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DevForce EF and DevExpress XAF
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WildHog View Drop Down
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Posts: 9 		Post Options Post Options   Quote WildHog Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: DevForce EF and DevExpress XAF
    Posted: 08-Apr-2008 at 2:53pm
I apologize what may seem to be a stupid question in advance.
 
I have read the Cabana documentation regarding CAB developement as well as DevForce's MVC UI architecture.  At a very high level it appears that the major diffference between CAB and Devforce's MVC is seperation or creation of modules.  CAB seems the way to go but there is an obvious steep learning curve.
 
DevForce expressappFramework (XAF) amongst other infrastructure items, seems to have a relatively shallow learning curve for UI architecture creation.  http://www.devexpress.com/Help/?document=XAF
I am not that interested in their other framework items and prefer DevForce EF for the remaining infrastructure.  Would XAF for UI and Devforce EF be easily compatible?  The advantages I see of using XAF for UI architecture mainly revolve around a top flight UI company creating a UI architecture tool with built support for future UI technolgies aka SilverLight.  Any thoughts?
 
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kimj View Drop Down
IdeaBlade
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Posts: 1391 		Post Options Post Options   Quote kimj Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09-Apr-2008 at 10:08am
Not a stupid question, but we apologize for not having a more intelligent answer.
 
DevForce EF, as you know, does not currently have any built-in UI support, although it does work well with our binding managers from DevForce 3.x.  We plan to add UI support into DEF later this year, but we honestly don't have a clear idea yet on what those UI features will be.   Today, you can use DEF business objects in either WinForms or WPF applications, and we are hard at work on a Silverlight-compatible release.
 
Cabana, our CAB reference application, is currently targeted to DevForce 3.x, but we do plan to provide a DEF version too.  We are also keeping an eye on Prism.
 
We have no experience with using the XAF from Developer Express.  It does look like a simpler approach than CAB, while still being a powerful development tool.  My primary concern would be whether XPO is a requirement for domain model objects within XAF, or whether you can plug in, or easily wrap, business objects generated by other tools.
 
Maybe other members of the DevForce community with XAF experience can chime in.
 
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WildHog View Drop Down
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Posts: 9 		Post Options Post Options   Quote WildHog Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10-Apr-2008 at 3:18pm
I have been on the DevExpress XAF forum asking questions and apparently it would be difficult if not impossible.  Even asked if the Unity Application Block could be used for Dependancy Injection with XAF (BTW it apparently will be with Prism)....but according to an end user it will not help.  It's too bad because the XAF UI creation makes life easy even some of their cross cutting stuff is "easy".  Also their new List control is LINQ enabled but ?? uses DLINQ.  The security module makes it easy to do AD authentication but does not permit using CardSpace nor smart card, biometric, etc authentication/claims.  Their Scheduler module would make life easy if a schedule UI is needed in application.  Anyway DevForce EF is much more powerful and builds upon a "standard".  Perhaps IdeaBlade can talk with DevExpress and Infragistics.....      
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