Ecosystem - Horse

Horse has a rich ecosystem of official and community-contributed middlewares, development tools, and supporting libraries that extend its functionality and streamline development.

Package Management

Boss Package Manager

Boss is the recommended package manager for Delphi and Lazarus projects. It simplifies dependency management and makes installing Horse and its middlewares effortless.

Boss on GitHub

View the Boss repository and documentation

Install Boss

Download and set up Boss for your development environment

Installing Horse with Boss:

boss install horse

Installing Middlewares:

boss install horse-cors
boss install horse-jwt
boss install horse-logger

Boss automatically manages dependencies, downloads packages, and configures your project paths.

Horse Wizard

Horse Wizard is a code generation tool that scaffolds Horse projects with boilerplate code, saving you time on initial setup.

Horse Wizard

Generate Horse projects quickly with interactive wizards

Installation:

boss install horse-wizard

Official Middlewares

Official middlewares are maintained by the Horse core team and support both Delphi and Lazarus.

JSON Middleware

horse/json provides automatic JSON serialization and deserialization.

Jhonson (JSON)

Automatic JSON handling for requests and responses

boss install jhonson

uses
  Horse,
  Horse.Jhonson; // JSON middleware

begin
  THorse.Use(Jhonson); // Enable JSON support
  
  THorse.Post('/users',
    procedure(Req: THorseRequest; Res: THorseResponse)
    var
      Body: TJSONObject;
    begin
      Body := Req.Body<TJSONObject>;
      // Process JSON body
      Res.Send<TJSONObject>(Body);
    end);
    
  THorse.Listen(9000);
end.

CORS Middleware

horse/cors handles Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) headers.

Horse CORS

Enable CORS for cross-origin requests

boss install horse-cors

uses
  Horse,
  Horse.CORS;

begin
  THorse.Use(CORS); // Enable CORS with default settings
  
  THorse.Get('/api/data',
    procedure(Req: THorseRequest; Res: THorseResponse)
    begin
      Res.Send('Accessible from any origin');
    end);
    
  THorse.Listen(9000);
end.

Authentication Middlewares

Basic Auth
JWT

horse/basic-auth implements HTTP Basic Authentication.

Horse Basic Auth

HTTP Basic Authentication middleware

boss install horse-basic-auth

uses
  Horse,
  Horse.BasicAuthentication;

procedure OnAuthentication(Req: THorseRequest; Res: THorseResponse; 
  Next: TProc);
begin
  if Req.Headers['Authorization'] = 'Basic dXNlcjpwYXNz' then
    Next
  else
    Res.Status(401).Send('Unauthorized');
end;

begin
  THorse.Use(HorseBasicAuthentication(OnAuthentication));
  
  THorse.Get('/protected',
    procedure(Req: THorseRequest; Res: THorseResponse)
    begin
      Res.Send('Protected content');
    end);
    
  THorse.Listen(9000);
end.

horse/jwt provides JSON Web Token authentication.

Horse JWT

JWT authentication and authorization

boss install horse-jwt

uses
  Horse,
  Horse.JWT;

begin
  THorse.Use(HorseJWT('my-secret-key'));
  
  THorse.Get('/api/secure',
    procedure(Req: THorseRequest; Res: THorseResponse)
    begin
      Res.Send('JWT verified content');
    end);
    
  THorse.Listen(9000);
end.

Utility Middlewares

Stream/Octet-Stream

Handle binary file uploads and downloads

Exception Handler

Centralized exception handling and logging

Logger

Request and response logging

Compression

Response compression (gzip, deflate)

Installation:

boss install horse-octet-stream
boss install handle-exception
boss install horse-logger
boss install horse-compression

Community Middlewares

The Horse community has created many additional middlewares for specialized use cases.

Performance and Caching

ETag Middleware

bittencourtthulio/etag - Automatic ETag generation for caching.

GitHub Repository

Supports: Delphi ✓ | Lazarus ✓

Cache Control

bittencourtthulio/cachecontrol - Cache-Control header management.

GitHub Repository

Supports: Delphi ✓ | Lazarus ✗

Rate Limiting

dliocode/ratelimit - Request rate limiting.

GitHub Repository

Supports: Delphi ✓ | Lazarus ✗

Slowdown

dliocode/slowdown - Gradual request slowdown on rate limit.

