significantly reducing network traffic while boosting the performance and reliability of data connections. It's not uncommon to hear developers say "I moved to FireDAC and now my Application is 20% faster".

Why Move to FireDAC?

Due to the broad range of databases FireDAC supports, each with a native layer driver, it can be a good choice to replace ANY past or present database components. The top reasons for switching to FireDAC include…

How to Migrate to FireDAC?

Migration typically involves four steps:

1. Replace data access components on forms and data modules with FireDAC equivalents.
2. Update uses clauses and connection configuration.
3. Review hand-written SQL or vendor-specific features that might behave differently.
4. Test performance and concurrency under realistic load.

There is no doubt that some refactoring is required when changing libraries. But thanks to Embarcadero's design of the database libraries, up to 80% of the work can be handled by search-and-replace over source code and form files using reFind.

reFind is a utility that automatically converts Delphi files from one component set to another. It includes example script files for BDE, ADO, DBExpress, and IBX so you can get productive quickly. It takes care of replacing components, updating uses clauses, and basic code modifications so you can get back to compiling fast.

Additional Resources

Articles and Migration Scripts

Deep-Dive Videos

Some reference videos are from slightly older versions of RAD Studio; UI details may differ, but the process remains the same.