As you may already know from our 2021 roadmap, we planned to simplify .NET 5 and Blazor development in v21.1 with XAF, our award-winning cross-platform application UI framework.
XAF's Solution Wizard v21.1 enhancements include the following:
- Notice the new DevExpress v21.1 XAF Template Gallery item instead of the old DevExpress v20.2 XAF Solution Wizard one (v21.1 includes multiple project templates to better distinguish between different application types).
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- Create solutions that combine WinForms and Blazor .NET 5 for Microsoft Entity Framework Core (EF Core) or DevExpress XPO ORM.
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- If you are already using EF Core, do not miss the Security System (role-based data access control) and Audit Trail (log and track data changes) functionality for your XAF or non-XAF .NET apps.
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- Add new .NET 5 Modules to an existing WinForms or Blazor solution.
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- Create a solution with OAuth identity providers without writing custom code.
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- Extend a security user class with additional properties.
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- Add Item Templates for XAF's .NET Core/.NET 5 projects (WinForms and Blazor) using the "Add DevExpress Item" menu.
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We encourage our Entity Framework 6 (EF 6) users to consider Entity Framework Core (EF Core) for new XAF's Blazor and WinForms .NET Core projects.
Microsoft has moved EF 6 into maintenance mode, and as such, EF 6 will not mirror XAF's .NET Core offering. At present, EF Core supports key XAF technologies/capabilities including advanced security and comprehensive audit trail support. EF Core also offers better performance when compared to EF 6. For more information, see Porting from EF 6 to EF Core.
Future Plans for the Solution Wizard
First, I want to assure our existing .NET Framework XAF users (Windows Forms and ASP.NET Web Forms) that they are safe regardless of .NET Core/.NET 5 development - you can stay on .NET Framework as long as your business dictates. We will do our best to support you and address your needs along the way.
XAF's Solution Wizard v21.2 will include one the following capabilities by the end of 2021:
- A separate Web API backend service project (or extended Blazor project) with Swagger (OpenAPI). This should help XAF users reuse application data, logic and modules in Non-XAF apps (examples) much more easily. Many XAF customers have already created such backend services for their XAF production systems, for instance, Martin Praxmarer of PraKom for his mobile Xamarin companion app or this gentlemen on YouTube - we simply want a "1-Click" solution for everyone using XAF's Solution Wizard.
- A solution with unit/functional testing and CI/CD infrastructure for Azure DevOps (example).
- A solution that targets a database per tenant for SaaS scenarios (example).
- A solution with pre-built error diagnostics using Roslyn Analyzers. XAF/XPO users will see a detailed error report locally or make this "best practice" analysis a part of their CI system. For this, I collected more than 35+ common errors made by XAF/XPO users in their projects (also thanks to Alex Miller for his contribution). Common errors include missing INotifyPropertyChanged, XPO attributes on non-persistent classes, or unhandled unusable nodes.
- Dependency Injection (DI) for security, modules and other WinForms .NET Core project configurations like in MAUI or XAF's ASP.NET Core Blazor Server (see the black screenshot above). As you may recall, we want to move away from Application and Module Designers - most XAF users do not use them and favor the Solution Wizard and simple code changes (confirmed by our roadmap survey). Note: please do not confuse these designers with the Model Editor - - the main XAF visual designer that is well-supported for .NET Core/.NET 5.
Your Feedback Matters
As always, we look forward to your feedback on these XAF enhancements and how we can better address your development needs going forward with the Solution Wizard.