GitHub Repository

Supports: Delphi ✓ | Lazarus ✗

Documentation and API Tools

GBSwagger

OpenAPI/Swagger documentation generation

Horse Documentation

API documentation generator

Horse XMLDoc

XML documentation support

File Handling

Upload

File upload handling

Static Files

Serve static files and assets

Server Static

Alternative static file server

Pagination and Data

Paginate

Result pagination helper

CSResponsePagination

Advanced pagination responses

Query Parser

Query string parsing utilities

Monitoring and Logging

Health Check

Service health check endpoints

Exception Logger

Enhanced exception logging

DataLogger

Advanced request/response logging

Prometheus Metrics

Prometheus monitoring integration

Real-time Communication

Socket.IO

WebSocket and Socket.IO support for real-time features

Supports: Delphi ✓ | Lazarus ✗

Advanced Features

Bearer Token Authentication

andre-djsystem/horse-bearer-auth - Bearer token authentication.

GitHub Repository

Supports: Delphi ✓ | Lazarus ✓

Request Manipulation

andre-djsystem/horse-manipulate-request - Modify incoming requests.

GitHub Repository

Supports: Delphi ✓ | Lazarus ✓

Response Manipulation

andre-djsystem/horse-manipulate-response - Modify outgoing responses.

GitHub Repository

Supports: Delphi ✓ | Lazarus ✓

IP Geolocation

antoniojmsjr/Horse-IPGeoLocation - IP-based geolocation.

GitHub Repository

Supports: Delphi ✓ | Lazarus ✗

JSON Extensions

isaquepinheiro/horse-jsonbr - Enhanced JSON handling.

GitHub Repository

Supports: Delphi ✓ | Lazarus ✗

XSuperObjects Integration

claudneysessa/Horse-XSuperObjects - XSuperObject JSON library integration.

GitHub Repository

Supports: Delphi ✓ | Lazarus ✗

JSON Interceptor

IagooCesaar/Horse-JsonInterceptor - Intercept and transform JSON.

GitHub Repository

Supports: Delphi ✓ | Lazarus ✗

Community

Telegram Channel

Join the official Horse community on Telegram for discussions, support, and updates.

Join Telegram Channel

Connect with other Horse developers

GitHub Organization

All Horse projects are hosted under the HashLoad GitHub organization.

HashLoad on GitHub

Browse all Horse repositories and projects

Contributing a Middleware

Have you created a middleware for Horse? Share it with the community!

Develop your middleware

Create a useful middleware following Horse conventions and patterns.

Publish on GitHub

Open source your middleware with clear documentation and examples.

Submit a PR

Add your middleware to the README by submitting a pull request to the Horse repository.

Share with community

Announce your middleware in the Telegram channel to get feedback and users.

Community middlewares are listed in the Horse README with compatibility information.

Platform Support

Horse and its official middlewares support:

Delphi
Lazarus

Delphi 13 Florence
Delphi 12 Athens
Delphi 11 Alexandria
Delphi 10.4 Sydney
Delphi 10.3 Rio
Delphi 10.2 Tokyo
Delphi 10.1 Berlin
Delphi 10 Seattle
Delphi XE8
Delphi XE7

Some community middlewares may only support Delphi. Check the compatibility table before installation.

Community

​Package Management

​Boss Package Manager

Boss on GitHub

Install Boss

​Horse Wizard

Horse Wizard

​Official Middlewares

​JSON Middleware

Jhonson (JSON)

​CORS Middleware

Horse CORS

​Authentication Middlewares

Horse Basic Auth

Horse JWT

​Utility Middlewares

Stream/Octet-Stream

Exception Handler

Logger

Compression

​Community Middlewares

​Performance and Caching

​Documentation and API Tools

GBSwagger

Horse Documentation

Horse XMLDoc

​File Handling

Upload

Static Files

Server Static

​Pagination and Data

Paginate

CSResponsePagination

Query Parser

​Monitoring and Logging

Health Check

Exception Logger

DataLogger

Prometheus Metrics

​Real-time Communication

Socket.IO

​Advanced Features

​Community

​Telegram Channel

Join Telegram Channel

​GitHub Organization

HashLoad on GitHub

​Contributing a Middleware

​Platform Support

​Next Steps

Examples

Contributing

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Package Management

Boss Package Manager

Horse Wizard

Official Middlewares

JSON Middleware

CORS Middleware

Authentication Middlewares

Utility Middlewares

Community Middlewares

Performance and Caching

Documentation and API Tools

File Handling

Pagination and Data

Monitoring and Logging

Real-time Communication

Advanced Features

Community

Telegram Channel

GitHub Organization

Contributing a Middleware

Platform Support

Next Steps