delphi-forms-parser

A standalone parser for Delphi VCL and FMX form files (.dfm/.fmx) in both text and binary formats. Produces a typed AST with full round-trip fidelity.

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Features

• Text DFM/FMX parsing -- lexer + recursive-descent parser for the text form file format
• Binary DFM parsing -- reads the TPF0 binary format used by older Delphi versions
• Text writer -- serialize AST back to text DFM with byte-for-byte round-trip fidelity
• Binary writer -- serialize AST back to binary DFM format with original value type tag preservation
• Format detection -- auto-detect text vs binary format
• Encoding detection -- auto-detect UTF-8 BOM; explicit TEncoding overloads for legacy ANSI-encoded files
• Cross-format conversion -- binary-to-text and text-to-binary conversion for migration workflows
• Typed collection items -- supports item ClassName ... end syntax
• TreeDump utility -- CLI tool for inspecting DFM/FMX component trees
• FormStats utility -- codebase-wide component and property statistics with recursive directory scanning

Quick start

uses
  Delphi.Forms,
  Delphi.Forms.Types;

var
  FormFile: TFormFile;
begin
  // Parse a DFM file (auto-detects text vs binary format)
  FormFile := TDelphiFormsParser.ParseFile('MyForm.dfm');
  try
    // Access the component tree
    WriteLn('Root: ', FormFile.Root.Name, ': ', FormFile.Root.ClassName_);
    WriteLn('Children: ', FormFile.Root.Children.Count);
    WriteLn('Properties: ', FormFile.Root.Properties.Count);

    // Round-trip: write back to text
    WriteLn(TDelphiFormsParser.WriteText(FormFile));
  finally
    FormFile.Free;
  end;
end;

Legacy ANSI files

For pre-Unicode Delphi projects (Delphi 7 through 2007) with ANSI-encoded DFM files:

FormFile := TDelphiFormsParser.ParseFile('LegacyForm.dfm', TEncoding.ANSI);

Binary-to-text conversion

var
  TextDfm: string;
begin
  TextDfm := TDelphiFormsParser.BinaryToText(TFile.ReadAllBytes('OldForm.dfm'));
  TFile.WriteAllText('OldForm.dfm', TextDfm);
end;

Supported value types

Type	Text example	Binary tag
Integer	123, -5, $FF	vaInt8, vaInt16, vaInt32, vaInt64
Float	3.14, -1.5E2	vaSingle, vaDouble, vaExtended, vaCurrency, vaDate
String	'Hello', 'line1'#13#10'line2'	vaString, vaLString, vaWString, vaUTF8String, vaUString
Boolean	True, False	vaTrue, vaFalse
Identifier	clRed, poScreenCenter	vaIdent
Set	[ssDouble, ssBold], []	vaSet
Binary	{ 0A544A5045... }	vaBinary
List	(item1 item2)	vaList
Collection	< item ... end>	vaCollection

Design invariants

1. Text round-trip -- parse text DFM, write back: output matches original byte-for-byte
2. Binary round-trip -- read binary DFM, write back: output matches original byte-for-byte
3. Token coverage -- every character in text DFM appears in exactly one token
4. Deterministic -- same input always produces same output

Architecture

Text DFM ---> TDfmLexer ---> TDfmTokenList ---> TDfmParser ---> TFormFile (AST)
Binary DFM ---> TDfmBinaryReader -----------------------------------^
                                                                    |
TFormFile ---> TDfmTextWriter ---> text DFM output                  |
TFormFile ---> TDfmBinaryWriter ---> binary DFM output              |

Facade API

Method	Description
ParseFile(FileName)	Auto-detect format, parse file
ParseFile(FileName, Encoding)	Parse with explicit encoding
ParseText(Source)	Parse text DFM string
ParseBinary(Data)	Parse TPF0 binary bytes
ParseBytes(Data)	Auto-detect format from bytes
ParseBytes(Data, Encoding)	Auto-detect with explicit encoding
WriteText(FormFile)	Serialize AST to text DFM
WriteBinary(FormFile)	Serialize AST to TPF0 binary
BinaryToText(Data)	Convert binary DFM to text
TextToBinary(Source)	Convert text DFM to binary
DetectFormat(Data)	Returns dfText or dfBinary
IsBinaryDfm(Data)	Check for TPF0 signature

TreeDump utility

CLI tool for inspecting DFM/FMX component trees:

Delphi.Forms.TreeDump.exe MyForm.dfm --round-trip

object frmMain: TfrmMain
  Left = 0 [fvInteger]
  Caption = 'Hello' [fvString]
  Font.Style = [] [fvSet]
  object Button1: TButton
    Caption = 'Click' [fvString]
  end
end

Properties: 3; Children: 1
Round-trip: Pass
Exit Code: 0

Options: --no-values, --round-trip, --format:json, -v, -?

FormStats utility

CLI tool for component and property statistics across a codebase:

Delphi.Forms.FormStats.exe C:\code\legacy-app\source --recursive

Delphi.Forms.FormStats
Path: C:\code\legacy-app\source
Files: 47 (42 text, 5 binary)

Components:     312
Unique classes: 28
Properties:     4,218
Max depth:      7
Avg depth:      2.3

Value types:
  fvInteger:      1842 ( 43.7%)
  fvString:       1204 ( 28.5%)
  ...

Top 10 classes:
  TLabel               87
  TButton              42
  ...

Parse failures: 0

Options: --recursive, --format:json, --top:N, -v, -?

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Maturity

This repository is currently incubator and is under active development. It will graduate to stable once:

• At least one downstream consumer exists.

Until graduation, breaking changes may occur

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Part of Continuous Delphi

This tool is part of the Continuous-Delphi ecosystem, dedicated to the long-term success of Delphi applications.