XAF (Cross-Platform .NET App UI & Web API Service) — June 2026 Roadmap (v26.1)

Thank you for choosing XAF (Cross-Platform .NET App UI & Web API Service) for your software development needs. This blog post outlines some of our XAF-related development plans for the first half of 2026 (v26.1, set for release in June 2026).

First, if you have not heard of XAF or are new to the DevExpress product line, XAF is a developer-centric .NET application framework designed to build feature-complete Office-inspired line-of-business apps (leveraging DevExpress Blazor and WinForms UI components via Entity Framework or XPO ORM). Feel free to review our XAF demos and compare our implementation with other software low-code, no-code (LCNC) and traditional development methodologies.

Content Security Policy Enhancements

Together with our Blazor development team, we will eliminate the need to use the following content security policy (CSP) requirement: style-src: 'unsafe-inline'. For additional information in this regard please review Content Security Policy (CSP) in XAF Blazor Apps.

Template Kit Enhancements

We will add the following security and usability-related enhancements for newly created XAF projects via our new Template Kit:

• Select multiple Middle Tier Security-based startup projects;
• Enforce the Middle Tier Security option by default;
• Migrate to the minimal API/simplified Blazor project format with no Startup.cs file (makes .NET Aspire integration much easier).

Entity Framework Core 10 for Data Access

We expect to ship official EF Core 10 support in our v26.1 release cycle (for our XAF Blazor/WinForms UI and Web API Service). EF Core 10 is the latest version of Entity Framework. For early testing, EF Core 10 support is already available in v25.2.5+. We also updated our EF Core 10 vs XPO performance benchmarks.

Our new Template Kit also uses EF Core 10 when .NET 10 is selected.  Our MainDemo.NET.EFCore will also use EF Core 10 and .NET 10 in v26.1. NOTE: .NET 10 requires Visual Studio 2026, which is yet to be adopted by most users, so we have not done this for v25.2.

While EF Core 10 offers numerous advantages over its predecessor (performance and customization included), it also introduced a series of breaking changes that we needed to address. Not all EF Core database connection providers ship EF Core 10-compatible NuGet packages as of this post (like Pomelo.EntityFrameworkCore.MySql). XAF's Web API Service also uses older Swashbuckle.AspNetCore package versions with .NET 10.

DateTimeOffset Type Support for EF Core and XPO

Our dev team will implement the core in DevExpress.Data, DevExpress.Xpo and related XAF libraries (similar to what we did for DateOnly/TimeOnly in DataController, Server Mode data sources, Criteria Language, etc.). Based on this core, our data-aware UI controls (such as Data Grid, Tree List, Date Editors) for Blazor and other UI platforms will be able to do the remaining work.

If all goes according to plan, by v26.2 we will be able to support the DateTimeOffset data model properties in key XAF List and Property Editors. This synergy will simplify multiple customer use-cases where application users are spread across different time zones.​

XAF Blazor Report Designer Enhancements

We will use ViewDataSource by default when creating a new report. We will also make it easier to customize XAF data source settings (data type, sorting, filtering, etc.) in the runtime Report Designer.

Filter Builder Enhancements and Pivot Grid Integration

With v26.1, we will replace our existing JS-based filter editor with the new DevExpress Blazor Filter Builder. The DevExpress Blazor Filter Builder offers simpler localization, better performance, and native Blazor theme/palette support. This change will also reduce maintenance costs for the XAF team. The following Filter Builder features are critical for XAF integration: collection operations, plain criteria text input/validation, good performance with complex data model structures.

In addition, we will improve XAF's WinForms Filter Editor when using advanced XAF and ORM-specific criteria functions (Upcasting, Free Joins, etc.).

If time permits, we will also integrate the DevExpress Blazor Pivot Table (an early preview of XAF's DxPivotGridListEditor in v26.1). This integration is based on previous v25.2 research and close collaboration with our Blazor development team (who made required extension points/APIs and added features important for XAF customers). If all goes according to plan, v26.2 should mark the official release of DxPivotGridListEditor. 

Built-In AI Module to Add Smart Functions in "1-Click"

If you are unfamiliar with our existing .NET AI-powered Extensions, please review these documents. XAF Blazor/WinForms v26.1 will simplify the following AI-related capabilities:

Semantic or Smart Search within DevExpress Data Grids and AI Chat Integration

AI-Powered Smart Paste within the Detail View Layout Control 

AI-Powered Extensions in the Reporting, Filter Editor, Office (Rich Text Editor) Modules

Blazor List and Property Editor Enhancements

We expect to migrate XAF's DxGridListEditor to native Blazor DxGrid component context menus, which were added in a recent major update (much like in XAF WinForms below).

