XAF ASP.NET WebForms - Beware of the FormatException (Input string was not in a correct format) when clicking a record in a popup ListView

I want to draw your attention to the T514321: ASPxGridListEditor - FormatException is thrown when selecting an object in a lookup ListView shown from an aggregated collection issue, which is already fixed in XAF for v16.2.7/17.1.4. 

If you came across a similar issue (check the call stack), the highlighted thread contains the hotfix installation for v17.1.

Tip:

When you experienced an exception in DevExpress code, I recommend you locate its callstack and search for one or several topmost method names in our support database, because this behavior might be reported by someone else: https://search.devexpress.com/?q=ASPxGridViewContextMenu.SelectObject&m=SupportCenter

In addition, I recommend checking the Known Issues sections in our What's New documentation:

    all XAF issues that were created in v2016 vol 2.6.

    all XAF issues that were created in v2017 vol 1.3

How to hide the New Action from the main menu, but still have it available inline as the New Item Row feature of ListEditor

I would like to promote a Support Center article on the subject, which I heavily updated with new code examples and implementation considerations after receiving a similar customer request yesterday.

As I found later when searching our support database, many users wanted this specific customization in nested ListViews, mainly not to overload end-users with a separate root DetailView in this inner context. I must say that I saw similar reasoning for MasterDetailMode = ListViewAndDetailView too (for this scenario, we offered a solution like this one).

I personally prefer the 2nd solution from this article, but I must admit that both solutions could be simpler, ideally. Please let our team know if you experienced a similar need and clarify exactly where and why as well as how you are solving it now. With that, we will be a better position to consider further improvements. Thanks in advance, guys!

Improved ASPxGridListEditor performance when selecting records in the grid control

Starting with version 16.2.7, we improved the selection behavior of ASPxGridListEditor. Currently, ASPxGridView does not re-render itself when selection is changed. 

See screenshots of the Network tab in Chrome Developer Tools (F12) that demonstrates how the size and time of a response in the Opportunity_ListView of the XCRM demo is reduced. The size and time of a response is reduced about 4 times and 35% respectively.

v16.2.7, 17.1.3+

v16.2.6 and lower

Web - How to preserve the FullTextSearch Action filter after opening details for a record and returning back to ListView

I want to repost an interesting ASP.NET WebForms scenario and a solution for it I provided to a customer yesterday. Watch this video to see how this works:

If you are interested in having something like this, check out this Support Center thread for a relatively simple Controller.

Questions on managing the Application Model settings in the database - YOUR FEEDBACK IS NEEDED!

We are reviewing usability of the mechanism responsible for storing and managing Application Model differences in the database (aka ModelDifferenceDbStore), and hence wanted to ask you to tell us about your practical experience with it.

In order to do this, please consider these questions:

1. Differences for which levels are you currently storing in the database and how well does this work for you (shared, user, or both)?

2. Have you required customizing differences stored in the database for already deployed production apps? If so, clarify the following points:

2.1. Was this customization done for shared or user levels?

2.2. List the exact use-case scenarios that needed such customizations (e.g., a client screwed up a View layout and could not reset it back to normal)?

2.3. Which solutions and how often did you use for this customization (e.g., direct database updates, editing raw XML after enabling the Administrative UI inside the app, etc.)?

2.4. How well did your current solutions for different customizations work for you so far and what could be improved in them and why?

3. Have you considered the opportunity to customize shared or user differences using the Standalone Model Editor, which visualizes the actual differences in XML content as a nodes tree? If so, clarify the following points to help us better understand the behavior you expect from such a feature:

3.1. Do you need to customize differences for shared, user or both levels?

3.2. Taking the severeness and effect of this operation over all application users, do you think that a logon form should be shown before someone can perform this customization for security reasons? Or, how do you plan to prevent a power user from obtaining the Standalone Model Editor tool binaries and running it locally for this or even harmful purposes?

We would greatly appreciate your answering these questions or providing any other information that would help us see how the current feature works for you and what can be improved further. 

Please provide answers here in comments or rather in the Support Center to track them easier: https://www.devexpress.com/support/center/question/create

Thanks in advance.

Default XAF configuration options and feature toggles

In short post, I would like to promote the Default XAF configuration options and feature toggles knowledge base article, which lists configuration options and settings that are specified in code generated by the most recent Solution Wizard version. In most cases, these options are feature toggles used to enable new features and functionality without affecting the existing applications behavior.

If your XAF application is created using an older version of the Solution Wizard, you can review the KB article and enable required features manually.

With v17.1, for better discoverability and more convenience, the Solution Wizard will set the default options in a common place - the InitializeDefaults method called in the YourSolutionName.Wxx/WxxApplication.xx files. This call is wrapped in a region and contains a link to the aforementioned KB article, which will be updated in the future.

XAF ASP.NET WebForms v16.2 - Beware of the ArgumentException (An item with the same key has already been added) in Web Dashboards

I want to draw your attention to the T511396: Web Dashboards - ArgumentException - An item with the same key has already been added issue, which is already fixed in XAF for v16.2.7. 

This error can occur if the application model contains different BO Models with the same Caption and is visible in dashboards.

If you came across a similar issue (check the call stack), the highlighted thread contains a simple temporary solution (make captions different or remove the VisibleInDashboardsAttribute from classes that are not required in dashboards)  + hotfix installation.