Date and Time: September 10th 2020 10:00 am (GMT -7) Arizona Time

XAF’s PM will answer audience questions

Tentative Agenda: 

• Introductions
• Announcements
• What is XPO?
• Main Features
• Database Systems Supported by XPO
• Data Types Supported by XPO
• XPO Classes Comparison
• XPO in the real world
• Benchmarks
• Getting Started with XPO
• Why XPO? (in 60 seconds)
• Development of LOB
• What is XAF?
• What is XAF Audience?
• Architecture
• Concepts
• Security
• XAF Advantages (most rated features)
• UI Customization
• Why XAF?  (in 60 seconds)
• Case Studies – Testimonials
• Demos
• Getting Started  – Awesome XAF
• Demo
• Blazor – Roadmap 2020 –Demo
• Support
• Community
• Questions

Questions to Discuss

Will it be possible to convert existing XAF applications to Blazor UI?

Most ORM data models and some platform-agnostic controllers can be used in Blazor UI with minimal or no changes. We try to preserve platform-agnostic XAF APIs like IObjectSpace, ViewController, View, or Frame.

To add existing platform-independent modules to a Blazor.Server project, it will be necessary to convert them to .NET Standard 2.0: How to port an XAF platform-agnostic module to .NET Standard 2.0+.
All platform-dependent code should be rewritten. In addition, since Blazor applications have a very different architecture and life cycle, the code that was common for ASP.NET and WinForms may need to be changed for Blazor. In v20.2, we will publish documentation for most common tasks.

What are deployment recommendations for Blazor Server apps?

XAF does not enforce any special requirements. Standard deployment methods for Windows and Linux/Unix recommended in the ASP.NET Core Blazor Server documentation and other public community resources should be used: Host and deploy ASP.NET Core Blazor Server and HTTP Load Balancing using Application Request Routing. We just want to emphasize that it is important to turn on the WebSocket Protocol and Sticky sessions with Application Request Routing features when you deploy your apps to IIS (these settings are often missed by developers).

Our customers have successfully deployed XAF Blazor Server apps to Ubuntu using these Microsoft instructions.

• Deploy Blazor App on Ubuntu
• XAF in Linux (Video by Joche Ojeda)

What is the recommended way to access and customize DetailView controls in 2020?

Use the new DetailViewExtensions.CustomizeViewItemControl API instead of the ControlCreated event handler.

Note that you should never use OnViewControlsCreated method for this task in DetailView – it’s only suitable for ListView.

Do you have any getting started tutorial for XAF’s Blazor UI?

Yes, check our new tutorial at

https://docs.devexpress.com/eXpressAppFramework/401943/getting-started/basic-tutorial-blazor-simple-project-manager-application?p=netcore and also an overview video at https://youtu.be/cNFR0ukILJM

I created some users and roles with permissions at runtime in my development environment. How can I transfer this data to production or code it in ModuleUpdater?

Please use our example at Security – How to generate database updater code for security roles created via the application UI in a development environment

I have an XAF WinForms and WebForms apps that use the same application database and security user and role data. We also need to develop a non-XAF Console and ASP.NET Core service apps that would leverage the same XAF’s security system permissions and API. Is it possible with the maximum reuse of existing code and data?

Sure, it is possible to use XAF’s security system in non-XAF apps. Check out our new landing page and examples for different .NET UI platforms devoted to this topic:

https://www.devexpress.com/products/net/application_framework/security.xml

Entity Framework Core 3 is also supported for these security scenarios.

Is Entity Framework Core preferred over XPO in XAF?

No, absolutely now. It is just another ORM data access layer for new XAF users. Note that ORM choice is typically made once in a life and there are users with previous experience who may also want to use XAF’s UI and non-visual features like security system.
We are proud of XPO and keep maintaining and evolving it (expected new cool features in v20.2).  You also do not need to migrate from XPO to EF Core just because we support new features for it in XAF😊

More Questions from the Community

• Customization of templates for login or master page in XAF
• XAF TreeList – Implementation with drag and drop
• How to change validation messages position on XAF Blazor and when Dashboards will be available?
• How to scale up a xaf website for better performance?
• What is a better alternative for XPVIEW?
• When will Tasty be available?