We are two months away from our next major update (v19.2). The purpose of this post is to share our progress and give XAF users the opportunity to test new functionality before we wrap up our current dev cycle.
XAF is part of the Universal Subscription. Active Universal subscribers are entitled to download and install this Early Access Preview. If you currently own an active DXperience Subscription, you can test the features described herein by logging onto the DevExpress Download Manager and installing this build in trial mode. Once you do, please take a moment to tell us whether these new features address your business needs. This will help us fine-tune our code before official launch.
If you are using a trial version and are considering XAF for your next project, purchase a Universal subscription license for automatic access to this early access preview. If you are ready to upgrade to Universal from another subscription level, email us at
clientservices@devexpress.com for preferential upgrade pricing.
.NET Core 3 Desktop SDK Support in WinForms Apps
To download and test XAF's WinForms Main Demo for .NET Core 3.0 Desktop, please refer to this knowledge base article. We are still working to finalize our unit and functional tests for the final release.
.NET Standard 2.0 Support for Platform-Agnostic Modules
These core libraries only provide non-visual APIs and do not offer a ready-made UI (like XAF modules for WinForms and WebForms):
- DevExpress.ExpressApp | DevExpress.ExpressApp.Xpo | DevExpress.ExpressApp.Objects | DevExpress.ExpressApp.Images.
- DevExpress.Persistent.Base | DevExpress.Persistent.BaseImpl.
- DevExpress.ExpressApp.Security | DevExpress.ExpressApp.Security.Xpo.
- DevExpress.ExpressApp.Validation | DevExpress.ExpressApp.ConditionalAppearance
- DevExpress.ExpressApp.AuditTrail | DevExpress.ExpressApp.CloneObject.
- DevExpress.ExpressApp.Kpi | DevExpress.ExpressApp.StateMachine | DevExpress.ExpressApp.ViewVariantsModule.
These libraries should be extremely helpful for XAF developers who create cross-platform non-XAF .NET apps and libraries. You can now reuse existing XAF data models and Security System settings (users, roles and permissions) in a custom Xamarin mobile client or an ASP.NET Core service hosted on Linux-based servers.
Using NuGet? Our unified .NET installer automatically configures the
Local NuGet feed for you.
Security System in non-XAF .NET Apps (Powered by XPO)
We’re doing our best to explain XAF’s security system and how it can be used in non-XAF .NET apps powered by XPO.
Please check our new WinForms CRUD demo and tutorial - the most popular configuration based on a hundred of blog comments and survey responses!
In addition, please review our updated Console and ASP.NET Core Web API/OData v4 + DevExtreme apps.
Changes to XAF's SPA UI Strategy: The Future is Blazor
As you may already know, we officially canceled XAF's React-based SPA UI project. We’ve made the decision to focus our efforts on Blazor.
ASP.NET WebForms Spreadsheet Editor
XAF's Office module now includes the DevExpress WebForms Spreadsheet control. You can use it to display and edit Excel documents stored in byte array properties of your business objects.
ASP.NET WebForms Batch Edit Support for Reference & ImmediatePostData Properties in ASPxGridListEditor
We now support reference and ImmediatePostData properties in ASPxGridView's Batch Edit mode - one of the most popular customer requests for our WebForms UI!
To learn more about this new feature, please read this sample on GitHub.
Note: Our primary focus in 2020 will be on XAF’s Blazor UI but we will do what we can to address the needs of those reliant on our ASP.NET WebForms UI.
Asynchronous Method Support in IObjectSpace
To learn more about the new IObjectSpaceAsync inteface and custom async operations in WinForms apps, please read this knowledge base article and respond to a few questions from the R&D team.
This will help shape future development plans - asynchronous operations within standard XAF WinForms and Blazor UI modules.
Improved Usability of Layout Groups in WinForms & WebForms
We replaced the IModelLayoutGroupWeb.IsCollapsibleCardGroup and IModelLayoutGroupWeb.IsCardGroupCollapsed properties with new platform-agnostic options: IModelLayoutGroup.IsCollapsibleGroup and IModelLayoutGroup.IsGroupCollapsed. This was necessary to implement a popular user request - collapsible layout groups for WinForms.
Performance & Stability Enhancements (Design-Time)
With this update, XAF's Model Editor, Application & Module Designers start faster and require less memory. We have done the impossible - we reimplemented Visual Studio's ITypeDiscoveryService, because its GetTypes method caused problems, especially for complex apps.
For more information, please read this knowledge base article.
Breaking Changes
Before you migrate and test existing projects, we ask that you read XAF's breaking changes document.
Your Feedback Matters!
We know you’re busy, but we ask that you take a moment out of your schedule to answer the survey questions below. Thanks in advance for your participation.
NOTE: Early Access and CTP builds are provided solely for early testing purposes and are not ready for production use. This build can be installed side by side with other major versions of DevExpress products. Please backup your project and other important data before installing Early Access and CTP builds.
Free DevExpress Products - Get Your Copy Today
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DevExpress Support Center at your convenience. We'll be happy to follow-up.