DataLank is the lightest possible abstract layer to access data. It is so light it is not complete. It is not ORM. It is not an be-all-end-all solution. It is not a data link. It provides a singular way to fetch and forward-only iterate single simple query result sets. Want more? Look elsewhere. The point of using a few objects with a pre-described interface is to avoid some of the work of switching to a different database somewhere down along the lifetime of a project, but not all.

DataLankProtocol.pas defines the interface for the TDataConnection and TQueryResult and objects, but you're not supposed to use it. (Except perhaps to include it in a project to see wether it compiles without syntax errors.)

In your project, include a DataLank.pas unit that just contains code like this, patching the objects through to the implementation of your choosing:

unit DataLink;

interface

uses SomeDBData;

type
  TDataConnection = TSomeDBConnection;
  TQueryResult = TSomeDBCommand;

implementation

end.

This enables you to use TDataConnection in the initialization code and TQueryResult throughout the application, and still change to a different database solition at a later point in the project's lifetime.

• ADODB: https://github.com/stijnsanders/DataLank/blob/master/ADOTools.pas
• SQLite: https://github.com/stijnsanders/TSQLite
• PostgreSQL: https://github.com/stijnsanders/DataLank/blob/master/LibPQData.pas
• (more? feel free to give it a try and post a pull request!)

It's not quite a data link. The point is to have a data-layer that is as thin as possible, so I selected something from m-w: thesaurus/thin and as noted by m-w: dictionary/lank 'lank' stands for:

• not well filled out: not every operation on the database is available in the limited abstraction. Normal operation can use the TQueryResult object, but advanced work like iterating over the results in a different manner or initiating an automated backup had to be done by talking to the specific database interface or other tools.

• insufficient in quality, degree or extent: it is not suitable to everyone or for any project. Select to use DataLank in projects that will primarily use data from the database in a straight-forward manner, and can divert to other means to perform any advanced work on the data.

• hanging straight and limp without spring or curl: it just lets you get and use data from the database using TQueryResult, nothing much more. It doesn't do any extra work for you. It's not ORM. It's only a clean simple imperfect abstraction layer to deminish the work needed to switch to a different database at a later point in the project's lifetime, but specifically not to eleminate that effort.

• https://github.com/stijnsanders/xxm
• https://github.com/stijnsanders/tx
• (know more? feel free to post a pull request)