Welcome the DataStoreCreated event in the ConnectionDataStoreProvider and ConnectionStringDataStoreProvider classes

This is rather a minor improvement, but I bet it will save code lines for some advanced XAFers who touch the internals of the XPO data layer created by XAF for various low-level database-specific customization like setting connection timeouts, changing default schemas, enabling and customizing caching, service end-points, etc. Check out this updated article for some example code showing the new approach in action.

The DataStoreCreated  event is available in XAF v17.2+. Its event arguments (DataStoreCreatedEventArgs) expose the DataStore and Destination parameters that provide access to the current data store and its type (SchemaChecking,  Updating or Working).

Frankly speaking, this is quite low-level and rarely needed stuff, so we have not yet have it covered in the online docs, only in KBs. So, please refer to my 

How to customize the underlying database provider options and data access behavior in XAF article to learn more about it. Should you have any questions or additional usability suggestions, please let me know.

How to show Color Swatches for the Bezier skin and persist the user choice in XAF WinForms apps

If you are a fan of the new SVG Bezier skin, our WinForms components received in v17.2, do not miss the XAF integration on the subject:

https://www.devexpress.com/kb=T579152

Both theWinForms and XAF teams are looking forward to hearing from you on this new feature. Learn more about this major release from our What's New documents.

Security - How to add OAuth2 authentication to a WinForms app

UPDATE:
XAF WinForms UI v23.2+ natively supports OAuth2 providers such as Microsoft Entra ID, Google, etc. - Documentation. The custom solution below is no longer required.

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This is another example of how flexible the security module and our framework are. My colleague Michael has recently published an example on how to use the Microsoft, Google, Facebook or any compatible authentication provider within an XAF WinForms app:
https://www.devexpress.com/kb=T567978

This implementation is based on public community resources like StackOverFlow, so research the links in code comments for more details.

If you are looking for an ASP.NET example, do not miss the article we published earlier:
How to: Use Google, Facebook and Microsoft accounts in ASP.NET XAF applications (OAuth2 authentication demo)

Your feedback is needed!
Originally, we were not going to make a WinForms counterpart, because there were only a couple of requests for it + the whole scenario looked rare for desktop apps.
What is your own experience with it? Have you ever had such integration requests from your end-users? What providers do they need to cover most? Please let us know.

Another example of how Logify helps us improve quality and reflections on how it can help you even more

You might recall my previous post on how DevExpress Logify is used to deliver crash reports in demos, runtime and design time tools for many DevExpress products and technologies.

I wanted to share another real story and discuss an idea, which may improve your user experience as well.

06/09/2017, we fixed an issue Model Editor - Hidden items are lost after cancelling changes in the Customization Form (private). 

06/28/2017 we published v17.1.4 with these changes.

07/03/2017 (5 days later), we received the first Logify report about the "Unable to cast object of type 'DevExpress.ExpressApp.Win.Layout.XafLayoutControlGroup' to type 'DevExpress.XtraLayout.LayoutControlItem'" error, because our manual and automatic tests did not cover one scenario where the new code stopped working.

07/07/2017, we fixed our code and provided intermediate builds with the fix.

Since that fix, we published 17.1.5, 17.1.6, 17.1.7, 17.1.8 updates, but I still see the same reports in Logify from users sitting on the old v17.1.4 and v16.2.8 with that already fixed bug. For instance, one of our users had this crash 17 days ago, because he is still using that v17.1.4 from 06/28/2017:

Now the improvement idea to discuss with you.

Beware of the PhoneGap's Camera and Geolocation plugins version update

I wanted to warn early adopters of the XAF Mobile UI of the recent change in https://build.phonegap.com due to the updated version of two main plugins that may stop your camera or geolocation functionality on real devices:

https://www.devexpress.com/issue=T575763

Check this thread for a temporary workaround until we release new minor versions with the required changes. We apologize for all the inconvenience here, because we must have been sticking to a fixed version instead of the latest one when building the application package.

Database maintenance recommendations for applications created or used with XPO or XAF

We have published a KB article that may help you protect the end application's data and keep the system reliable, fast and running smoothly as time goes on, application data grows and other factors are involved during the application's use in production:

https://www.devexpress.com/kb=T572322

I hope you find this information helpful.

See Also:
How to measure and improve the application's performance

ASPxGridListEditor - How to customize the column chooser of the Web ListView's grid control

I wanted to promote the article that shows how to  increase the ASPxGridView's customization window size, because last week there were two requests for this + I searched around a dozen tickets in both XAF and ASPxGridView knowledge bases on the same subject. 

https://www.devexpress.com/kb=Q553446

Previously, it was possible for developers to hard code the required width and height for this window.

Around v17.1, the ASPxGridView team created the AllowResize option (based on feedback from XAF users mostly) so that end-users could resize this dialog as they wish at runtime.

Currently, the AllowResize option is set to False by default, because the ASPxGridView team is afraid of breaking existing customer projects.

EDIT: The ASPxGridView has implemented AllowResize = True in v17.2 RTM by default.

I am looking forward to hearing from you on whether you or your end-users ever had problems with this so that our both teams can take this into account regarding future product updates. Thanks.