DevExpress XAF — Business Model Design

XAF business model classes define your database schema and drive UI generation. You declare C# classes with properties; XAF maps them to database tables, generates List Views and Detail Views, and wires up property editors automatically. Both Entity Framework Core and XPO are supported as the underlying ORM.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when you need to:

• Create a new business class (entity) for an XAF application
• Choose the right base class (EF Core BaseObject vs XPO BaseObject/XPObject/XPCustomObject)
• Define one-to-many, many-to-many, one-to-one, or aggregated relationships
• Apply XAF attributes to control UI and metadata ([DefaultClassOptions], [ModelDefault], [XafDisplayName], etc.)
• Register entity types in DbContext (EF Core) or ModuleBase.AdditionalExportedTypes (XPO)
• Supply initial/seed data via the Updater.UpdateDatabaseAfterUpdateSchema() method
• Configure EF Core migrations or automatic schema updates
• Initialize default property values via IXafEntityObject.OnCreated() or AfterConstruction()
• Map property types to built-in property editors
• Reverse-engineer an existing database into EF Core entities