We will also make it easier to add custom buttons to Blazor Property Editors in code (via the new Buttons property):

private void Customize_EnumPropertyEditor(EnumPropertyEditor editor) {
    var customButtonModel = new DxEditorButtonModel() {
        Text = "Test",
        Click = EventCallback.Factory.Create<MouseEventArgs>(this,
             (e) => Application.ShowViewStrategy.ShowMessage("Click!"))
    };
    editor.Buttons.Add(customButtonModel);
}

What's Next / Our Main Focus

We Remain Focused on XAF Blazor Scalability

As many of you already know from my mid-2025 announcement, our core focus for the next few major release cycles will continue to be scalability (number of concurrent web users). At the end of 2026 (not yet in v25.2 or v26.1), we want future XAF Blazor apps and XAF core to be:

• Scalable up to hundreds and even a thousand of web users reliably and predictably.
• Require simpler configuration for high-load and multi-tenancy scenarios (without Kubernetes -k8s- or other complicated horizontal/scale out solutions).
• Require much less compute resources (CPU/RAM).

As I noted earlier, this is especially important as scalable, cloud-hosted, multi-tenant/SaaS-based apps are becoming a standard requirement (for both internal and public LOB deployments). Achieving desired levels of XAF Blazor scalability will certainly help customers targeting hybrid desktop apps for both Windows and non-Windows environments (Electron.NET-powered). Better scalability will also drive the evolution of our Multi-Tenancy module (scalability is an "enabler" to add additional standard SaaS features later).

Migrate Your XAF Apps from .NET Framework (WinForms/WebForms) to .NET (WinForms/Blazor)

For this big and ambitious goal, we had to drop .NET Framework support and remove legacy APIs in v25.2. We also re-balanced our dev team internally to prioritize performance enhancements in XAF Core and Blazor UI above other features. Of course, we remain focused on security and continue to address usability and other framework-related issues (as you can see from the XAF Blazor/WinForms roadmap above).

To help with the migration to .NET from .NET Framework easier, we published semi-automatic converters and detailed migration guidelines (powered by AI, Roslyn, and our Project Converter). Please let us know if there is anything we can improve in this regard for you.

• Migrate XAF Application from ASP.NET WebForms to ASP.NET Core Blazor
• Port an XAF WinForms App from .NET Framework to .NET 8+
• Remove .NET Framework (WinForms / ASP.NET Web Forms) & Legacy .NET API
  

Blazor Model Editor in Your Web Browser (Postponed)

In January, we confirmed that it is technically feasible to have the same experience as in XAF WinForms Model Editor (see our Blazor prototype). While I would love to have the powerful runtime Blazor Model Editor today as much as you, we intentionally delayed it in favor of our main strategic focus (web scalability). We'll see whether we can revisit this task in our v26.2 release cycle.

This Application Model / UI structure customization will also require additional licensing/EULA considerations - as this powerful tool is primarily for "developers" (application structure/logic customizations are technically considered "development" tools).

First XAF Blazor Scalability Research Results

By v26.1, we will publish the first load-testing results along with related product enhancements (safely activated via feature flags). For example, our core dev team almost finalized planned Application Model enhancements, which will reduce memory usage and speed up critical code execution under high user load.

Our primary work from mid-2025 has been and still is to:

• Analyze key bottlenecks from research;
• Prioritize the most impactful changes for target scenarios (like 500+ users);
• Plan required code changes in XAF core and DevExpress Blazor components.

Below you can see a screenshot from our internal dashboard for a few test runs in February. The bottom chart series displays the impact on response times from one of our recent code optimizations. Of course, we must also optimize for web server memory usage, database/SQL, and many other parameters. Challenges remain, but we are sure that our final implementation will deliver positive/noticeable business impact to XAF Blazor and its users.

DevExpress Blazor Component Enhancements (for XAF Blazor)

Learn more: Blazor — June 2026 Roadmap (v26.1)

DevExpress WinForms Component Enhancements (for XAF WinForms)

Learn more: WinForms — June 2026 Roadmap (v26.1)

Other DevExpress Component Enhancements (for XAF Blazor/WinForms)

Learn more: 

• DevExpress Blazor AI Chat — Agent2Agent (A2A) Protocol Integration
• Reporting & BI Dashboard — June 2026 Roadmap (v26.1)
• Office File & PDF Document Processing APIs — June 2026 Roadmap (v26.1)

Your Feedback Matters

As always, we welcome your feedback. Your response to the following questions will help us fine-tune/refine plans for our next major release:

Thanks,
Dennis Garavsky
Principal Product Manager
dennis@devexpress.com

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